Laura Griffin is preparing for an empty nest. The thought of Number 11 Lark Hill falling silent - a home usually bustling with noise, people and the fragrant smells of something cooking on the Aga - seems impossible. Laura hopes it will mean more time for herself, and more time with her husband, Dom.
But when an exposed secret shakes their marriage, Laura suddenly feels as though her family is shrinking around her. Feeling lost, she turns to her greatest comfort: her grandmother's recipe box, a treasured collection dating back to the Second World War. Everyone has always adored Laura's jams and chutneys, piled their sandwiches high with her pickles . . . Inspired by a bit of the old Blitz spirit, Laura has an idea that gives her a fresh sense of purpose.
Full of fierce determination, Laura starts carving her own path. But even the bravest woman needs the people who love her. And now, they need her in return . . .
Comment: I got this book as a gift by a very sincere friend and, as it often happens with things people give us, I wanted to really love it, so I could give the best compliments about it to her. However, despite some interestingly good elements, there was more I disliked than what I liked.
In this book we have the story of Laura Griffin, a woman in her 40s who finally sees her youngest daughter go to the university and that leaves her a sensation of an empty nest. Her daughter has always had health issues and she has been dedicated to her so now she feels a little abandoned. To add to her feelings of inadequacy, she discovers her husband has an affair and her world changes completely.
At the same time we see Laura, her husband and his lover debate what they should do next about their lives, we also have a little secondary plot set in the war times, when Laura's grandmother lived through both good and bad situations.
After finishing the book, as I sometimes do, I've read some reviews on this story and it seems that old cliché we say "have we read the same book", does apply to me in this situation. The glowing reviews seem to be about a different book, that's true, because for me this was basic, mostly useless and lacking all connection between the two time plots. I fail to understand how this can be seen as woman's fiction or even chick lit with quality above average because none of the characters were developed nor was the plot that engaging.
The premise of this story is to show us how Laura copes with the changes in her life, from her two daughters being out of the house, her husband having problems and an affair and how that affects Laura's life and distractions. Laura is difficult to analyze because she isn't a compelling character not someone we get to know that well. The apparent solution for her life is two business she starts, namely using some rooms in her house in airbnb and a family recipe to sell jam in an exclusive local market. These two things can be quite interesting and I thought we would get most of the plot around this and how it would affect Laura. Sadly, both these ideas were easily accomplished which means they didn't seem to create any sort of conflict nor tension for Laura.
I'd say that if the purpose was to reveal us how Laura could find an inner strength in her while facing adversity, the goal was quickly achieved and lacked any kind of emotional response.
Some of the conflict comes mostly from Laura discovering her husband's affair. Besides the obvious cliché this is, wasn't she supposed to get to some sort of superior state over the minor things or to move along with her feelings and life after this? No, the author's tactic was more centered on showing how regretful the lovers were over their misplaced affair, how the husband felt sorry he let himself be carried away and the lover, Antonia, just wanted someone to look up to her for support and solutions.
In a way, real life can certainly be this simple but don't we expect something more from a romance?
The secondary plot about Laura's grandmother was difficult to understand. I mean, it was sweet how she and her best friend Ivy never stopped being BFFs as we say nowadays and how they faced several situations that were certainly much more complicated to deal with than what this plot makes us believe, but in what way did it make this overall story move along? I've finished the book with the sense this was a mix of several tidbits the author had in her head and instead of separating these things into different books she mixed it all somehow but the resulting effort was too obvious and lacked many layers to be savored.
Like I said, I expected this to be more centered on Laura's attempt to use her family recipes (like the title suggests) to become better, to get over her stagnation or whatever one might think of her situation. The author also included her own recipes at the end of the book.
I just fail to understand why this element matters, since it wasn't that a big deal through the novel.
I struggled to like the main characters and their plights. Still, I'd say the writing itself was not... touching nor captivating enough to make me eager to read.
I have another book to read, which my friend also liked.. now I'm apprehensive in regards to this being an author to follow...
Grade: 5/10
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