Hanukkah At The Great Greenwich Ice Creamery

I have been lucky enough to travel to London a few times, and overall the experience is great. I can read all the street signs, order easily in a restaurant, and even read the local paper. There’s just one hitch – Londoners drive on the left side of the road and taking “the tube” was so confusing I was grateful for the NYC subway system for the first time ever in my life. (Don’t tell anyone I said that, because really my complaints about the subway are numerous). Which is why I considered it a true sign of love and devotion when Cohen, American expat and hero of Sharon Ibbotson’s romance Hanukkah At The Great Greenwich Ice Creamery, braved three transfers to court the heroine, River.

Cohen fled to London from NY after a particularly vicious divorce. His ex wife has absolutely zero redeeming qualities, and when he tried to go to therapy to process it all, the only thing that resulted was a further complication to his already tenuous relationship with his mother. So off Cohen went, to lick his wounds and throw himself into his work an entire ocean away from all his problems. It was a lonely but functional existence until his mother hunted him down and forced him to visit her old friend and owner of the ice creamery in the title. Turns out, the friend has a daughter named River, and Cohen finds himself absolutely smitten.

There are several unusual choices made for a romance novel. For one, there is only a single POV and it is male. We never enter River’s head, only Cohen’s, and as a fellow American I found it pretty funny when he would suddenly say or think things that were very British (lift, flat, etc.). It made me wonder how long full cultural assimilation takes. For another thing, there is no third act break up. Hanukkah At The Great Greeniwch Ice Creamery is an exquisitely gentle book. I kept biting my nails, fretting about when things would go awry, but that moment never came and I was actually quite happy without it. There is a happily ever after, but there was no huge blow up and grovel proceeding it. Instead, Cohen had to work through some of his personal issues and mend past relationships.

He also has to prove to everyone else that he’s worthy of River. After suffering an infection as a child, River has grown up deaf. Not only must Cohen learn to navigate British public transportation, he needs to learn British Sign Language, which is very different from American Sign language. As Christmas and Hanukkah approach River invents new flavors for the ice creamery’s holiday line up and each flavor sampled brings back a host of memories for Cohen and River. We explore the new relationship but also their pasts. The romance is closed door, and generally fades to black.

By the time we find out the actual three flavors chosen for the holiday menu, readers understand why Cohen might be willing to put up with the tube forever if it means keeping River in his life. Hanukkah At The Great Greenwich Ice Creamery didn’t follow every plot beat I expected for a romance, but it still gave me that warm and fuzzy feeling. Kind of like when my train gets rerouted but I still manage to somehow find my way home. Plus, it made me really, really want ice cream.

Note: BookishlyJewish received an e-copy of this book from the publisher after we requested one.

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