cover image A Second Bite at the Apple

A Second Bite at the Apple

Dana Bate. Kensington, $15 trade paper (336p) ISBN 978-1-61773-260-7

Sydney Strauss, heroine of Bate’s (The Girls’ Guide to Love and Supper Clubs) second novel, is in a years-long funk over losing the first great love of her life, and to make matters worse, she is downsized from her job as news producer for a popular morning TV show. The bad news: she’s broke. The good news: she is free to pursue her dream of becoming a food writer. As she struggles to make a living working part-time at a farmer’s market, she finds herself drawn to a potential boyfriend with a shady past, while at the same time dealing with her demanding sister’s upcoming wedding. When her big journalistic break finally comes, she faces a moral quandary that forces her to decide if the career she always wanted warrants a personal betrayal. Sydney has a breezy, idiomatic voice that seems pitched more to young adult readers. And the reader can sense bits of plot clicking neatly into place as the story heads for a predictable resolution. [em](Dec.) [/em]