The Book of Reservations

Between the living and the lost, one woman delivers the truth.

Josie Gray has always believed Miss Sylvie's Bistrot could be a sanctuary for the living... and the dead, with whom she can communicate. As the restaurant struggles to survive in Greenwich Village, the challenges of running a kitchen collide with the demands of her gift, and Josie finds herself stretched thinner than ever.

Her partner, Derek, is becoming distant, unable to reconcile Josie's insistence on setting the ghost table each night with the practical realities of their business. The tension between them grows, threatening the dream they once shared. Meanwhile, the staff begins to unravel, caught in the schemes of a manipulative new manager and a mysterious sous chef, and the spirits Josie communicates with grow increasingly restless.

Pulled into the unfinished stories of the living and the dead, Josie is tasked with delivering long-buried truths and messages that could alter lives. Each encounter forces her to confront what she owes to others and to herself, and to question whether she can remain anchored in a world that rarely believes in the things she sees.

In the second installment of The Ghost Table trilogy, Josie discovers that every haunting begins with a longing to be heard. Amid the clatter of the kitchen and the whispers of the departed, she must learn how to nourish not just the living, but her own restless heart.

Laura Buchwald is a New York City native who travels when she can, finding creative inspiration at home and away. Her first novel, The Coat Check Girl, was published in October 2024. She lives in Manhattan with her husband and dog, both of whom are very supportive of her work.