Synopsis:
At thirty-six , Hope McKenna-Smith is no stranger to bad news. She lost her mother to cancer, her husband left her for a twenty-two year old, and her bank account is nearly depleted. Her own dreams of becoming a lawyer long gone, she’s running a failing family bakery on Cape Cod and raising a troubled preteen.
Now, Hope’s beloved French-born grandmother Mamie, who wowed the Cape with her fabulous pastries for more than fifty years, is drifting away into a haze of Alzheimer’s. But in a rare moment of clarity, Mamie realizes that unless she tells Hope about the past, the secrets she has held on to for so many years will soon be lost forever. Tantalizingly, she reveals mysterious snippets of a tragic history in Paris. And then, arming her with a scrawled list of names, she sends Hope to France to uncover a seventy-year-old mystery.
Hope’s emotional journey takes her through the bakeries of Paris and three religious traditions, all guided by Mamie’s fairy tales and the sweet tastes of home. As Hope pieces together her family’s history, she finds horrific Holocaust stories mixed with powerful testimonies of her family’s will to survive in a world gone mad. And to reunite two lovers torn apart by terror, all she’ll need is a dash of courage, and the belief that God exists everywhere, even in cake. . . .
My Thoughts:
Just like the title of this book, The Sweetness of Forgetting is a very sweet, heartwarming tale. One that will make the hardest of hearts feel a pang of warmth, sadness, joy flow through their veins.
Hope is always looking for the worst to happen and who can blame her really with the run of bad luck she's had. Giving up law school to be a wife, mom, running a bakery wasn't what she initially had in mind. Now a single mom and the threat of losing the family business Hope is trying hard to just make it day by day.
Watching her grandmother Mamie slip away to the horrors of Alzheimers just adds to the stress of Hopes life. When Mamie has a good, clear day, she opens a history lesson Hope Never imagine. With time running out, Hope is sent to Paris and back to locate people she never knew existed. Wondering if she even knew Mamie at all.
I enjoyed Hopes character even if I wanted to pummel her a few times with her stark view of the world and people. Annie is the one that pull at my heart even when she was being a little snot to her mom.
I have to say though the reall charmer of this book is Mamie's history. Living through WWII and running to save your life. Leaving people behind you knew were doomed to die in camps. There was more than one occasion I was brought to near tears. Kristin did a heck of a job bringing this story to life and I'm glad I choose to read this book.
If you are looking for good book to cuddle up with, look no further, this is the book for you.
Author's Website: Kristin Harmel
1 comments:
Sounds good, great review.
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