The Balthazar Cookbook

Average customer rating:

Book for a chef

A Great collection of classic cafe fare...

Not great

A favorite, though a bit involved.

Excellent Book

The Balthazar Cookbook
Keith Mcnally , Riad Nasr , and Lee Hanson
Manufacturer: Clarkson Potter
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
French | European | Regional & International | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1400046351
Release Date: 2003-10-28

Book Description

When restaurateur Keith McNally and co-chefs Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson opened Balthazar in 1997, it immediately became one of the hottest restaurants in the country. Famous for its star-studded clientele, a beautiful room in the chic SoHo neighborhood, and superbly executed food, Balthazar has been embraced by New Yorkers and visitors alike for its perfect evocation of a French brasserie.

The Balthazar Cookbook captures that energy, that style, and that cuisine, with recipes for the most-loved and most-accessible French dishes: seafood ranging from the ultra-simple Moules à la Marinière to more ambitious Bouillabaisse; chicken and game favorites that include Coq au Vin and Cassoulet; red-meat classics such as Braised Short Ribs and Blanquette de Veau; sides like the perfect French Fries or sublime Macaroni Gratin; and finales that include Crème Brûlée and Chocolate Pot de Crème. This is the best of French cooking, from one of the best-loved French restaurants in the country.

Customer Reviews:

Book for a chef.......2007-01-10

This is a gorgeous cookbook, with delicious recipes. While some of the recipes are straight forward and easy, most are quite complex, with many steps and lots of ingredients. And while I have a very well stocked pantry, I could not find the ingedients needed in my local grocery store or fish market or gourmet store for some of the recipes. Everything that I have made has been delicious, and seasoned perfectly. This is a cookbook for serious cooks.

A Great collection of classic cafe fare..........2005-04-12

This cookbook is for the person who loves French cafés in general, and Balthazar in specific. In France, cafés are everywhere, and they are the center of social life much the same way as pubs are in England - the difference is that the food at the average English pub is terrible and the food at the average French café is great. Menus may vary from café to café, but there are certain standard items that they tend to have in common. Many consider Balthazar the best French café in New York. The irony is that - in France - cafés are informal and inexpensive places, whereas Balthazar is expensive, usually requires reservations, and almost has a celebrity or two eating there. What makes Balthazar a café is that it serves all the standard café fare, but with it's own unique touch.

What makes The Balthazar Cookbook so great is that it is a compendium of all the classic café items: "Steak Frites," "Moules a la Mariniere," and "Escargots with Garlic Butter," just to name a few. These aren't run-of-the-mill recipes, but Balthazar's own special ones. This is both the book's virtue and its vice. This is not a cookbook for the novice chef. Most of the recipes are fabulously complicated. It assumes that you have the basic skills of cooking as it does not go over simple procedures. It assumes that you have a well-stocked kitchen because many of the recipes call for specialized hardware like Dutch ovens and candy thermometers. It also assumes that you have access to hoity-toity gourmet food stores where you can get all of their obscure ingredients.

I attempted the basic café dish: Steak Frites. The steak was no problem as it is just grilled. What makes this special is the herb butter Balthazar puts on top. I cheated and used bottled sage and chives instead of fresh, and it still came out pretty good. The French fries proved more difficult as they require a thermometer to tell you when the peanut oil (I substituted vegetable) reaches EXACTLY 370 degrees for the first frying and 380 degrees for the second. I didn't have a thermometer so I guessed - the result was that they were nowhere near as good as the fries at Balthazar, which could be the best in the city. With fries you need mayonnaise. I had two failed attempts at making mine in the food processor (as they suggest) before moving on to the blender, which worked fine.

In the end, this is an excellent cookbook. It's only problem is that, for casual food, it takes a LOT of preparation.

Not great.......2004-04-02

Sorry-- I don't know what people are raving about. I am an avid epicurean, and have gone to most good restaurants in NY. I just don't think Balthazar's recipes or food holds a candle to other NY institutions, like Gotham, Gramercy, etc. The food at and recipes from Balthazar always tastes a little too greasy and unrefined given how many steps are involved. Sorry, that's just my personal opinion after making almost ten of the Balthazar recipes.

A favorite, though a bit involved........2004-03-07

While I don't think this book would be good for novice cooks, this is a great introductory book for classic French cooking.

I've tried several recipes, and have been happy with the results of all of them. The recipes do seem to be a bit involved and called for some expensive ingredients, but it's unlikely you'll be making many of the recipes frequently, so for special occasions, it's worth the extra trouble. And the trouble pays off in spades. For example, I made the recipe for braised short ribs, which were quite delicious. As an added bonus, though, the recipe made enough delicious gravy that I froze in tiny containers and ended up serving along side steaks and beef for the next two months.

Finally, I also really like the look of the book, which is evocative of the golden age of food extravagance, in Edwardian books published 100 or more years ago. It's full of beautiful photographs, and could probably be right at home on a hardcore foodie's coffee table.

Excellent Book.......2004-01-06

This is one of the best cookbooks I've purchased in a long time (and I buy a lot of them!). I buy restaurant cookbooks mainly for inspiration, since the recipes are often too complex to be prepared at home. I was pleasantly surprised when I started thumbing through the Baltahzar Cookbook - there where a number of dishes that I wanted to try right away. The dishes certainly aren't simple, but if you're not afraid of making your own veal stock or planning ahead to marinate duck legs in wine overnight, you should have a lot of fun with these recipes.

Customer Reviews:

Alexandria again - and no answers despite new clues..........2007-07-09

"Balthazar" is the second of the sibling tomes of Lawrence Durrell's "Alexandria Quartet". The novel allows the reader to dive again deep into Alexandrian life and see everything what happens already in "Justine" from a different angle.

Darley, the narrator, still living in seclusion on the remote Greek Island, has sent the story (i.e. Justine) to one of the Alexandrian friends, Balthazar, the Jewish, gay doctor interested in philosophy and theology, initiator of the Kabbalah group, suspected of spying activity. Balthazar during his short visit on the island gives Darley the manuscript back together with a substantial amount of notes, which (with Darley's comments) are reconstituted in this volume. Darley was prompted to add a lot of the notes, as, reflecting upon them, he realized that despite his doubts, expressed in "Justine", many things he took for granted are completely different than he thought.

Balthazar sees the events described in "Justine" from his own point of view, and, having often more information or just different sources than Darley, his versions of events add to or change the descriptions from the first volume. New characters are introduced, and those, who were merely mentioned or hinted upon (Pursewarden, Mountolive, Leila, Narouz), become central, and their preoccupations and emotions are at the first plane. These shifts, instead of clarifying things that were blurred and mysterious in "Justine" make the narrative even more slippery and allusive. New avenues open for each event, tales within tales are discovered, which need their own explanation, and the atmosphere is even more dreamy... The motivations of ome characters, especially Nessim, seem to change completely from what Darley perceived, as new events are revealed. The search for the truth obviously cannot end here, so the reader needs to proceed to "Mountolive".

Alexandria becomes even more of a main character in this novel, and definitely the one with the strongest and versatile personality. Most of the other characters, struck by destructive love (again the analysis of love is one of the main themes, although the secret service intrigue gets more momentum), are impressionable, prone to spontaneous, sudden behaviors, and transient. The climactic event, as the hunting party was in Justine, is this time the carnival ball, where the reader roams the streets together with the characters in disguise... and is a witness to another death.

"Balthazar" is even more full of aphorisms than "Justine" - there seems to be a sentence for any occasion, and whereas the generalizations of love may appear trivial, childish even, the truths about literature and theoretical background of Durrell's enterprise to create a novel which would reflect its times, are amazingly formulated and put into the mouth of the surprising number of the writer characters (look especially for what Pursewarden has to say).

In summary, this is another delightful volume, different than "Justine" and only giving the reader the appetite for more of Durrell's Alexandria!

In-Group Conks Out.......2007-03-23

I admit that I have not read "Justine", the first novel of Durrell's famous Alexandria Quartet. Perhaps if I had started at the beginning, I might have had a more favorable impression. Yet I do feel that BALTHAZAR can stand alone as a novel, even if a reader were to be better served by reading all four in order. Durrell's writing is fabulous. Lemon-scented, mauve, pearly Alexandria with the white stalks of its minarets, "the town that breaks open at sunset like a rose"; beggars beside the Rolls Royces, the human flotsam of the Mediterranean, the tawdry revels of the Christian carnival---all appear so pleasingly haunting and decrepit. Durrell's novel is full of "wisdom"--perhaps a lifetime's supply of epigrams on every conceivable subject, saved over the years by the author as he thought of them on sleepless nights, or written down as he heard them at the cafes and salons of the Middle East. To paraphrase the author, "reading joins you to a work, then divides you". I plunged headlong into BALTHAZAR, hoping for a good read, but came out worse off. I felt I had been offered a plate of decadence and cynicism, and not wanting to play the chicken, taken several bites. I didn't like the taste. What I felt, most of all, was that I was an outsider; the observer of a clique or in-group. The author/narrator knew, all the characters knew, but I didn't know. The prose was designed to keep me from knowing. I had to guess or intrigue with myself in order to find out where this novel was going and who all these people were. I did not enjoy the experience very much, though I admit that it might be just the ticket for some. I repeatedly asked myself, "Is it worth finding out ? Do you really care ? Or are these just a bunch of people hopelessly sunk in jealousy, perversion, sex and substance abuse, who prize infidelity above all ? Is this what the author considers usual life ? Why should I try to discover who really loved or cared about whom ?" I concluded that it didn't matter to me very much.

The group broke apart through death, anger, jealousy, and fatigue. BALTHAZAR traces the collapse of this in-grown little society within colonial Alexandria, before the tides of nationalism drowned its international, "Levantine" character forever. If you admire style, eliptical narrative, and skillful description laced with epigrams, this could be a five star novel. Not for me.

no title.......2006-01-17

Like "Justine", written in a hauntingly sensual style, but far more readable. Took me a much shorter time to read it. There are so many memorable passages of beauty and wisdom in both, one could fill a small notebook - on love and the human condition, and the beauty of nature. Durrell certainly had an alert and unusually articulate mind, writing both with poetry and precision. Published in 1957, yet timeless, as all classics are. I think it is supposed to take place before World War II. "Balthazar" has far more excitement than "Justine", moves at a quicker pace. Here we see all the same characters, yet all in a new light; we see farther and grasp what we see with new understanding. We get fresh info about Pursewarden, Nissim, Narouz, Justine, Darley (the narrator), Melissa, Clea, Pombal, Amaril, Leila, Mountolive, and the outrageous comic scenes built around Scobie. Throughout the entire four volumes that comprise "The Alexandria Quartet", Durrell is constantly backfilling, a technique I particularly love, until at the last, all is revealed. That same technique was also used by Sir Charles Percy Snow in his 11 volume series "Strangers and "Brothers", but perhaps to a lesser extant. Durrell is the master here in letting us see only so much, no further, until the last volume. A rave review

Balthazar.......2003-07-21

The second in Durrell,s Alexandria Quartet, Balthazar further develops this story of infidelity, jealousy, and murder. Balthazar, the foppish little Alexandrian, reveals secrets that further add to the story started in Justine. Balthazar introduces us to the beautiful and sensitive Clea but the story centers around the sensous and bi-sexual Justine.

Magnetic development of intrigue.......2001-02-04

As I read the second of Durrell's Alexandria Quartet, I first looked for another focus. (I had been so impressed with the watercolor decriptions of the first.) In the beginning of the novel, I thought Durrell had decided to be more desciptive in the area of sounds and thought he had impishly personified this goal with a focus on a strange talking parrot.

However, I was soon drawn into the story. I forget my efforts at intellectualizing and found that the characters had broadened for me. I wanted to read about what was happening to them and what had happened to them. I found myself changed from a distant observer into one who empathized with the characters. I noticed that I had been jealous of Justine in the first novel and found myself happy that she was no longer worshipped in the second novel.

Durrell's desciptions went past lush and ripe into fascinating, fermenting, and magnetic. Intrigue is introduced. Other sides of incidents are shown. I loved this book and intend to read the other two in the series.

Sometimes I get the impression that Durrell had a life time stash of pithy quotes he just had to get worked in somewhere. In this book he has an addendum titled "Consequential Data." Don't miss these. For example, "Gamblers and lovers always play to lose."

Average customer rating:

Dialogue in any scenes with women VERY stilted

Not Donleavy's Best

Unique lyrical narrative voice

A gem

Touching, sad and funny

The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B
J. P. Donleavy
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Donleavy, J.P. | ( D ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0802137962

Book Description

The New York Times Book Review called The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B, J. P. Donleavy's hilarious, bittersweet tale of a lost young man's existential odyssey, "a triumphant piece of writing, achieved with that total authority, total mastery which shows that a fine writer is fully extended...." In the years before and after World War II, Balthazar B is the world's last shy, elegant young man. Born to riches in Paris and raised by his governess, Balthazar is shipped off to a British boarding school, where he meets the noble but naughty Beefy. The duo matriculate to Trinity College, Dublin, where Balthazar reads zoology and Beefy prepares for holy orders, all the while sharing amorous adventures high and low, until their university careers come to an abrupt and decidedly unholy end. Written with trademark bravado and a healthy dose of sincerity, The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B is vintage Donleavy.

Customer Reviews:

Dialogue in any scenes with women VERY stilted.......2007-05-10

I bought this book on sale at the Newport Beach library while visiting my parents and, along with my other book treasures, brought it back to the land where English language books are a precious commodity, Mexico, where I live full-time.

I agree with other reader reviews that Donleavy is an excellent writer when he is describing the world around him, both the inanimate and natural world and the small details of culture. This kept me reading and enjoying.

Also enjoyed the school boy scenes and dialogue.

Then we got to the Nanny episode where Balthzar is 12 and he has this luscious nanny that he has a brief affair with. I'm not a prude and this could have been a very good portion of the book. But the dialogue? It became unbelievably stilted and the descriptive prose of the sex scenes was unexplicit, boring soft-core blather in my opinion.

And yet, I soldiered on. Perhaps the Nanny episode was a momentary lapse. On we roll for awhile with more excellent story progress as Balthazar continues to grow up and descriptions of the people and world around him.

Then he meets woman number 2. The dialogue again turns into total stiltsville. People do NOT talk like this. It was boring and annoying at the same time. Number 2 woman is also a cardboard cutout character given dialogue to match.

I'm female, by the way. Wasn't in the least grossed out by the 'risque' scenes. More irritated and bored. The premises were good in the two I read. But the writer ruined the scenes with his stilted man/woman dialogue. Ludicrously bad.

I deduce from these first two examples that every other love or sex scene in this fat book is going to rivert to this style and from the synopsis, it appears that there are a great many such scenes. I have a choice of skipping the scenes where a woman looms on the horizon and reading the other parts but with all the good books in the world to read, I'm thinking I'm tired of wasting my time on this one.

I hate to do it since I carted it all the way down here using up poundage in my luggage on the airlines to do so, but I'm throwing this baby DOWN. Adios.

Not Donleavy's Best.......2005-12-21

After reading the Ginger Man and the entire Darcy Dancer trilogy, this novel is a sad disappointment of wearisome and sophomoric writing. Particularly unnerving is the slipshod shuttlecocking from third person to first person narration which begins on the first page.-Where was the bleeding editor!?!-There is also the pretentious Joycean reference to the last lines of Ulysses on p. 220:

"No. I'm glad you said yes."
"Yes I said yes."

One wonders whom Donleavy was trying to impress here-those who had read the last page, or last line of Ulysses? Or was he just being careless and lazy? I very much fear the latter.

I'm a great Donleavy fan. But this is not the book of the great writer that you want to read. The Ginger Man or any of the Darcy Dancer trilogy books display so much more lyricism and craft than this book that it almost seems as if it were by another writer entirely.

Unique lyrical narrative voice.......2001-09-28

Balthazar B. is an aristocrat bewildered at every turn by life. His picaresque journey from Paris to Trinity College Dublin and visitations to country estates and among women of high and dubious social standing is hilarious to behold. The randy foil figure of Beefy may stand as one of the greatest comic figures since Shakespeare's Fat Jack Falstaff. The literary style of Donleavy is itself richly laden with lyricism and poetry and comedy. It is a uniquely pointillistic style in which brush strokes are applied to the canvas with precision and clarity in truncated and non-traditonal but accessible syntax. Like most truly great writers Donleany evokes all of the reader's senses in his work. He also succeeds in arousing sympathy, hilarity, tenderness, grief -- a full range of sensibilities that engage the reader. Each character is roundly drawn and speaks with a unique voice and range of experience. Donleavy's Ginger Man is named among the Random House Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century. He is a supremely talented story teller with an enchanting narrative style that will leave you wanting to read more. Don't miss this novel, The Destinies of Darcy Dancer, Gentleman and the Singular Man -- they are all pleasant and richly satisfying literary treasures.

A gem.......2001-06-03

A splendid book about one Balthazar B, gentleman at large. Donleavy's writing sparkles with wit, humor and charm, and yet he never shies from the experiences that make Balthazar (and all of us) human: the pursuit of sex and the loss of true love. Balthazar is no cardboard hero for whom everything goes right.

Touching, sad and funny.......2000-06-02

This book was my introduction to J. P. Donleavey and I didn't know quite what to expect. Early on the book had me laughing out loud, yet throughout there is a strong undercurrent of sadness.

The portion devoted to Balthazar's time at Trinity reminded me of both "Lucky Jim" by Kingsley Amis, and "The Water Method Man" by John Irving. Donleavy uses the academic setting to create situations with a tremendous amount of humor and a profound sense of loneliness and alienation simultaneously.

This introduction led me to pick up four more by Donleavy. The emotion of the book stayed with me for a long time afterward.

Average customer rating:
The Alexandria Quartet: Mountolive / Balthazar / Justine / Clea
Lawrence Durrell
Manufacturer: New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. 1961
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O3S1R2

Average customer rating:

Usual committee-written stuff

The Cambridge Companion to Verdi (Cambridge Companions to Music)

Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Verdi, Giuseppe | Composers | Classical | Musical Genres | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Opera | Musical Genres | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0521635357

Book Description

Providing biographical, theatrical, and social-cultural background for Verdi's operas, this Companion examines important general aspects of their style and method of composition. Verdi's milieu, creative process, and critical reception are subsequently explored in essays by specialists who critically appraise his accomplishments.

Customer Reviews:

Usual committee-written stuff.......2007-07-14

The rage nowadays is multi-authorship. The result--as here--is an irregular and unbalanced study. Some of the essays--notably those by the editor--are quite good. Some are technical studies. Some are just plain bad writing. All in all, a mixed bag

Average customer rating:

The Icing of Balthazar

Manufacturer: Sphere
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000DELZXY

Eero Saarinen: Buildings from the Balthazar Korab Archive (Norton/Library of Congress Visual Sourcebooks in Architecture, Design & Engineering)

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Eero Saarinen: Buildings from the Balthazar Korab Archive (Norton/Library of Congress Visual Sourcebooks in Architecture, Design & Engineering)

Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0393732231

Book Description

A timely portrait of the work of an architect who expanded the vocabulary of modern architecture.

Eero Saarinen and Balthazar Korab constitute a unique team in the history of architecture: Saarinen, the mid-twentieth-century architect who challenged the architectural conventions of his time; and Korab, an architect in Saarinen's office whose perceptive photographs reveal the brilliance of Saarinen's work.

This visual sourcebook illustrates nineteen Saarinen commissions in photographs drawn from Korab's archive, providing multiple views of the buildings themselves and some views of their construction and of architectural models that were critical to their design. Images of Saarinen's office and home provide personal ambience, and an introductory essay positions Saarinen's work within the broader context of his time.

Seen in detail, such earlier works as the General Motors Technical Center (1948-56) or the Miller house (1953-57) show departures from orthodox modernism; Saarinen's assured handling of new materials and new building functions impart lasting value to his career, as seen in the Trans World Airlines Terminal (1956-62) and Dulles International Airport (1958-63), which have become iconic images. 464 pages of color including 800 illustrations plus a CD-ROM of all illustrations in the book.

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The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B
J.P. Donleavy
Manufacturer: New York: Delacorte Press, 1968
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NXFXRY

Art In The Stations: The Detroit People Mover

Average customer rating:

Art In The Stations: The Detroit People Mover

Manufacturer: Wayne State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0974539201

Book Description

A profound photographic record of the public art in the Detroit People Mover stations.

Customer Reviews:

Awesome! .......2007-09-04

Funny, fast-paced, and hard to put down. In fact, I didn't until I finished it.

Finally, Dean, the oldest Luchetti Brother, gets his story.......2007-03-20

Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques

Finally, Dean, the oldest Luchetti Brother, gets his story.

Dean has been alone for far too long. He has his family around him, a young adopted son Tim, and the farm, but what he really needs is a wife. Or so Tim thinks anyhow, especially if it means he'll gain a new Mommy in the process. And Tim has the perfect woman picked out... his school principal, Stella O'Connell. Thus begins Tim's latest adventure, The Mommy Quest.

Dean and Stella have history between them and he has never quite been able to recover from it. Now, they have a second chance at the love long denied them. But when that history starts to rear its ugly head again, can they overcome everything to find happiness with each other? And most importantly, keep from hurting Tim?

Though traditionally, a romance novel is about the couple, The Mommy Quest is really about Tim. Even the title hints at the heart of the story. As much as I like Dean and Stella, I truly love Tim so it's only natural I focus on him first and foremost. Tim has had a rough life. Abandoned very young, he lived on the streets until fate brought him into the Luchetti fold and Dean's heart. (See The Daddy Quest.) Later diagnosed with ADD, some balance was able to be brought into his life. But what he truly longs for is his own Mom and Dad. He struggles to adapt to his new life but his own history unfortunately makes him the brunt of schoolyard snubs and abuse. Watching him grow and change will tug at your heartstrings like few characters do.

Dean hides his unhappiness and loneliness under a gruff exterior, never letting anyone see his deepest secrets and feelings. With Tim, Dean has been able to slowly let down those shields. When Stella drifts back into his life, things change once more. It was an enjoyable experience to go the journey with Dean as he learns much about himself, and her as they rebuild their faith in each other to find the love they've so long denied.

Stella has her own personal demons to face when she returns to town. Having come from her previous job in the LA school system, Stella experienced things no one should ever have to go through at a school, and those fears haunt her still. She has returned home to emotionally recover and is unprepared for the emotions that swamp her upon meeting Dean again. Not to mention se has never quite forgiven him for breaking her heart so many years ago. She has a long road to walk to get herself back. As her heart warms for Tim, she grows closer once more to Dean and finally has to let go of the past and let him into her new life. This makes her growth all the more rewarding and real.

Of course no Luchetti Brothers story would be complete without seeing the whole brood so we find plenty of time to catch up with the rest of the family and what's been happening in their lives. Then there is the motley bunch of critters that make the Luchetti farm their home. These loveable animals provide plenty of lighter moments that are guaranteed to make you laugh out loud. After all, who can resist Wilbur, the pig who thinks he's a dog? And he is just one of many creatures I couldn't help but love.

I must say, I've enjoyed this series from the very first book and I'm more than a little sad to see the final book on the shelf. I can only hope that someday we will be gifted with stories of the next generation of the Luchetti brood. Happily, there are many young ones to choose from so maybe one day we'll meet them again.

© Kelley A. Hartsell, March 2007. All rights reserved.

Fun story, great characters.......2006-03-19

THE MOMMY QUEST by Lori Handeland
March 18, 2006

Amazon rating 4/5

"This final book in The Luchetti Brothers series focuses on brother Dean who made a previous appearance in The Daddy Quest, in which young runaway Rat found his way to the farmlands of Ohio with an ex-stripper who was searching for her father. Rat, later known as Tim, latched on to Dean, the first person to show him any love after he was abandoned by his parents.

Tim, now eight-years-old, is having problems fitting in. He doesn't have any friends and is often teased because he has no real parents. One day, Tim is sent to the principal's office for hitting a boy who made fun of Dean. When Dean shows up, he discovers that the new school principal is none other than the high school sweetheart he thought he'd never see again, Stella O'Connell. She left for college nearly fifteen years before after Dean told her that he never loved her. But now she's not sure she's over him. She finds living in the same town difficult, but is unaware that it's just as hard for Dean who, despite what he said, had always loved her.

Tim, in the meantime, decides he needs a mother. Now that he's found his daddy (though the adoption is not yet official), Tim is on a mommy quest. He's searching for that special woman who will make his daddy happy, and be the mother he always wished for. He sets Dean up on all sorts of dates, to Dean's frustration, but when Tim discovers that his principal is his daddy's old girlfriend, he begins to act up so he can get sent to the principal's office on a daily basis. No one can figure out what Tim is up to, but they do know he has an agenda." - Complete review found at BookLoons - M. Lofton

I loved this last book in the Luchetti Brothers series. All the characters are easy to warnm to, especially young Tim as well as Ellie, the matriarch of this huge family of brothers (and one sister). Good plot, great characters, the perfect combination for a good romance. Recommdended.

LUCHETTI BROTHERS (5 Book Set) -DADDY QUEST / BROTHER QUEST / HUSBAND QUEST /A SOLDIER'S QUEST / MOMMY QUEST

Average customer rating:

LUCHETTI BROTHERS (5 Book Set) -DADDY QUEST / BROTHER QUEST / HUSBAND QUEST /A SOLDIER'S QUEST / MOMMY QUEST
Lori Handeland
Manufacturer: Harlequin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000L7U340

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