The Recipe Club

By Andrea Israel and Nancy Garfinkel

From the book jacket:

"Lilly and Val are lifelong friends, united as much by their differences as by the similarities. Lilly, dramatic and confident, lives in the shadows of her beautiful, wayward mother and craves the attention of her distant, disapproving father. Val, shy and idealistic -- and surprisingly ambitious -- struggles with her desire to break free from her demanding housebound mother and a father whose dreams never seem to come true."

Lilly and Val were born friends. While in grade school, they form a secret club just between the two of them in which they share their deepest feelings, hopes and dreams through a series of letters to each other. They attach a recipe to their letters, hence the name of the club.

The reader watches as they mature into young women plagued by the very emotions that threaten to permanently destroy themselves and each other.

I enjoy reading books about relationships between individuals and this book doesn't disappoint. As I watched Lilly and Val grow up, I rooted for each one and anxiously waited to find out what was going to happen to them when they became adults. The authors did an excellent job of making the characters in the book believable for the reader and you can't help but hope they can fulfill their goals in life.

There's even a twist at the end that makes you think, "Well, that certainly explains a lot!"

Plus, the recipes have wonderful names that add to the story line and make the book even more interesting.

Now that I've finished reading this book, I have to decide whether to put it on my bookshelf or with my other cookbooks because I'm really anxious to try some of the recipes!