2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss The Secret to Hummingbird Cake by Celeste Fletcher McHale.

Pages: 304 pages

Length: 1 Month (November)

Participants: Eileen, Theresa.

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.


Happy Buddy Reading!

I will likely start this one within the first week of the month.

My first buddy read! :)

Sunshine wrote: "I have this book! May I join in the discussion too?"

Of course ! :D

Theresa, same here. I finish the book that I am currently reading then I start this one. Looking forward to it :D

I'm starting the book this weekend! :)

I'm just scrolling through posts and saw this one. I read this not too long ago. Such a great story. Enjoy! Will the discussion take place in this thread? I may pop back in and see what everyone else thought about it and discuss, if that's OK.

I'm only 5 chapters in, so far.

I am also at Chapter 5. I really enjoy the pace of the book, I really like how the author describes the town and the lives of the inhabitants. It's been a while since I wanted to read a book about the South of the US. In my mind it's very accurate but what do I know, I'm from Belgium and currently living in Vancouver so I really have no clue hahaha

I'm liking it better the further in I get. I'm curious to know more about the relationship between Carrigan and her husband.

I just finished the book. Overall I did like it, ended up giving it 4 stars. It was not at all what I was expecting, after reading the back cover but it was still good.
I liked the writing and I thought that the author described the South really well.
What I liked less : (view spoiler)[ I thought that the author could have spent more time on the joyous and nice things in life. The chapters where positive things happen are really short whereas the negative and sad thing are really long (the 9 months of Carrigan's pregnancy are described in 4 chapters but Laine dying + her funeral take half of the book)
I also wished that Ella Rae would remain childfree. To me it was clear that she didn't want to be a mother and I don't see the addition of a child in the Epilogue as necessary for her character development. I think it's time that childless women (by choice and happy) are more represented in modern literature and that babies stop to be represented as something mandatory in a couple. She could have been the fun Aunt that gives everybody candy haha (hide spoiler)]