Kissing Kosher by Jean Meltzer

Kissing Kosher Kissing Kosher by Jean Meltzer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars






Avital is a worn-out family bakery manager with chronic pain who has her world turned upside down by her new hire, Ethan. Ethan, meanwhile has his own struggles as the orphaned heir to a bakery empire; he has taken a job with Avital - not to learn his way around a kitchen - but to steal a secret recipe from a rival family. What is already complicated becomes next level due to their mutual attraction. 

At first, I was taken aback by the transparent description of Avital’s struggles to get from one day to the next. I read this in one day because I could not put this book down. It is a romance, between two unlikely heroes but there is so much more. There is chronic illness, emotional abuse, grief and loss. And there is marijuana. A surprising amount of discussions revolving around cannibus, that I was not expecting. 

I loved this book. It was honest, painfully so at times. I laughed and smiled but I definitely cried. The attempt of the main characters to face their own struggles and break from generations of entrenched patterns was heroic. 

⚠️Trigger warnings: pelvic pain, chronic illness, thoughts of suicide, emotional abuse
I particularly was having a few i-feel-seen moments with the verbal tirades of the grandfather. 
🏷️ #grumpy-cheerful, #jewishthemes, #romance, #chronicpain, #instantattraction, #generationaltrauma, #familyfeuds, #lossofparents

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