Publication Date: October 8, 2024
Love comes home for the challah-days in this sparkling romance.
Snow is falling, holiday lights are twinkling, and Abby Cohen is pissed. For one thing, her most annoying customer, Seth, has been coming into her café every morning with his sunshiny attitude, determined to break down her carefully constructed emotional walls. And, as the only Jew on the tourism board of her Vermont town, Abby’s been charged with planning their fledgling Hanukkah festival. Unfortunately, the local vendors don’t understand that the story of Hanukkah cannot be told with light-up plastic figures from the Nativity scene, even if the Three Wise Men wear yarmulkes.
Desperate for support, Abby puts out a call for help online and discovers she was wrong about being the only Jew within a hundred miles. There’s one other: Seth.
As it turns out, Seth’s parents have been badgering him to bring a Nice Jewish Girlfriend home to New York City for Hanukkah, and if Abby can survive his incessant, irritatingly handsome smiles, he’ll introduce her to all the vendors she needs to make the festival a success. But over latkes, doughnuts, and winter adventures in Manhattan, Abby begins to realize that her fake boyfriend and his family might just be igniting a flame in her own guarded heart.
Love You a Latke by Amanda Elliot is a wonderful holiday contemporary romance about Hanukkah. It’s about how Christmas overshadows Hanukkah, how it’s a relatively minor holiday, and how Jewish people find happiness if their holidays or traditions are recognized or acknowledged. But woven throughout is a sweet romance.
The book focuses on Abby and Seth, begins in Vermont, moves to New York City for only eight days, and then returns to Vermont and the Hanukkah Festival, which Abby singularly organizes and showcases all things Hanukkah.
I love how Abby and Seth grow both individually and together as they finally move to being friends and then become more. They craft a small support network and find their way to each other instead of constantly pushing each other away. They learn they have much to offer each other and can accomplish and achieve more with each other’s help. Abby’s eyes are opened to what being a part of a family, a community, and even making friends is like.
The story has a good flow, and many stories are woven together. I liked Seth’s friends’ group and how they had fun in so many different ways and included Abby seamlessly just because she was with Seth. There is closure, but there are still some loose ends. The epilogue was a nice addition, as were the thought-provoking discussion questions.
Love You a Latke is a lovely holiday romance filled with plenty of Hanukkah and Christmas festivities set in a small Vermont town and bustling New York City. A grudging friendship turns into more when Abby and Seth show their true selves to each other. Grab a coffee or other warm drink and sit by a toasty fire with a good book and maybe even someone you love.
Amanda Elliot lives with her husband and daughter in New York City, where she collects way too many cookbooks for her tiny kitchen, runs in Central Park, and writes for teens and kids under the name Amanda Panitch.