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The Chicken Sisters by KJ Dell'Antonia

Contemporary fiction

The Chicken Sisters

by KJ Dell'Antonia

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Quick take

Estranged sisters find themselves on opposite sides of Food Wars in this entertaining story of family and fried food.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Romance

    Romance

  • Illustrated icon, Family_Drama

    Family drama

  • Illustrated icon, LOL

    LOL

  • Illustrated icon, Snarky

    Snarky

Synopsis

In tiny Merinac, Kansas, Chicken Mimi's and Chicken Frannie's have spent a century vying to serve up the best fried chicken in the state—and the legendary feud between their respective owners, the Moores and the Pogociellos, has lasted just as long. No one feels the impact more than thirty-five-year-old widow Amanda Moore, who grew up working for her mom at Mimi's before scandalously marrying Frank Pogociello and changing sides to work at Frannie's. Tired of being caught in the middle, Amanda sends an SOS to Food Wars, the reality TV restaurant competition that promises $100,000 to the winner. But in doing so, she launches both families out of the frying pan and directly into the fire...

The last thing Brooklyn-based organizational guru Mae Moore, Amanda's sister, wants is to go home to Kansas. But when her career implodes, Food Wars becomes her chance to step back into the limelight. Mae is certain she can make the fading Mimi's look good—even if that pits her against Amanda and Frannie's. With a greedy producer stoking the flames, their friendly rivalry quickly turns into a game of chicken. Yet when family secrets become public knowledge, the sisters must choose: Will they fight with each other, or for their heritage?

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Get an early look from the first pages of The Chicken Sisters.

The Chicken Sisters

The hit TFC series Food Wars is back! And this time, it’s personal. We’re looking for rival restaurants with a deeper connection—married chefs, best friends with dueling taco trucks. If you’re a restaurant owner or worker who shares a bond with the crew at a competing restaurant in your town, we want to hear from you.

It’s a fantastic opportunity to showcase your food on TV, expose your brand to a national audience, and finally resolve, once and for all, who’s the best at serving up your local specialty. Food Wars judges will vote on who provides the best dining experience, the best menu, and, of course, the most delicious, most authentic version of whatever it is you do, and it will all be shared live via social media and then on produced episodes of our show. The winner will be awarded $100,000 to invest in their business. Past victors have franchised and been offered lucrative product-branding opportunities.

To be considered for the show, both restaurants must be willing and enthusiastic about participating and must be available for up to five possibly nonconsecutive days of filming. Applicants should e-mail no more than 300 words describing the rivalry and relationship between your competing restaurants, along with some images that capture the scene. We need to locate our next competitors RIGHT AWAY, so drop us a line ASAP! Sabrinasky@thefoodchannel.com

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Why I love it

2020 has changed us all. In time we’ll look back and analyze just how much, but there’s one thing I already know and that is that this year—with its isolation and confusion—has made me crave laughter. It has made me ravenous for comedy that rests squarely on real emotion and insight into all that is absurd in our world. The Chicken Sisters, filled with hijinks, community, and just the right amount of inward contemplation, was the perfect bite of humor and drama to satisfy my craving.

The book masterfully turns a spotlight on what’s most ridiculous about our social media-fueled definitions of ourselves. What better way to examine our ability to connect with others and with our own selves than a story about sisters? Mae and Amanda have grown up in the middle of a century-long family feud over two fried chicken restaurants. Their childhoods were the collateral damage of that war and they’ve both found ways to bury it and survive. Or so they believe, until one of them decides to throw it all open in front of reality TV cameras on a cooking competition show called Food Wars.

Dell’Antonia manages to make Mae and Amanda every one of us, tied up in the intense conditioning of our upbringing, held together by it, but also fighting to break away and see who we are outside the comfort and pain it provides. Along the way she urges us to lighten up and to separate the noise from the voice of our hearts—a true gift to help process this unprecedented year.

Member ratings (3,566)

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Contemporary fiction
View all
The Last Love Note
What Does It Feel Like?
Anita de Monte Laughs Last
The Wedding People
Honey
The Leftover Woman
The Same Bright Stars
Bye, Baby
Swan Song
The Days I Loved You Most
The Connellys of County Down
Joe Nuthin’s Guide to Life
Jackpot Summer
Adelaide
The Collected Regrets of Clover
Again and Again
Evil Eye
Black Cake
Maame
Romantic Comedy
Someone Else’s Shoes
Once There Were Wolves
We Are the Brennans
The Bad Muslim Discount
What Comes After
Olga Dies Dreaming
Last Summer at the Golden Hotel
Monster in the Middle
Nine Perfect Strangers
The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany
The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes
Honey Girl
In Every Mirror She's Black
Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?
Sankofa
The Unsinkable Greta James
The Love of My Life
The Five-Star Weekend
The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto
The Wishing Game
Behold the Dreamers
The Mothers
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
Little Fires Everywhere
The Music Shop
Where’d You Go, Bernadette
The Reckless Oath We Made
When We Were Vikings
The Girl with the Louding Voice
A Good Neighborhood
Big Summer
All Adults Here
Happy & You Know It
Friends and Strangers
The Comeback
True Story
The Last Story of Mina Lee
Troubles in Paradise
White Ivy
This Close to Okay
The Chicken Sisters
The Prophets
In a Book Club Far Away
The Other Black Girl
Apples Never Fall
A Quiet Life
We Are the Light
The Most Likely Club
The Fortunes of Jaded Women
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The Hotel Nantucket