The Queen's Cook by Tessa Afshar

 


Do you like to cook? If not, are you a fan of eating someone else's good cooking? The Queen's Cook by Tessa Afshar is a book that has many elements but one main feature is that the main character likes to cook and she ends up being a cook for the Queen, as you might guess from the title.

The Queen's Cook is set in Persia. Roxannah, is the daughter of an impoverished Lord who is abusive after turning his life over to alcohol. After some devastating news, Roxannah gets help from the Queen's physician named Adin to get a job in the kitchen. 

Once employed, Roxannah, along with Adin, are involved in a mystery. There is also lots of cooking for the queen. There is a slow burn romance. There is the Biblical story of Queen Esther, which many of us are familiar with, but this book brings the story and the times to life. There is also an emphasis on faith in the one true God. There are themes of forgiveness, redemption, healing and more. The book is well-written. I would also add a trigger warning if you have been abused in the past. I struggled to start the book and get past some of the abuse because it brought back some memories to me that were unpleasant. Again, that is mainly in the first part of the book and God does redeem the story, but the abuse was still unpleasant to read for me. The Queen's Cook is certainly well written and deserves five stars for that but I am giving it four stars because of the trigger for me, taking some pleasure away from reading the story. The mystery, the romance, and the cooking element added a lot back for me though.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions within this review are my own. 

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