Love in Bloom's
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Bloom's is a world-famous gourmet food emporium on Manhattan's Upper West Side. It's also the Bloom family's business. Founded by Grandma Ida Bloom and her late husband Isaac, the store was until recently run by their older son, Ben. His untimely death compelled Grandma Ida to name a new president to run the business: Ben's daughter Julia.
Julia Bloom has no interest in running a deli. She's a lawyer. Her widowed mother, who worked at the store throughout her marriage, would be a superior choice. Even her uncle, Ben's younger brother Jay, would do a better job than Julia. But when Grandma Ida issues an edict, the family must obey—or at least pretend to obey.
Julia's pretense goes a little haywire. How can she run the place when the books are a mess, her law-firm boyfriend is trying to get her into bed, her sister Susie is swooning over the store's bagel designer, her mother and uncle are gunning for her job, something mysterious is locked inside her grandfather's old desk, and hundreds of dollars of merchandise goes missing every week? Ron Joffe, the business reporter from Gotham Magazine, intends to write an exposé on the floundering new president of this New York City landmark. Can Julie possibly convince him she knows what she's doing, when she can't even convince herself?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Oddball characters and humorous hijinks abound in Arnold's (Somebody's Dad) touching, romantic tale of an Upper West Side delicatessen akin to Zabar's. Julia Bloom, a fledgling divorce lawyer, is summoned by her formidable grandmother to take over Bloom's after her father's death. Julia rebels but is persuaded by her tattoo-sporting sister, Susie, to bring the deli into the 21st century. Tension mounts when Julia's jealous Uncle Jay tries to sabotage her, and her pushy mother, who believes she's the rightful heir to the business, makes it clear that Julia's just standing in for her as president of Bloom's. In addition, Julia must contend with the puzzling problem of those bagels that go missing like clockwork every week, while fending off Ron Joffe, the hunky but meddlesome business reporter from Gotham magazine ( la New York) who's determined to get the goods on Bloom's. While Susie falls in love with goyische bagel-maker Casey Gordon, who knows more about those missing bagels than he wants to admit, Julia is unwillingly swept off her feet by Joffe. Anyone who has ever dealt with an interfering mother, domineering grandparent, flaky sibling or improper boyfriend will relate to this story. Charming, humorous and loaded with New York references, this lighthearted tale is satisfying subway reading.
