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.

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.

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!

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 😊

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

"The only constant in life is change."
An Exquisitely written novel full of love is once more written by Viola Shipman.
Willo, as the elder now in her family is turning 75.
Her beautiful farm in gorgeous Michigan is celebrating 100 years of life.
Willo has one wish for her upcoming birthday. It is for her adoring granddaughter Sam to find joy, love and contentment in her heart. Will Sam realize where she belongs and listen to the messages her family is attempting to show and tell her?
It is a book that will make you remember when you were a child, the things you hold dear and that "There is no place like home."
If you enjoy a story that transports you with all the aromas and feelings you had in your youth, many delicious recipes that are found in an old recipe box and lots of love, this is the book to curl up with.
10 stars!
I will definitely buy this for all family to cherish!

I really enjoyed this story...and not just because of the yummy recipes that were included with each section. It flips back and forth through the present-day and various snapshots from the pasts of each of the women in the family tree, but is not difficult to follow. The journey is such a sweet one, and the ending wraps everything up nicely. Not a part of a series (which is refreshing, for me, these days!), so a perfect cold-weekend stand alone novel.

I loved this book!!!! I grew up in a small town in Michigan, and currently live in NY State, and this book brought back the carefree summers of my youth, and made me long for "home." This is a book about a girl who grew up in rural Northern Michigan, who left chasing a dream as fast as she could to get out of the small town where family lives and runs an apple orchard. She is living in NYC after graduating from culinary school, and returns home for a break after making the decision to quit her job on a whim one morning. The descriptions of Sam's youth are so very vivid, and I definitely related to the feeling of wanting to get out as soon as she could, yet being nostalgic for the things back home. The feeling of jumping in a cold Great Lake on a hot summer day is one I can recall vividly.

The chapters are grouped around a recipe for a baked treat, and while I have not tried any of the recipes, I plan to.

This book was a very enjoyable read for me - well-written, fun, full of love, light in tone and positive. If you are looking for a good story that is rooted in family traditions, nostalgic for the past but also looking forward to the future, this is for you!

Sam’s glamorous life as a sous chef in New York is, in reality, not glamorous at all. She works for a petty, mean spirited chef who finally goes to far and embarrasses Sam to the point she decides to head home to Michigan. Sam is crushed to be returning home, as a failure. She spends the summer working in her family’s apple orchard and cooking with her mother and grandmother. As Sam works alongside her family, she learns about their past as her mother and grandmother open up about their own “failures”. Shipman gets extra points for one of the best beginning and ending scenes I’ve read in a book in a long time