“I left my wedding dress hanging in a tree somewhere in
North Dakota. I don’t know why that particular tree
appealed to me. Perhaps it was because it looked as if it
had given up and died years ago and was still standing
because it didn’t know what else to do…”
In her deliciously funny, heartfelt, and moving debut,
Cathy Lamb introduces some of the most wonderfully
eccentric women since The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya
Sisterhood and The Secret Life of Bees, as she
explores the
many ways we find the road home.
From the moment Julia Bennett leaves her abusive Boston
fiancé at the altar and her ugly wedding dress hanging from
a tree in South Dakota, she knows she’s driving away from
the old Julia, but what she’s driving toward is as messy
and undefined as her own wounded soul. The old Julia dug
her way out of a tortured, trailer park childhood with a
monster of a mother. The new Julia will be found at her
Aunt Lydia’s rambling, hundred-year-old farmhouse outside
Golden, Oregon.
There, among uppity chickens and toilet bowl planters,
Julia is welcomed by an eccentric, warm, and often wise
clan of women, including a psychic, a minister’s unhappy
wife, an abused mother of four, and Aunt Lydia herself—a
woman who is as fierce and independent as they come.
Meeting once a week for drinks and the baring of souls, it
becomes clear that every woman holds secrets that keep her
from happiness. But what will it take for them to brave
becoming their true selves? For Julia, it’s chocolate. All
her life, baking has been her therapy and her refuge, a way
to heal wounds and make friends. Nobody anywhere makes
chocolates as good as Julia’s, and now, chocolate just
might change her life—and bring her love when she least
expects it. But it can’t keep her safe. As Julia gradually
opens her heart to new life, new friendships, and a new
man, the past is catching up to her. And this time, she
will not be able to run but will have to face it head on.
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