So I have this obsession with cupcakes. It probably started the day my sister looked me dead in the eye, frowned a bit and said, “Cupcakes remind me of you.” Not that I remind Katie of cupcakes, mind you, but that when she sees a cupcake, she thinks of me.
I guess that’s sweet?
It’s in that spirit that I quickly grabbed Sarah Strohmeyer’s Sweet Love not too long after finishing her awesome novel The Sleeping Beauty Proposal and, earlier this year, The Penny Pinchers Club. Aside from the delicious confection on the cover, Strohmeyer has proven her stories are infused with all the love, heart and humor I crave from women’s fiction.
Forty-something Julie Mueller lives with her elderly parents and teenage daughter Em outside Boston, Mass., where her days are filled to bursting with covering local news for a TV station as broadcast journalist. Since her divorce from Donald in her early twenties, Julie has dedicated herself to her family — and though decades have passed, her childhood crush on Michael Slayton, her older brother’s best friend, has always burned a little hole in her heart.
Betty, Julie’s mom, has carried her guilt like an ever-present backpack from putting the kibosh on Julie and Michael’s delicate romance all those years ago — and, as she sees more and more how happy the couple could have been, Betty resolves to find a way of bringing them back together. And this time, she won’t stand in their way.
Of course, it’s not as easy as Betty would like to believe — particularly since Michael, a political advisor, and her daughter have a longstanding grudge. Six years before the start of the novel, Julie broke open a scandal on the political candidate Michael backed professionally — and he hasn’t quite forgiven her for, you know, maintaining her journalistic integrity and not holding the piece until the political team had time to do damage control (yeah, because that’s how it works). So when the two are drawn together due to Betty’s scheming, sparks don’t exactly fly — not even in the dessert class in which they both enroll to learn about delicious creations at the hand of French chef Rene D’Ours.
But love — like baking — takes time.
As in her other novels, Strohmeyer does a remarkable job of bringing to life fun, imaginative and realistic characters you truly feel you know by the closing chapter — and I really empathized with Julie as she struggled to hold it all together and battle her unresolved feelings for Michael. The excuses they both used to stay apart seemed really thin, and that bothered me a little — I wanted to reach in, pull them both by their collars and mash their faces together! My irritation over their stubborn resolve became more and more grating the longer I read. Still, I was pleased with the way things were resolved!
Michael is a huge Shakespeare buff — and the Bard’s occasionally whimsical, often astute quotes begin each chapter of the story. These excerpts were really fun to read and helped provide a framework to the whole tale, making it transcend “standard” women’s fiction for me. And each Strohmeyer book seems to include a plot twist that really turns everything you thought you knew on its head — and Sweet Love was no exception. Though the revelations in the novel weren’t as unexpected as those in, say, The Sleeping Beauty Proposal, I still enjoyed watching them unravel. While the story was actually a little darker than I expected, it certainly wasn’t without its light — and, of course, the sadness helped make the joy all the sweeter.
I can’t say I’ve walked away from this one a changed reader, but Sweet Love was definitely a solid novel about first love, family, motherhood and sacrifices. The cover-art cupcake — and many, many references to dessert and cooking — brought an added plot sweetness that’s perfect for lovers of contemporary fiction and mother/daughter stories. Just make sure you have a Kleenex handy for some of the ups and downs.
3.5 out of 5!
ISBN: 0451226909 ♥ Purchase from Amazon ♥ Author Website
Copy purchased by Meg
We all know the story of Sleeping Beauty: the gorgeous princess, cursed by an evil sorceress, will sleep in her tower until a handsome prince wakes her with true love’s first kiss. So we’re all Sleeping Beauties, modern society might have us believe — breathing but slumbering until our very own Prince Charming arrives to pull us from our life-long sleep so our “real life” can begin.
Lost in the lush, comfortable world of shopping-as-sport, suburban mom, wife and interior designer Kat Griffiths is about to get one serious reality check on the world of consumerism, wants and needs. When Kat digs into her family’s finances for the first time in her life, she can’t believe how bad the damage has become.
Far more complicated, time-consuming and stressful than making sure I have the right clothes, shoes and sunscreen to take on vacation is deciding which books to take. My family vacations at the Outer Banks every summer — and every summer, I struggle with making sure I have the right novels to accompany me on my much-needed break!
“Beach reads” are, by their nature, light, breezy and often funny novels that can be read and absorbed quickly while, say, sitting out in the blazing hot sunshine with the dull roar of waves crashing behind you. I happen to think it’s a little mean to narrowly classify books as “beach reads” — often meaning they’re a little silly, not really worth thinking about — but there are some books that are just such fun, it’s easy to label them in that category.
Sarah Dessen’s Along For The Ride
Maureen Johnson’s Suite Scarlett
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