Tuesday 19 March 2019

Review: The Sweetness of Forgetting by Kristin Harmel

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.

Hope’s emotional journey takes her through the bakeries of Paris and three religious traditions, all guided by Mamie’s fairy tales and the sweet tastes of home. As Hope pieces together her family’s history, she finds horrific Holocaust stories mixed with powerful testimonies of her family’s will to survive in a world gone mad. And to reunite two lovers torn apart by terror, all she’ll need is a dash of courage, and the belief that God exists everywhere, even in cake. . . .



Kindle Edition, 368 pages
Published August 7th 2012 by Gallery Books
Genre: Historical Fiction

Kristine's Thoughts:

I listened to this book in audio format after my sister and co-blogger recommended it to me. Kristin Harmel is not a new author to me. I read The Room on Rue Amelie last year and loved it.

Hope was a single mother who lost her own mother and her husband and was also about to lose the bakery that had been in her family for decades. On top of all that, she was slowly losing her grandmother to Alzheimer's disease. On a visit to her beloved Mamie, she gave her a list of names and some money to go to Paris and find out what happened to them. At first Hope thought she was confused but with a little investigating a shocking secret came to life and she knew she had to do as her Mamie wished. There were secrets long buried in the past that needed to be discovered.

That's all I am going to say about the plot. It really needs to be read to be appreciated. Instead I will say that it was a beautiful story that took place over the period of seventy years. At the heart it was family and relationships and it showed the lengths that people would go to protect the ones that they love. It tackled war, religion, love and secrets that were at risk of being buried forever. It was truly stunning.

It wasn't just Mamie's story that captivated me but also Hope's. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing how by discovering the secrets of her grandmother's past it helped her to grow and uncover who she really was. I was in her corner the entire time and hoping for a positive outcome. Throw in some baked goods and who could ask for anything more?

The only negative thing that I have to say doesn't have anything to do with the story at all. I did not enjoy the narrator on this audiobook. I found her voice weak and her timing terrible and her accents sketchy. It took me a while to get past it in order to enjoy the story.

The Sweetness of Forgetting was a beautiful, heartwarming story about family, love and war that will stay with me for a long time. I highly recommend it.






About the Author

Kristin Harmel is the international bestselling author of THE SWEETNESS OF FORGETTING, THE LIFE INTENDED, WHEN WE MEET AGAIN, and several other novels. Her latest, THE ROOM ON RUE AMELIE, is out now from Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster. A former reporter for PEOPLE magazine, Kristin has also freelanced for many other publications, including American Baby, Men’s Health, Glamour, Woman’s Day, Travel + Leisure, and more.

Kristin grew up in Peabody, Mass.; Worthington, Ohio; and St. Petersburg, Fla., and she graduated with a degree in journalism (with a minor in Spanish) from the University of Florida. After spending time living in Paris, she now lives in Orlando, Fla., with her husband and young son.



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