The Chicken Sisters

April 15, 2020
Rival restaurants (and sisters) compete on a reality TV show, but things don't go quite as planned. Merinac, Kansas, may be a small town, but it's been supporting two fried chicken restaurants for years. Chicken Mimi's and Chicken Frannie's were started generations ago by sisters, but now they're run by competing families, the Moores and the Pogociellos. Amanda Moore grew up working for her mother, Barbara, at the more casual chicken shack, Mimi's, but then she married Frank Pogociello and switched over to the fancier Chicken Frannie's team, which boasts table service and fried mozzarella sticks. Now Amanda isn't even allowed inside Mimi's, and her relationship with her mother is strained--and that's not even to mention her relationship with her sister, Mae, who fled Merinac the second she could and started a career as a Marie Kondo-eqsue professional organizer with a decluttering book and a television show called Sparkling. When Amanda hears about the reality show Food Wars, she thinks it could bring big business to Merinac--so she applies, and soon the TV crew has descended upon the town to figure out once and for all which restaurant has the best chicken (and which family will win $100,000). Mae even returns home to support their mother, help out at Mimi's, and possibly rehabilitate her own career. Dell'Antonia writes convincingly and sympathetically about complicated family relationships, giving Mae and Amanda each relatable flaws. The Food Wars scenes are a fun peek behind the curtain of the reality TV world, and the small-town warmth of Merinac is comfortingly quirky. A charming and satisfying story about family bonds that will make meat eaters everywhere crave fried chicken.

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June 1, 2020

DEBUT NOVEL Merinac, KS, has two fried chicken joints, Chicken Mimi's and Chicken Frannie's. Originally started by sisters, the restaurants have a deep history and rivalry. Owned by the Moore family, Mimi's has kept true to its original old-fashioned menu, while Frannie's, run by the Pogociello family, has expanded to include a more modern menu and bar. Amanda Moore switched allegiances when she married Frank Pogociello. Her mother owns Mimi's, but now Amanda works at Frannie's. Amanda contacts the producers of the reality television show Food Wars and suggests that they host a fried chicken cook-off between the two restaurants. The producers accept, and with $100,000 at stake for the winner, Frannie's and Mimi's are both in it to win it. When Amanda's estranged sister Mae, a reality television star, returns to Merinac to throw her support behind Mimi's, the Food Wars episode quickly becomes about much more than fried chicken. With a little prodding from the show's producer, long-held family secrets are revealed, pitting sister against sister. VERDICT Mae and Amanda are spirited characters, and their foibles are told with care and humor. Recommended for Food Network and HGTV watchers, this first novel is plucky, heartwarming, and a welcome distraction from the news of the day.--Emily Hamstra, Seattle

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Starred review from June 1, 2020
Rival fried chicken restaurants Mimi's and Frannie's have been staples of a small Kansas town since 1886. Initially run by sisters, the restaurants become even more intertwined when Amanda, daughter of the owner of Mimi's, marries the son of Frannie's owner. Forbidden to ever enter Mimi's again after the marriage, Amanda instead works for Frannie's. Though she was widowed young, Amanda is happy if restless. This uneasiness causes her to apply for Food Wars, a reality TV show that pits rival restaurants against each other. When Food Wars picks them, Amanda is ecstatic. She is less than happy with the reappearance of her sister Mae. Mae was just fired from her own reality show, Sparkling. Mae is hoping that an appearance on Food Wars will be her ticket back to TV, and she throws herself into helping Mimi win. As the sisters battle, old wounds resurface, and secrets they hoped to hide from the cameras are revealed. Chicken Sisters is a charming first novel about family, regrets, and second chances. Dell'Antonia deftly deals with issues of mental illness, marriage troubles, and dreams deferred, all the while telling a funny satire of reality TV. An utter delight from start to finish.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)