Official Synopsis from Goodreads: Bestselling, beloved author of The Charm Bracelet spins a tale about a lost young woman and the family recipe box that changes her life. Growing up in northern Michigan, Samantha “Sam” Mullins felt trapped on her family’s orchard and in their pie shop, so she left with dreams of making her own mark in the world. But life as an overworked, undervalued sous chef at a reality star’s New York bakery is not what Sam dreamed.
When the chef embarrasses Sam, she quits and returns home. Unemployed, single, and defeated, she spends a summer working on her family’s orchard cooking and baking alongside the women in her life–including her mother, Deana, and grandmother, Willo. One beloved, flour-flecked, ink-smeared recipe at a time, Sam begins to learn about and understand the women in her life, her family’s history, and her passion for food through their treasured recipe box.
As Sam discovers what matters most she opens her heart to a man she left behind, but who now might be the key to her happiness.
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Women’s Fiction
Setting: Northern Michigan, near Traverse City, mainly in 2017, but bounces back and forth in time
***I received an eARC copy of The Recipe Box from the publisher, Thomas Dunne Books, via NetGalley***
*** this post contains affiliate links ***
Review: A sweet, enjoyable read that made me want to get into the kitchen and bake! The Recipe Box by Viola Shipman is one of those lovely stories that focuses on family, finding one’s self, and food. While at times it was a bit cloying for me, I ultimately really enjoyed this and loved the setting of northern Michigan!
Our main character is Sam, a sweet gal who loves to bake and is working in NYC when she loses her job and decides to head home to northern Michigan (near Traverse City area). I absolutely loved this setting! Viola Shipman makes northern Michigan sound like such a lovely place to live, with the orchards and lake, and I spent some time online looking at photos and real estate listings in the area, as it just sounded so enchanting.
When Sam returns home, she gets back into baking family recipes, and hears stories about the women in her family who came before her. The book is broken up into sections, each section focusing on one recipe, and how the recipe came to be such a loved family heirloom. The Recipe Box also contains the actual recipes, for example recipes for Apple Turnovers, or a Triple Berry Galette, or Rhubarb Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Streusel Topping. I actually baked the Rhubarb Coffee Cake recipe, and it was really yummy! I’d definitely make it again when needing to use up some rhubarb from my garden.
The one thing about all these recipes is that each woman in the family has her own recipe box, and wears the key to the box on a necklace that she always wears. I found myself wondering about the logistics of this far too much! I wanted to know how long the necklaces were, as the book never specified taking the necklace off in order to open the recipe box, or bringing the recipe box up to ones neck to open with the key, easily being able to open the box, or having to bend down to kitchen counter level to open the box. I kept trying to picture these ladies all bringing the box up to their neck, and then not being able to see the keyhole, and having trouble with a neck kink! I can’t tell you how many times I was distracted by all of these thoughts, and while having a key around ones neck sounds like a cute idea, it was one that never really worked for me. And none of the recipes were really “secret” recipes from other family members, so I honestly didn’t get the key/locking point of it all.
The characters and plot are fairly predictable, but books like this are enjoyable in their predictability. This was a clean read, nothing graphic about this read at all, and it very much put me in the frame of mind to watch Hallmark movies! I recommend this book to those who enjoy sweet, clean reads with a focus on family, and for those who enjoy reading books about baking. I love reading books with a focus on food, as they always make me want to get into the kitchen and try making something new! This one was no exception.
Bottom Line: A lovely, sweet read that will leave you hungry for baked goods and longing to take a trip to northern Michigan!
Amazon
Goodreads
Author Website Well, I am blown away! I totally thought this was written by a female author, but Viola Shipman is a pen name for Wade Rouse, a fact I just realized when putting this post together!
luvtoread 
I’m a sucker for novels with recipes and have often baked something one of these. These sort of books should come with cake…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, for sure!! 🙂 I always love books like this too. Even if they always make me super hungry when I read them!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m from Michigan and can verify that Traverse City is wonderful. It’s more known for cherries than the fruit recipes you listed, so I do hope the author included cherry ANYTHING. The cherry wine is to die for. Recently, Michigan really jumped on board the craft beer boom, and Traverse City has several craft breweries now, in addition to the wineries. My undergrad institution, Central Michigan University, started a craft beer program in the last 10 years.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I just checked the recipes and there is a recipe for Cherry Turnovers. Traverse City just sounds like such a picturesque place! I’m so glad to hear that it is as beautiful in real life as it was in this book. That cherry wine sounds amazing. I love a good craft beer – where I am is big into craft beer (I’m drinking a Russian River beer right now!). It’s so crazy how big the craft beer business has gotten! This book didn’t really reference any craft beer, but it did mention a bit about the business eventually getting into hard cider.
LikeLike
Will you let me know if you make the cherry turnovers? Thank you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Will do!! 🙂
LikeLike
It sounds like a nice light read, very fun. And I love when books have recipes in, I think it adds something… though I have to say, I’ve never tried them!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was a lot of fun! I also love it when books include recipes – I’m always interested in trying them (they always sound so good!) but I don’t make one all that often 🙂 I’ve actually made the rhubarb coffee cake recipe listed here twice now I enjoyed it so much!
LikeLiked by 1 person