Friendship key ingredient of ‘Recipe Club’

Lilly and Valerie grew up together sharing secrets, laughter, tears and, unbeknown to them, a whole lot more. But their friendship ends, and 26 years pass before they speak to one another again.

As they slowly become reacquainted, the one memory each holds dear is of their Recipe Club. The women reminisce about their shared pasts, recalling the letters and recipes they passed back and forth. Theses memories have the potential to rekindle their friendship or dredge up events that each would rather forget.

In the uniquely presented friendship novel “The Recipe Club,” Andrea Israel and Nancy Garfinkel incorporate the women's letters and recipes from childhood to adulthood, as well as the e-mails they exchange when they become reunited after Val’s mother’s passing. The transition documented in these letters as the girls go from best of friends to broody teenagers to young women with closely guarded secrets is fascinating.

Valerie and Lilly’s parents were friends, socializing frequently, and as a result the girls became close. But there was always something not quite right revolving around the adults, and it is this tension that is reflected throughout the girls’ lives. After Lilly and her family move away, she and Val share their hopes, dreams and secret wishes through their correspondence, always including a new recipe each had found and wanted the other to try.

As they grow older their friendship begins to wane, and one final blowup occurs. Words are said that can’t be taken back. The friends go their own ways, raising families and developing careers. But they were never far away from each other in their hearts.

Just as they begin to rekindle their relationship, a revealed secret, kept quiet by their parents for decades, threatens to tear Val and Lilly apart. Can their friendship survive the one thing each had suspected but never had the courage to give voice?

Israel and Garfinkel have done a magnificent job of creating intrigue and drama through the series of letters and correspondence in “The Recipe Club” that readers will find memorable. Plus the 80-plus recipes that appear throughout the book are a delicious added bonus.