The Prodigal Daughter is the second in Prue Leith's Food of Love trilogy, which started with The Food of Love: Laura's Story. It can be read as a standalone but I think you would miss a lot of the background if you did that. This latest offering follows Laura's daughter, Angelica Angelotti, who is a budding chef in the late 1960s. We see her fall in love with a charming but unpredictable man, go to cookery school in Paris, work at The Savoy and then run a village inn whilst following a career in TV and food writing.

I am a fan of Prue Leith's writing, having read several of her other books. She doesn't always write about food but in this book she has written about what she knows best and I really enjoyed it. She clearly used her own experiences to write about Angelica's TV and food writing and I suspect that some of the things that happen in the book are Leith's own anecdotes or ones that she has heard about.

There are lots of descriptions of food, both menus and preparation, which was something that I relished (!) and I loved reading about the various restaurants that feature in the story.

It was lovely to meet the Angelottis and their extended family again. I thought Angelica was a feisty force of nature, although she did seem to be good at everything she turned her hand to! This is a book that I looked forward to picking up. It's a good old-fashioned family saga and I'm looking forward to the final book in the trilogy which will hopefully be published in the autumn of next year, particularly as this one ended very abruptly and left me hanging somewhat!

The Prodigal Daughter is an engaging read with some likeable characters and fascinating settings. I'd recommend it if you like reading books where food is almost a character in its own right.

This is Book Two in the Food of Love Trilogy, but as I hadn't read the first one I can reliably say this can be read as a stand-alone. The book essentially tells the story of Angelica as she makes her way room from cloakroom attendant in the family restaurant to top caterer and telly chef. Of course it's not plain sailing, and love and life challenges inevitably rock the boat along the way. In addition we are also kept up to date with the happenings in the wider family (and it's quite a large and not always like-able family).

While I enjoyed this book I have to say for me it fell into two halves. The first half which concentrated on the younger Angelica, her years in Paris with the unstable Mario and her foray into her first restaurant job had me hooked. I especially loved the Paris period, where she lived in a tiny apartment in Montmartre. It had a curious mix of Bohemian charm with pavement cafes and bars running alongside the political and economic changes that resulted in the student riots. I liked that Angelica was a trailblazer for women in the very masculine if not chauvinistic world of restaurant and hotel kitchens.

The second half of the book slowed a little for me, and I sometimes felt that as Angelica progressed her career there was too much information. As we are reading about an area in which for once the author is an expert in the field, that is perhaps to be expected. For me it sometimes read more like a memoir than fiction. However, I appreciate that for others this would be a plus, but I would occasionally have preferred fewer facts. None of this though detracts from my wanting to continue to read what happened next.

This is a book that foodies and lovers of family sagas especially will love.

I am amazed to discover this is second in a trilogy. Admirably - and unlike a lot of series - there is no harking back to previous novels and this reads beautifully as a stand-alone read.
Prue Leith is as good at writing as she is at cooking; this book has a wonderful cast of characters and the cooking tidbits enhance the story and it would be hard to guess that a food is the author's main interest.
If you enjoy a really good, well-written family saga this is a must read - you won't be disappointed. Highly recommended.
I received an arc of this book from Net Galley for my honest and unbiased review.