A fiction debut that will leave you wanting seconds, from an award-winning cookbook author.
Claire “Neely” O’Neil is a pastry chef of extraordinary talent. Every great chef can taste shimmering, elusive flavors that most of us miss, but Neely can “taste” feelings—cinnamon makes you remember; plum is pleased with itself; orange is a wake-up call. When flavor and feeling give Neely a glimpse of someone’s inner self, she can customize her creations to help that person celebrate love, overcome fear, even mourn a devastating loss.
Maybe that’s why she feels the need to go home to Millcreek Valley at a time when her life seems about to fall apart. The bakery she opens in her hometown is perfect, intimate, just what she’s always dreamed of—and yet, as she meets her new customers, Neely has a sense of secrets, some dark, some perhaps with tempting possibilities. A recurring flavor of alarming intensity signals to her perfect palate a long-ago story that must be told.
Neely has always been able to help everyone else. Getting to the end of this story may be just what she needs to help herself.
Initial thoughts: I liked the descriptions of the food and enjoyed the glimpse into the main character and her work to establish the bakery she runs. Other than that, I didn't the book particularly memorable. The narration felt like comforting noise to accompany me while taking care of chores. The plot jumped between the present and flashbacks to the past but while things in the present sort of held my interests, everything from the past from the 1930s to 50s came across as somewhat bland. The prose did little to excite me and the details of the story lacked dramatic tension.
