Review: The Restaurant Critic's Wife by Elizabeth LaBan

The Restaurant Critic's Wife

by Elizabeth LaBan

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

Pages: 306

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Lila Soto has a master’s degree that’s gathering dust, a work-obsessed husband, two kids, and lots of questions about how exactly she ended up here.

In their new city of Philadelphia, Lila’s husband, Sam, takes his job as a restaurant critic a little too seriously. To protect his professional credibility, he’s determined to remain anonymous. Soon his preoccupation with anonymity takes over their lives as he tries to limit the family’s contact with anyone who might have ties to the foodie world. Meanwhile, Lila craves adult conversation and some relief from the constraints of her homemaker role. With her patience wearing thin, she begins to question everything: her decision to get pregnant again, her break from her career, her marriage—even if leaving her ex-boyfriend was the right thing to do. As Sam becomes more and more fixated on keeping his identity secret, Lila begins to wonder if her own identity has completely disappeared—and what it will take to get it back.

Kritters Thoughts:  A year in a marriage with small children, work drama and moving to a new city made this book an interesting read and felt so real - almost memoir like.  The husband of the couple has moved the family to Philadelphia, PA to become the new restaurant critic and has brought his wife and young kids and has asked his wife to keep a low profile for his job.  The wife has become a stay at home mom with two young kids and isn't happy with this major life change.  And the story begins . . . 

Although I couldn't relate with the kid drama, I have three dogs so its close, but not exact, I still felt like I could relate and this book sort of hit home.  My husband and I have very different jobs and they impede on our spending time and its definitely a lifestyle, so it was interesting to read about how other career paths can absolutely impact your partner's life.  To be honest there were a few moments, I wanted to slug Sam and have him respect his wife more in the "job" in the home that she was doing, but I enjoyed the honesty of the book.

I don't like to categorize books, but this one almost felt like a grown up's chick lit.  This wasn't new girl in big city with first job, it was married woman in new city trying to make marriage, new city and new lifestyle work.  I may be a few years beyond the new girl in big city so I hope that there are more books like this that I can read and enjoy!

I definitely want to be on the watch for what Elizabeth LaBan has next and noticed she has a previous book - The Tragedy Paper and I am intrigued to read it as the plot sounds vastly different from this one.


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from TLC Book Tours.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.