Entertaining and Celebrating is the type of book that you have on your coffee table. It’s an inspirational guide to entertaining. I just wish it had a few more recipes.

I might have came into this book with the wrong idea. Full of lovely pictures and ideas for your future dinner parties, that's all this book is. There's no recipes at all. So if that's what you're looking for, than this is something you might want to check out.

With beautiful pictures and interesting food combinations, this book has some pretty out there dinner party ideas. Though, being someone who doesn't eat meat or dairy very often, this isn't something that would be for me specifically. And I'm not sure people are having dinner parties at this point in time. That being said, I do think it would be really fun to try some of these combinations out, and work around some of the ideas to my dietary restrictions.

An interesting idea, I've never quite seen a book like this. But I have to say that it's not really what I was expecting, or wanting in general. I'm not against something like this, I just thought it was going to be something different. That being said, if you're into a book of ideas and maybe want some inspiration for dinner parties depending on the seasons, than definitely check this book out for yourself.

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This book is slim on recipes. I took it as an inspirational starting point than a full guide. It would look great on a shelf or coffee table but wouldn't outline how to set your dinner table. If you are someone who glances through books like you scroll through Martha Stewart's instagram, consider this title. If you are looking for clear direction on how to up your 'company's coming over' decorations, look elsewhere.

No recipes??? The photos are gorgeous, but really? This book did not live up to my expectations at all. It is not a useful tool.

It was more photos than anything else, so I honestly didn't get that much out of this book. The photos are pretty though.

This 55-page book is most definitely not a “comprehensive resource” to entertaining and celebrating. The first ten pages consisted of photographs of the author and her family and very personal introductory matter. Perhaps the next 35 pages consisted of actual content, including the dividing pages between seasons. Each of the twelve months of the year had an introductory page that featured a table setting, and a details page which listed the proposed menu and type of service, and contained four photographs of highlights from the menu and four more random photographs of people. The last ten pages of the book was composed of a visual listing of all the Lenox used in the place settings and of notes about the recommended wine pairings. That’s it.

Most disappointing to me was the lack of variety in the menus; they all had the same structure regardless of whether the event was a Labor Day Happy Hour or a Romantic Dinner. Each menu was an amuse bouche, an appetizer, a selection of entrees, and a dessert. Typically the amuse bouche was paired with a cocktail and the other three courses were paired with wines. This was neither imaginative nor feasible for a home cook to pull off. Then again, at some point in the introductory material, the author stated that her book assumes “chef prepared” meals.

One thing that made me slightly angry at this book was the recommendation for service that accompanied each celebration. There were four options: table service, action stations, buffet service, and family style. However, all of these options assumed some involvement by servers - if only to bring serving dishes of food and drinks to the table. This is neither practical nor feasible for the majority of Americans, and flat out discourages elegant entertaining.

With so many entertaining books on the market, I do not believe that this one substantially adds to the body of work available. I much preferred Clarkson Potter’s How to Set a Table, which was slim at 128 pages. Even though that book also contained no recipes, it did give a much wider variety of achievable table settings that ranged from a formal table to breakfast in bed. It listed a wide range of sources (from high end china to Target and Amazon) and encouraged using what was available in your house.

I would encourage the author to withdraw this book so that she can beef it up in order to publish something which expresses her individual approach to entertaining and celebrating. And if her unique approach just happens to be always having servers available for chef prepared four course meals on Lenox china, then I would advise the author to give the reader some insight into how and why she developed that approach, why it works with modern American life, and how to pull it off.

My review has not been posted to Goodreads because this book doesn’t seem to be on Goodreads.

Anyone who loves to entertain is always tempted to purchase another book to find new ideas. That was the intent when requesting a review copy of Entertaining and Celebrating: An Elegant Feast for Every Season book from NetGalley. It is, however, a major disappointment.

Although the photographs are nice, this seems more like a family album. Most of the pictures, while cute, are of the author’s children and family. A bonafide cookbook should contain photos of the recipes and some helpful content. There is a problem here, however – there aren’t any recipes and there is very little content. The book is only 50+ pages, and it seems like more of an outline, since it lists recipes and menus, but doesn’t feature any. Why purchase a cookbook when one must find the suggested recipes elsewhere? One gets the impression that the author, owner of a catering business, isn’t willing to share her recipes. No recipes should be that secret.

All told, $30 in an exorbitant price tag for 58 pages, no matter how many good ideas there are. There are enough entertaining books out there that contain recipes and have some real content that no one with a brain would consider purchasing this book. A real waste of money.

This is an outline of a book rather than a book. While the pictures are pretty there isn't one recipe and the whole book is only 50 pages long. Much too short for a $30 price tag. There are some nice menus and ideas, but some, such as putting dirty pinecones and slivers of branches on a plate, do not work. Too many photos of children who are on tire swings or selling lemonade -- while adorable -- do not feel "elegant" and seems like filler material in a photo album. Not only are there no recipes, and some menu items are hard to conceptualize from the description given, but there are no instructions on how to fold the napkins, arrange place cards, or place stemware. How does someone duplicate these ideas? This author has much promise, but this book needs a lot more material before the average home cook can take advantage of her many wonderful ideas. I encourage her to withdraw this, add more material, and relaunch a winning book.