Book Review of
The Sweetness of Forgetting
A baker in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, must travel to Paris to uncover a family secret for her dying grandmother—and what she learns may change everything. The Sweetness of Forgetting is the book that made Kristin Harmel an international bestseller.
At thirty-six, Hope McKenna-Smith is no stranger to bad news. She lost her mother to cancer, her husband left her for a twenty-two year old, and her bank account is nearly depleted. Her own dreams of becoming a lawyer long gone, she’s running a failing family bakery on Cape Cod and raising a troubled preteen.
Now, Hope’s beloved French-born grandmother Mamie, who wowed the Cape with her fabulous pastries for more than fifty years, is drifting away into a haze of Alzheimer’s. But in a rare moment of clarity, Mamie realizes that unless she tells Hope about the past, the secrets she has held on to for so many years will soon be lost forever. Tantalizingly, she reveals mysterious snippets of a tragic history in Paris. And then, arming her with a scrawled list of names, she sends Hope to France to uncover a seventy-year-old mystery.
Lynn's Review
My husband got my Sweetness of Forgetting by Kristen Harmel for my birthday. I read The Book of Lost Names last year Kristin Harmel and loved it, so for my birthday and Christmas, my husband got me a couple of her other books. He thought I would enjoy reading more of Kristen Harmel’s backlist books.
I really enjoyed Sweetness of Forgetting. This book combines WWII history, family, romance, and food. Those are some of my favorite things in a book. I loved the story and the characters in this book. It was a family story that alternated between WWII and present-day ( or present-day when the book was written.) I felt like the ending was a little bit too Hallmark movie-like, but overall, it was a good read.