Women are Like Chickens by Annette Sandoval. Purple Patch Press. 2014. 606 KB $3.99 Kindle ebook.

A fun, frothy, at times, bittersweet novel of Chicana womanhood.  Sisters Alex and Lea and their friends live with brio and angst in a close-knit California community. The two sisters are born and reared in the family’s restaurant business. As mere teenagers they are thrust into ownership of the restaurant. Happily—and improbably—they are wildly successful.  Their restaurant becomes a destination for California foodies (a clientele their mother dismisses as ‘los otros.’).

As young women, the four embark on peripatetic life paths. The path seems especially bumpy for Lea. A wounded soul, she is too often in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Alex, seemingly the strongest and most successful, follows a path of domesticity close to home base. As time passes, the wheels of fortune change. Lea finds her strength, Alex finds challenge, and the friends are once again reunited.
 
The style of the novel is direct. The prose is uncomplicated. This is balanced by the novel’s rich plot twists, interspersed with delightful culinary details that make the recipes almost characters in themselves.  The novel was thoroughly enjoyable reading (even the glossary of Mexican slang). I hope there a sequel.
 
The book is available from Amazon in ebook format.