Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Annelie Geissler

THE TOWNSEND FAMILY RECIPE FOR DISASTER

Shauna Robinson

A big-hearted novel about a biracial woman looking to reconnect with her Black family.

Mae Townsend is getting married, but instead of the quiet courthouse wedding she always dreamed of, her in-laws have planned a lavish celebration at their winery and everyone is coming. Everyone, except for Mae's family. The Townsends. As a biracial woman, Mae has always felt like the odd one out among her white relatives. Relatives who, despite meaning well, always treated her and her Black father differently. For that reason, she has long wished to know the other side of her family, the Townsends, but her father always kept her from them and never told her why. And now that he's gone, she can't ask him. When her paternal grandmother Althea passes away, Mae decides to head south to attend the funeral, never mind that her wedding is three weeks away and she has a million things to do. Dress fittings, cake tastings, dancing lessonsit can wait. This is her chance. Maybe, just maybe, she'll be able to connect with the family she has always wanted, and perhaps she'll even be able to convince them to come to her wedding. But they are not happy to see her, no one more so than her cousin, Sierra. But Mae persists, and when she learns that Grandma Althea's beloved mac-n-cheese recipe seems to have died with her, she sees it as the perfect excuse to linger with the Townsends a little bit longer: Mae will recreate the recipe, no matter how many times she has to tryand no matter how Sierra gripes about her attempts. But when family secrets come to light, Mae becomes more determined than ever to bring her family together. THE TOWNSEND FAMILY RECIPE FOR DISASTER is sweet, funny, charming, and guaranteed to make you hungry. It's impossible not to root for Mae, who is as endearing as she is an excellent cook, as she realizes what it means to go after the things you really want. Shauna Robinson is the author of MUST LOVE BOOKS, an Indie Next Pick and Amazon Best Book of the Month for Romance for February 2022, and THE BANNED BOOKSHOP OF MAGGIE BANKS, an Amazon Best Book of the Month for Romance for November 2022. She received her Bachelor's degree in English from UC Berkeley and lives in Virginia with her husband and their sleepy greyhound.

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Book Published 2024-07-01 by Sourcebooks

Comments

Mae Townsend barely knows her father's side of the family, so she travels to North Carolina when she receives news that her paternal grandmother has died. Every year, Mae's father returned to his hometown for the annual July 4th barbecue, and, in an attempt to bond with the Townsends, Mae offers to host the barbecue and figure out Althea's secret macaroni-and-cheese recipe. But Mae is unaware of the significance of the event thanks to a family secret, and she soon finds herself reevaluating everything she thought she knew about the Townsends. In this thoughtful story about family connections, Robinson (The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks, 2022) shares Mae's experiences as a biracial woman separated from her Black family for reasons beyond her control. Mae learns how to stand up for herself and what she needs and to speak out against the microaggressions she has quietly tolerated throughout her life, finding herself in the process. Readers who savor novels about food and family, such as Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake (2022), will feel right at home at the Townsend family's table.