One of the most fun aspects of book blogging is to be able to participate in and/or host book giveaways. Is there anything more wonderful for a reader to open their mailbox and find a free book inside?

So when a gentleman from Penguin Group e-mailed me with an offer to send me an ARC of Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs and a bunch of cute canvas tote bags for a giveaway, how could I resist?

Comfort Food is the new book from Jacobs. I read her debut book, The Friday Night Knitting Club (you can read my review here) for my book club and we were even able to chat with Jacobs during our meeting. She was a most gracious person, answering all of our questions about her book while looking for her lost luggage at the airport! I was really happy to get her newest book, Comfort Food, from her publisher and dived right in.

Comfort Food is the story of Augusta Simpson, Gus for short, who’s been the host of “Cooking with Gusto” on the CookingChannel for twelve years. Her show has been steadily loosing viewers and as a last ditch effort by the President of the channel to save the program, Gus ends up having to share her show with the new “Foodie Queen” and former Miss Spain, Carmen Vega. New to the food television world, Carmen is not too pleased to be a co-host and not have her own show, while Gus feels that the show will lose integrity with the new live format.  

In addition to her career worries, Gus also feels that she still needs to be mother hen for her two twenty something daughters, wants to help her former tennis star turned recluse neighbor Hannah and now begins to have feelings for her new culinary producer Oliver.

As I found with Jacobs first novel, Comfort Food has a great array of characters. At first Gus comes off as a snobby Martha Stewart-ish control freak and her new co-host as a whiny “what’s in it for me” beauty queen, but as with her other book, Jacobs develops these characters well and I really enjoyed how each women matured and changed within the story. Often times funny and sometimes touching, Comfort Food is all together a really well written book. Unlike The Friday Night Knitting Club, this book didn’t have the shocking ending that the first one had (just figured I would mention that Eva, as I know you weren’t too happy with that)! Already her first novel has been optioned for a movie and I wouldn’t be surprised if Comfort Food follows in its footsteps. 

I also love the fact that the author has hit upon two of my favorite things - knitting and cooking! I wonder what’s next (dare I hope a novel about book blogging)?

Now for the giveaway: All you have to do is leave a comment here by midnight EST time on Wednesday, April 30th and you will be automatically entered to be one of five people to win a cute canvas tote bag (click on the image to view larger). Just think of all the books you could fit in one of these when you head to the used book sale at your local library! In addition, one of those five people will also get the advance reader copy of Comfort Food!  For an even better chance to win, post about this contest on your own blog (linking back to this post) and your name will be entered twice! If you aren’t one of the lucky winners, then make sure to get a copy of Comfort Food at your local bookstore once it is released on May 6th. Good luck!

I also want to mention that Dewey is hosting a weekly blogging challenge called Weekly Geeks. Already there are a bunch of participants signed up (myself included). Stop by and take a peek!

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