50 in 2012: Book Twenty Seven

How to Bake a Perfect Life by Barbara O’Neal

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ramona Gallagher mastered the art of bread making while surviving one of the most turbulent phases of her life: teenage pregnancy. Now, grown and asked to look after her daughter Sophia’s teenage stepdaughter while Sophia travels to be by her wounded soldier’s side, Ramona turns to the one thing that has always been a consistent source of calm…her bread. Katie has been abandoned by everyone she loves in one way or another: her addict mother has been arrested and carted off to jail, her father deployed to Afghanistan, her stepmother travels to be by her father’s side, leaving Katie utterly alone with a stranger she has never met before: Ramona.

The subplot of Ramona’s daughter and her severely wounded husband was far more poignant to me than the actual main story. His struggle to adjust to his new standard of life and come to grasps with his new reality brought me to tears. All the while, his eight month’s pregnant wife remains steadfast by his side. I wish their story was given more weight. An easy, okay read…