Rating: 
Summary: Tasty, But Not Enough Icing
Review: "Friendship Cake" is a nice Christian fiction book about a group of Methodist women getting together to create a church cookbook. The characterizations are well done with the group evolving into special friends. The book has been compared to the Mitford Series, and I did not find it to be so. Every book taking place in the south and having a church as its background does not a Mitford book make. The book lacks the sparkling characters, dialogue and for the most part deep-down warmth that the Mitford series brings us. However, by book's end I found myself just getting to know the characters and liking them. I would like to see a sequel to "Friendship Cake" with the same cast.
Rating: 
Summary: The Cookbook Committee Votes YES!
Review: A mostly very gentle read, tracking the lives of the ladies on the Cookbook Committee, and their pastor. Through tragedy and heartbreak, sickness, pregnancy, late life love and mixed marriage issues, the characters find that faith really can heal all wounds. The characters are lovingly and honestly portrayed, all with their particular "edge" (as well as their particular recipe). A celebration of faith, grace, counting blessings and coming together despite it all - our very own Cookbook Committee is passing this delightful little volume around!If you like this book Mamalinda would also recommend Jan Karon's Mitford series, and The Blue Bottle Club by Penelope Stokes, two other North Carolina writers of gentle fiction!
Rating: 
Summary: Friendship and Food!
Review: A sweet, cozy book with recipes included. There is something about a good story that involves food that speaks to my heart. This will remind you of your grandmother's recipes and your mother's special dishes.
Rating:
Summary: Oh my.
Review: As I read the first quarter of Friendship Cake (for a bookclub) I thought it was prosaic and not very well conceived. I'm so glad that it was an 'assignment' and because of that, that I finished it.
The book touched on so many aspects of the angst women feel at any age but particularly as they move into late middle age and beyond. The subjects reflected in the story are timely and will always be current: bigotry, doubt of self and God, homosexuality, infidelity, love, self-righteousness, conflict, resolution, death, birth, interacial marriage and most of all, the bonds of friendship. All of these are wrapped into one slim volume; five hours of reading. I laughed, cried, and more importantly, took away a feeling of hope.
Read the whole thing...it is worth it.
Rating:
Summary: The best kind of simple
Review: As the members of the Cookbook Committee of the Hope Springs Community Church gather to0 collect and sort recipes for a cookbook, they also bring their life experiences and hopes and burdens. Five very different women begin to form a bond of friendship, and that bond is tested by the daily trials of life. One by one they come to terms with pieces of their lives and realize they are not alone, and do not have to face life's difficulties alone. This is a tender book that helps to answer one of the pressing questions almost everyone asks at one time or another....am I alone? All kinds of difficulties abound, an unplanned pregnancy, the end of life, illness, rediscovered love, even the uneasy relationship between people who are different. All five women face these tests with humor and tenacity.....and carry the others along. Thw simple sweetness of this book will linger long after the pages are closed. P.S. The recipes interspersed throughout the book are pure southern cooking, the only thing missing is a really good biscuit recipe!
Rating: 
Summary: Lost Potential
Review: Being a local author, I was excited about new talent. The basis of the book had potential, but honestly I felt it never quite reached it. The characters were well-drawn but sometimes ran together, I believe because they were not well defined enough in the beginning. Some of the stories were very touching and you could almost feel their pain...almost. I think this author is too young to be compared to Anne Rivers Siddons, she's just not in that ballpark as of yet. However, I will read her next effort because I believe this author will get better in time.
Rating:
Summary: An Inspiring Christian Read
Review: Enough friendships and recipes to bring five Christian women together to form an alliance to be there for each other through various tribes and tribulations.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent first novel
Review: First novel based in the South where a group of women meet over coffee and desert. As tragic conditions hit their lives, they grow closer together. I was happy to see church provided in a real way in the life of these women. I hope to see more from this new author. I recommend it to all to read.
Rating:
Summary: Friendship Cake Fell Flat
Review: Friendship Cake fell a little flat for me. I had high expectations and was looking for a touching story about friendship. This novel does have a cute story about a circle of women who are all members of Hope Springs Community Church. In an effort to cultivate their friendships one of the ladies decides the group should work on a church cookbook. We get introduced to a little bit about each character's lives, but I felt that the author just scratched the surface and there wasn't a lot of substance. It is an easy, light read and if you liked The Persian Pickle Club, you would probably like this novel as well. I felt it had the right ingredients, but they just weren't stirred up enough to cook up any real emotion.
Rating:
Summary: A pleasant book about friendship
Review: Friendship Cake is a very fast a pleasant book to read. I found the characters believable and likeable and the story held my interest. Plus the recipes sounded very delicious and I plan to try some of them. The book is about five women who have been attending the same church for yearsand they are working together on a Cook Book for the church. While they are working on the book they form a strong friendship and they are able to help each other during some trying times in their lives. I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it.
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