About Recipe for Joy
A cherished cookbook and poignant letters prompt a woman to reconnect with her estranged sister and embark on a revealing journey that forces her to reconcile sweet childhood memories with her soured adulthood, changing the course of her life—and her family’s—forever.
About Monica
Monica Comas is a novelist whose stories often focus on relationships—the thorniness, humor, and necessity of them. Her debut novel, Recipe for Joy, will be published in the spring of 2026.
Essay
Recipe for Joy, written at a tender time, is a love letter of sorts…a love letter to a special place and time, as well as to the author’s beloved mother, whose indefatigable spirit is threaded throughout the story’s characters.
Latest Blog Posts
Grateful & Joyful
Recipe for Joy is 1 month old! My little book baby is crawling out into the world, getting read, and being shared with friends. I love that people are sending me pictures of my novel in their pottery studio, on the beach, next to their cat, artfully arrayed on…
Spring’s Stunning Sparkle
Like spring bursting onto the scene after a long winter, it’s uncanny how, in the midst of darkness, your eye will catch a glimmer of light. There it is, a sparkle in the corner, where you never look, where you certainly wouldn’t expect to find anything…much less a gift. …
Joyful Pup Power
All writers have muses–mine just happen to be joyful shih tzu pups. Our beloved Kona, whose dark chocolate puppy coat turned blonde as he got older, was so sweet and affectionate. He was smushy and cuddly, and spoke to us in sniffy snorts. He had soulful eyes and a tongue…