Title:   Love & Saffron
Author:   Kim Fay
Genre:   Fiction
Rating:  4 out of 5

When twenty-seven-year-old Joan Bergstrom sends a fan letter–as well as a gift of saffron–to fifty-nine-year-old Imogen Fortier, a life-changing friendship begins. Joan lives in Los Angeles and is just starting out as a writer for the newspaper food pages. Imogen lives on Camano Island outside Seattle, writing a monthly column for a Pacific Northwest magazine, and while she can hunt elk and dig for clams, she’s never tasted fresh garlic–exotic fare in the Northwest of the sixties. As the two women commune through their letters, they build a closeness that sustains them through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, and the unexpected in their own lives.

 Food and a good life–they can’t be separated. It is a discovery the women share, not only with each other, but with the men in their lives. Because of her correspondence with Joan, Imogen’s decades-long marriage blossoms into something new and exciting, and in turn, Joan learns that true love does not always come in the form we expect it to. Into this beautiful, intimate world comes the ultimate test of Joan and Imogen’s friendship–a test that summons their unconditional trust in each other.

I enjoyed this short novel told almost exclusively in letters. The growing friendship between Joan and Imogen is sweet and uplifting as the women’s lives both change and evolve. They inspire each other as they go through major life changes, and despite their differences, their love for each other continues to grow.

Kim Fay lives in L.A. Love & Saffron is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Penguin Group Putnam in exchange for an honest review.)

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