Woman on Top: A Sexy Delicious Fairytale

Let's get this straight. This is a fairy tale for adults. It's about love and food... or is that food and love? It's also about sex. Magic. Religion. Fame. Loyalty. That seems like a difficult order to fill, but that's true of many of the traditional fairy tales. They're sweeping epics. The Little Cinder Girl is, in a way, a story about discrimination and poverty. Briar Rose deals with envy and friendship. Bluebeard examines the relationship between truth and happiness. It can be argued that, at the core, a fairy tale is a lesson about life. It's wrapped up in glamours, true, but one needs only to read the Tales of the Brothers Grimm to realize that fairy tales are meant not only to entertain but to teach.So how does Woman on Top measure up? On an entertainment level, it does very well. There is the romance between the young heroine, Isabella, and her faulty prince, Toninho. The gods bestow curses and gifts in equal measure. The relationship between the two lovers is threatened, tested, and ultimately...? But I won't ruin the ending for you. Suffice to say that it was fun to read, not only because I wanted to know what would happen to Isabella, but also because I delighted in picking out the classic fairy tale elements. Not to mention seeing them treated with a Latin flair.On the instructional level, it does just fine. There are lessons enough, and I didn't feel as if I was being hit over the head with them. Even more interesting, these lessons are meant for adults in real relationships, not the fairy tale ideal that is so often shown in modern fairy tales and Disney films. Although there were elements of the fantastic in this book, I could imagine Isabella, Toninho, and the other characters as real people. This made their story (and the lessons it teaches) all the more effective.So why did I only give the book four stars? I'm a fairy tale fan, yes, but I also love to cook, and I was disappointed by the recipes. There are a few drinks, a few sauces, barely enough to make a full meal. I finished the book with the wish that they had either left the recipes out entirely or included a more extensive section at the end. As it was, there was only enough to whet my appetite and not enough to satisfy.

I bought this book for its recipes. After watching the exquisite Isobella (Penelope Cruz) sauce it up in the racy motion picture version, I had to know how to bring some of the magic into my own kitchen. Her recipes are all in this charmingly illustrated book: shrimp in pepper sauce, black beans, snapper in banana leaf, fried bananas, how to extract coconut milk, coconut flan, palm souffle...there's even a recipe for a spell to cure heartache (you'd need things like artichoke, eyes of boiled catfish, midnight rain, rooster feather, etc.). The food enhances the fairy tale aspect of 'Woman on Top'.Beautiful Isobella suffers from motion sickness. She can only control it by controlling her motions (driving the car, leading in dance, and being "on top"). Her talent is for cooking. She meets the handsome Toninho, who needs a chef for his restaurant. It's love at first "bite". Ah, but wait, there's a twist. Tonihno cheats and Isobella runs off to San Fran to stay with her cross-dressing best friend. There she lands her own TV show and discovers things about herself and her "true love" that you have to read (or watch-the flic is sexy) to believe.I shelf this one in the kitchen, of course! Get the soundtrack - the Brazilian tunes are amazing. It's a romantic bossa nova mix! Some of the songs that Tonihno sings to Isobella are translated in the book.

I loved the movie. The book is great. It is basically the movie but with great illustrations and in between the story are Isabella's recipes. If you like fun, charming and happy stories, this book is for you. Even if you haven't seen the movies, it it still a cute story to read and the recipes are really yummy!!!!