The Union Street Bakery

The Union Street Bakery

Mary Ellen Taylor

Genre: Women's Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads):  Life can turn on a dime. It’s a common cliché, and I’d heard it often enough. People die or move away. Investments go south. Affairs end. Loved ones betray us...Stuff happens.
Daisy McCrae’s life is in tatters. She’s lost her job, broken up with her boyfriend, and has been reduced to living in the attic above her family’s store, the Union Street Bakery, while learning the business. Unfortunately, the bakery is in serious hardship. Making things worse is the constant feeling of not being a “real” McCrae since she was adopted as a child and has a less-than-perfect relationship with her two sisters.

Then a long-standing elderly customer passes away, and for some reason bequeaths Daisy a journal dating back to the 1850s, written by a slave girl named Susie. As she reads, Daisy learns more about her family—and her own heritage—than she ever dreamed. Haunted by dreams of the young Susie, who beckons Daisy to “find her,” she is compelled to look further into the past of the town and her family.

What she finds are the answers she has longed for her entire life, and a chance to begin again with the courage and desire she thought she lost for good.

Review: I enjoyed reading this book about Daisy finding her place in her family and adapting to life working in the family bakery.  I know I'm a sucker for books about bakeries, but I really did enjoy learning about all the hard work that goes into owning one.  The recipes at the end sounded delicious!  I guess I found the setting to be a little more compelling than the plot, which had a weak mystery element and an interesting family/sister dynamic.  I found the big reveal about Daisy's birth mother completely predictable.  This review seems a little critical, but it was easy to read and entertaining.

Rating: 3.5 stars