In the first instalment of her (currently) two novel series, in her 2016 older middle grade The Secret Cooking Club (and which also appears under the title of Secrets and Scones and which seems to be the original British title), Laurel Remington very astutely and with much empathy, with lots of textual understanding shows how being the subject of her mother's lifestyle blog has made first person narrator Scarlett Cooper's life an utter, an absolutely all-encompassing misery and has caused her so much embarrassment especially at school that Scarlett has very deliberately withdrawn from most social contact, has become pretty much a total hermit in many ways (basically transforming herself into someone completely introverted and almost unseen, keeping all of her feelings, thoughts etc. internal and private so as to deprive her mother of blog-able material and details to post about and to discuss, and indeed, if I were twelve year old Scarlett Cooper and my mother was constantly blogging about me on social media, I would do exactly the same, but just to further point out that I personally speaking actually find Scarlett even a trifle too understanding and too forgiving regarding her mother and her social media shenanigans).
Also and honestly, reading about that so-called Mummy Blog in The Secret Cooking Club, it not only makes me hugely and completely sympathise and empathise with Scarlett (and to completely agree with how she decides to approach this by basically shutting down and keeping everything inside, by denying her mother material for blogging), it also kind of makes me totally and vehemently despise everything about Scarlett Cooper's mother. Therefore, major kudos to Remington for in The Secret Cooking Club textually pointing out the issues and the dangers of parents (and in particular mothers) blogging about parenting and their children, of basically exposing every part of their children's lives on social media for everyone to read and which as someone who has always been very introverted and very private totally makes me want to scream and to also tell Scarlett's mother that she is being at best totally tone-deaf towards her daughter and towards her needs and at worst emotionally abusive and horribly neglectful.
And yes, the (delightfully glorious) transformation of Scarlett Cooper's life (and also the textual emergence of The Secret Cooking Club as a food preparation themed novel, although I am also really glad that Laurel Remington does not make everything in The Secret Cooking Club about cooking, baking etc. either) begins when she gets to use an amazing kitchen and discovers a very old family recipe book whilst feeding an elderly neighbour's cat, with Mrs. Simpson in the hospital after a fall and allowing Scarlett to use her kitchen, and that yes, Scarlett and Mrs. Simpson's intergenerational friendship really makes The Secret Cooking Club special for me, although I have equally hugely enjoyed reading about Scarlett with her baking and her cooking in Mrs. Simposn's wonderful and fully stocked kitchen gaining confidence, self esteem and that her budding friendship with and also interested in cooking and baking new girl Violet also majorly makes in particular my inner twelve year old who was shy and struggling with bullying and particularly with making friends smile with appreciation and joyfulness (and that I equally do like how Remington is also not totally and wholly against social media, blogging, the internet etc. in The Secret Cooking Club either but is definitely against it being used problematically, such as what Scarlett's mother is doing with her incessant and constant blogging about her daughter).
Scarlett Cooper's school experiences, her emotional journey and her voice for and throughout The Secret Cooking Club are delightfully rendered, are age appropriate and as such Laurel Remington's penmanship for The Secret Cooking Club reads authentic, never artificial and should equally strike a chord with many teenagers, especially teenaged girls (and with adult readers' inner teenagers as well, which certainly has hugely and absolutely been the case with and for me). And the discovery of friendships through common interests (baking, cooking) is also totally delectable (with a bit of a pun intended), so that my perusal of The Secret Cooking Club has been both pleasurable and rewarding, has been solidly five stars and has me totally looking forward to reading the second novel (but just to point out that Remington's story also will likely have you be craving cakes, scones, tarts, cookies and the like, so perhaps you might want to not consider reading The Secret Cooking Club when you are really hungry, as I have post my perusal of The Secret Cooking Club just finished totally raiding and emptying my cookie jar, ha, ha, ha).