Story Description:
Hyperion|July ,
2013|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-1-4013-1083-7
From New York
Times bestselling author Sandra Lee comes her debut novel, a heartwarming story
about food, family, and forgiveness.
Grace Holm-D’Angelo
is at her wit’s end, trying to create a new life from broken pieces. Newly divorced, she is navigating suddenly
becoming a single mother to her fourteen-year-old daughter. Emma, resentful about being uprooted from
Chicago to LA and still reeling from the divorce, is generally giving her mother
a hard time.
Then Grace’s best
friend, Leeza succumbs to breast cancer after a long battle, and Grace realizes
that you don’t get a second chance at life.
She returns to her hometown of New London, Wisconsin, to try to reconcile
with her own mother, Lorraine, with whom she’s been estranged for longer than
she cares to remember.
Over the course of
the summer, Grace rediscovers the healing powers of cooking, coming to terms
with your past, and friendship, and learns you can go home again, and sometimes
that’s exactly where you belong.
The Recipe Box celebrates mothers,
daughters, and friendships, and also features Sandra’s delicious original
recipes.
My Review:
Grace Holm-D’Angelo
is divorced and getting used to being a single Mom to her fourteen-year-old
daughter, Emma. Grace and Emma live in
Los Angeles although Grace originally hails from New London, Wisconsin. Grace worked on a television show called “The
Lost Ones.”
Poor Grace was
absolutely exhausted. Since last fall
she had been running through airports flying from Los Angeles to Wisconsin and
back. Her very best friend since high
school, Leeza, was fighting aggressive, stage three breast cancer. Together the two women were scrabbling their
way through tests, radiation, surgery, chemo, and more surgery including a
grueling bone marrow transplant.
It was hard for
Grace to watch her friend go through this but, Leeza had a supportive husband
in Jonathan and a beautiful two-year-old little girl named, Sara.
Grace and her
mother, Lorraine have been estranged for about sixteen years now. When Grace went back to Wisconsin she didn’t
stay with her mother but with Leeza and Jonathan for she considered them her
family now.
Grace was finding
it increasingly difficult to maintain some sense of sanity. She had part of her in Los Angeles where she
is trying to make a new life, and the other part back in Wisconsin for, Leeza. She didn’t know if she was coming or going
and most days didn’t think she was doing anything very well. If she was with Emma, she felt she should be
with, Leeza. If she was with, Leeza she
felt she should be with Emma. If she was
with either of them, she felt she was letting the people at work down.
After Leeza passes
away, things begin to change for Grace.
Old friends from her past begin to materialize and set about a whole new
change of thought patterns for Grace.
Then she discovers a secret inside the “recipe box” that shocks her to
her core but in the end, it comes to have more meaning than she ever
dreamed.
Leeza’s death
reminded everyone how short and fragile life was. Now her friend, Ken was gone, Leeza was gone,
Brian her ex was gone, and she’d pushed her new beau, Mike away. Aside from Emma, Grace was more alone than
she’d ever been in her life. But did it
really matter? Were work and Emma
enough? What will Grace do now? What about her estranged relationship with
Lorraine?
The Recipe Box celebrates the joys and
boundaries of storytelling. This was a
deeply satisfying read – elegant, funny, forgiving, and insightful. A pure joy to read.
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