Cover Image: The Recipe Box

The Recipe Box

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Member Reviews

This is a simple book. An easy book to read. Deceptively simple and easy.
My grandmother baked. She baked for us weekly; our bread and noodles. She baked for holidays and family gatherings. She baked for us when we were ill. She showed me how to bake, with a pinch and a mound. I tagged every recipe in the book for ease of finding. Baking is a loving act and this book reminded why I know just who I love because I want to make cannoli for him.

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I love Viola Shipman books. He writes multi-generational stories that have usually 3 women, grand mother, mother, daughter. The family connection is always pivotal to the story. Sam escaped Michigan as soon as she graduated to pursue a career as a baker in New York City. When she gets fed up with her boss and quits, she returns home to the family apple orchard and pie shop. The only thing she misses in New York is a delivery man named Angelo who loved her baking. As Sam works with her mother and grandmother she discovers some family secrets and the ties that bind. A wonderful story for all ages.

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The Recipe Box is a lovely novel thoughtfully written to relate the journey to discovery of self and of what really matters. Sam Nelson is at a crossroad in her career as a pastry chef. Working for a pseudo-pastry chef and TV cooking show star, Sam finally gathers her nerve to quit. She travels back to Sutton’s Bay on Lake Michigan to her true home to try and make sense of it all.
Back at Mullins Family Orchard and Pie Pantry, Sam is embraced by her mother and grandmother and surrounded by baking and surrounded by a sense of true home, Sam comes to understand who she is and what she truly needs.

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The Recipe Box is a beautifully written novel. I loved the plot and the characters. It is a great story of family. I enjoyed this author's writing and hope to read more of her books.

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If you are looking for a sweet story without drama, look no further!
The recipe box is a story about family, family history and heritage, about identity and the love for baking.
It is a calm and slowly moving story, that still gripped me from beginning to end. It is never the least bit boring. Such a beautiful story with a construction that just works so well. It doesn't follow all the typical ways stories are told. No dramatic break which wouldn't have worked with the story.
Really really enjoyed it and will definitely recommend this in the future.

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A lovely story of finding yourself through the history of your family.
Samantha Mullins wants to be a world renown baker. When her dream job sizzles she goes back home to Michigan and her family, who have owned an operated an apple orchard for decades. There, she realizes the life the so desperately wanted to run away from when she was a child is the one, ultimately, that she craves.

This book was a lovely tribute to family and the love that only the people who know you best can give you and share with you.

I was given an arc of this book from Netgalley for an honest opinion and I honestly found this story and the way it was told, delightful. 5 stars.

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I was excited to read The Recipe Box after enjoying The Charm Bracelet. This book appealed even more to me as someone who loves to cook and uses handed down recipes.
The book unravels the lives of the family and how things have changed while staying the same with the one thing which links them together is the love of cooking to celebrate family and life.
I loved reading it and look forward to trying out some of the recipes.

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Quite a slow paced story set in America, and focussed on a family who have owned and run an orchard for almost 100 years. Sam is torn between her life in New York and back in Michigan.

Some nice sounding recipes I would love to try out too!

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The Recipe Box by Viola Shipman
Source: Netgalley
My Rating: 3/5 stars

Sam Mullins has spent her life dreaming of becoming a world-class baker. From her small northern Michigan apple orchard to the bright lights and competitive world of New York City, Sam has earned her culinary school degree, has a tremendously crappy job, and the feeling she still isn’t where she’s meant to be. After an unsettling episode at work, Sam packs her bags and heads for home.

In an effort to sort out her life, Sam returns to the loving embrace of her family and their century-old apple orchard. The orchard holds so many happy and some very conflicting memories for Sam. There is the ever-present love and support of her family, the orchard, and the pie shop where Sam first discovered her love of baking. At mother and grandmother’s sides, Sam learned how to mix and create, to bake and to love, and to share her creations with her family and community. The recipes she learned as a child are both simple and comforting and have brought Sam great pleasure throughout her life. In her current state, however, Sam is beginning to question if her fancy culinary degree was a way to cover her embarrassment over the very provincial nature of her family’s recipes and cooking.

Over the days she’s at home, Sam not only reconnects with her love of her family recipes, but with the women who made her love and opportunities possible. Sam’s formidable grandmother, Willo reminds Sam, through stories of their past how the orchard and pie shop came to be, how both have sustained the family though the long years, and how a history such as theirs is as much a foundation as a piece of architecture. Slowly, and after much baking, Sam begins to realize her fancy culinary degree isn’t at all about embarrassment or shame, but about wanting to make her own unique mark on the world outside of the long shadow of her family.

The Bottom Line: If it weren’t for one very large issue, The Recipe Box would have scored so much higher with me! I am a smart and attentive reader which means I don’t need an author to constantly remind me of certain themes and/or issues in their books. In The Recipe Box, the themes of history, shared history, and foundations are repeated so often they become almost comical. Almost! I got to the point where I began skipping over the excessive passage related to these themes and moved on to the far more interesting business. I did enjoy Willo a great deal and her shared stories of the Mullins family and their past. Willo builds a strong connection between the past and the present which allows Sam to understand her place in the family as well as in the world. There are some really touching moments in this read a TON of yummy recipes which will appeal to many readers. If you don’t mind the repetition, The Recipe Box may be just the read for you 😊

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This book was very disappointing. The author pushed the limits of credibility in plotting, in dialogue and in the relationships.

First the relationship between the hero and heroine of the story was very poorly developed. There was no involvement between the two, they never dated but he flies out to her home to visit?

The dialogue between the characters is very much over the top. While families do have their moments of sentimentality, in this book you have scene after scene. Introduction of a recipe, means a family flashback and then some type of truism. One or two would have been meaningful. But as the same rote was repeated over and over again, it became meaningless.

Disappointingly this is not a book I can recommend.

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I received this book "The Recipe Box" from Netgalley for my honest review.

I really liked this book and the recipes! I will have to go back and try to print some of the ones I want to make. The story was a page turner and down to earth. I loved the family aspect of the entire book. You will fall in love with the characters. Sam finally finds out where she belongs - I didn't want the story to end.

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Although the premise of the book was appealing, it did not succeed as much as Shipman’s book, The Charm Bracelet. Sam is a pastry chef in Manhattan, working for a nasty, phony famous chef. She quits and returns home to Michigan, where her mother and grandmother own an orchard and pie making business. Sam is looking to find her own destiny, and the chargers alternate between current day and her relatives’ stories. This was just okay, predictable, at times too sweet.

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The Recipe Box
Viola Shipman
Available: March 20, 2018

Thank you to NetGalley.com for the opportunity to read an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
I hate pie. Cooked fruit is nasty. I wish I did though – then I could put almost all of these magical recipes to work for me. With a story that ended almost word for word as it began, sprinkle in some beautiful memories, touching moments, and some cute characters, The Recipe Box is the fluffy, a little sappy, love letter to the state of Michigan and cooked fruit.
What I loved: Next year my daughter will be going to college on Lake Michigan (in IN, but still the Midwest) and I would love for her to have some of these amazing summer experiences that we just don’t get here in California (sunset at 10 pm, swimming in lakes with fish nipping at your toes (ewww), embracing fruit that you don’t get year round.
What I didn’t love: Mom Deanna seemed to get the shaft in the story – instead of being a pivotal part of her daughter’s life, she was more on the sidelines with very little interaction with her daughter. Most of the time, I actually confused her with one of the 3 D’s in the pie pantry since their names were so similar.
What I learned: How are these people not diabetic and 500 lbs?
Overall Grade: B

www.FluffSmutandMurder.com

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Deep in her roots, Sam finds that maybe home is the place that you have always belonged.
Great recipes! I can't wait to try some of them! I enjoyed the descriptions of the Michigan landscape, I had no idea that the lakes looked like that. I wanted to go running through the orchard and pick some apples there too. At first I wasn't too sure if I liked Sam, but throughout her qualities shined through, especially how much she cared about her grandma and mother. I really enjoyed the relationship dynamic between those 3.

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the recipe box
by
viola shipman




What it's all about...

One thing I know for certain...after reading this book the reader will either crave everything sweet or swear off of sugary treats forever! This book contains just about everything sweet and good that a book should have. It has a family...a Michigan family of bakers who own an apple orchard. The book shares stories from all of this family’s generations of bakers but focuses on Sam...she is the latest generation. She is a professionally trained chef working in NYC but...she comes home to Michigan and her family because she is at a unique point in her life. Sam needs to find out what she really wants to do with her life...is her happiness in NYC or is it in the big kitchens of her grandmother’s apple orchards. Only Sam can figure out her destiny.

Why I wanted to read it...

The cover of this book is deliciously enticing as are the many recipes it contains. The book details the strength of the women who have maintained and grown this orchard over the years. The book also details what life is like in Michigan near the largest lake ever.

What made me truly enjoy this book...

Viola Shipman used the most beautiful descriptive language when she described summers near Lake Michigan. Blues and greens and emeralds and incredibly lovely waters. Every time Sam or her dad took a bite of a crisp apple that fell from a tree right into their hands...I wanted one, too! And I can’t forget to mention the recipe boxes and their keys...the recipe cards dotted with butter and berry stains yet treasured over time. But that’s something the reader will savor while reading this book.

Why you should read it, too...

Readers who enjoy lovely family stories that have just a bit of angst...and tons of recipes containing apples and cherries...should enjoy this book. Just be prepared to bake something after every chapter.

I received an advance reader’s copy from St. Martin’s Press And NetGalley I read this book on my Kindle Oasis via Amazon in exchange for an honest review.

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I absolutely loved the book and the way it was told through strong generations of women and the legacy passed down between them. It was well written and I would certainly seek out additional titles by this author.

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I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was beautifully written, providing just enough character background to align the past with the present. It was poignant, yet funny when required, and didn't vary from the path. I enjoy reading generational novels and this one did not disappoint. I appreciated that each chapter revolved around a particular recipe, and I enjoyed finding out how that recipe came to be through in each generation. It flowed well, and didn't prolong the story any more than was required.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this book.

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This book is all about family, tradition and cooking. So much of our childhood memories are wrapped up in the tradition of family recipes we had and this book reminds us about how important these legacies are. The story was good, I loved how the recipes were intertwined in throughout the book. I think at times the dialogue was a little cheesy and unrealistic of how people talk but it didn't deter too much from the story.

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The Recipe Box by Viola Shipman mainly reminds me of the special relationship that can exist between a Grandmother and her Granddaughter. This book will be popular among the bakers out there.  Many will be baking these scrumptious sounding desserts. I would love to try a Ice Cream Sandwich with Maple Spice Chocolate Chip Cherry Chunk Cookies. This was an enjoyable read even if I did get frustrated with Sam and that was because I felt she lacked maturity in dealing with relationships. I enjoyed learning about Michigan and this Thanks Net Galley for the chance to read this novel.

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I absolutely loved this book! It is a captivating story! It is also filled with many wonderful words of wisdom. Not to mention the recipes that are included at the end of each chapter. I can't wait to read more books by this author!

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