Apologies for my lack of posts lately, I haven't been writing because I haven't been reading, or at least finishing books. I must have read a bit of about five different books but nothing stuck for me. Thankfully the book drought seems to be over as I finished this rather delightful book today.
'Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe' is Jenny Colgan's twelfth book and the first of hers I've read. Aesthetically it is such a pretty book and I love the title too. About 6 years ago I read a wonderful book called 'Sophie's Bakery for the Broken Hearted' by Lolly Winston and when I discovered this book I hoped I'd find something similar. Although the story here is more gentle it's certainly engaging and completely absorbing.
The story centres around Issy, a rather wallflower type character who has inherited her love of baking from her Grandfather. When she gets made redundant from her job as an estate agency, she decides to invest her redundancy money into starting her own business. The chapters are integrated with tried and tested cake recipes which I loved, and as the book progresses the reader gets to follow Issy on her journey to success.
Like all good girlie stories there is a suitably hopeless lovelife with a completely vacuous git as well as a rather dreamy alternative with some interesting baggage. Issy's friend Helena and colleagues Pearl and Caroline are always on-hand with both sage and, often unwanted, advice. As 'Meet me at the Cupcake Cafe' is a rather long book I felt I could really get immersed in the story and the pacing felt just right. Issy's business doesn't go from zero to hero overnight and this made the story completely credible. Issy is a really easy to like and everyday character and her Grandfather is lovingly developed.
This book definitely put a smile on my face (as well as making me desperate to try all of the cakes it mentions!) and got me out of my reading slump. I really want to attempt following one of the recipes now and I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes romantic stories, particularly if you share my sweet tooth!
Four Stars
I really Jenny Colgan, her books have definitely put a smile on my face over the years. ANd I do quite love cupcakes. I'm glad you found a book to wrench you out of your book slumps - those are dreadful things!
ReplyDeleteI've got this on my Kindle waiting for me to read it - really looking forward to it now I've read your review :)
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