A fiction debut that will leave you wanting seconds, from an award-winning cookbook author
Claire "Neely" O'Neil is a pastry chef of extraordinary talent. Every great chef can taste shimmering, elusive flavors that most of us miss, but Neely can "taste" feelings—cinnamon makes you remember, plum is pleased with itself, orange is a wake-up call. When flavor and feeling give Neely a glimpse of someone's inner self, she can customize her creations to help that person celebrate love, overcome fear, even mourn a devastating loss.
Maybe that's why she feels the need to go home to Millcreek Valley at a time when her life seems about to fall apart. The bakery she opens in her hometown is perfect, intimate, just what she's always dreamed of—and yet, as she meets her new customers, Neely has a sense of secrets, some dark, some perhaps with tempting possibilities. A recurring flavor of alarming intensity signals to her perfect palate a long-ago story that must be told.
Neely has always been able to help everyone else. Getting to the end of this story may be just what she needs to help herself.
Download and start listening now!
“A pastry chef with an uncanny ability returns to her hometown to make sense of her future while delving into the past…The prose is at its best when it focuses on the smells and tastes of the bakery—the decadent buttercream, the elegant cakes, and the whirr of the espresso machine constantly in motion.”
—
Kirkus Reviews