{"product_id":"didnt-you-use-to-be-queenie-b-9780063433137","title":"Didn't You Use to Be Queenie B?","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFor everyone who loved The Bear! An utterly winning, crowd-pleaser of a culinary fiction novel about a disgraced celebrity chef, her striving protégé, and their path through the kitchen to redemption.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRegina Benuzzi is Queenie B--a culinary goddess with Michelin Star restaurants, a bestselling cookbook empire, and multimillion-dollar TV deals. It doesn't hurt that she's gorgeous and curvaceous, with cascading black hair and signature red lips.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShe had it all. Until she didn't.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAfter an epic fall from grace, Queenie B vanishes from the public eye, giving up everything: her husband, her son, and the fame that she'd fought to achieve. Her shows are in rerun, her restaurants still popular, but her disappearance remains a mystery to her legions of fans.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLocal line cook Gale Carmichael also knows a thing or two about disaster. Newly sober and struggling, Gale's future dreams don't hold space for culinary stardom; only earning enough to get by. Broke at the end of the week, he finds himself at a local soup kitchen in one of the roughest parts of New Haven, Connecticut. But Gale quickly realizes that the food coming out of the kitchen is not your standard free meal--it is delicious and prepared with gourmet flair.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGale doesn't recognize Regina, the soup kitchen's cranky proprietor, whose famous black mane is now streaked with gray. It's been more than ten years since Queenie B vanished into her careful new existence. But she sees Gale's talent and recognizes a brokenness in him that she knows all too well. Forming an unexpected found family, the culinary genius in hiding takes him under her wing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTeaching Gale, Regina's passion to create is reignited, and they both glimpse a second chance at the redemption that had always seemed out of reach. When Gale is chosen to compete on the hit cooking show, \u003ci\u003eCut!\u003c\/i\u003e, it's a turning point for them both.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDefino, Terri-Lynne:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTerri-Lynne DeFino\u003c\/strong\u003e was born and raised in New Jersey but escaped to the wilds of Connecticut where she still lives with her husband, and her cats. She is the author of the novels \u003cem\u003eVarina Palladino's Jersey Italian Love Story \u003c\/em\u003eand\u003cem\u003e The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (and Their Muses) \u003c\/em\u003eas well as the Bitterly Suite romance series.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"William Morrow Large Print","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52179023069458,"sku":"9780063433137","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_b0ea27e8-ac93-4de6-a2ab-894136f6e927.jpg?v=1775632435","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/didnt-you-use-to-be-queenie-b-9780063433137","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}