I have issues with the cover of this book. The cover makes it look like the godforsaken lovechild of Martha Stewart and the Shopaholic franchise. If I hadn’t read a terrific review here on Goodreads, I would never have picked it up, and that would have been my loss. Bessette is a gifted writer. This is a gorgeous story about grief, friendship, and pirate talk. It’s funny but not a comedy. It’s heartbreaking but not a tragedy. It’s sweet without becoming saccharine, meanders without becoming aimless, and above all it feels genuine. I really wanted to like this more than I did - the plot sounded good and it had such potential. But it fell flat and was more like 2 1/2 stars. They need half stars in this system! Anyway, Zell is coping with the loss of her husband so she decides to enter a baking contest in hopes of winning $20,000 she can donate to the New Orleans/Katrina where her husband died while away on assignment. Her young motherless neighbor, Ingrid, becomes part of her baking contest plan and the therapy of baking and more things in the book assist in the healing of both. Some books work with the narratives going back and forth about each character but this would have been better just written as the story it was rather than one chapter about Zell, then about Garrett, etc. There were letters from Nick (her late husband) thrown in now and then and well, it was a jumbled mess to me.
Do You like book A Pinch Of Love: A Novel (2011)?
From the description, it reminds me of "Lost Recipe for Happiness." I hope so.
—John
3.5 stars......all I could think about at the end was "what about the dog!?!"
—hjc304
Good book. Cute. And I have to try making the recipe!
—Linrose
