2013 March Archive - Teddyrose Book Reviews Plus

Thanks to Deb Tobias of Joan Schulhafer Publishing & Media Consulting, I am giving away one copy of The Union Street Bakery.

Book Description:

Life can turn on a dime. It’s a common cliché, and I’d heard it often enough. People die or move away. Investments go south. Affairs end. Loved ones betray us…Stuff happens.

Daisy McCrae’s life is in tatters. She’s lost her job, broken up with her boyfriend, and has been reduced to living in the attic above her family’s store, the Union Street Bakery, while learning the business. Unfortunately, the bakery is in serious hardship. Making things worse is the constant feeling of not being a “real” McCrae since she was adopted as a child and has a less-than-perfect relationship with her two sisters.

Then a long-standing elderly customer passes away, and for some reason bequeaths Daisy a journal dating back to the 1850s, written by a slave girl named Susie. As she reads, Daisy learns more about her family—and her own heritage—than she ever dreamed. Haunted by dreams of the young Susie, who beckons Daisy to “find her,” she is compelled to look further into the past of the town and her family.

What she finds are the answers she has longed for her entire life, and a chance to begin again with the courage and desire she thought she lost for good.

Excerpt:

I pushed open the window, closed my eyes, and inhaled the early morning air. The scent of honeysuckle laced the air. The twisting, twining vine had bloomed a month early this year, and reminded me of the day my birth mother kissed my cheek on a crowded Saturday afternoon at the bakery. She pushed a plate of butter cookies toward me and whispered, “Be a good girl. I will be back soon.”

Even though I was three, I had sat patiently nibbling my cookies, watching red sprinkles pepper my yellow skirt, waiting and expecting my mother to return. In those days, time always felt like forever but I was used to waiting for my birth mother, so I didn’t panic or cry. It was Sheila McCrae, the young hippie bakery shop owner with five- and three-year-old daughters of her own who had noticed I had sat alone and unattended for too long. She called for a search that quickly became frantic.

I remember Sheila’s husband, Frank McCrae, talking to the police, the social worker speaking to me softly, and me screaming bloody murder when they tried to lead me away. “No!” I’d shouted. “Mama!”

Sheila McCrae had pulled the social worker aside and told her I could stay at the bakery as long as I wanted. Some compromise had been struck and Mrs. McCrae had told me I could wait for my mother. Finally I stopped crying. They’d coaxed me inside, found a change of clothes for me, and fed me supper. I sat awake in bed, clutching the sheets, still hoping my mom would return. Finally, I’d drifted to sleep.

My birth mother never came back that night or the nights that followed. The police launched a search. The river had been dragged. There’d been newscasts and articles that flashed my picture and the few statistics the McCraes had coaxed from me. But no one had come forward with information on the Abandoned Bakeshop Baby.

I had only vague recollections of my birth mother: the scent of peppermints, the feel of her fingertips as she brushed hair out of my eyes, and the husky sound of her voice as she sang her one and only lullaby, “Rock-A-Bye-Baby.”

The police never found or discovered her true identity. I gave my birth mother the made-up name of Renee because it sounded very exotic. But the name Renee was as much a part of my imagination as the images of her that I had created. With no facts to anchor Renee, her story and likeness often shifted when I daydreamed. A destitute woman. A movie actress. A spy. But no matter who she was or what she looked like, she loved me, and deeply regretted leaving me behind.

Sheila and Frank McCrae, even before the Commonwealth terminated Renee’s parental rights, effortlessly wove me into their family. The McCraes formally adopted me almost a year to the day Renee left. Both of my new parents did their best to make me feel loved in their home. When Mom dispensed candy, each of her daughters got five pieces. When Christmas rolled around we each had six wrapped presents under the tree. We bought back-to-school supplies at the same time, and in elementary school we each ended up with the same style backpack and the same white Nikes.

But in my mind, I was a loose stray thread that was a little too off color and uneven to fully mesh with the delicate Irish McCrae linen.

Now as I stared at the patio, a rush of anger flooded my body. Whenever I go back to the early years with Renee, I become frustrated that I cannot remember more than cookie sprinkles on my yellow skirt.

© Mary Burton

About Mary Ellen Taylor:

Mary Ellen Taylor grew up in a southern family that embraced stories of all kinds, from a well-told anecdote to a good yarn or a tall tale. It may have been inevitable that Taylor would take her storytelling heritage to new heights, moving beyond the oral tradition to become a published author.

Taylor, who finds cooking and baking to be important creative outlets, explores some of the challenges and comforts of those pursuits in THE UNION STREET BAKERY. The novel is influenced by her life in another way as well. Both her grandmother and her daughter were adopted, and so is her protagonist, Daisy McCrae. Taylor has been active in bringing attention to issues regarding adoption, including the concerns faced by adoptees in adulthood. Recently, she and her daughter, born in Russia, spoke out on Richmond’s WTTB-TV regarding that country’s efforts to curb adoptions by foreigners.

Taylor was born and has spent most of her life in Richmond, but also lived in Alexandria for four years. She received her degree in English from Virginia’s Hollins University, and worked in marketing and sales before she became convinced she could write and sell one of the many stories swirling in her head. Today, nineteen of her romance and suspense novels and four novellas written as Mary Burton have been published, earning praise from readers and reviewers as well as spots on The New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. THE UNION STREET BAKERY is her first novel as Mary Ellen Taylor.

When not writing or appearing at conferences and book signings, Taylor continues her culinary pursuits. She’s been a kitchen assistant for more than fifty culinary classes over the past seven years at Sur la Table and at the University of Richmond’s Culinary Arts program, where she is currently completing her Baking and Pastry Arts Certificate. In addition to spending time with her family and her two miniature dachshunds, Buddy and Bella, Mary Ellen enjoys yoga and hiking.

This giveaway is open to Canada and the U.S. and ends on April 5, 2013. Please use Rafflecopter to enter.

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Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcie at Mailbox Monday. In March, it is being hosted by Caitlan of Chaotic Compendiums.

It’s been over a month since I have taken part in this meme, so here is what I have received since the last time: