Stones for Bread
Liesl McNamara has long used her family’s tradition of baking bread as her way of hiding from the world. When she’s in the kitchen of her bakery, she can tune out everything but the loaves she’s creating. This works for a time, but eventually the world starts to push through. When Liesl meets her new delivery man, Seamus, and his precocious daughter, Cecilia, she can’t help but become emotionally attached. Because of the pain her mother caused their family when Liesl was young, however, she’s extremely hesitant to engage in a meaningful relationship. When one of her employees enters her in a TV competition, though, Liesl finds herself almost unwillingly turning to Seamus as she deals with the ever-mounting pressures of her newly publicized life. In Parrish’s (The Air We Breathe, 2012) beautifully written novel, the vitality of close relationships is powerfully depicted in Liesl’s struggle to let go of her past and embrace the future right in front of her. Readers will definitely relate to her struggle of faith and confidence. --Carolyn Richard