Friendship Cake: A Novel

A wonderful book on Friends, Fun and Life!!

I laughed and cried with this one. The characters are sincere, and easy to get to know. The plot is unique, and the recipes are good too. The only thing that is wrong with this book is that isn't long enough. I really would have enjoyed reading about the people in this book a little bit more. This book is a Steel Magnolias with a Christian twist. I truly liked this book, and will share it with friends.

Friendship Cake is the beginning of something good & with every single piece you get a wonderful memory. Just like the women of Hope Springs Community Church. Each one has a special ingredient to offer the recipe of Friendship. Beatrice feels a project such as creating a cookbook is just the thing to build fellowship to Hope Springs Community Church. The committee members are Beatrice, Louise, Margaret, Jessie and Charlotte. Bea is considered a busybody; personally I think she's a people person. She's always in touch with everyone's life. I guess that privilege is afforded to her as President of the Women's Guild.Louise Fisher was heart-broken by the only person she has ever loved. She lives her life waiting to exhale. Under unfortunate circumstances she is allowed to breath, but that breath is short lived.Margaret Peele is the strength of the Women's Guild. At a very early age she was taught how to cook and make ends meet in a kitchen. After her mother's death Margaret turns in her apron for a tractor-trailer and a woodshed. Jesse Jenkins is the only African American woman in attendance at Hope Springs Community Church. I believe Jessie is the quiet storm in the recipe, until she finds the peace only her mother can offer, and lastly the Reverend Charlotte Stewart; she's young and the first woman preacher at Hope Springs. Together these women enlist the help of family, friends and schoolteachers to share their recipes for the Hope Springs Community Church Cookbook. Lynne Hinton's characters jump right off the pages and into your heart. This book reminds me that friendship is setting aside your personal feelings and being there for the love of your friend. Louise says it best "Love is just doing what love does." Friendship Cake is a must read and I guarantee these characters will stay with you long after you turn the last page.

Through an endearing story of women in church community, Lynne Hinton helps prove that with faith, hope and love (and women friends' gooding cookin' and senses of humor!) all things can be survived- sometimes even brought back to be made 'shiny and new'.Loved this story and characters. Can't wait to read the author's next book...

This is one of the most charming novels I've read in recent years. More than that, it is a satisfying, complete story of women's friendships that manages to avoid becoming sticky-sweet in the process. The author is to be commended for avoiding melodrama and cloying conclusions. I came to know and love each character in this book. Hinton's use of recipes, by the way, goes far beyond gimmickry; each recipe is a true reflection of its owner's personality, and the "cookbook" unifying plot of the novel further justifies their use. I would love to see sequels continuing the lives, loves, and misadventures of the delightful damsel denizens of Hope Springs, North Carolina!

In the style of Patricia Gaffney's Saving Graces, Friendship Cake is a real-life novel whose focus is women, the lives they live and the problems they face. Friendship Cake takes 5 disparate church women and throws them together in the course of putting together a church cookbook. But, it's more than recipes that get tested. Friendship, love and trust are put to the test over and over as the ladies learn to accept the others --- and themselves --- for who they are. I didn't know what to expect from this novel, which is written by a pastor in North Carolina and I have to say that I do hope Pastor Hinton has more stories like this tucked away, just waiting to be written. Quite a wonderful book.