Title: Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Genre: Contemporary, Women’s Fiction
Length: 427 pages
Book Rating: C+
Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley
Summary:
A smart, quirky contemporary cupcake book of recipes and friendship, fans of Sophie Kinsella, will be heading for their mixers to create a story as sweet and complex as Issy’s.
Issy Randall can bake. No, Issy can create stunning, mouthwateringly divine cakes. So when she loses her desk job, she starts her own café and finds life can be tougher, and sweeter, than she ever dreamed.
After a childhood spent in her beloved Grampa Joe’s bakery, Issy has undoubtedly inherited his talent. She’s much better at baking than she is at filing so when she’s laid off from her desk job, Issy decides to open her own little café. But she soon learns that her piece-of-cake plan will take all of her courage and confectionary talent to avert disaster.
Funny and sharp, Meet Me at the Cupcake Café is about how life might not always taste like you expect, but there’s always room for dessert!
Review:
Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan is a novel of new beginnings, friendship and love.
After unexpectedly losing her job, thirty-one year old Isabel “Issy” Randall becomes a new business owner after opening a cupcake shop. She is also getting over a broken heart since her secret romance with her boss Graeme ends at the same time she is made redundant. Issy has a treasure trove of recipes from her beloved Grampa Joe whose health is rapidly declining. She has a supportive flatmate and friend, Helena, who does not hesitate to tell Issy the truth about the mistakes she is making. Needing help in her cafe, Issy hires single mum Pearl McGregor, whose little boy, Louis, easily steals their customers’ hearts. She also hires wealthy soon to be divorcee, Caroline, whose life “problems” include possibly losing her swanky home in her divorce. Just as Issy begins getting her life back on track, Graeme reappears but does he have her best interests at heart?
Issy is a pushover who is also a bit immature. She allows Graeme dictate the terms of their “relationship” and she is content with the scraps of attention he throws her way. It soon becomes obvious that Issy might be settling for second best as she watches her friends settle down and start families of their own. She does have a sound idea for the cupcake cafe, but will Issy step out of her comfort zone in order to make her new endeavor a success?
Issy is fascinated by her banker, Austin Tyler, but she knows better than to mix business with pleasure. He is a handsome man whose life took an unexpected detour years earlier when he became the guardian of his much younger brother, Darny. Austin is somewhat disorganized but he does have sharp instincts. He is attracted to Issy but he is also wary of becoming involved with a client. Just as he decides to see if a relationship might be possible with Issy, Austin feels betrayed when a shocking business proposition crosses his desk. Could he have completely misjudged Issy?
Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe has a cute storyline but the pacing is a rather slow. Issy is an annoying character who really needs to stand up for herself. Austin is a charming man but his life is a bit of a disaster. Pearl and Helena are fantastic secondary characters who are quite lovely. The recipes are a nice addition but some of the passages are difficult to slog through because they are soooo long-winded and loaded with extraneous details. Jenny Colgan wraps up the novel with a lovely epilogue that hints at a possible future for Issy and Austin.
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