Crystal King

year in books

Crystal King’s Followers (585)

member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
Lisa
2,118 books | 401 friends

Nada Sobhi
1,038 books | 1,582 friends

Kevin C...
624 books | 480 friends

Leila M...
754 books | 1,972 friends

Katsmew...
6,308 books | 213 friends

Jess O....
2,075 books | 663 friends

mad mags
9,152 books | 307 friends

Lucie K...
838 books | 1,746 friends

More friends…

Crystal King

Goodreads Author


Born
in The United States
Website

Twitter

Genre

Influences

Member Since
May 2007

URL


Crystal King is the bestselling author of THE CHEF'S SECRET, FEAST OF SORROW and the upcoming novel IN THE GARDEN OF MONSTERS (Sep 2024). A culinary enthusiast and social media professional, her writing is fueled by a love of history and a passion for the food, language and culture of Italy. She has taught classes in writing, creativity and social media at Harvard Extension School, Boston University, Mass College of Art, UMass Boston and GrubStreet, one of the leading creative writing centers in the US. A Pushcart-nominated poet and former co-editor of the online literary arts journal Plum Ruby Review, Crystal received her M.A. in Critical and Creative Thinking from UMass Boston, where she developed a series of exercises and writing prompts ...more

To ask Crystal King questions, please sign up.

Popular Answered Questions

Crystal King I have a self-built-in mechanism for escaping reality. Also, there is the sense of agency that the characters sometimes have. There is nothing more wo…moreI have a self-built-in mechanism for escaping reality. Also, there is the sense of agency that the characters sometimes have. There is nothing more wondrous (and sometimes alarming) than the feeling of pulling away from the page and being shocked that your characters decided to do what they did. I love that feeling.(less)
Crystal King My second novel is about a Renaissance chef, Bartolomeo Scappi. He was a famous Italian cook who served several Popes during the height of the Renaiss…moreMy second novel is about a Renaissance chef, Bartolomeo Scappi. He was a famous Italian cook who served several Popes during the height of the Renaissance, approximately 1500-1577. He was one of the most celebrated chefs in all of Italy and he wrote one of the most famous cookbooks of the 16th century, The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi. From him we have some of the earliest pasta recipes, the first known drawing of a fork, and a full description, for the first time, of how the Papal Conclave is served food when sequestered. He also shares some of the first recipes with ingredients from the new world, including turkey! The novel has two love stories including one incredible hidden affair, a mystery, several dramatic deaths and sooooo much food. (less)
Average rating: 3.82 · 3,860 ratings · 908 reviews · 4 distinct worksSimilar authors
Feast of Sorrow

4.08 avg rating — 1,704 ratings — published 2017 — 14 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
The Chef's Secret

3.79 avg rating — 916 ratings — published 2019 — 9 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
In the Garden of Monsters

3.47 avg rating — 961 ratings — published 2024 — 7 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
The Happiness Collector

3.57 avg rating — 279 ratings — published 2025 — 3 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

I Cannot Tell A Lie 🍒🌳🪓

red round fruits on green leaves Photo by Gala Iv on Unsplash

Before I dive into this week’s post, I want to mention a couple things. First, you’ll want to stay tuned till the end of this post for your chance to win a copy of Kate Quinn’s new novel, The Astral Library, which I can’t wait to read. And finally, after many years of online back and forth, met Kate this week in person at a WGBH event, and of course, we totally fail

Read more of this blog post »
1 like ·   •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on February 19, 2026 04:01
The Golden Age of...
Rate this book
Clear rating

 

Crystal’s Recent Updates

Crystal King wrote a new blog post

I Cannot Tell A Lie 🍒🌳🪓



Photo by Gala Iv on UnsplashBefore I dive into this week’s post, I want to mention a couple things. First, you’ll want to stay tuned till the end of Read more of this blog post »
Crystal King rated a book it was amazing
The Library of Fates by Margot Harrison
The Library of Fates
by Margot Harrison (Goodreads Author)
Rate this book
Clear rating
What happens when a book knows your secrets better than you do? Margot Harrison answers that question with a twisting, atmospheric mystery that races from Harvard to Paris and back again. Part mystery, part love story, part love letter to the strange ...more
Crystal King rated a book it was amazing
A Long Game by Elizabeth McCracken
Rate this book
Clear rating
A Long Game is the craft book I wish I'd had twenty years ago. McCracken is funny, fierce, and allergic to pretension, and her advice feels less like instruction and more like a long dinner with the smartest writer you know. ...more
Crystal King rated a book it was amazing
This House Will Feed by Maria Tureaud
This House Will Feed
by Maria Tureaud (Goodreads Author)
Rate this book
Clear rating
Maria Tureaud plunges you into the bone-deep cold of 1848 Ireland and never lets go. This House Will Feed is a Gothic novel with real teeth, where the true horror isn't the spirits lurking in the walls but the history that put them there. Maggie O'Sh ...more
Crystal King rated a book it was amazing
The Gatepost by Tim Weed
The Gatepost
by Tim Weed (Goodreads Author)
Rate this book
Clear rating
Crystal King has read
Alchemised by SenLinYu
Rate this book
Clear rating
Crystal King rated a book it was amazing
Bromeliad House by Jessika Grewe Glover
Bromeliad House
by Jessika Grewe Glover (Goodreads Author)
Rate this book
Clear rating
Crystal King has read
The Gatepost by Tim Weed
The Gatepost
by Tim Weed (Goodreads Author)
Rate this book
Clear rating
Crystal King has read
Bromeliad House by Jessika Grewe Glover
Bromeliad House
by Jessika Grewe Glover (Goodreads Author)
Rate this book
Clear rating
Alchemised by SenLinYu
"This is by far one of the hardest and most conflicting times I've ever had when writing a review to date. No kidding.
I probably wrote, deleted, rewrote, and edited this more times than I could count on, to finally come up with the version you're seei" Read more of this review »
More of Crystal's books…
Quotes by Crystal King  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“While Apicius is full of ancient delicacies such as roasted peacock, boiled sow vulva, testicles, and other foods we would not commonly eat today, there are many others that are still popular, including tapenade, absinthe, flatbreads, and meatballs. There is even a recipe for Roman milk and egg bread that is identical to what we call French toast. And, contrary to popular belief, foie gras was not originally a French delicacy. The dish dates back twenty-five hundred years, and Pliny credits Apicius with developing a version using pigs instead of geese by feeding hogs dried figs and giving them an overdose of mulsum (honey wine) before slaughtering them.”
Crystal King, Feast of Sorrow

“He let his fingers tease her until she uttered soft cries. Stella spread her legs further and wider as his hand explored, touched, and pleasured every part of her womanhood.
She untied her outer bodice and lifted her breasts so they spilled from her corset. Her hands rubbed and played with her nipples. She knew what excited Bartolomeo. He continued to pleasure her while she touched herself, and he stroked his erection until he was near to bursting. Finally, he pulled her forward and slid into her, and her exclamation was louder than either of them expected. She clamped a hand over her mouth, wide-eyed.
He did not release her. Instead, he slowed his motion, and once he felt sure no one could have heard them, he began to rock against her, deeper and harder. The bed began to creak, but he was lost in the depths of his desire.
When she reached her climax, her cries more urgent and sustained, he lost control and spilled into her, his hips bucking a few more times. His legs threatened to give way with pleasure and exhaustion.”
Crystal King, The Chef's Secret

Today I saw the most beautiful girl in the world...

She is the most beautiful girl in the world, Bartolomeo Scappi thought. Never have I seen a woman so perfect, so angelic, so impossible for me to attain.
"Bella," he breathed when air filled his lungs once again.
Even Ippolito d'Este's presence at the dining table could not mar his giddiness. The girl was so beautiful she glowed like a painting of the Madonna, making everyone around her seem colorless in comparison. She was clearly a principessa of a grand house, sitting between Ippolito's father, the Duke of Ferrara, on one side, and a woman most likely to be her mother on the right.
Bartolomeo sought to memorize every feature of this goddess with golden hair that shone with glints of red in the last rays of the day's sunlight. Her eyes were dark chestnut, rich and deep, while her lips were pink, like the inside of a seashell. Her hair was braided, but much of it flowed loose over shoulders, teasing her pale skin. She wore a dress of red, with sleeves billowing white. Rubies and pearls spilled across her delicate collarbone toward her beautiful breasts. Scappi painted her picture in his mind and stored it deep within the frame of his heart.
That evening, while staring at the sky, his thoughts lost in the memory of the signorina, a shooting star passed across his vision. "Stella," he said under his breath. I will call her Stella. My shining star.
Crystal King, The Chef's Secret

Topics Mentioning This Author

“It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.”
Andy Warhol

“I don't know much about being a millionaire, but I'll bet I'd be darling at it.”
Dorothy Parker

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan

“A word after a word after a word is power.”
Margaret Atwood

“Our lips just trespassed on those inner labyrinths hidden deep within our ears, filled them with the private music of wicked words, hers in many languages, mine in the off color of my own tongue, until as our tones shifted, and our consonants spun and squealed, rattled faster, hesitated, raced harder, syllables soon melting with groans, or moans finding purchase in new words, or old words, or made-up words, until we gathered up our heat and refused to release it, enjoying too much the dark language we had suddenly stumbled upon, craved to, carved to, not a communication really but a channeling of our rumored desires, hers for all I know gone to Black Forests and wolves, mine banging back to a familiar form, that great revenant mystery I still could only hear the shape of, which in spite of our separate lusts and individual cries still continued to drive us deeper into stranger tones, our mutual desire to keep gripping the burn fueled by sound, hers screeching, mine – I didn’t hear mine – only hears, probably counter-pointing mine, a high-pitched cry, then a whisper dropping unexpectedly to practically a bark, a grunt, whatever, no sense any more, and suddenly no more curves either, just the straight away, some line crossed, where every fractured sound already spoken finally compacts into one long agonizing word, easily exceeding a hundred letters, even thunder, anticipating the inevitable letting go, when the heat is ultimately too much to bear, threatening to burn, scar, tear it all apart, yet tempting enough to hold onto for even one second more, to extend it all, if we can, as if by getting that much closer to the heat, that much more enveloped, would prove … - which when we did clutch, hold, postpone, did in fact prove too much after all, seconds too much, and impossible to refuse, so blowing all of everything apart, shivers and shakes and deep in her throat a thousand letters crashing in a long unmodulated fall, resonating deep within my cochlea and down the cochlear nerve, a last fit of fury describing in lasting detail the shape of things already come.
Too bad dark languages rarely survive.”
Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves

54239 Ancient & Medieval Historical Fiction — 6149 members — last activity Feb 18, 2026 06:47AM
The focus of this group is historical fiction set in Ancient and Medieval eras(with some post Medieval), in any geographical location. Preference is g ...more
220 Goodreads Librarians Group — 313472 members — last activity 4 minutes ago
Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra ...more
152441 Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge — 26884 members — last activity Feb 20, 2026 03:53PM
An annual reading challenge to to help you stretch your reading limits and explore new voices, worlds, and genres! The challenge begins in January, bu ...more
53412 Historical Info for Historical Fiction Readers — 1563 members — last activity Aug 11, 2022 01:41AM
Information about eras past in different parts of the world. Help for readers who may feel lost in an unfamiliar historical setting, may not understan ...more
22454 Historical Fictionistas — 16019 members — last activity 2 hours, 46 min ago
Welcome to Historical Fictionistas! We want to experience all different kinds of HF with all different kinds of people. The more diverse, the better. ...more
31471 THE Group for Authors! — 12986 members — last activity Feb 12, 2026 10:59PM
This is a group for authors to discuss their craft, as well as publishing and book marketing.
26989 Goodreads Authors/Readers — 56088 members — last activity 5 hours, 44 min ago
This group is dedicated to connecting readers with Goodreads authors. It is divided by genres, and includes folders for writing resources, book websit ...more
25x33 Rogue Book Coven — 71 members — last activity Feb 15, 2019 04:52PM
To find each others' Goodreads accounts, track books we're reading, and participate in readalongs. ...more
More of Crystal’s groups…
Comments (showing 1-1)    post a comment »
dateDown arrow    newest »

Carol Cork *Young at Heart Oldie* Thank you for the friend invite and for following my reviews, Crystal.


back to top