How to Bake a Perfect Life: Book Review

What can I say, I finished yet another book.

I was wandering in Target one day, as usual, looking through the books, when I came across one that seemed to be about baking... How to Bake a Perfect Life by Barbara O'Neal. Being really into baking, I figured this book was a good read, and when I flipped the back cover over and read through the small synopsis I knew it would be a much better read, one about the way food, bread especially brings together a family, and how one summer can change everything. I read this book in a little less than a week, and ended up loving it. Target, you are a godsend.

Synopsis According to Barnes & Noble:

In a novel as warm and embracing as a family kitchen, Barbara O’Neal explores the poignant, sometimes complex relationships between mothers and daughters—and the healing magic of homemade bread. 
 
Professional baker Ramona Gallagher is a master of an art that has sustained her through the most turbulent times, including a baby at fifteen and an endless family feud. But now Ramona’s bakery threatens to crumble around her. Literally. She’s one water-heater disaster away from losing her grandmother’s rambling Victorian and everything she’s worked so hard to build.

When Ramona’s soldier son-in-law is wounded in Afghanistan, her daughter, Sophia, races overseas to be at his side, leaving Ramona as the only suitable guardian for Sophia’s thirteen-year-old stepdaughter, Katie. Heartbroken, Katie feels that she’s being dumped again—this time on the doorstep of a woman out of practice with mothering.

Ramona relies upon a special set of tools—patience, persistence, and the reliability of a good recipe—when rebellious Katie arrives. And as she relives her own history of difficult choices, Ramona shares her love of baking with the troubled girl. Slowly, Katie begins to find self-acceptance and a place to call home. And when a man from her past returns to offer a second chance at love, Ramona discovers that even the best recipe tastes better when you add time, care, and a few secret ingredients of your own.

My Review:

Not only does this book include bread recipes in between some of the chapters, but it also holds a warm, hectic story of Ramona, a bread bakery owner. I loved how each chapter was from a different perspective - from Ramona, to Sophia [her daughter], to Katie [Sophia's stepdaughter]. I have to admit, I felt for Ramona and her difficult life - from getting pregnant at 15 and being left at her aunt's house for the summer, to meeting the boy of her dreams and having him move away, to running a bakery from her grandmother's house, to being on the verge of losing this dream, and having her family feuds throughout the entire book. And yet, I was terribly there was Sophia, her daughter, who was pregnant with her husband's baby. He had been off in Iraq fighting when she got the call - he was in an accident and a majority of his body had been burned. Here she is 8 months pregnant and having to go to Germany to see her husband - who quite frankly wasn't happy and didn't want to live anymore. And then you have Katie, Sophia's husband's daughter. Thirteen years old and living a horrible life thus far. Her mother was also fighting in Iraq, but when she came back the stress was too much and she ended up using meth - only landing her in jail, and eventually rehab. So since there was no one else to take care of her she was brought to Ramona, thus bringing their two stories together. Taking them on adventures through gardens, and the life-changing events of puberty, all while the smell of bread lingers ever so closely. This is definitely a must read for anyone who believes food can save a person's life, or at least make them smile. 

My Rating: 5 Stars