This book was simply amazing and I have told people in every book group I'm in to purchase it. I have told friends and I even want to tell strangers on the street! I pre-ordered it for my daughter.
In case you couldn't tell, I loved this book.

The recipes are mouth watering and I plan to try a few, but the way the storyline fit in and around the recipes or vice versa is wonderful. This whole book was so well thought out and put together and there's a moral, but it's gently done and not in your face.

The growth of the main character was nice to see and all the characters were so well rounded and believable. I really enjoyed all of them. I wish we could all go visit the pie restaurant that's in the book. It would be nice if such a place existed.

I've never read anything by Viola Shipman, but this was a wonderful book to start with and I'll be looking for more by her in future. Do yourself a favor and read this book!

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and Ms. Shipman for the opportunity to read an ARC.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

The book follows the main character as she finds herself and realizes what is important in life. Sam's internal reflections give the reader some powerful and important messages to consider. Her recipe box connects her to her love for baking and her family. The author paints a beautiful picture of an orchard and bakery on Lake Michigan. The included recipes sound yummy!

I cannot say that I enjoyed this book at all. Conversations between characters were stilted and unrealistic. To have come from such a long line of strong women, I found Sam to be wishy-washy and very unlikable. If you like shallow, feel good books with no meat at all this is the book for you.

The Recipe Box by Viola Shipman is a pretty good read. I recommend to other readers to add it to their wish list. I give it 4 stars.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book is so heart warming. Sam is a pastry chef in search for her place in the world. She comes from a family in Michigan and she is determined that she wants bigger and better. Yet, she finds her heart right back on the orchard she was running from. I fell in love with this entire family. Highly recommend this book!

I enjoyed this sweet story about Sam Mullins who was raised on her family's orchard in Michigan. Generations before her have lived on the farm and baked pies for visitors. Sam longs for something different and she works at a well known bakery in New York City.
While home in Michigan for an unexpected visit, she questions herself and her place in the family business. There is also a possible romance as well.
This book is filled with descriptions of delicious desserts and includes the recipes.

I received an ARC copy from netgalley for my honest review,  so thank you netgalley and publishers for offering me this book! ! ♡
This was a lovely novel, and wonderfully written. Sam Nelson is at a crossroad in her career as a pastry chef. Working for a pastry chef and TV cooking show star, Sam decides to quit. She travels to Sutton’s Bay on Lake Michigan to her home to try and make sense of it all. Back at Mullins Family Orchard and Pie Pantry, Sam is embraced by her mother and grandmother. Sam comes to understand who she is and what she really needs.
This was my first book by this author,  I absolutely enjoyed every second of it!! It was fast paced and just alltogether an easy read. ♡ I give this book a 5 star rating!

A warm hearted story of a multi generational family. I am not a baker, but the recipes sounded delicious. A nice story for a special time of yesr

This is a warm read about family, traditions, food, and finding your path in life. It was easy to relate to the characters, place myself right inside the orchard, and smell the pies baking!

This is a simple book. An easy book to read. Deceptively simple and easy.
My grandmother baked. She baked for us weekly; our bread and noodles. She baked for holidays and family gatherings. She baked for us when we were ill. She showed me how to bake, with a pinch and a mound. I tagged every recipe in the book for ease of finding. Baking is a loving act and this book reminded why I know just who I love because I want to make cannoli for him.

I love Viola Shipman books. He writes multi-generational stories that have usually 3 women, grand mother, mother, daughter. The family connection is always pivotal to the story. Sam escaped Michigan as soon as she graduated to pursue a career as a baker in New York City. When she gets fed up with her boss and quits, she returns home to the family apple orchard and pie shop. The only thing she misses in New York is a delivery man named Angelo who loved her baking. As Sam works with her mother and grandmother she discovers some family secrets and the ties that bind. A wonderful story for all ages.

The Recipe Box is a lovely novel thoughtfully written to relate the journey to discovery of self and of what really matters. Sam Nelson is at a crossroad in her career as a pastry chef. Working for a pseudo-pastry chef and TV cooking show star, Sam finally gathers her nerve to quit. She travels back to Sutton’s Bay on Lake Michigan to her true home to try and make sense of it all.
Back at Mullins Family Orchard and Pie Pantry, Sam is embraced by her mother and grandmother and surrounded by baking and surrounded by a sense of true home, Sam comes to understand who she is and what she truly needs.

The Recipe Box is a beautifully written novel. I loved the plot and the characters. It is a great story of family. I enjoyed this author's writing and hope to read more of her books.

If you are looking for a sweet story without drama, look no further!
The recipe box is a story about family, family history and heritage, about identity and the love for baking.
It is a calm and slowly moving story, that still gripped me from beginning to end. It is never the least bit boring. Such a beautiful story with a construction that just works so well. It doesn't follow all the typical ways stories are told. No dramatic break which wouldn't have worked with the story.
Really really enjoyed it and will definitely recommend this in the future.

A lovely story of finding yourself through the history of your family.
Samantha Mullins wants to be a world renown baker. When her dream job sizzles she goes back home to Michigan and her family, who have owned an operated an apple orchard for decades. There, she realizes the life the so desperately wanted to run away from when she was a child is the one, ultimately, that she craves.

This book was a lovely tribute to family and the love that only the people who know you best can give you and share with you.

I was given an arc of this book from Netgalley for an honest opinion and I honestly found this story and the way it was told, delightful. 5 stars.

I was excited to read The Recipe Box after enjoying The Charm Bracelet. This book appealed even more to me as someone who loves to cook and uses handed down recipes.
The book unravels the lives of the family and how things have changed while staying the same with the one thing which links them together is the love of cooking to celebrate family and life.
I loved reading it and look forward to trying out some of the recipes.

Quite a slow paced story set in America, and focussed on a family who have owned and run an orchard for almost 100 years. Sam is torn between her life in New York and back in Michigan.

Some nice sounding recipes I would love to try out too!

The Recipe Box by Viola Shipman
Source: Netgalley
My Rating: 3/5 stars

Sam Mullins has spent her life dreaming of becoming a world-class baker. From her small northern Michigan apple orchard to the bright lights and competitive world of New York City, Sam has earned her culinary school degree, has a tremendously crappy job, and the feeling she still isn’t where she’s meant to be. After an unsettling episode at work, Sam packs her bags and heads for home.

In an effort to sort out her life, Sam returns to the loving embrace of her family and their century-old apple orchard. The orchard holds so many happy and some very conflicting memories for Sam. There is the ever-present love and support of her family, the orchard, and the pie shop where Sam first discovered her love of baking. At mother and grandmother’s sides, Sam learned how to mix and create, to bake and to love, and to share her creations with her family and community. The recipes she learned as a child are both simple and comforting and have brought Sam great pleasure throughout her life. In her current state, however, Sam is beginning to question if her fancy culinary degree was a way to cover her embarrassment over the very provincial nature of her family’s recipes and cooking.

Over the days she’s at home, Sam not only reconnects with her love of her family recipes, but with the women who made her love and opportunities possible. Sam’s formidable grandmother, Willo reminds Sam, through stories of their past how the orchard and pie shop came to be, how both have sustained the family though the long years, and how a history such as theirs is as much a foundation as a piece of architecture. Slowly, and after much baking, Sam begins to realize her fancy culinary degree isn’t at all about embarrassment or shame, but about wanting to make her own unique mark on the world outside of the long shadow of her family.

The Bottom Line: If it weren’t for one very large issue, The Recipe Box would have scored so much higher with me! I am a smart and attentive reader which means I don’t need an author to constantly remind me of certain themes and/or issues in their books. In The Recipe Box, the themes of history, shared history, and foundations are repeated so often they become almost comical. Almost! I got to the point where I began skipping over the excessive passage related to these themes and moved on to the far more interesting business. I did enjoy Willo a great deal and her shared stories of the Mullins family and their past. Willo builds a strong connection between the past and the present which allows Sam to understand her place in the family as well as in the world. There are some really touching moments in this read a TON of yummy recipes which will appeal to many readers. If you don’t mind the repetition, The Recipe Box may be just the read for you 😊

This book was very disappointing. The author pushed the limits of credibility in plotting, in dialogue and in the relationships.

First the relationship between the hero and heroine of the story was very poorly developed. There was no involvement between the two, they never dated but he flies out to her home to visit?

The dialogue between the characters is very much over the top. While families do have their moments of sentimentality, in this book you have scene after scene. Introduction of a recipe, means a family flashback and then some type of truism. One or two would have been meaningful. But as the same rote was repeated over and over again, it became meaningless.

Disappointingly this is not a book I can recommend.

I received this book "The Recipe Box" from Netgalley for my honest review.

I really liked this book and the recipes! I will have to go back and try to print some of the ones I want to make. The story was a page turner and down to earth. I loved the family aspect of the entire book. You will fall in love with the characters. Sam finally finds out where she belongs - I didn't want the story to end.