A Winter in New York Book Review

This book was definitely a hallmark romance novel, but with a bit more substance than I expected. I was expecting something light and fluffy. While this book definitely had light and fluffy moments, it also touched upon some substantive topics like the importance of family, keeping traditions, grief from losing a loved one, and the necessity of a strong support system. I also appreciated the diversity of the characters.

We meet Iris in a bookshop in New York City. She’s about to take a book off the shelf when a man gets to it before she does. The two squabble a bit and Iris goes a bit off the handle out of frustration of not winning the prized book. This introduction to Iris is a bit odd, but it makes a bit more sense later on in the book and I believe it also sets the explanation as to why she moved to NYC in the first place.

The book really starts with Iris at an Italian festival with her landlord and best friend, Bobby Han. Iris is a chef and Bobby knew that her love of food would get her out of her apartment. She moved to New York City from London with the hope that rom-coms set in NYC would be exactly what it’s like to live in NYC. She quickly discovers that it’s not, but has a best friend who won’t let her sulk in her misinformation.

Aside from Iris’s naivete, I find her to be a likable character. I’m sure we all imagine a certain city or country to be a certain way based on what we’ve seen in movies or on TV so her naivete isn’t uncommon. It’s also difficult to move to a new place where you don’t know anyone and try to make a life there. I felt empathetic towards those feelings given that I’ve been in her shoes. Fortunately for Iris, though, Bobby takes her to an area that is about to be familiar to her.

As Bobby and Iris are exploring the festival, they run across a little gelato shop that catches Iris’s attention because the door looks awfully familiar to her. It looks just like a door that’s in one of her mother’s photos from her time in New York City. The shop was closed during the festival so Iris returned the next day.

When Iris returns to the gelateria, called Belotti’s, she’s greeted by Gio. Gio’s family owns the gelateria and when Iris asks if she can try their gelato, Gio explains that they’re not serving gelato because his uncle is in a coma in the ICU from a stroke. His uncle is currently the only one in the family who knows the secret family gelato recipe. Iris then offers her culinary skills to try to recreate the recipe so Gio grabs an already-made batch of gelato. Once she tries the gelato, her suspicions are confirmed.

This part of the story lays the foundation for the conflict between Iris and the Belotti family. Rather than being up front about her knowledge of the recipe, she conceals it and offers to help Gio recreate it knowing full well that she could solve his problems immediately. This is my least favorite part of the story because it feels extremely unnecessary to me. She had the immediate solution for this family-owned store and chose to keep her mother’s secret of how she got the recipe in the first place. Given that the only person who knows the recipe is in a coma, I can’t imagine that the Belotti family would be anything but grateful for the turn of events. But this withholding of information puts Iris and Gio in a position to work together to “recreate” the gelato recipe.

As Iris and Gio get to work, Iris slowly starts to meet the rest of the Belotti family and quickly becomes part of the family. I love the Belotti family and how close knit they are. It’s no surprise that as she’s falling for Gio, she’s also falling for his family. I imagine this just made her knowledge about their family recipe even harder for her to handle. Especially when Gio’s uncle comes out of the coma and Gio’s father shows up. The Belotti brothers both knew Iris’s mom. At this point, Iris has connected the dots on how her mother was connected to this family, but still chooses to keep it to herself. This just causes more unnecessary conflict.

“Life is just so damn complicated, isn't it, a series of random coincidences and chance meetings that add up to a lifetime. Don't overthink stuff, what happens happens. Sometimes it's the letting go of the things that sets you free, Iris.”

While the majority of the story is told in Iris’s perspective, we do get small snippets of Vivien’s, Iris’s mother, time in New York City. This brings to the light the connection between Iris’s mother, the Belotti brothers, and Iris’s desire to experience NYC through her mother’s time there. It also explains why it’s such a big deal that the gelato recipe, and how Iris came to know it, remain a secret (though I still feel like it’s unnecessary given that the only person who knew it was in a coma).

When everything finally comes to a head, Iris is dealt another blow with her past colliding with her present. At first her past just threatens to show up in her present and then the reason she moved to New York shows up on her doorstep. You’ll want to remember the odd introduction we received of Iris in the bookshop because that interaction with the man comes back to bite her. Again, more unnecessary conflict that she created. When she’s forced to confront her past, it’s a time when she thinks that Gio is going to show up. This is a blessing because it means that she won’t have to face her past alone, but it’s also a curse because she wasn’t fully truthful about her past with Gio.

Eventually everything rights itself in Iris’s world and she receives her happy ending. I personally think her happy ending could have come sooner if she was honest from the beginning, but all the tension, suspense, and drama made for a good read. The ending had a nice full circle moment that also served as a do-over/clean slate for both Iris and Gio, which was a bit cheesy but nice.

I ultimately really like this book. I know I keep harping on the unnecessary conflict and while this was a huge issue for me, it’s honestly the only thing about this book that I didn’t like. Iris and Gio romance built in such an organic way as they worked together to recreate something that was special to both of them. Iris’s journey of having a super small support system to having an entire village surrounding her was beautiful. The mental and emotional trauma that she overcame was empowering. All of this made for an enjoyable, fast paced romance.