The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie

“You just need to follow your bliss as best you can. If you follow the light, no matter how dark the circumstances, things will come out right in the end. That’s the true recipe for joy in this life. That’s the true magic of lemon drop pie.”Lolly is almost thirty-three and her life looks nothing like she thought it would.She’s managing her family’s struggling diner and it consumes her life. She doesn’t have much time to focus on anything else. When she finds her teen diary, she feels even more despondent. She hasn’t made any of the things happen that she dreamed about.When she tells her eccentric aunt about her unrealized dreams, Gertrude gives her a rare gift. The opportunity to explore the what-ifs of her life. To see what her life would’ve looked like if things had turned out differently. To see how she would be and who she would be with if she’d made different choices. She has three chances to open her eyes. Three pieces of lemon drop candy that will give her three days to explore other versions of her life.Each of her hopes for the future, scrawled in that journal, was very distinct. Each hope was something she thought she wanted. When she’s given the chance to live a single day in each of those lives, she realizes that none of them is exactly what she imagined. That for the realization of each of those dreams something else in her life was sacrificed.She’s been in love with the same man since she was thirteen years old. Twenty years later, her affection hasn’t waned. Even though she hasn’t seen him in years and he’s dwelling in wedded bliss in the torrid heat of Florida. She told Rory they were done when her mother passed unexpectedly. Because Lolly had to step into those shoes and care for her sister and father, and make sure the family diner was sustainable. She broke his heart and her own when she ended it.Lolly learns that some things are meant to shape us, even if they are tragic and life-altering and leave us mangled and ruined. She learns that life is about second chances and uncertain magic. She learns that the choices you make don’t always diverge you from the path you were meant to take, that sometimes the world sees fit to give you the things you’ve always longed for.This was a sweet, lovely, fade to black romance. It tackled delicate family issues and personal disappointment with finesse and aplomb.Highly recommended for readers of Sarah Addison Allen and Alice Hoffman.