Title: The Butterfly’s Daughter
Author: Mary Alice Monroe
Publisher: Gallery
Publication Date: May 3, 2011
Hardcover: 400 pages
ISBN: 978-1439170618
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

Four very different women embark on a transformational journey that follows the migrating monarchs across the United States to Mexico. The story begins when Luz Avila’s grandmother, the local butterfly lady, purchases an old, orange VW bug for a road trip home to Mexico. When she unexpectedly dies, Luz is inspired to take her grandmother’s ashes home. In the manner of the Aztec myth of the goddess who brings light to the world, Luz attracts a collection of lost women, each seeking change in their lives. The Mexican people believe the monarchs are the spirits of the recently departed and Luz taps into ancient rituals and myths as she follows the spectacular, glittering river of orange monarchs in the sky to home.

My Review:

The Butterfly’s Daughter by Mary Alice Monroe is a beautiful tale of a young woman’s exploration and discovery, yet it turns out to be so much more than that.  Luz Avila is a Latina, living with her grandmother while working in Milwaukee.  Readers will learn how her grandmother, Abuela, known as “The Butterfly Lady”, plays a central role in Luz’s discoveries about life and in particular, about her family’s life.  Monroe’s character descriptions are realistic and each character has their own flaws, peculiarities and beauty, making The Butterfly’s Daughter a story that captures the emotions of the author and provides readers with a connection to those emotions through her writing.  Monroe draws in expert manner from the parallels of the young Luz exploring, growing, discovering, and changing much as the life-cycle of the monarch butterfly goes.  In that sense, readers will too learn some new things about this wonderful species and the treacherous and demanding journey it must make from places like Milwaukee to Mexico.  Monroe has crafted an intriguingly beautiful story that brings to life the journey of the monarch butterfly as she does the life of Luz, and I recommend The Butterfly’s Daughter to all readers and discussion groups.

To learn more about author Mary Alice Monroe and her books, please visit her website.

I received a complimentary copy of The Butterfly’s Daughter by Mary Alice Monroe from Gallery Books. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.

Title: The Kitchen Daughter
Author: Jael McHenry
Publisher: Gallery
Publication Date: April 12, 2011
Hardcover: 288 pages
ISBN: 978-1439191699
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

After the unexpected death of her parents, painfully shy and sheltered 26-year-old Ginny Selvaggio seeks comfort in cooking from family recipes. But the rich, peppery scent of her Nonna’s soup draws an unexpected visitor into the kitchen: the ghost of Nonna herself, dead for twenty years, who appears with a cryptic warning (“do no let her…”) before vanishing like steam from a cooling dish.

A haunted kitchen isn’t Ginny’s only challenge. Her domineering sister, Amanda, (aka “Demanda”) insists on selling their parents’ house, the only home Ginny has ever known. As she packs up her parents’ belongings, Ginny finds evidence of family secrets she isn’t sure how to unravel. She knows how to turn milk into cheese and cream into butter, but she doesn’t know why her mother hid a letter in the bedroom chimney, or the identity of the woman in her father’s photographs. The more she learns, the more she realizes the keys to these riddles lie with the dead, and there’s only one way to get answers: cook from dead people’s recipes, raise their ghosts, and ask them.

My Review:

The Kitchen Daughter by Jeal McHenry is a beautiful, lyrical and extremely creative debut book about how unexpected change affects the life of 26-year-old Ginny Selvaggio who has Asperger’s syndrome. The book opens with Ginny describing the funeral of her parents, who died unexpectedly on a vacation. Ginny, who has lived a very sheltered life finds a balance in the kitchen, perfecting family recipes. As Ginny is processing her grief, her sister Amanda wants to sell the house and have Ginny move in with her, something Ginny is dead set against. As Ginny continues to work on recreating recipes she discovers many things about herself and her family that she never would have imagined. The Kitchen Daughter is a beautiful story of family, Asperger’s Syndrome, and how it affects those who have personal connections to one with the syndrome. I found the book to be creative, informative, and one I did not want to put down. The reader gets to really know and care for the characters, cheer Ginny on and in the process gain some rather delicious sounding recipes. McHenry’s writing is masterful, commanding, and quite vivid and I eagerly await her next book. I highly recommend The Kitchen Daughter to all readers and to book discussion groups.

About the Author:

Jael McHenry is a talented and enthusiastic amateur cook who blogs about food and cooking at the SIMMER blog. She is a monthly pop culture columnist and Editor-in-Chief of Intrepid Media, online at intrepidmedia.com. Her work has appeared in publications such as the North American Review, Indiana Review, and the Graduate Review at American University, where she earned her MFA in Creative Writing. She lives in New York City.

I received a complimentary copy of The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry from Gallery Books. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.

Title: Murder Takes the Cake: A Daphne Martin Cake Mystery
Author: Gayle Trent
Publisher: Gallery
Publication Date: March 29, 2011
Paperback: 288 pages
ISBN: 978-1451600018
Genre: Fiction, Mystery

From the Publisher:

A routine cake delivery becomes a culinary nightmare when a small-town baker discovers her first client’s dead body in this irresistible new mystery series.

It’ll take more than a little sugar to convince folks Daphne Martin’s freshly baked spice cake was not to blame for the mysterious death of town gossip Yodel Watson. Getting her new cake decorating business, Daphne’s Delectable Cakes, off the ground is hard enough now that Daphne’s moved back to her southern Virginia hometown, but orders have been even slower since she found Yodel’s body. She soon realizes, however, that just about everybody in town had a reason to poison the cantankerous busybody, from the philandering pet shop owner, to Yodel’s church potluck nemesis, to the Save-A-Buck’s cranky produce manager-turned-bagger. Now, to help prove she’s no confectionary killer, Daphne recruits her old flame, Ben Jacobs, editor of the local newspaper, and quickly stirs up a long-hidden family scandal that just might hold the secret ingredient she needs to solve the case. All she’s got to do is roll up her sleeves and get her hands a little dirty before the real culprit decides that taking sweet revenge on Daphne will be icing on the cake.

My Review:

Murder Takes the Cake by Gayle Trent is the first in her new Daphne Martin Mystery series and is a wonderful debut novel for this new series.  Readers are introduced to Daphne Martin, whose abusive ex-husband is serving a prison sentence for attempted murder, and at 40, has decided to return to her small hometown in Virginia and turn her passion into a business, opening Daphne’s Delectable Cakes.  Unfortunately, Yodel is found dead soon after acquiring one of Daphne’s cakes and it does not take long for rumours to spread that Yodel’s death was due to poisoning from a cake Daphne had delivered.  To squelch rumours and save her fledgling business, Daphne sets out to discover who murdered Yodel.  Murder Takes the Cake is an extremely delightful cozy mystery and since it is the start of a series, the reader is introduced to a lot of rather eclectic characters which I think further enhances the feel of Daphne’s new home and her fresh start on life.  I truly enjoyed Murder Takes the Cake and found myself greedily gobbling up the words while solving the mystery alongside Daphne.  I highly recommend Murder Takes the Cake to anyone who enjoys baking tips and recipes along with a delightful cozy mystery.

About the Author:

Gayle Trent lives in Southwest Virginia with her husband and two beautiful children, a boy and a girl. She’s a full-time writer/editor/mom/wife and chief cook and bottle washer, and she love every minute of it. Okay, not the bottle washing so much, but the rest of it is great.

To learn more about Gayle Trent please visit her website or follow her on Twitter.

I received a complimentary copy of Murder Takes the Cake by Gayle Trent from Gallery Books. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.