One Hundred Spaghetti Strings

Nails, Jen. One Hundred Spaghetti Strings
April 11th 2017 by HarperCollins
E ARC from Edelweiss Above the Treeline

Steffy and her sister Nina have been living with their aunt Gina. Their mother was in an accident and is in a nursing home because she has suffered a traumatic brain injury and have to be reminded of who they are each time they visit. Their father has been unable to deal with the situation and has been living far away, but he is finally coming home. It's not easy for the girls to readjust to living with him, and they miss their aunt, who is engaged to be married. Steffy copes by cooking a lot, and eventually gets accepted into a cooking competition, Chefs of Tomorrow. It gives her something to look forward to, which is especially good as her family situation starts to fall apart.
Strengths: It was good to see that even though their home situation was precarious, the girls had a support system in their aunt and school. It was interesting that they went to see their mother but their father was unable to. This kept me turning the pages. Steffy was a very sympathetic character, and her interest in cooking kept this from getting too bogged down in sadness.
Weaknesses: Very slow moving, and there is a completely unnecessary character death.
What I really think: The combination of super sad and cooking might just work for some of my readers. Wasn't my batch of lemon bars, though.