Friendship Bread - It's a Book, Not Bread!

Have you heard of (or tasted) Amish Friendship Bread? The cinnamon bread/cake is made from a sourdough starter and is often shared with others in a way similar to a chain letter. Darien Gee's new novel entitled Friendship Bread tells the story of Julia Evarts and how one simple loaf of bread changed her life and eventually the lives of those in her community.

I'm a pleasure reader when it comes to books. Every now and then I find a really good book and reading it is like a good chat with an old friend. This book hits that nail on the head! Here are a few of the reasons I enjoyed this book:

• The book is "Dedicated to the Mothers." I love this! I related to so many parts of this story. As a wife and mother I laughed and cried right along with the female characters.
• The story is current and personal with references to the economy and local natural disasters. Regardless of where you call home we can all relate to job layoffs or ill weather that affect us or our loved ones.
• Recipes are included in the back! I've made Amish Friendship Bread but never any of these variations: banana nut, butterscotch, double chocolate, lemon poppy seed, pineapple macadamia nut, pistachio cherry, pumpkin cranberry or zucchini.  I especially want to try the Chocolate Caramel Brownies made from the friendship bread starter.
• Friendship bread starter takes 10 days to ferment. While reading the book I liked to compare the 10 day process to an extended therapy session. I knew if one character had a trial and they had also received a bread starter that I could keep reading with confidence and by the time they baked their bread they were well on the road to solving their problems. 
• The biggest lesson learned for me while reading this novel was Madeline's words of advice on a particularly bad day. In short, her words were that the unexpected turns make life rich. This is a great reminder to me that when the going gets tough those are the moments that define who I am and who I'm becoming.

Friendship Bread will be released for sale on April 5th but you can pre-order it right now on Amazon.

I was not compensated for this post although I did receive free copy of the novel courtesy of the Family Review Network to facilitate this review.  Any and all opinions here are mine.