Author: Judith Fertig
Publisher: Berkley Books
Publication date: June 2, 2015
Claire O'Neil, Neely to her friends, is a baker reinventing her life. After finding her husband cheating with yet another woman she is headed back to her hometown of Millcreek Valley, Ohio. Millcreek, is a town transforming itself from a blue collar factory town to a bridal paradise. It is among the bridal boutiques in the old library building that Neely opens her bakery Rainbow Cakes.
Neely's has a secret. She can sense secret feelings and images of other people's past. She uses flavors in her cakes to enhance these flavor feelings to give her customers the perfect cake for their wedding. However, her abilities are both a blessing and a hindrance to her. She starts to encounter an alarming flavor combination in her own food, and around her the biter old neighbor. As She tries to unravel the mystery surrounding this intense flavor, Neely starts to rebuild her life. She builds a family of employees, and re-finds love as she learns to forgive her own past while helping her neighbor.
I was originally pulled to this book by the cover. The bright layers of the rainbow colored cake made me smile when I saw it recommended to me. But I found the story itself intriguing. Neely's story alternates with that of a very special and unique wedding ring. We alternate between the current day events of Neely's life and the day to day bakery operations and the story in the past as the ring changes hands from it's original owner to the mother of Olive and Edith "Pickle", and then to the girls story. it took a little getting used to the back and forth nature but as they became intertwined it culminated in a wonderfully integrated way. This was definitely a quick and enjoyable summer read.
Judith Fertig is an acomplished cookbook author,, and The Cake Therapist is her first fictional work.There will be a sequel The Memory of Lemons. My copy had a sneak preview of this in it, and I can't wait for the next book to be published.
Judith Fertig has a website that can be found here
She has a link to a recipie for a rainbow cake here
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