**Blog Tour** The Food of Love - Amanda Prowse

Being a huge fan of Amanda Prowse's books I was thrilled to be asked to take part in the blog tour for her latest release, The Food of Love, which was released on December 1st.

The Food of Love is the story of the Braithwaites, parents Freya and Lockie and their two teenage daughters Charlotte and Lexi. They are a happy, perfect looking family from the outside looking in. Freya is a food writer, Lockie is a photographer and they are still devoted to each other after nineteen years of marriage and proud of both of their daughters.

 When Freya receives an unexpected phone call from Lexi's form tutor, Miss Burke, asking her to come in for a chat the following afternoon, she's puzzled and has no idea what it could be about. Sitting in the tutor's office the next day though Freya thinks that it could be about her daughter's dyslexia but she's wrong, Lexi almost fainted the previous day, saying that she hadn't eaten anything since lunchtime the day before and various members of staff have commented on her daughters weight loss and how she's often seen running at lunchtime. It's only when Miss Burke tentatively suggests that Lexi may have "food issues" Freya gets defensive and the meeting doesn't end well but the seed has been planted and Freya starts to look more closely at her youngest daughter.
Despite some very obvious signs and a visit to the doctor Freya can't and won't believe that Lexi is on a downward spiral, her daughter just needs some TLC and she can certainly get that at home but with Lockie disagreeing and Charlotte feeling left out will they be able to get through this unscathed as a family or will it tear them apart?

The story flows effortlessly and my heart went out to each member of the family for different reasons. Freya is trying desperately to keep Lexi happy in the hope that it won't make the situation worse but making some terrible decisions along the way and while Lockie is initially happy to go along with his wife's idea's, he soon sees that unless he intervenes the consequences will be dire. All the while Charlotte is quietly getting on with her life, walking on eggshells and then being completely overlooked as her sister's condition worsens. Last but not least of course, there's Lexi, in the grip of a terrible illness, scared and in desperate need of the love and support of her family.


True to form Amanda Prowse has written another evocative story on a subject that a lot of authors would shy away from. Most people have heard of anorexia and have seen the pictures of emaciated young women (and men) but few people know about the mental health and other physical effects that are associated with this condition. The Food of Love took me on an emotional journey with the Braithwaites and seeing how it touches the lives of family and friends makes for difficult and uncomfortable reading in places but this isn't a subject that can be told in a light and fluffy way, it has to be hard hitting or it wouldn't be realistic.

It takes a truly exceptional writer to maintain such a high standard of original story telling and Amanda Prowse is exactly that. I don't know how she does it but each new novel is even better than the one before and I honestly can't recommend this, or any of her other books highly enough!

You can get your copy now from Amazon UK or Amazon US

                                                About Amanda Prowse

Amanda Prowse is a bestselling novelist with an incredible 136K followers on Twitter. This is her sixteenth novel and her books have been translated into a dozen languages and regularly top bestseller charts all over the world. Amanda has been dubbed ‘The Queen of Domestic Drama’ and writes about ordinary women and their families who find their strength, courage and love tested in ways they never imagined.

Through writing The Food of Love, Amanda has come face to face with her own feelings of shame, secrecy and obsession with food. Overweight as a child and a yo-yo dieter as an adult, Amanda has struggled with body image and overeating all her life.

She now recognises that the habits of her once anorexic mother had a profound effect on her growing up. By writing about eating disorders in The Food of Love, Amanda has faced her own food demons and has made incredible steps to correcting her unhealthy relationship with food. Since she started writing the book, Amanda has lost one and a half stone and aims to reach her target, healthy weight by 1^st December, the publication date of The Food of Love.

You can follow the rest of The Food of Love blog tour on these fabulous blogs:

With kind thanks to author Amanda Prowse, publishers Lake Union and Simeon Prowse for the review copy.