Friendship Cake

by Lynne Hinton

I really wanted to like this book. The premise was based around friendship and love- and it had the potential to be a great book about female bonding and friendship. (I was thinking along the lines of Ya-Ya Sisterhood.) And while it tried really hard to be just that...it really fell short. We would be introduced to a character and get a glimpse of their life, just enough that we start to get drawn in and care, and then the point of view changes to someone else, and we are left wanting. The relationships amongst our group of women seem forced and contrived and really unreal. I felt like I was reading about women who were forced to pretend to get along like children. The storyline was also pretty incomplete- the tone would change so abruptly and then move on to someone else...problems appeared out of nowhere, and there was never much of a sense of closure to each problem. The problems would tidy themselves up, but there was never any real closure.

I guess what I'm saying is that this book is completely forgettable. In fact, I had forgotten about it and had to check my reading history at the library to even remember what this book was called. I'm terribly disappointed because I liked the premise and I liked the foundation of characters, there just wasn't any depth. Had the author written twice as much and filled in all the blanks it might have been a great book to read. Recipes included, I have to admit that not a single one called to me, and I have to wonder if they are even real recipes because the quantities of ingredients seemed way off to me at times. So do yourself a favor and pass by this book if you see it... it's not worth the few hours you will waste reading it.