Book: Stones for Bread

A solitary artisan. A legacy of bread-baking. And one secret that could collapse her entire identity.

Liesl McNamara's life can be described in one word: bread. From her earliest memory, her mother and grandmother passed down the mystery of baking and the importance of this deceptively simple food. And now, as the owner of Wild Rise bake house, Liesl spends every day up to her elbows in dough, nourishing and perfecting her craft.

But the simple life she has cultivated is becoming quite complicated. Her head baker brings his troubled grandson into the bakeshop as an apprentice. Her waitress submits her recipes to a popular cable cooking show. And the man who delivers her flour --- a single father with strange culinary habits --- seems determined to win Liesl's affection.

When Wild Rise is featured on television, her quiet existence appears a thing of the past. And then a phone call from a woman claiming to be her half-sister forces Liesl to confront long-hidden secrets in her family's past. With her precious heritage crumbling around her, the baker must make a choice: allow herself to be buried in detachment and remorse, or take a leap of faith into a new life.

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I have read all of Christa Parrish's books I believe.  They just kind of get under your skin.  Not romance and not fast paced, but a true story of a life lived in all it's adventure and angst.  This one about bread and a baker who's got flour running through her veins from her mother and grandmother.

The journey that Liesl takes to self discovery is told through the present interwoven with flashbacks to the past.  You learn her history as you see her working through it in real time in the story.  Sometimes this style of writing annoys me if it's not well done, but I'd say Parrish has mastered it in this book.

I want to try all the bread recipes interwoven too, but not everyone in my house could enjoy them and to be honest I'm not a baker.  But it makes me appreciate all the more what goes into making really good bread.  I felt like I was in the bakehouse with Liesl.

Highly recommended!

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Christa Parrish is the award-winning author of three novels, including the 2009 ECPA Fiction Book of the Year Watch Over Me. When she's not writing, she's a homeschool mother of three wonderful children. Married to author and pastor Chris Coppernoll, Christa serves with him as co-leader of their church's youth ministry as well as serving as a facilitator for a divorce recovery ministry. She is now also slightly obsessed with the art of baking bread.

I received this book from LitFuse Publicity in exchange for my fair and honest review.