by Judith Fertig ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2015
Contrasting flavors struggle for dominance in Fertig’s debut novel.
A pastry chef with an uncanny ability returns to her hometown to make sense of her future while delving into the past.
With her marriage on the rocks, Claire “Neely” O’Neil leaves New York City behind to open up her dream bakery in Millcreek Valley, Ohio. Though she's unsure of the fate of her relationship, her bakery, Rainbow Cake, is a success in the town’s thriving bridal district. Neely is able to “read” people by connecting feelings to flavors, which helps her pair the perfect cake and frosting with any customer. This allows her to construct a unique flavor profile to help someone cope with the complexities of his or her life: “Every flavor, I knew, was a shortcut to a feeling. Sorrow. Joy. Anticipation. Fear.” In many cases, this skill proves helpful, though Neely is overwhelmed by a ubiquitous sour flavor that she doesn’t quite understand. The narrative alternates between Neely’s first-person accounts in the present and a complicated secondary story told in the third person that begins in 1908 and interrupts what had been a steady pace. The dueling storyline starts with a unique piece of jewelry and then delves into the young lives of Olive and Edie Habig in the 1930s. As with some of Neely’s more adventurous flavor combinations, it requires the reader to take a leap of faith that the two tales will eventually converge. Though the path toward clarity is long and winding, it does get there in the end. Neely’s “gift,” and her insistence on following through with every sense that she experiences, complicates what might have been a charming novel. The prose is at its best when it focuses on the smells and tastes of the bakery—the decadent buttercream, the elegant cakes, and the whirr of the espresso machine constantly in motion.
Contrasting flavors struggle for dominance in Fertig’s debut novel.Pub Date: June 2, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-425-27732-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: April 1, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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