Review ~ Recipes for Melissa by Teresa Driscoll

Bookouture
5 June  2015

Eight year old Melissa Dance never had chance to say goodbye to the mother who baked her biscuits and cream scones. Seventeen years later, Melissa is handed her mother's journal;  a book which opens up, not just her mother's far too short a life, but which also gives Melissa the chance to find out more about her own hopes and dreams.

Throughout the novel the writing is warm and loving without ever resorting to over-sentimentality and allows a realistic glimpse into just how precious are our memories and of how, even though loved ones are gone from us, we can always carry them within our heart. The precious recipes which Melissa's mother included in her journal are delightful and add so much more to the novel.

The book has a fine cast of supporting characters , particularly Melissa's father who  has coped, for so long, with his own sadness. Melissa's relationship with her boyfriend, Max, which initially, is rather overshadowed by Melissa's need to find out more about her mother, is allowed to develop slowly and the interesting nuances of their burgeoning relationship are finely observed.

This is a beautifully written family story which is filled with the heartbreak of loss and the over riding power of the love that a mother has for her child. To say more about the plot would be to spoil the story entirely, and this is one book which needs to be read over the space of a sunny afternoon, preferably with a pot of tea and cream scone close at hand.

Amazon UK

My thanks to Kim at Bookouture for my copy of this book.

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