I loved this book and I especially loved Cecily Finn. This is a 'coming of age' book about a woman just reaching the age of forty. Love, family, friendship and commitment are explored along with loss. As a confirmed foodie, I was entranced by the recipes and the cookbook descriptions. The book is even more remarkable as it was partly based on real life.

A nice story with a heart and some dry humour, but the scope of the book sometimes left me speed reading and feeling a bit detached. Not one I’ll reread.

A delightful read depicting a developing friendship between a cranky old lady (Cecily) in an exclusive care home and a volunteer worker, Kate. I found the character of Cecily absolutely charming and with an excellent sense of humour with some wonderful observations and comments. Kate was exasperating to start but slowly developed, with one or two regressions, and this draws the reader in. All the characters are believable and, one feels, real people, the various residents of the care home are brilliant and I can certainly pick out some of these in my mother's care home. The under running theme of a cookery book written by Cecily is wonderful and picks out the menu's from different times in her past perfectly. A most enjoyable read.

Charming & witty, amazing characters I absolutely loved this book and I would recommend it to anyone.

Poor Kate. She settled for a seemingly secure and steadylife with her boyfriend and, on holiday, and on the verge of moving in with him, he tells her he needs to rethink. Without a home, as she had given up her flat, she moves back in with her mother. Voluntary work has her cooking at a retirement home for wealthy women where she meets Cicely........!
An enjoyable and amusing read. The dry humour and outspokenness of the elderly is really amusing.

The food aspect was great - some really delicious sounding meals, and the basis for the book at the centre of the story was wonderful.
Some of the wider story / less central felt a bit less 3-dimensional, but the friendship at the heart of the book was rather nice.

I loved this book. I will definitely read it again and I will definitely buy it fore myself and my friends.

Kate feels like she is stuck in a rut, desperately clinging in to a job she’s not enthralled with and a boyfriend who is selfish and disinterested. And her fortieth birthday is looming. But all her life Kate has played it safe, gone for the sure thing, never rocked the boat, swallowed her tongue and let others take the lead.

Kate is let down by said boyfriend and ends up back at her. Mums, much to her dismay. Her mum is a bit of a new age social butterfly and keeps trying to get Kate to join things so Kate decides to volunteer at a local old folks home to get out of her mums way.
It’s there she meets Cecily, a salty old lady with a thousand stories to tell. And Kate listens to the stories, asking, learning, absorbing, growing in courage and confidence. And it’s there that Kate begins to dare, begins to dream, begins to do

Wonderful warm and enjoyable book that I cannot recommend enough

The Woman Who Wanted More is a delight! Charming, witty, life-affirming and deliciously dry, there’s a recipe for every episode in your life. I loved Cecily’s voice, courage and determination to make Kate live her own life according to her own truths.

I was totally immersed in this book, so much so that I had to stop reading every now and then to make it last longer.
What a super story. A lovely relationship portrayed between a somewhat crabby elderly lady and Kate who is coming up to forty, and in a mess with her life. She is being led on a string by needy Nick who has got non-commitment down to a fine art.
Volunteering at the Home for Exceptional ladies (what a great name) she meets lovely Cecily, a lady with a sharp tongue, incredible insight and a deep love of food and cookery.
How this changes Kate's life is beautifully written. The best part of this book is the relationship between Cecily and Kate, and it was so lovely to find that the book is based on the life of a real person....who in herself sounds fascinating.
Thank you so much for a review copy of the book. I want to buy it now!

Oh my gosh I loved this book the character nick made me want to grab Kate and run away with her as it was obviously not a good relationship. I'm so glad she met the old lady I would love to met someone like her and listen to all her story's. This book is extremely good at making people full in love with the main characters and hungry and to full in love with food not just eating g but the a tual art of cooking. Thank you vicky Zimmerman I will be buying this book as soon as it's out In the shops

I would like to thank the publisher Bonnier Zaffre for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy this book at first. It started off feeling like standard chick lit, and I allowed my prejudices to take over. I need not have worried though, because the main character, Kate, soon starts to find that there is more to life than waiting around for her boyfriend to see sense and want to move in with her.
While Kate is feeling sorry for herself she decides to volunteer at a retirement home. As a self confessed foodie, she agrees to do some cookery demonstrations for the residents, and although most of the ladies are very encouraging, one 97 year old is extremely rude and argumentative. It came as no surprise to learn that this character was based on a real person because it has a ring of authenticity about it. Cicely quotes literature at Kate, grumbles about the lack of seasoning in the food she cooks and is rude about the other residents. She soon refuses to attend the demonstrations, but the manager of the home persuades Kate to visit her in her room. This is where the book took off for me. Through the relationship between the two women Kate encourages Cicely to talk about her eventful life, and Cicely encourages Kate to question why she has been happy to settle for a safe and boring life. Their shared love of books, particularly cookery books, inspires Kate to cook new and interesting menus.
This is a good story, and it made me very happy to read at the end that Cicely did exist, and so did the cookery book at the heart of her friendship with Kate. I will be looking out for it. The main characters in this book are the women in Kate’s life, her mother, her friends and of course Cicely. There is some romantic interest, but refreshingly it is very much secondary to the main plot. This is suitable even for an old cynic like me!
#Netgalley #TheWomanWhoWantedMore

Love this book. It is full of warmth, honesty and humour and just such a pleasant read. Never read any of this author's work before but will do so now. Thank you for the introduction!

First thing's first, I simply adored this book. One piece of advice though: make sure you're not hungry when you read it!

Any book that begins with characters discussing their dinner plans and how to perfect their burger recipe (aka 'Project Burger') was always going to be one for me. The pages are filled with the most wonderful descriptions of food - custard doughnuts, breakfast burritos, hangover-curing-bacon brunches. Food is a source of humour - there's a hilarious scene which I'll just call 'Kate-versus-Prawn'... I laughed out loud at a hangover being described as a "shrivelled pickle", and also when Kate was served a "deconstructed negroni" in a too-trendy bar. In this book, food also represents a great deal about what it means to live - after the disruption of her life Kate completely loses her appetite, but food (through Cecily) begins to slowly nourish her again.

That brings me to Kate, who I just loved. For me, she is refreshingly relatable, with her love of good food and good books (and let's face it - most of us have found ourselves in Kate's position at some point in our lives!). I was really rooting for her - she became like a friend to me, who I wanted to share a meal and a drink with, and give a good old pep talk to! Cecily, too, is an exceptional woman, with a cheeky sparkle in her eye and a fascinating past. Both women have a stubborn streak, which means they can challenge each other in that wonderful way that true friendships can.

Please do yourself a favour - read this book and nourish your soul!

Really enjoyed the friendship between the 2 women.
It's different to what i normally read but a good different.
I would recommend to a friend.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I was not sure about this book when I started it but the more I continued the more I really enjoyed the friendship between the 2 women. A good read

Many thanks to Vicky Zimmerman, Bonnier Zaffre and Net Galley for the opportunity to read THE WOMAN WHO WANTED MORE.
Oh, I loved this. After she is in the firing line for redundancy at a company she has worked for for 20 years, Kate Parker volunteers to do cookery demonstrations at Lauderdale House for Exceptional Ladies where she meets 97-year-old Cecily Finn. Cecily is sharp-witted and sharp-tongued, her body letting her down before her mind. She's defiantly confrontational to her fellow residents and stand-offish with barbed asides to Kate. They begin an icy relationship, with Cecily having absolutely no patience at all with Kate's difficulties, apart from when she offers her some advice...to read her copy of Thoughts for Food, a kind of guide to certain times in ones life, originally written in 1957. It's not just a cookery book, but more of a manual for easing the difficulties of life using beautifully cooked food. Kate not only is in danger of losing her job, but her relationship with her partner is less than ideal, and Cecily warns her in no uncertain terms that her heart will be broken. Kate has a decision to make. Should she heed Cecily's advice, or should she ignore her protestations that she's being her own worst enemy and needs to change things for only then will she find happiness. When it comes to light that Cecily is the author of Thoughts for Food, the recipes and the reasons they were written pull Kate into Cecily's story and she becomes totally immersed in them and in Cecily's incredible past life. Wonderful.. Loved it from the first page to the last.