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Scrumpy Delight for Polly Pinch
A luminous, tender-hearted debut novel about a young widow, a nine-year-old girl, and a baking contest that will change both their lives.
Rose-Ellen 'Zell' Carmichael Roy wears her late husband Nick's camouflage apron even when she's not in the kitchen. She can't remember the last time she wore a bra, and she speaks to her dog in the voice of a pirate. That's her widow style. It's been over a year since Nick died tragically during a post-Katrina relief mission in New Orleans. Long enough, according to the grief pamphlets, to have begun moving on with her life. But Zell is still unable to enter her attic, which is full of Nick memories. She hasn't even turned on her oven because cooking was Nick's chore. That is, until she decides to enter celebrity chef Polly Pinch's first annual Desserts that Warm the Soul baking contest, hoping to win the $20,000 grand prize to donate to Katrina survivors in Nick's honor.
Meanwhile, in the adjacent apartment of Zell's two-family house, nine-year-old Ingrid Knox is learning to cope with the loneliness of growing up without a mother. With an imagination as big as her heart, Ingrid treasures her doting father but begins to plot how she will meet her mother, whom she fiercely believes is Polly Pinch.
When an embarrassing baking mishap brings Zell and Ingrid together, they form an unlikely friendship that will alter both of their lives forever. Together, and with the help of a lively and loveable cast of friends and family, they embark on winning the Desserts that Warm the Soul contest - and learn that through the many sorrows and joys of life, with friendship, community and love, anything is possible.
Rose-Ellen 'Zell' Carmichael Roy wears her late husband Nick's camouflage apron even when she's not in the kitchen. She can't remember the last time she wore a bra, and she speaks to her dog in the voice of a pirate. That's her widow style. It's been over a year since Nick died tragically during a post-Katrina relief mission in New Orleans. Long enough, according to the grief pamphlets, to have begun moving on with her life. But Zell is still unable to enter her attic, which is full of Nick memories. She hasn't even turned on her oven because cooking was Nick's chore. That is, until she decides to enter celebrity chef Polly Pinch's first annual Desserts that Warm the Soul baking contest, hoping to win the $20,000 grand prize to donate to Katrina survivors in Nick's honor.
Meanwhile, in the adjacent apartment of Zell's two-family house, nine-year-old Ingrid Knox is learning to cope with the loneliness of growing up without a mother. With an imagination as big as her heart, Ingrid treasures her doting father but begins to plot how she will meet her mother, whom she fiercely believes is Polly Pinch.
When an embarrassing baking mishap brings Zell and Ingrid together, they form an unlikely friendship that will alter both of their lives forever. Together, and with the help of a lively and loveable cast of friends and family, they embark on winning the Desserts that Warm the Soul contest - and learn that through the many sorrows and joys of life, with friendship, community and love, anything is possible.
242 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 1, 2010
21 people want to read
About the author
Alicia Bessette
6 books303 followersAlicia Bessette is the Edgar® Award-nominated author of the bestselling Outer Banks Bookshop mystery series. Before writing fiction, she worked as a reporter in her home state of Massachusetts, where her journalism won a first-place award from the New England Newspaper & Press Association. A pianist, published poet, and enthusiastic birdwatcher, she now loves living in coastal North Carolina with her husband, novelist Matthew Quick. https://www.instagram.com/aliciabesse...
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