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WORK TITLE: The Sweet Smell of Magnolias and Memories
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: c. 1962
WEBSITE: https://fletchermchale.wordpress.com/
CITY: Alhoa
STATE: LA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY: American
http://www.theadvocate.com/article_bb69f5fa-560a-11e7-9ac0-dffb2b9a2a76.html * http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/entertainment_life/books/article_5c110aaa-ba03-59f1-88d7-4e197bf8ead0.html
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1961.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
In her debut novel, The Secret to Hummingbird Cake, Celeste Fletcher McHale follows three lifelong friends from the small town of Bon Dieu, Louisiana. Ella Rae, Laine, and Carrigan have all been friends since they were five years old, but now they are thirty.
The Secret to Hummingbird Cake
Carrigan narrates the tale, portraying her community and her friends as they prepare for the town crawfish boil, and she also discusses their occasionally wild exploits. Indeed, Carrigan and her friends still act like they are in their twenties, which lands them in increasingly hot water. When Carrigan begins to suspect that her husband, Jack, is having an affair, she decides to sleep with someone else rather than discussing the problem with Jack. Both Ella Rae and Laine do their best to dissuade her, ensuring that despite any missteps, all three women have each other’s best interests at hear.
As a reviewer noted in the online Lesa’s Book Critiques, “this is not your typical chick lit book, and Carrigan Whitfield learns a few hard lessons in the course of the story.” Claire Hamner Matturro, writing on the Southern Literary Review Website, was even more positive, and she found that McHale “manages to do a very difficult thing: It spins a loving tale about enduring female friendships in a small town in the Deep South without engaging in stereotypes or sentimentality.” Matturro also found that the author “manages to convey huge truths about faith, suffering, forgiveness and sharing. . . . McHale writes her story in clean, clear and direct sentences that resonate with the natural voices of her locale.” Offering further applause in the online Reader’s Favorite, Elizabeth Butts announced: “My heart is still tight from reading. I felt more emotion from McHale’s writing than I ever thought possible.”
The Sweet Smell of Magnolias and Memories
The Sweet Smell of Magnolias and Memories begins in Louisiana when a terrible flood drives strangers onto the roof of a nearby building. Jacey, Colin, and a family with children are thrown together to spend three harrowing days waiting for rescue. During that time, Jacey and Colin fall deeply in love, but they are separated when rescue finally arrives. Jacey and the young family board one rescue boat while Colin boards another, but the pair promises to meet again. Colin writes his phone number on a scrap of paper and Jacey puts it in her pocket. Then the unthinkable happens: The rescue boat carrying Jacey is in an accident and Jacey nearly drowns. She loses the scrap of paper along with her short-term memories. All traces of Colin are gone from Jacey’s life, but then they are unexpectedly thrown together again.
McHale shared her inspiration for the novel in an online Advocate interview with Judy Bergeron, and she stated that it came from watching the news: “There was a girl on top of her car with water surrounding her, and some guys were trying to rescue her. The sound was turned down, and I didn’t hear what they were saying, and I said to myself, ‘I wonder what her story is?’ Then I immediately thought, ‘I’ll give her one.'”
Commending the result in Publishers Weekly, a critic declared: “McHale . . . has a way of creating characters who are believably flawed and human.” Rebecca Maney in the online More Than a Book Review offered both pros and cons, asserting: “Portions of this story were very good, others invaded by an almost ‘Pollyanna’ approach to traumatic circumstances. Undeniably, McHale has written about two characters who dig deep to survive, while learning the value of honesty and forgiveness along the way.” Proffering more strident praise in the online Books and Biscuits, a reviewer stated that McHale “shows herself to be an incredible (and surprisingly consistent) storyteller. The novel features complex and compelling characters faced with incredible, yet realistic, challenges, leaving the reader reflecting on the story long after it ends.” The reviewer went on to conclude that “the novel is well worth the read for those who can appreciate the overall plotline and the characters’ redemption, in spite of their imperfections.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, March 27, 2017, review of The Sweet Smell of Magnolias and Memories.
ONLINE
Advocate, http://www.theadvocate.com/ (November 8, 2017), Judy Bergeron, author interview.
Books and Biscuits, http://booksandbiscuits.com/ (May 7, 2017), review of The Sweet Smell of Magnolias and Memories.
Celeste Fletcher McHale Website, https://fletchermchale.wordpress.com (November 8, 2017).
Lesa’s Book Critiques, https://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com/ (March 19, 2016), review of The Secret to Hummingbird Cake.
More Than a Book Review, https://www.morethanareview.com/ (October 22, 2017), Rebecca Maney, review of The Sweet Smell of Magnolias and Memories.
Readers’ Favorite, https://readersfavorite.com/ (October 22, 2017), Elizabeth Butts, review of The Secret to Hummingbird Cake.
Southern Literary Review, http://southernlitreview.com (February 9, 2016), Claire Hamner Matturro, review of The Secret to Hummingbird Cake.
Celeste Feltcher McHale stays in the South for second novel
BY JUDY BERGERON | JBERGERON@THEADVOCATE.COM JUN 24, 2017 - 7:00 PM (0)
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Celeste Fletcher McHale
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Judy Bergeron
Finding success last year with her debut novel, "The Secret to Hummingbird Cake," Louisiana author Celeste Fletcher McHale returns with the likewise Southern-set "The Sweet Smell of Magnolias and Memories."
But don't let the title fool you: The plot blooms from a potentially deadly and certainly life-changing event, as two of the characters are brought together by floodwaters in a three-day struggle to survive. But will Jacey and Colin ever see each other again?
Fletcher McHale, 55, lives in the small community of Aloha, between Natchitoches and Alexandria. We asked her a few questions about her latest book.
Your first novel centered on three best friends, including yourself. The new one also unfolds around three besties. Are Jacey, Georgia and Willow based on anyone you know?
Maybe some personality traits came from some folks I know, but mostly, these girls only live in my imagination.
The character Jacey has survived a flood on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Is this based on any particular storm or any of your life experiences?
I was literally washing dishes one morning and the TV happened to be on the news … which is strange because I only watch the SEC channel. LOL. (True story.) This was before the flood in Baton Rouge when we had flooded in the spring of that year. Anyway, there was a girl on top of her car with water surrounding her, and some guys were trying to rescue her. The sound was turned down, and I didn't hear what they were saying, and I said to myself, "I wonder what her story is?" Then I immediately thought, "I'll give her one."
Did you find it easier to write the second book?
In many ways yes, because "Hummingbird" was based on a true story. It was difficult to write about something so raw. "Magnolias" was whatever I wanted it to be.
For those who didn't read "Hummingbird," how would you describe your writing?
I'm not sure how to answer that. I guess maybe "straightforward." I don't use a lot of flowery rhetoric. I just try to tell the story. I think that's because when I am reading, if there is too much detail, I skip it. "She walked across the plush white carpet, gliding like a cat, stopping to caress the ornate drapes of gold and white brocade with their golden sashes." You lose me at plush white carpet. I don't care. She walked across the room. Period. The end.
Can fans expect a third book, and do you already have a plot in mind?
I am actually in the middle of the third book. It's a little different than the first two. It’s still friendship-oriented and driven, but a little grittier.
About
Fletcher McHale
Celeste Fletcher McHale is a Southern Lit author from Central Louisiana. Her debut novel, The Secret to Hummingbird Cake, is being released through HarperCollins Christian Publishing in February 2016.
Celeste earned a history degree and currently lives on her century-old family farm. She enjoys family, writing, football, baseball, and raising a variety of animals.
The Sweet Smell of Magnolias and Memories
Publishers Weekly. 264.13 (Mar. 27, 2017): p89.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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The Sweet Smell of Magnolias and Memories
Celeste Fletcher McHale. Thomas Nelson,
$15.99 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-71803984-4
Tracking down a story in southern Louisiana, Jacey gets more than she bargained for when she, along with a young family and an attractive mystery man named Colin, is held captive on a roof by a massive flood for three days. Falling in love during their harrowing time on the roof, Colin scribbles out his phone number and shoves it in Jacey's pocket before she and the family board the rescue boat, leaving Colin behind. However, a terrible accident on the boat steals Jacey's memories, as well as the scrap of paper holding Colin's number. Struggling to keep afloat mentally for the next year, Jacey pushes away the memories of that night, knowing in her heart that the accident took much more than she wants to remember. When Colin unexpectedly reappears in Jacey s life, they pick up right where they left off, with several bumps along the way. McHale (The Secret to Hummingbird Cake) has a way of creating characters who are believably flawed and human. Her wit and hilarity are perfect matches for the heartfelt romance in this winsome book. Agent: Liza Fleissig, Liza Royce Literary Agency (May)
The Sweet Smell of Magnolias and Memories By Celeste Fletcher McHale Reviewer: Rebecca Maney
CATEGORY: FICTION / CHRISTIAN / GENERAL, FICTION / CHRISTIAN / ROMANCE, FICTION / CONTEMPORARY WOMEN 59503f265a3bc_gbooks
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“There’s no time,” Colin said. “You have to go. Find me, call me . . .”
Jacey and Colin shared the three most intense days of their lives together, waiting for help as Mississippi floodwaters surrounded them. Jacey knew Colin was the love of her life—until her rescue boat went under water, along with Colin’s last name and pieces of Jacey’s memory.
The last thing she remembered was being submerged in water. Again.
As Jacey walks down the aisle as the maid of honor in her friend’s wedding a year later, the last person she expects to see is Colin. The biggest surprise, though, is that the man of her dreams is not wearing jeans and flip-flops as he did when he held her through those long nights of the flood. He’s the preacher.
As Jacey’s memories come flooding back, it’s almost more than she can take. The fate of the young family trapped with them haunts her. The unwavering honesty—and support—of her best friend Georgia forces her to take a fresh look at herself. She’s spent her life afraid of love. But this flood is opening Jacey’s heart in the most unexpected ways.
Sexual Content - 1/5
Violence - 0/5
Language - 0/5
Drugs and Alcohol - 0/5
Summary
From: Rebecca Maney
Book Title: The Sweet Smell of Magnolias and Memories Book Author: Celeste Fletcher McHale What do you like about this book:
"She was holding on to a magnolia limb, full of blooms, sweet and fragrant, while the water swept her away."
Jacey Lang relives fragments of a horrifying memory; being swept down a river of raging flood waters; near drowning over and over and over again. A Hurricane Katrina survivor, she spent three terrifying days and nights on the top of a roof, with a young mother, four children, and a stranger named Colin; but after a rescue attempt turns tragic, Jacey and Colin are separated, spending a year searching for one another, to no avail. Remarkably, Jacey walks down the aisle at a best friend's wedding and recognizes the minister; it's none other than Colin Jennings.
Colin can scarcely believe his good fortune. The last person he expected to see again was Jacey Lang, looking as beautiful as he remembered her to be. Desperate to reignite their unique connection, Colin instinctively recognizes that Jacey carries a wounded spirit. Deciding to tidy up some family matters, he gives her some space, never intending to create an even bigger divide. What will it take for Colin and Jacey to inhale the sweet fragrance of magnolias once again?
Portions of this story were very good, others invaded by an almost "Pollyanna" approach to traumatic circumstances. Undeniably, McHale has written about two characters who dig deep to survive, while learning the value of honesty and forgiveness along the way.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher. The opinions stated above are entirely my own.
Your ratings of the level of sex, violence, language and drug/alcohol use on a scale of 1-5.
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Review: The Sweet Smell of Magnolias and Memories – Celeste Fletcher McHale
Posted on May 7, 2017 by Brittany
Celeste Fletcher McHale. The Sweet Smell of Magnolias and Memories. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2017.
Celeste Fletcher McHale’s The Secret of Hummingbird Cake was one of the most surprising and unique debut works that I reviewed last year. In sharing it with several family members, they were incredibly impressed with the overall story and characters. When I had the chance to preview an advanced reader’s copy of Ms. McHale’s upcoming release, I jumped at the opportunity. After finishing the book in record time, I can honestly say that the novel is well worth the read!
Stranded on a rooftop during a devastating Mississippi flood, Jacey becomes attached to her fellow survivors, a poor mother, her four sons, and a man named Colin. Over the course of three days, Jacey and Colin formed an indescribable bond forged by their life-and-death situation. When a chance at rescue separates Jacey and Colin, they promise one another that they will reunite, only to have their contact information and Jacey’s memory wiped away in a tragic accident in the flood waters. A year later, Jacey and Colin are unexpectedly reunited at a friend’s wedding. Jacey’s faulty memory, triggered by her tragic accident, begins to return after talking with Colin and reestablishing their relationship in the normalcy of their real lives. However, the flood waters were not the only complication that Colin and Jacey encountered in the years prior. To move forward, each must have faith to overcome their previous challenges and fears, even if it means setting aside the relationship that they each have sought to relocate after the flood.
Ms. McHale shows herself to be a resonant voice in Southern fiction, writing in a style that reaches beyond traditional Christian fiction and into the real world challenges of everyday people. The Sweet Smell of Magnolias and Memories will leave readers wanting far more of Ms. McHale’s stories.
Overall, I was absolutely thrilled with The Sweet Smell of Magnolias and Memories! After reading Ms. McHale’s debut novel, The Secret of Hummingbird Cake, I was left unsure as to whether she could ever write another story of equal caliber. In The Sweet Smell of Magnolias and Memories, she shows herself to be an incredible (and surprisingly consistent) storyteller. The novel features complex and compelling characters faced with incredible, yet realistic, challenges, leaving the reader reflecting on the story long after it ends. While some aspects of the novel may fall outside of the norm for Christian contemporary fiction, Ms. McHale’s story offers a fresh and genuine tale that will resonate with a Christian audience. Additionally, the storyline, including the characters’ faults and challenges, will also ring true for a general readership. In this purely Southern tale, Ms. McHale offers an insightful look at the true meaning of redemption and second chances, whether for a family, marriage, friendship, or romantic relationship.
Fans of Ms. McHale and The Secret of Hummingbird Cake will definitely want to read The Sweet Smell of Magnolias and Memories. Likewise, readers who enjoy Southern-inspired Christian fiction will also want to check out this novel. Ms. McHale writes for a broad audience, with moderate to fast pacing of her story. Some readers may dislike some of the novel’s language and actions of the characters, which may impact the age-appropriateness of this story. However, the novel is well worth the read for those who can appreciate the overall plotline and the characters’ redemption, in spite of their imperfections.
Special thanks to the author (Celeste Fletcher McHale) and BookLook Bloggers for the advanced copy of The Sweet Smell of Magnolias and Memories!
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FEBRUARY READ OF THE MONTH: “THE SECRET TO HUMMINGBIRD CAKE,” BY CELESTE FLETCHER MCHALE
FEBRUARY 9, 2016 BY CLAIRE MATTURRO LEAVE A COMMENT
Celeste Fletcher McHale
Celeste Fletcher McHale
Reviewed by Claire Hamner Matturro
The Secret to Hummingbird Cake (Thomas Nelson, 2016) by emerging Southern author Celeste Fletcher McHale manages to do a very difficult thing: It spins a loving tale about enduring female friendships in a small town in the Deep South without engaging in stereotypes or sentimentality. Replete with the poignancy of Same Sweet Girls, the very human humor of The Devine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood, and the grace and faith of Jan Karon’s Mitford/Father Tim series, Hummingbird Cake is a compelling debut novel. Despite this comparison other Southern gems, make no mistake: Hummingbird Cake is its own book, not a recast or imitation, and it rings fresh and true.
That Hummingbird Cake is a wonderful book and authentically Southern in tone, spirit and humor was made clear when the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) named this book as one of its Winter 2016 Okra Picks. For those not familiar with this award, Okra Picks are selected by southern independent booksellers as books deserving special recognition and praise. According to the SIBA, an Okra Pick represents “the best in forthcoming southern lit, according to the people who would know.”
Published by Thomas Nelson, a world leading publisher and provider of Christian content and part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc., Hummingbird Cake is a Christian novel in much the same sense that Jan Karon’s books are. That is, there is no in-your-face proselytizing, but a consistent, gentle thread of faith runs through the storyline. Characteristic of Christian lit, Hummingbird Cake does not devolve into gratuitous violence or graphic sex, and non-Christians can easily read and delight in the book.
Set in the small Louisiana town of Bon Dieu, Hummingbird Cake is on one level the story of three women, Carrigan (the narrator), Ella Rae and Laine, and their growth and sustaining friendship. On a broader level, it chronicles a whole community. On a still wider, philosophical scale, it is a lesson in grace under pressure, resilience and faith. Despite the narrowness of the small town and rural setting (or perhaps because of it), Hummingbird Cake—like Jan Karon’s series—manages to convey huge truths about faith, suffering, forgiveness and sharing. And, like Karon, McHale writes her story in clean, clear and direct sentences that resonate with the natural voices of her locale.
Hummingbird Cake opens with the three women at age thirty, but Carrigan and Ella Rae often still act seventeen. Spirited, impetuous and sometimes rambunctious, they are involved in small-town pursuits such as a softball tournament and finding the perfect outfit for the annual Crawfish Boil. Carrigan as the narrator naturally assumes center stage, and her own personal growth is part of the solid center of the tale.
Pampered if not a bit spoiled (in a good way, mind you), Carrigan has sailed through her first three decades with relative ease. Life has not yet sucker punched her. But suddenly her once-golden marriage is in trouble as Jack, her indulgent and formerly loving husband, pulls away from her. Gone is the physical and emotional intimacy they once shared. Carrigan does not know why (nor will the readers until near the end of the story) and reacts inappropriately. Laine and Ella Rae pile in to support Carrigan—albeit with vastly differing views on the matter.
In some ways, it’s not a surprise Carrigan and Jack’s marriage is in trouble. After all, they eloped when Carrigan was barely of legal age—an elopement the very proper Laine disapproved of but which Ella Rae championed. Carrigon lied and manipulated to arrange the marriage because she had found the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with—even if he was ten years older and she was only seventeen. What did age matter? Laine and Ella Rae, naturally, went on the honeymoon.
Jack and Carrigan’s relationship is important to the story, but it takes a back seat to the camaraderie and closeness between the three women. Their friendship goes all the way back to a playground when the girls were only five. Laine is the new kid in town, and as Carrigan astutely observes, “Even at five, a small town girl in the South has learned to be suspicious of newcomers. You’re either born here, married to someone from here, or your grandparents live here. You don’t just show up out of the blue.”
Despite that suspicion, when a boy knocks Laine down on the playground, Ella Rae rallies to Laine’s defense and pops the kid with her fist. Laine, always the “good girl” in the group, hopes that Ella Rae didn’t hurt the boy. Ella Rae replies that she was trying to hurt him. Carrigan agrees with Ella Rae. As Carrigan notes: “that pretty much explains the way all three minds have worked in this posse for the past twenty-five years.”
Of the three friends, Laine is the single woman with a career as a dedicated and much-loved English teacher at the local high school. Gentle, sensitive, and devout, Laine is also “multilingual, fluent in cliché, guilt and Bible.” Carrigan views Laine as “my sister, in every sense of the word. The only thing missing was the mutual blood. So I didn’t speak to her the same way I spoke to the rest of the world.”
Ella Rae is a housewife with a happy husband, clean home, and dinner on the table—but she is also the one who “knows two speeds. Wide open and dead stop.” And sometimes she drinks too much and talks too loud, but she is never mean or mean-spirited.
Carrigan is the rebellious one who feels as though the “rules didn’t apply to me. Not in an ‘I’m better than you’ kind of way, more like in a ‘that rule is stupid’ kind of way.” She is also restless. After a brief stint working in her husband Jack’s large farming enterprise and a failed attempt at domesticity, she sometimes wonders what it might have been like to have gone to college.
Carrigan observes that, at least near the beginning of the story, “[e]verything was a joke to Ella Rae and me. …Everything we did was for entertainment purposes only.” Laine, in contrast to the other two, “wanted us to get baptized once a week, run a soup kitchen, volunteer at the local day care, and neuter dogs on the kitchen table in our spare time.”
Laine knows that even though Carrigan is thirty, she needs to grow up. “You always do this, Carrigan. …You dive off into things and never consider the consequences. …You walk right up to the edge of the cliff and teeter there until somebody yanks you back to firm ground. Don’t you know that one day you’ll go over?”
The question whether Carrigan will go over the cliff or grow up when life finally does sucker punch her forms the central tension in the story. It’s not just the troubled marriage. Her relationship with her steadying rock and conscience—Laine—is about to take a radical turn.
As the trio joins kith and kin at the annual Crawfish Boil, someone casually observes that Laine is looking particularly tired. This is the first hint that something more than friendship, small town ethos, and domestic relationships are at the heart of the story. McHale knows full well how to pace a plot, and before the readers know more about Laine’s fatigue and the dark circles under her eyes, Carrigan and Jack rediscover what Laine and Ella Rae always knew: Jack and Carrigan are still in love. They reunite. But their bliss is short-lived and before Jack can explain why he pulled away from Carrigan, Ella Rae interrupts them with devastating news.
Laine is seriously ill with cancer. The news of Laine’s cancer frightens them all—but it is also the catalyst for Carrigan and Ella Rae to finally mature. Before Laine’s illness, their lives had been blessed and if not carefree, at least safe, active and full of love. How they will react to this new situation in some ways defines their growth and inhabits the soul of the story.
While Carrigan struggles emotionally after learning Laine is seriously ill, she also discovers she is pregnant. Though the pregnancy is unplanned, it is welcomed by all as a joyous occasion. Carrigan quips: “That night [after discovering she was pregnant] we did what Louisiana folks do best. We had a party at the drop of a hat.”
Pregnant Carrigan and Ella Rae rally around Laine, and the three women retreat to Jack’s family farm. To say more about the plot would spoil the book.
Bon Dieu Falls is actually a real place, though it is called Montgomery now. McHale captures the essence of the town in scene after charming scene, some funny, some sad. For example, when Carrigan is resting on a quilt on the ground at a softball tournament but needs to distract Jack, she jumps up and screams “snake.” The snake is imaginary, but the results aren’t. As Carrigan says, “Every man still standing rushed to our rescue. Laine put her feet up in her chair while they stomped and shook the quilt. …There was much discussion among the men about the species of snake they had successfully saved us from. Some said rattlesnake, some said cottonmouth. I thanked them profusely.”
While McHale adheres generally to the novelist’s golden rule of “show, don’t tell,” part of the strength of her writing is her straightforward narrative. In introducing the gathering local people at the Crawfish Boil, for instance, she writes:
And I knew these people, really knew them. …Just thinking about it made me smile. People could say what they wanted to about small towns, but I could call just about anybody I knew, black or white, and they would show up if I needed them. Any time of the day or night. They were my people. …You couldn’t drag me out of this town.
And, of course, the people in Bon Dieu do show up to help. Time and time again. Yet, despite all the help and love surrounding Laine’s illness and the drastic changes in Carrigan’s life, Carrigan struggles with her faith. Why would a merciful God strike a good, gentle person like Laine with cancer? The age-old question of “why must people suffer” never has had a clear or convincing answer. Yet Laine ultimately helps Carrigan to come to some understanding and rediscover her faith.
And the hummingbird cake? The story opens with Laine making a hummingbird cake and Carrigan begging her for the cake’s secret ingredient. The book closes when Carrigan learns that secret. To find out what that secret is, you’ll need to read Hummingbird Cake for yourself. You’ll be glad you did, for this gentle and loving book is well worth the investment.
SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 2016
The Secret to Hummingbird Cake by Celeste Fletcher McHale
I'll admit for a while I wasn't fond of the narrator in Celeste Fletcher McHale's debut novel, The Secret to Hummingbird Cake. But, stick with it. This is not your typical chick lit book, and Carrigan Whitfield learns a few hard lessons in the course of the story.
Carrigan, Laine Landry and Ella Rae Weeks have been best friends since they were five and Laine's family moved to the small town of Bon Dieu Falls, Louisiana. Twenty-five years later, Carrigan and Ella Rae have married, but they still have hairbrained ideas, and Carrigan, in particular, makes "slightly off decisions". When she becomes convinced her husband, Jack, is having an affair, she decides to have one, too. Laine reprimands her, insisting Jack still adores the woman he eloped with when she was seventeen. Carrigan, already feeling guilty because she loves her husband, knows there are "Some distinct disadvantages to having your conscience living directly across the street."
"Laine was kind and gentle and loving. I was loud and suspicious and headstrong." And, Carrigan reveals all of their escapades and her mistakes until one day when it's no longer funny. Life hits them in the face, and Carrigan is finally forced to mature. She'd been so wrapped up in herself, despite her best friends, that she never saw that change could come. But friends and family rally, and Carrigan is grateful she lives in a small town where everyone knows everyone's business.
As I said, Carrigan's immaturity bothered me at the beginning of the book. She was a little too selfish, a little too self-involved. But, as my co-worker pointed out, it was refreshing to have a narrator and main character who isn't perfect. And, she does grow in the course of the book.
The Secret of Hummingbird Cake. It's a debut, southern novel, with three best friends, a character that grows, and a tearjerker. What more do you want?
Celeste Fletcher McHale's website is www.celestefletchermchale.com
The Secret of Hummingbird Cake by Celeste Fletcher McHale. Thomas Nelson. 2016. 9780718039561 (paperback), 295p.
*****
FTC Full Disclosure - A friend lent a copy of this book.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Celeste Fletcher McHale is a Southern Lit author from Central Louisiana. Her debut novel, The Secret to Hummingbird Cake, is being released through HarperCollins Christian Publishing in February 2016.
Celeste attended Louisiana State University and Northwestern State University where she majored in history. She currently lives on her century-old family farm and enjoys family, writing, football, baseball, and raising a variety of animals.
BOOK REVIEW
Reviewed by Elizabeth Butts for Readers' Favorite
Celeste Fletcher McHale has done the near impossible. I cried while reading. I have always thought people who were brought to tears over written words were perhaps a little overly emotional. Apparently it just takes a great author, and that author is Celeste Fletcher McHale. The Secret To Hummingbird Cake started off a little slow, and I found the main character, Carrigan, a bit whiny. But a big, life shattering event happens, it rocks her to the core, and reminds her what truly matters in life. About one third into the book, it picks up traction and sucks you in like you would never imagine possible. It is about at this point that you realize you WEREN'T supposed to like Carrigan all that much in the beginning.
Celeste wrote a plot that was so real. Carrigan and her friends, Ella Rae and Laine, and the situations that they were thrust into (by their choice or not) were so real. There was laughter, there were tears, there was so much feeling wrapped up in this book. I was impressed, also, that there was a Christian theme without an evangelistic feel. The fact that this is Celeste Fletcher McHale's first novel amazed me. I want my friends to read this book. I will be recommending it to my mom (top praise right there). If you've ever had a close friendship with a bonded group of friends, you will want to read this book. My heart is still tight from reading. I felt more emotion from McHale's writing than I ever thought possible.