Forgotten Recipe

Amy Clipston writes great Amish fiction, and I have reviewed a couple of her books on my blog. I really enjoy the way she puts her novels together, but with this one, I didn't enjoy it quite as much. I have mentioned before the stale formula for romance novels--boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back and marries her. Amy fell into the formula with her newest novel--The Forgotten Recipe.

Seth's death has left Veronica devestated and unable to move beyond her grief. Jason was Seth's best friend and wants to share his grief with Veronica, but he can't bring himself to tell her that he was there when Seth died.

One of Veronica's coping mechanisms is cleaning--upstairs, downstairs, and anything in between. One day she decides to take on the attic and finds a box with a recipe in it--a recipe for raspberry pie. She begins baking the pies and becomes well known in her area for the delicious pies. Because she has a surplus of raspberries, the task of making the pies is a welcome distraction. She gets her father to build her a baking stand, where she sells her pies once a week. This is where Jason connects with Veronica and where he begins to hide his friendship with Seth.

Jason has much to overcome in breaking down Veronica's defenses and breaking through the wall she built up after he tells her about knowing Seth.

I truly enjoyed the book until I saw that it was going to follow the formula, and then it lost its appeal for me. Four stars because it's not all bad. ;-) The other criticism I have is that the electronic copy of the book I read didn't have the raspberry pie recipe in it. Sigh.

My thanks to Zondervan for allowing me to read and review this book.