"It isn't always blood that makes a family," says one of the characters in The Secret to Hummingbird Cake, a witty and heartwarming first novel by Celeste Fletcher McHale. The story is set in the small town of Bon Dieu Falls, La., and follows three 30-year-old women, friends since the age of five and a kind of family.
Carrigan, the narrator, is a fiery redhead who's been married for 13 years. She harbors suspicions about her handsome husband's fidelity--and she has partaken in a secret, regrettable indiscretion of her own. Carrigan's spitfire best friend, Ella Rae, married her childhood sweetheart and is still so madly in love with him that Carrigan swears the two of them "breathed in unison." Laine, Carrigan's other best friend, is the responsible, levelheaded one of the bunch. Still single, Laine, caring and good-natured, is a much-beloved high school English teacher, famous for the creamy icing and sweet pineapple of her Hummingbird Cake, a Southern staple. Yet, she refuses to share her recipe even with her closest friends, even though they beg.
Carrigan grapples with her troubled marriage, trying to repair what's broken through the encouragement and support of her friends, who also face life-changing challenges and heartrending secrets. Fletcher McHale blends the sassy and the sentimental--drizzling spiritual crises atop everything--and whips up a wholesome story about the transcendent, everlasting bonds of friendship and love. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines