Lord Endicott's Appetite

As anyone sees from the previous reviews this book is indeed an winner and keeper! I loved this book beyond all I can say. It is incomparible! Fairchild understands human emotions better than most writers and she makes you feel for the chracters as if they were your kin. This book had so much heartache and love to it you cannot help but "eat" it up (bad pun I know. . . )and how dedicated the characters are to the ones they lost! I cannot even begin. Jeannette and Endicott are likely another pair of characters that I love so much because or how real they seem to be. Jeanette once nobility in French court, has fled the land of her birth in desperate attempt to begin a new life. She answers a summons for a new cook in Kent and once there sees an immediate "kinship" with Julian, Lord Endicott seeing that he still mourns the loss of his beloved. Jeanette is hired to cook inticing meals to cooerce the hardly living lord to eat and survive the painful loss of his wife. Who better to get him through the pains and sorrows of loosing who you thought your only love than someone who has been there in loosing their whole family? Jeanette and Julian amaze me in the realistic growing they accomplished in this tale. They both -together- help each other in healing and give the greatest balm to heal such pains; love. Get this book you'll forever love it.

Miss Fairchild does not fear tackling hard issues in her books and this one, dealing as it does with the subject of acute bereavement, is excellent. As with the themes in Miss Dornton's Hero and Captain Cupid Calls the Shots, the author is not shy of making the reader confront some of our inner most fears - particularly those fears we face when we don't know how to talk to and help those suffering with suicidal thoughts, depression or bereavement. I have been so pleased with her careful and empathetical treatment. Very well done indeed! She is also to be congratulated for the excellence of her research and the quality of her language. Thank you!

This is a book I take out and reread. Lots of detail of domestic life in a country house especially the servants hierarchy. Lord Endicott has a manipulating sister, just to add in complexity, who comes to visit, I think the other reviews carry more details. An interesting exploration of the servant / master relationship.

Lord Julian Endicott was slowly wasting away since his wife and child had died the year before. Nothing gave him pleasure. Even food had no taste. Jeannette was hired for her culinary skill. It was hoped she could tempt his appetite with her cooking. Jeannette was of French nobility. But with the ongoing war in France, only she survived of her family. Now she had a new name, a new country, and hopefully, a new chance at life. Jeannette had always been good at cooking and she was grateful to find a position which would let her earn her living doing what she so enjoyed. However, Lord Endicott's appetite was diminished for many reasons. Going through all she had, Jeannette had a better understanding than anyone else on how to help the Lord. Things were made harder by the arrival of the Lord's sister. His sister was determined to have Jeannette fired. ***This is the best I have read of E. Fairchild's stories. I aim to keep this one always! Real history, real problems, real solutions. I loved it!***