Cooking for Ghosts: Book I in The Secret Spice Cafe Trilogy

 

 Hardcover Special Edition $34.95
 ISBN:978-0-9899056-3-3

 Trade Paperback $15.95
 ISBN:978-0-9899056-4-0

 Kindle $5.99
 ISBN:978-0-9899056-5-7

 by Patricia V. Davis

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Book

Do hearts broken long ago forever leave a tangible trace?

A Vegas cocktail waitress. An Indian herbalist. A British chemistry professor. An Italian-American widow. Four unique women with one thing in common: each is haunted by a tragedy from her past.

Cynthia, Rohini, Jane, and Angela meet on a food blogging site and bond over recipes. On impulse, they decide to open The Secret Spice, an elegant café on the magnificent ocean liner, the RMS Queen Mary, currently a floating hotel in Long Beach, California. Rich in history and tales of supernatural occurrences, the ship hides her own dark secrets.

The women are surrounded by ghosts long before they step aboard, but once they do, nothing is quite as it seems. Not the people they meet, not their brooding chef’s mystic recipes, and not the Queen Mary herself. Yet the spirits they encounter help them discover that there’s always a chance to live, as long as one is alive.

Nominated for the prestigious Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, Cooking for Ghosts is an unforgettable tale of love, redemption, and divine female power.

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“…a beautifully structured novel that builds layer upon layer of meaning, held together with gossamer threads of magic.”   The Huffington Post

“Davis’s patient hand at storytelling threads itself into a perfect, suspenseful character of its own in this wonderfully dark and moody tale brimming with beautiful juxtapositions: modern technology with old world tastes and scents, surface interactions with deep, ghostly otherworldliness, and the common narratives around women and friendships with the ethereal, the intuitive and the feminine.” ─ Amy Guth, Host, WGN Radio, President, Association for Women Journalists Chicago

“…Complex, rich, and satisfying… Especially recommended for mystery enthusiasts looking for something different in the way of setting, feisty and strong female characters…and a story line brimming with revelations and intrigue that aren’t easily predictable. ─ Midwest Book Review

Sex and the City meets Julie and Julia and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Very unique and fun read.”Marsha Toy Engstrom, The Book Club Cheerleader

“Patricia V. Davis in Cooking for Ghosts manages to combine an exuberant lust for the good things in life with an eerie sense of foreboding. This is an exceptional, uniquely gratifying novel. …Put your feet up. You’re going to be reading for a while.”—David Corbett, award-winning author of The Mercy of the Night

“Ghosts, romance, friendship, and food…what a great combination. From the very first page, I was drawn to the characters and their lives aboard the Queen. A bit of history, woven through a newly formed partnership, wrapped in mystery and intrigue. A wonderfully delightful story.” ─Kim Henry, Books or Books

“OMG!…Patricia V. Davis is amazing. With the gift of giving woman a genuine voice through the alchemy of storytelling, she brings painful, real-world issues to light through the words and actions of the women in her story. Magically, they become as real to us as the tragedies and triumphs of our own lives, cracking our hearts open to create our own internal transformation alongside them.”─ Siobhan “OneMama” Neilland – Founder, OneMama.org & FightingForYourJoy.com

Leave it to Patricia V. Davis to bring together four amazing women, on an equally amazing ship, to cook up something magical and mystical, as well as something intrinsically human. Cooking for Ghosts is a reminder that all of us harbor secrets — friends, lovers, mothers ─ even iconic objects. Davis’s characters entice us into their world, and the more we get to know them, the more we get to know ourselves. A delicious and perfectly spiced read.─ Vicki Larson, award-winning journalist and co-author of The New I Do: Reshaping Marriage for Skeptics, Realists and Rebels.

“In this poignant yet joyful tale, Patricia V. Davis vibrantly illustrates the value of female friendships. Despite remarkably diverse backgrounds and experiences, the women of COOKING FOR GHOSTS cultivate a deep and inspiring bond that serves to strengthen their lives.”─ Shasta Nelson, author of Frientimacy, and founder of GirlFriendCircles.com

 

back cover photo 1About the Author
Patricia V. Davis is the author of the bestselling  Harlot’s Sauce: A Memoir of Food, Family, Love, Loss and Greece, and The Diva Doctrine: 16 Universal Principles Every Woman Needs to Know Her first published fiction, “Chopin, Fiendishly” appears in Tales From the House Band: Volume I.   Patricia holds a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing and Education, and is the founder of The Women’s PowerStrategy Conferencewww.patriciaVdavis.com