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The Blurb
This was a charming story which I really enjoyed.
Daisy McCrae’s life got off to a rocky start. Abandoned by a mother she never really knew, she was adopted into a family she’s never truly felt a part of. Thirty years later, her life is just as rocky. Between losing her job and her boyfriend, she’s lost all sense of self.
Now Daisy is back where it all began: the Union Street Bakery. She’s resigned to living in the bakery’s attic, learning the family business, and saving it if she can. But patching up the holes in her relationship with her sisters is another story.
So, too, is the century-old journal she inherits. Written by an enslaved girl named Susie, the weathered pages offer Daisy a glimpse into a past that has everything to do with her present.
As Daisy learns more about Susie, the town, and her family, she starts to see who she’s been and who she wants to be―and realizes that maybe, no matter how much you’ve lost, there’s always something more to find.
From the bestselling author of The Brighter the Light comes a bittersweet and hopeful story about how one woman’s journey into her family’s past helps her embrace her future.This is the first in the Union Street Bakery and I'm already looking forward to reading the next one, Sweet Expectations, which I already have downloaded to my kindle.
My Review
The book centres around three sisters, Rachel, Margaret and Daisy McCrae with the latter of the three being the main character. Daisy is a successful and determined woman but when she loses her high powered job in finance, and separates from her fiance, she moves back home to her family in Virginia. There she finds the family bakery business close to financial ruin and she steps in to help save it.
Daisy is also the only one of the sisters to be adopted and has always struggled with feeling like 'a real McCrae' and finding her place in the family. When Daisy inherits a 19th century journal from an elderly customer she couldn't be more surprised. At first appearance, the journal seems to have been written by a literate slave girl called Susie.
Susie is someone that Daisy has known all her life. Her ghostly form has appeared to her since her childhood and now she is back at the bakery, Daisy still hears her... along with another ghostly presence who makes it clear he wants her gone.
The bakery itself is every bit as important as the characters. I thought it was a lovely touch to include some of the recipes at the back of the book.
This was a gripping and engaging novel which I really loved. It is a multi-faceted story and the author does a fabulous job in bringing together the present and the past, and with a paranormal aspect thrown in.
The book is about love, belonging and identity. It is about second chances and having sufficient faith and trust to start again, not just for the people but for the bakery itself.
An excellent novel which I highly recommend.
Book Details
ISBN: 978 1662531002
Publisher: Montlake
Formats: e-book, audio and paperback
No. of Pages: 335 (paperback)
Purchase Links
About the Author
Amazon Charts bestselling author, Mary Ellen Taylor’s love of her home state Virginia is evident in her contemporary women’s fiction, including After Paris, The Promise of Tomorrow, Winter Cottage, Spring House, and Honeysuckle Season. She brings her new home on the Outer Banks of North Carolina to life in her latest novel The Brighter The Light and When the Rain Ends.
As do so many people, her protagonists search for their place in the world, exploring issues of family, home, love and belonging. Inevitably, Mary Ellen’s stories interweave setting, history and mysteries that span past and present.
You can also find her at:
(ARC courtesy of NetGalley)
(author media courtesy of the Author)
(all opinions are my own)
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