The Ingredients of Us
a delicious, award-winning novel about the sweet and sour ingredients of life and love
BOOK DETAILS:
Buy the book: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or order through your favorite independent bookstore.
Published by: Lake Union Publishing
Release date: July 1, 2019
Pages (paperback): 298
ISBN–13: 978-1542042673
2020 Book Excellence Awards Winner
2020 International Book Award Finalist
International Bestseller on Amazon:
#1 Bestseller in Women’s Fiction About Divorce, United Kingdom
#5 Bestseller in the overall Paid Kindle Store on Amazon, United States
SYNOPSIS:
From debut author Jennifer Gold comes a delicious, award-winning novel about the sweet and sour ingredients of life and love.
Elle, an accomplished baker, has a recipe for every event in her life. But when she discovers her husband’s infidelity, she doesn’t know what to make of it. Jam, maybe? Definitely jam.
Fed up with the stale crumbs of her marriage, Elle revisits past recipes and the events that inspired them. A recipe for scones reminds her of her father’s death, cinnamon rolls signify the problematic courtship with her husband, and a batch of chocolate cookies casts Elle in a less-than-flattering light. Looking back, Elle soon realizes that some ingredients were missing all along.
After confronting her husband, Elle indulges her sweet tooth in other ways, including a rebound that just leaves her more confused. As secrets from the past collide with the conflicts of the present, Elle struggles to manage her bakery business and maintain the relationships most important to her. In piecing her life back together, will Elle learn to take the bitter with the sweet?
Exciting news!
The Ingredients of Us is a 2020 Book Excellence Award Winner
View the whole list of winners on Goodreads!
The Ingredients of Us was also a 2020 International Book Award Finalist in Best New Fiction and Women’s Fiction!
The Recipes Behind the Story
Love doesn’t come with a recipe…good thing desserts exist! I wrote The Ingredients of Us with the recipes included. You can bake the same goodies that my main character, Elle, bakes—straight from the story! I’ve also posted a handful of the recipes here on my website. Try one below.
A note from the author:
Dear Readers,
I am so thrilled to share my debut novel with you!
The idea for this book came out of my time as a baker. While I was in college, I worked part-time in a café making pastries, cookies, cakes—the whole nine. While the job was much less technical than what you might see on the Great British Baking Show, I came away from the experience with a zillion great recipes, better home-baking techniques, and most importantly, the inspiration for “The Ingredients of Us.”
One of the most profound things I learned during my baking days was a recipe’s ability to remind us of togetherness. For instance, sticky buns remind me of Christmastime visits with my grandmother. Crème brulee reminds me of my husband (we always get it on our anniversary). A certain chocolate chip cookie recipe reminds me of the many afternoons my mother and I made it together (the page is so worn and sticky with chocolate we can barely read the page anymore…good thing we have it memorized). So many important moments in our lives are tied to food—I know this not just from personal experience, but from the patrons of the café where I worked, and from early readers of my book.
“The Ingredients of Us” is based on this phenomenon. Of course, it’s about so much more than just baking—love, marriage, friendship, career—but the recipes ground all the other events in Elle’s life. The recipes bring her clarity.
I should note: the book comes with actual recipes that you can bake straight from the page! Cinnamon rolls, pie, chocolate cake…my stomach grumbled every time I sat down to write. My hope is that your stomach grumbles a little, too, and maybe you’ll go bake something delicious and mood-lifting (after you finish the chapter, of course!).
Do you have recipes of your own that remind you of someone? I’d love to know! I feature recipes in my monthly newsletter and maybe I could feature one of yours someday, too.
In the meantime, happy reading.
Stay sweet,
– Jenni
Praise for The Ingredients of Us
“The Ingredients of Us is a literary confection filled with multifaceted characters and a compelling story line. Gold’s bittersweet look at love will satisfy any contemporary women’s fiction reader’s sweet tooth.”
“Come for the story of a baker facing a crisis in her marriage. Stay for the recipes – lush, beautiful things, filled with life lessons. From that very first recipe for passive-aggressive blackberry jam, you know you’re in for something special.”
“A mouthwatering tale that takes you inside a complicated marriage, raising questions about love, fidelity, family, and when career takes over. This book provides a unique take on a perennially interesting topic.”
“The tension builds nicely…Readers will enjoy the heroine’s journey of self-discovery and the recipes for the lemon tarts, brownies, scones, chocolate Bundt cake, and other treats she bakes along the way.”
“A delightful and delicious read, The Ingredients of Us delves into the fabric of marriage and what happens when some ingredients in the relationship are missing. Gold has crafted a smart storyline with memorable characters and mouth-watering recipes that are sure to appeal to fans of Jenny Colgan and Amy E. Reichert.”
“The Ingredients of Us is a delightfully original novel filled with love, regret, and recipes that are themselves like little short stories. You’ll want to cry for Elle as she navigates the breakup of her marriage and flashes back on the earlier, happier days. And then you want to follow her to her kitchen and feast on her buttery concoctions as she finds healing and strength.”
“Take a marriage in crisis, add a heroine you can’t help but root for, and toss in an ending you won’t see coming: Voilà—you’ve got The Ingredients of Us. Jennifer Gold’s debut is deliciously fun.”