Friendship Bread

by Darien Gee

Series: Avalon, Illinois Series (1)

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Still reeling from a personal tragedy that left her estranged from the sister who was once her best friend, Julia Evarts remains at a loss as to how to move on with her life until she receives an anonymous gift of Amish Friendship Bread with instructions on how to make the bread herself, and a request to share it with others.… (more)

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Very enjoyable. An easy read with a good cast of characters. The sort of book you curl up with on a cold wet day in front of a warm fire and hot drink. (

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sianbt | Jul 6, 2017 |

I found this book a delight to read. Dealing with friendship, community, grief and forgiveness, it was one of those rare books where, when I reached the last page, I went 'ahhhh'. A truly sweet story. (

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HeatherLINC | Jan 23, 2016 |

Healing comes from an unexpected gift: friendship bread. The story follows the lives of five women, all at different painful areas of life and all of them struggling alone from the weight of the pain they are going through.

One day, Julia comes home to find a plate with a loaf of bread, and a recipe for friendship bread. Her five-year-old daughter Gracie pleads for her to make the recipe because she wanted her daddy to try some of it. And in 10 days, Julia is left with bags of starter and sends them to school with Gracie. What happens is an epidemic of friendship bread.

While the bread is a sweet spot in the story, the pain and grief the women and families that are the focus of the story is not. Ms. Gee has written this story so well that the reader feels the pain and heartache of each character. The reader cannot help but cry, feel hope, smile, laugh, and cry some more while reading 'friendship bread'. (

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Hanneri | Mar 17, 2015 |

Why is it that so many novels about women, (chick lit, arguably) hinge on the premise of one or more central characters being devastated with heartbreak at the start of the novel.
Show me books where the central plot arcs aren't grieving some giant loss, or catching a romance... with a strong female character at the center.

This book got good after a lugubrious and sad start- once the baking started proliferating, and eccentric other characters showed up to make the focus feel less sharpened on Julia, it worked for me. Longer review to come on my blog. (

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ewillse | Mar 23, 2014 |

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PatienceFortitude | Mar 6, 2014 |

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Canonical title

Friendship Bread

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People/Characters

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Avalon, Illinois, USA

Chicago, Illinois, USA

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Epigraph

Friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life. - Thomas Jefferson

Dedication

Dedicated to the Mothers

First words

Prologue:
Leon adjusts the 25mm Plossl eyepiece and swings his scope toward the heavens.

Chapter 1:
I hope you enjoy it.

Quotations

It took some time but Madeline was able to eventually move forward with her life, and when she did, she simply took the sadness with her. You can never recover from losing a person you love, but you can find a way to let it be a part of your life rather than letting it take over every part of you.

Some well-meaning person gave her an article about bereaved parents and she made the mistake of reading it. It talked about how, when a child dies, a branch on the family tree is broken. New branches can grow, but they'll never replace the branch that has broken. For Julia, it's not just the branch that has broken. She feels as if the whole tree has been uprooted.

..Madeline never craved youth the way some women did. … She doesn't mind the gray or the wrinkles, not even her failing eyesight. But it's the energy that she misses, the seemingly boundless well that young people take for granted. By the time you come to appreciate it, your time has passed and you're sitting at the kitchen table watching somebody less than half your age do all the work.

...this moment, this perfect moment where she can witness 109 people of different ages, backgrounds, and ethnicities, each with their own stories and tragedies and moments of joy, play together in perfect harmony.

Mark knows how important the Amish Friendship Bread is to her. It's become a ritual for their family, the squeezing, the baking, the discussion of what to make next. If it were up to him, he'd tell couples to forgo marriage counseling and try friendship bread instead.

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▾Book descriptions

Still reeling from a personal tragedy that left her estranged from the sister who was once her best friend, Julia Evarts remains at a loss as to how to move on with her life until she receives an anonymous gift of Amish Friendship Bread with instructions on how to make the bread herself, and a request to share it with others.

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Book description

It’s more than just a recipe—it’s a way of life.

For fans of Kristin Hannah and Kate Jacobs, Darien Gee’s deeply felt and utterly charming novel follows two estranged sisters, three newfound friends, and—ultimately—a whole town brought together by a simple loaf of Amish Friendship Bread.

In Avalon, Illinois, a woman and her young daughter return home to find a plate of Amish Friendship Bread along with a bag of starter on their doorstep. There’s no note, just a yellow sticky with the words, “I hope you enjoy it.” The instructions tell them to feed the starter over a ten-day period, then bake two loaves and share the remaining starter with three other people.

At the insistence of her five-year old daughter, Julia Evarts reluctantly follows the instructions. Soon, the bread and its starter are making their way through the town of Avalon, touching the lives of its residents in ways both comical and unexpected. Julia befriends Madeline Davis, 74, owner and proprietor of Madeline’s Tea Salon and Antiques who harbors a secret of her own, and Hannah de Brisay, 28, a concert cellist who relocates to Avalon after the premature end of her career and marriage.

Julia’s sister, Livvy, is struggling with her own loneliness as she and her husband, Tom, try for a child of their own. Julia’s husband, Mark, is tired of the sadness that seems to have taken over their lives for the past five years. As the town of Avalon becomes overrun with the Amish Friendship Bread starter, a kernel of a story presents itself and activist and reporter Edie is quick to jump on it, even if it means pointing a finger at Julia as the instigator and dividing the small community that they live in.

When a neighboring town is devastated by high floods, Julia and her friends supply loaves of the bread to the residents and volunteers. As word spreads, so does help. Soon the entire town of Avalon is doing their part to aid their neighbors in need as they put their differences aside. Friendship Bread is a captivating, engaging novel about life and loss, friendship and community, and what endures even when the unthinkable happens.

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