Christmas Cake (A Hope Springs Book)

In Hope Springs, North Carolina there is a group of friends that have a deep and enduring friendship. Margaret, Jessie, Beatrice and Louise have been friends for years and they are all members of the Women's Guild of the Hope Springs Community Church. When they all find out that Margaret's cancer has returned, they will do anything to support her. Beatrice is the one who usually takes charge of the projects and fundraising activities and this time she has come up with the idea of a Christmas Cake cookbook and recipe contest in hopes of cheering up Margaret. Beatrice has promised a big prize but is having trouble with the final details. Margaret realizes that her final wish is to visit her mother's hometown in Texas and visit her grave. Her friends rally around her and arrange to travel to Texas where their good friend and former Pastor Charlotte will join them. Charlotte left Hope Springs to run a battered women's shelter in New Mexico. They have some adventures along the way as they travel to Texas and when they get there they are in for more surprises and adventures. This journey teaches the women that no matter what happens in life their friendship is eternal and a foundation to rely on. Christmas Cake is an endearing, light hearted and humorous story of women's friendship. It has it's sad moments where you may find yourself reaching for the tissue box but it also has moments where you will find yourself giggling over the antics the ladies get themselves into. Christmas Cake is actually a sequel to Friendship Cake which I read several years ago. It was refreshing to revisit life with these wonderful ladies and to see that their friendship lives on stronger than ever. Christmas Cake can be read apart from Friendship cake as it reads as its own novel. There are also cake recipes at the beginning of each chapter and many of the cakes sound very tasty.

In Hope Springs, North Carolina, Margaret tries to remain upbeat in front of her friends, but the cancer has returned and spread to her organs. Her BFFs would do anything for her so in the hope to cheering her up they get the idea for another cook book which would include best recipe for a contest they would sponser. The idea was Beatrice's, but she no longer has the enthusiasm for the project; surprising herself, her spouse funeral director Dick and her friends, she quits her leadership role and asks Louise to take over. Margaret tells her buddies from the Hope Springs Church that she just wants to visit her hometown and see their former Pastor Charlotte, who runs a battered women's shelter, both in Texas. Getting past her depression with a mission, Beatrice steals her husband's funeral van to drive Margaret, Louise and Jessie to Texas. The sequel to The Friendship Cake is a wonderful slice of life as the Tar Heel best friends know hope springs eternal even with one of them in Texas, another depressed, another dying and the others overwhelmed with what to do. With recipes leading each chapter, the women run the show as they drive a funeral van from Carolina to Texas to fulfill Margaret's last wishes. The Christmas Cake is a five tissue box tear jerker as friendship is forever. Harriet Klausner