'Love has always been a dangerous thing... why ever would we think of it otherwise?' It is sixteen years since Chris Skinner became an accidental father and he is now a married man pondering retirement from the restaurant that he has run in partnership with his brother Peter for most of his adulthood. His story has moved on to embrace the intriguing wider context of the people who came into his life in Loving Amelie, including his mother-in-law Adrienne who is the emotional linchpin of the patriarchal Benoit family; his wife Amelie, who remains a mixed blessing; and his bewitching daughter, who is on the threshold of womanhood with challenges of her own. It paints a picture of love in all its colors from the warmth of romance and family unity to the more desolate shades of obsession and denial, and of people whose passions are heated by good food and artistic endeavor. Born Slowly culminates with Amelie Skinner as a young woman on the brink of adventure with the boy she loves, against the odds, leaving her parents to adjust to their destiny without her. Her grandmother Adrienne draws a line under her family's saga by paying her due respects to its imperfect past and turning her face to its future. It is another feast for the imagination: a gripping tale of love and longing steeped in obligation which charts the progress and pain of a family history. Born Slowly is a revelation of enigmatic characters and can be enjoyed as the sequel to Loving Amelie or as a work of fiction in its own right.