The Secret Recipe of Ella Dove by Karen Hawkins

The Secret Recipe of Ella Dove by Karen Hawkins

Published by Gallery Books ISBN 9781668018309

Hardcover, $28.99, 368 pages

Coming from a small city, I enjoy a good book in a small town setting, and if you throw in a food theme along with recipes at the end, I am definitely in. Karen Hawkins' enjoyable The Secret Recipe of Ella Dove has all that and more.

Ella Dove has become famous on social media for her wonderful baked goods. She sold her company and after a stint in Paris and New York, she returns to her hometown of Dove Pond (named after her ancestors) for what she hopes is a brief visit with her sisters. She can't stay there, she will become bored.

She also hopes to confront a longtime family friend to get to the bottom of a controversy. Ella was accused of stealing The Book of Cakes, a family heirloom belonging to the Stewart family that contained recipes going back to 1792. Worse, she was accused of using those recipes to create her popular recipes.

The Stewart family have owned a popular local restaurant for many years, now run by Jules and her son Mark. Her other son Gray has had an unrequited love for Ella who broke his heart twice many years ago. Jules not only has to deal with seeing the woman she believes stole her family's heirloom book, she now has to see Ella and Gray growing closer again, knowing it will end badly.

Jules' mother Angela has also returned to Dove Pond following the death of her second husband. Angela is determined to repair her relationship with Jules, which fractured after she divorced Jules' father, even if she has to resort to some deceit to do so.

The characters in this novel are wonderful. Angela is delightful, using everything in her power to get what she wants. She convinces her grandson Gray to help her hide the truth from Jules, and their playful grandmother-grandson banter and relationship is adorable. Angela manages to get Ella to do her bidding as well.

Jules is a helicopter mom, and I think many of us know someone like her. She is fiercely loyal to her family. I found it an interesting character development that Gray has an anxiety disorder, and it's dealt with compassion. 

I also found the social media angle intriguing, as it has become ubiqitous in today's world. We get a peek behind the curtain there. There is a bit of a magical element here too, as Ella's baked goods cause people to remember specific good times in their lives when they eat them. I'll have to make some of the recipes in the book to see what happens.

After reading the third book in the series, I am going to read the first two books- The Book Charmer,  about Ella's sister Sarah, a librarian who can give the perfect book to someone in need (isn't that every librarian's special power?), and A Cup of Silver Linings, about Ava Dove's tea shop and her magic tea leaves. I can't wait to return to Dove Pond. 

Thanks to Simon & Schuster for providing me with a book in exchange for an honest review.

Friday 5ive- February 4, 2022

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post featuring five things that caught my attention this week.

1)  I finally had an opportunity to visit the new Trader Joe's in my neighborhood. I read that the best time to go there was Wednesday morning, so off I went. It is a beautiful store, and so spacious. The other Trader's Joes in NYC have very crowded aisles, it's hard to shop. It was easy to move around and shop, and there was literally no line at the cash registers. Luke, the cashier, praised my choice of Sour Cream Donuts and after tasting one, I have to agree with him. I also enjoy their greeting card section- only 99 cents each and the cards are so pretty.

Photo from patch.com

2)  I walked by this window on my way home from running errands, and I was happy to see that the Book of the Month person was back. I haven't seen the display in the apartment window in awhile, so I am glad that the fellow reader is back. You are not alone my friend.

3) The snowstorm that hit NYC last Saturday meant that the public library was closed, and so was the Book Cellar where I volunteer. I was able to hop on a Virtual Book Club for Reese's Book Club with Alka Joshi (The Henna Artist, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur) in discussion with Thrity Umrigar about her novel Honor. I read Honor recently and it is such a stunning, moving book about Smita, an Indian journalist who leaves her home in the US to return to India and cover the story of Meena, a young Hindu woman who married a Muslim man. Meena's brothers murdered her husband and severely burned and disfugured Meena in what they called an "honor killing". The discussion was one of the most fascinating ones I have listened to, I learned so much about life in India from these two brilliant writers. I highly recommend reading Honor, it is a difficult subject but a very important one. 

4) We watched the movie House of Gucci this week. Lady Gaga does an amazing job portraying Patrizia, an Italian working class woman who falls in love with wealthy Maurizio Gucci, played by Adam Driver. Patrizia pushes Maurizio to become more involved in his family business, and she shows a real aptitude for the fashion industry. She loves the good life, and her husband, but when he wants a divorce, Patrizia spirals downward and hires hit men to kill him. The movie is a bit of a slow start, but once it picked up the pace and they became involved in the family business it gets more interesting. Word is that Lady Gaga and an unrecognizable Jared Leto may be up for Oscars for their performance. The movie is available for purchase On Demand through your cable system or Apple TV, Google Play, or Amazon Prime Video. 

5) I read two terrific books this week. The first is Will Leitch's mystery How Lucky. Daniel is a 26 year-old man who has SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy), a debilitating disease that leaves him unable to speak or move (other than his left hand) and using a wheelchair. He works monitoring a Twitter account for customer service for a small regional airline, and lives on his own in the college town of Athens, Georgia. His childhood best friend Travis and an immigrant home health aide Marjani help care for him. One day Daniel witnesses a young Chinese student get into a man's car and she disappears. Daniel has to figure out how to get help for the young woman. This book has it all- great characters, a fast-paced story, an interesting setting, a mystery to be solved, and How Lucky is nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Novel. I highly recommend it. 

The second book is also a mystery- Katherine Faulkner's debut novel Greenwich Park. Helen is pregnant and meets Rachel, an intense young woman, in her childbirthing class. Rachel keeps turning up wherever Helen is, insinuating herself in Helen's life. We're left to wonder what Rachel is up to when she moves into Helen's home, and things go missing, like Helen's husband's laptop. There are a lot of characters to keep track of in this gripping story- Helen and her husband, Helen's brother Rory and pregnant sister-in-law Selena, her brother Charlie and Helen's best friend Katie, but Faulkner weaves it all together in an expert manner that will keep the reader guessing just what Rachel's secret is. It has a definite Girl on the Train vibe, and I recommend it. 

Stay safe and warm everyone.

This post was shared with The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader's Weekend Cooking blog posts.

Two under-the radar books

Reprinted from the Citizen:

If you liked watching TV’s Parks and Recreation for the description of small-town government, Nina Bocci’s latest novel, On The Corner of Love and Hate is perfect for you.  

Emma Peroni works in the economic development office of her small town in Pennsylvania. Emma’s dad is the popular mayor of the town, and now ready to leave politics and enjoy retirement. He would like to see Emma’s coworker, handsome, charismatic Cooper, run for mayor, and he asks Emma to help Cooper win the election, just as she had done for her ol’ dad.

The problem is that Emma is not a fan of Cooper’s. They have known each other since high school, and Emma feels that Cooper tries to skate by on his charm. She has been picking up his slack at work while Cooper has been courting the voters, and she has no desire to help Cooper even more.

Being from a small community also means the dating pool is smaller than in a big city, and Emma’s love life is less successful than her work life. Her mother would like her to date someone nice (like Cooper), and Emma’s recent dates haven’t exactly been winners, but Cooper is catnip to all women and that does not appeal to Emma. But when Cooper appears to be involved in a scandal, Emma has to come to the rescue.

On The Corner of Love and Hate is a delightful, sweet story, with characters who seem like people from your own small town.

Now that school is back in session, Laurie Gelman’s You’ve Been Volunteered (her sequel to Class Mom) is a timely September read. Jen Dixon has three children, two adult daughters and an elementary-aged son. Her best friend has moved away, and her husband is preoccupied with trying to expand his sporting goods store business.

Once again Jen has been asked to be room mother for her third-grade son’s class, and since she was so successful at that, she has also been asked to head up the volunteer program for safety monitors. As we all know, the better you are at a job, the more jobs you are given. Unfortunately this job is not as easy as class mom.

And once again, readers are treated to Jenn’s hilarious emails to parents about classroom activities, parent/teacher nights and what not to bring to the Halloween party. We delve more into Jen’s life, and I especially liked Jen’s interactions with her aging parents and her loving, supportive husband.

If you enjoy American Housewife on TV, You’ve Been Volunteered is a book for you.

BOOK: On the Corner of Love and Hate by Nina Bocci

GRADE: B+

PUBLISHER: Gallery Books

COST: Trade paperback, $16

LENGTH: 336 pages

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BOOK: You’ve Been Volunteered by Laurie Gelman

GRADE: B+

PUBLISHER: Henry Holt & Co.

COST: Hardcover, $26

LENGTH: 268 pages

In A Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

In A Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
Published by Gallery/Scout Press ISBN 9781501115523
Hardcover, $26, 320 pages

People looking for a read similar to The Girl On The Train have a new mystery to savor. Ruth Ware's In A Dark, Dark Wood is a worthy successor, also featuring an unreliable narrator.

The story opens with Nora waking up with a head injury in a hospital bed. She wonders what has happened and what she has done. And why is her room being guarded by a police officer? Is it to protect her or keep her from leaving?

Earlier, Nora received an invitation to a hen (bachelorette) party for someone she hasn't seen since high school. Since she didn't get an invitation to the wedding she finds this strange, but when her friend Nina calls and begs to go with her to the party, she reluctantly agrees.

The party takes place in a secluded house in the woods, and we meet the people at the party- Nora (a writer), Nina (a doctor), Melanie (a lawyer and new mom), Tom (a playwright), Flo (the party hostess and best friend of the bride) and Clare (the bride).

We slowly find out that Clare and Nora used to be best friends until something drastic happened to end that. And now Clare is engaged to Nora's ex-boyfriend. Why would Clare invite Nora to her hen party?

In A Dark, Dark Wood has a setup reminiscent to an Agatha Christie novel: a small group of people trapped in a place, when strange things begin to happen. There is too much drinking, some drug use, a ouija board, a shotgun on the wall, and then the truth telling begins and people begin to turn on each other. (There's even a Ten Little Indians shout-out in the story.)

When it appears that someone out there is trying to break into the house, the shotgun comes into play. And Nora ends up in the hospital with ahead injury with only flashes of a shooting and a car accident.

Like The Girl On The Train, the reader is led to believe that our narrator may be responsible for a death. Nora's head injury, like Rachel's alcohol-induced blackouts, causes her to wonder what she may have done. Ware does a terrific job creating an atmosphere of panic and confusion, and even though the reader feels confident she has cracked the mystery, she begins to doubt herself just as Nora does.

In A Dark, Dark Wood is a page-turner, the kind of book you can curl up with on a rainy day and read all the way through. And if someone you know from high school invites you to a weekend at a secluded house in the woods, you will know enough to decline. I recommend this book for those who liked The Girl On The Train and Agatha Christie mysteries. It was an Editor's Buzz book at BEA this year, and a well-deserved choice.

Three Books By Funny People

I recently read three books by funny people: Comedian and actor Brad Garrett's (Robert from TV's Everybody Loves Raymond) When The Balls Drop, Adam Resnick's (a former writer for David Letterman's The Late Show) Will Not Attend, and comedienne and actress Ali Wentworth's Happily Ali After.

When the Balls Drop by Brad Garrett
Published by Gallery Books ISBN 9781476772905
Hardcover, $25, 288 pages

Brad Garrett's When The Balls Drop is a comic treatise on what it's like to be a 50-year-old man whose body is falling apart. It is clearly geared towards men of that age, and as a woman of that age, I am not the target audience. Garrett spends too much time complaining about his ex-wives and how much money he had to give them. For my taste, it was a little off-putting.

I most enjoyed his stories about growing up with funny with his interesting family, and opening up for Frank Sinatra in Las Vegas. Garrett has had a long stand-up comedy career, and those chapters were fascinating to me. I think he has a whole other book about this area of his life.

He spent nine seasons as Robert, the much put-upon older brother in Everybody Loves Raymond, but he doesn't share many stories from those days, other than Marie Roberts, who played his mother, could drink everyone under the table, and Peter Boyle, who played his father, had a gas problem. Again, I would have liked more of this. The book has many bursts of just laugh-out-loud stuff, just like his I can't-believe-he-really-said-that stand-up act.

Will Not Attend by Adam Resnick
Published by Blue Rider Press ISBN 9780147516213
Trade paperback, $16, 272 pages

The premise of Adam Resnick's Will Not Attend is that he is very anti-social and would much rather stay home than participate in any family dinner, much less go to Disney World with his nemesis, his wife's sister Diane, and her family.

Resnick's sister-in-law is one of those people who like to control everything, and Adam does not like to be told what to do and when to do it. Their epic blow-up in the middle of a Disney vacation where every slight was brought up was uncomfortable (though, I admit, kind of funny to see someone put in her place) to read, I can't imagine seeing it in person. After reading this, I was hoping that Diane was a purely made-up character because how he could have any relationship with her after this is unfathomable.

The language in the book is pretty rough at times, there is a lot of swearing here, so if you don't mind that, you may enjoy it. Again, I don't think I am the target audience for this book.


Happily Ali After by Ali Wentworth
Published by HarperCollins ISBN 9780062238498
Hardcover, $25.99, 240 pages

I read Ali Wentworth's first memoir Ali in Wonderland that hilariously dealt with her years trying to make it as an actress in Hollywood. Her very funny voice shone through each page. In her new book, Happily Ali After, Wentworth shares her adventures as a wife (to ABC newsman George Stephanopoulis) and mom to two young daughters.

I loved this Happily Ever After even more than Ali in Wonderland, probably because I can relate more to Ali the wife and mom than Ali the struggling actress. She tells great stories about trying to stay young-looking, her husband's poor driving, and her daughter's sex-education questions.

One of the stories that I most loved involved a trip the family had planned to Spain. Ali was in charge of making all the preparations, and when they got to the airport to take a late-night flight, they were told that the girls' passports had expired and they were going nowhere that night.

George was furious at Ali, and the girls went back and forth from one parent to the other asking if they were going to get a divorce. The car ride home was uncomfortable, and when they got home, Ali told George how so very sorry she was. As they lay in bed, he kissed her and told her he knew she she was sorry and that it was OK. Every couple has had that potentially huge fight, and could relate to this big oopsy that Ali committed.

Ali's story of a girl's weekend at a friend's California home with a psychic as entertainment was hilarious too. We all have our girlfriends, and her description of that party had me guffawing.

Reading Happily Ali After is like sitting in your funniest girlfriend's kitchen and listening to her crazy stories about her husband, her family, her job, her life. If I ever see her on the streets of NYC,  I will invite her over for a glass of wine just to hear her stories.

Inside the O'Briens by Lisa Genova

Inside the O'Briens by Lisa Genova
Published by Gallery Books ISBN 9781476717777
Hardcover, $26, 352 pages

Reprinted from auburnpub.com

Author Lisa Genova’s debut novel, “Still Alice” described the devastating effects of early onset Alzheimer’s Disease on the lives of a Harvard professor and her family. It is an emotional, heartbreaking book, and the movie version recently won an Oscar for Best Actress for Julienne Moore for her brilliant performance.

Genova followed up her success with two other novels- “Left Neglected” about a stressed mom who suffers a traumatic brain injury, and “Love Anthony” about a young boy with autism. Genova excels at putting the reader square in the shoes of people who have to live with a tragic health  issue, getting us to feel their pain and be amazed at their strength and resolve.

Her latest novel, “Inside the O’Briens”, tackles a deadly disease that many people have never heard of- Huntington’s Disease. Huntington’s is a neurodegenerative disease that causes a person to lose control of movements, speech, and eventually the ability to eat. There is no cure or treatment for it.

One of the most devastating aspects of Huntington’s is that the children of a person with Huntington’s each have a 50% chance of contracting the disease as well. That means that entire families have been destroyed by Huntington’s, and the decision about finding out whether one has the Huntington’s gene is uppermost in the mind of anyone with the disease in their family.

Genova introduces us to the Irish Catholic O’Brien family. Patriarch Joe is a 44 year-old proud Boston city cop. He and his wife Rosie own a large three story home and have four adult children- son JJ and his wife Colleen live on the second floor, daughters Katie and Meghan share the third floor apartment, and son Patrick lives with Joe and Rosie on the first floor.

JJ is a fireman, Meghan is studying to be a professional ballerina, Katie is a yoga instructor and Patrick is a troubled bartender who drinks too much. They are a close family, some would say a little too close and too involved in each other’s lives.

Joe lost his mother as a young child, he was told she died due to alcoholism. The truth was that she had Huntington’s Disease, and when he starts to exhibit symptoms that he can no longer ignore, he sees a neurologist who gives him the bad news. 

Joe and Rosie are stunned by the diagnosis, and when they find that their children each have a 50% chance of having the Huntington’s gene, it is almost too much for them to bear. Joe feels guilty for bringing this on his family, and Rosie is afraid she will have to watch her entire family die a horrible, painful death. She even begins to question her strong religious beliefs.

Genova drops us into the O’Brien’s lives, and we watch as each of the children must struggle with the decision to get tested for the gene. If they have the gene, they will eventually get Huntington’s, typically within ten years, and they will die from it. 

You can’t help wondering as you read this, what would I do? Do I live my life not knowing, just going on as usual? Or, do I get the test and go from there? If I’m married, do I have children, knowing that if I do have it, they could get it too? 

Telling this story through the O’Brien family, and that proud, strong Joe is the one who will die from it, is a powerful choice. Joe has always been the strong family leader, and now he will need someone to care for him. Watching him come to terms with his new life is emotional.

The story is told from Joe and daughter Katie’s points of view, and we watch as young Katie must struggle with a decision to get tested or not. She has a new relationship with a great guy, and she must decide whether to pursue it and go for happiness or live with doubt.

We watch Joe work to stay as healthy as he can, becoming increasingly frustrated with his new limitations and his role in the family. This is a loving, close family, and many readers will understand the family dynamics here, especially the sibling relationships.

“Inside the O’Briens” is, like “Still Alice”, an emotional ride of a book, and just like real life, there aren’t always clearcut answers.

rating A

Three Graves Full by Jamie Mason

Three Graves Full by Jamie Mason
Published by Gallery Books ISBN 9781451685039
Hardcover, $24.99, 320 pages

Jamie Mason's debut novel, Three Graves Full, has a doozy of an  opening line:

"There is very little peace for a man with a body buried in the backyard."

How can one resist reading onward? Jason Getty killed a man and buried his body in the backyard. But that is not the immediate problem. The landscaping crew that Getty hired to put plants in his front yard found a dead body, and it's not the one that Getty buried.

The police arrive and they find a second body buried in the front yard; again, not the one that Getty buried. Getty starts to panic, and like a cross between an Edgar Allen Poe story and a Cohen brothers movie, this novel turns the screws tighter.

The detectives find a bloody purse inside one of the walls, belonging to the woman who used to live in Getty's house: she is one of the dead bodies. The other body belonged to a guy who had been missing for a few years. Using a luminol light, they show Getty where the crime took place in the master bedroom. But there is also blood in the living room, where Getty killed a man who tormented and bullied him.

Getty is a quiet, lonely guy since his wife died. He's never been in trouble, never been violent. He meets a man who starts showing up unannounced at Getty's home, barging his way into Getty's life. This guy is bad news, a punk thief who eventually steals not only from Getty, but keeps evidence framing Getty for a robbery at his former father-in-law's mansion.

Getty panics, believing he needs to move his dead body before the police find that one too. More people get involved in the story: the two detectives, the dead man in the front yard's fiancee, the man who killed the two people in the front yard and pretty soon you are racing through the pages to see just how this thing ends.

Mason writes beautifully, as in this sentence about Getty staying close to home after his wife died.

"Ultimately, it would have been better for Jason to have undone, rather than simply lengthen, the apron strings to his original hometown."

There is a lot of action here- chase scenes, fight scenes- and all of it had me biting my nails to the quick. Only one thing struck a false note. There is a terrific fight scene at Getty's house, where there are chairs overturned, and a door is smashed in, but when a detective goes to the home, he fails to see the broken door or the trashed living room. An experienced cop would have seen the broken door before he went in. Maybe I'm being too picky.

Three Graves Full takes an average guy who makes a bad decision and has to extricate his way out, all the while digging himself a bigger hole. Mason kept my attention as I wondered what would happen to Getty, and her ending was a satisfying one indeed. She is an exciting new voice in suspense novels.

rating 4 of 5

Jamie Mason's website is here.