What I’m Reading: The Baker’s Secret

I just finished the audio book The Baker’s Secret by Stephen P. Keirnan.  I picked up this one via Hoopla.  I typed in WWII and this was one of the books that came up.  I had seen this book before on Audible but hadn’t wanted to burn a credit.  I’m so glad I waited…I saved a credit.

So how was the book….okay.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, and again, and again.  I prefer books written in first person.  I feel more attached to the main character then.  I love imagining myself as the character.  This was a little clinical for such a heart wrecking story.  The story itself held my interest and I wanted to read more but…I didn’t feel as connected as I thought I might otherwise have had it been written in first person.

Here’s what Amazon had to say:“On June 5, 1944, as dawn rises over a small town on the Normandy coast of France, Emmanuelle is making the bread that has sustained her fellow villagers in the dark days since the Germans invaded her country.

Only twenty-two, Emma learned to bake at the side of a master, Ezra Kuchen, the village baker since before she was born. Apprenticed to Ezra at thirteen, Emma watched with shame and anger as her kind mentor was forced to wear the six-pointed yellow star on his clothing. She was likewise powerless to help when they pulled Ezra from his shop at gunpoint, the first of many villagers stolen away and never seen again.

In the years that her sleepy coastal village has suffered under the enemy, Emma has silently, stealthily fought back. Each day, she receives an extra ration of flour to bake a dozen baguettes for the occupying troops. And each day, she mixes that precious flour with ground straw to create enough dough for two extra loaves—contraband bread she shares with the hungry villagers. Under the cold, watchful eyes of armed soldiers, she builds a clandestine network of barter and trade that she and the villagers use to thwart their occupiers.

But her gift to the village is more than these few crusty loaves. Emma gives the people a taste of hope—the faith that one day the Allies will arrive to save them.”

Amazon readers gave the book 4.5 stars.  I was a little surprised to see that.  The book was good, but I didn’t LOVE it.  I’d give it 4.1 stars.  As I stated above, I think the book would have been so much better written in first person.