The recipe box

Grace Holm-D'Angelo is newly divorced and raising her fourteen-year-old daughter, Emma, on her own. Emma resents the move from Chicago to Los Angeles and is still reeling from the divorce, so she gives her mother a hard time at every turn. Grace is close to the end of her patience as she tries to build a new life out of what is left.

Then Grace's best friend, Leeza, dies of breast cancer after a long illness. The loss leaves Grace convinced that nobody gets a second chance at life, and she decides to act on it. She goes back to her hometown of New London, Wisconsin, to try to make peace with her mother, Lorraine. The two have been estranged for longer than Grace likes to admit.

The story runs over a single summer. Grace finds comfort in cooking again, faces her past, and leans on friendship while she sorts out what home means to her. The book is a contemporary women's novel about family and second starts, with a warm, emotional tone that moves between grief and reconciliation.

Recipes are included, which fits a story where food is part of how Grace heals. It suits readers who like a mother-daughter story with a hometown setting and a hopeful outlook.