Blog Tour+Review : Christmas At The Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan

Christmas at the Cupcake Café

Cupcake Café  # 2

By: Jenny Colgan

Releasing October 14^th, 2014

William Morrow

Blurb

Issy Randall, proud owner of The Cupcake Cafe, is in love and couldn’t be happier. Her new business is thriving and she is surrounded by close friends, even if her cupcake colleagues Pearl and Caroline don’t seem quite as upbeat about the upcoming season of snow and merriment. But when her boyfriend Austin is scouted for a possible move to New York, Issy is forced to face up to the prospect of a long-distance romance. And when the Christmas rush at the cafe - with its increased demand for her delectable creations - begins to take its toll, Issy has to decide what she holds most dear.

This December, Issy will have to rely on all her reserves of courage, good nature and cinnamon, to make sure everyone has a merry Christmas, one way or another. . .

Indulge yourself and your sweet-toothed friends with Jenny Colgan’s new novel, simply bursting with Christmas cupcake recipes and seasonal sugar-fuelled fun.

 Link to Follow Tour:  http://www.tastybooktours.com/2014/09/christmas-at-cupcake-cafe-cupcake-cafe.html

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13596423-christmas-at-the-cupcake-caf?ac=1

Buy Links

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-at-Cupcake-Cafe-Novel-ebook/dp/B00K53EH56/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1410452461

B&N:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/christmas-at-the-cupcake-cafe-jenny-colgan/1113460040?ean=9780062371188

iTunes:  https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/christmas-at-the-cupcake-cafe/id524415333?mt=11

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/christmas-at-the-cupcake-cafe-1/zhaR2ygNd0ie4dITpEBkPA

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine this: You own a café. A café you’ve worked throughout the year to stabilize. You have the perfect boyfriend with a not-so-perfect/too-eco-conscious little brother who doesn’t deter you from loving him so. You’ve built a network of friends who find solace in your café working to earn a living and dreading Christmas is around the corner.

You cannot wait for Christmas to get by. It would be an amazing time of the year for you since for once you have a perfect life (career-wise, relationship-wise and almost family-wise), never mind your adorable boyfriend hasn’t yet proposed but everyone is sure he would pop the question in the season.

Until New York steals him away. Obviously with his question too.

Long-distance might be a hefty task, but you and your boyfriend would pull it off with the grace you exhibit in your kitchen baking the finest cupcakes.

But what if you are not thinking of the future? What if you are not thinking one of you would have to make a big, career compromise to be with each other? What if you are not thinking you would love New York so but not with your boyfriend in it? What if you want your relationship, but with your cupcake café as well? And what if your boyfriend might just have a cupcake girl fetish and might swap you for the first inorganic, industrial, thin and pretty hot cupcake girl New York offers him?

Issy’s dilemma summed up for your delight.

My Review

You know, can anyone ever go wrong with a book filled with cupcake recipes to the max? Yes. They can. But not Jenny Colgan. She demonstrates that not only a baking heroine who shares off recipes and gives a step-by-step instruction manual on how to make each cupcake is enough to win the hearts of all readers (because who doesn’t bake? Because who hasn’t let go watching their weight this festive season? Because who doesn’t adore cupcakes). But with a great storyline to match, how exactly could anyone return their book and demand a refund? A star to the storyline.──★

I loved Issy. So many of you women would relate to her because who doesn’t like a café manager who gives out all their recipes? You would love her for her insatiable need to make everyone around her happy with just the right cupcake for the right mood. You would be rooting for her as she finds it hard not to fall in love with New York even when she’s taking away her boyfriend (because who doesn’t want to be a secret New Yorker at heart?). Her motherly voice is refreshing and her ability to make everything just right would be admired by the reader.──★★

You would also find the other characters interesting. Especially her employees at the cupcake café with their very complicated lives praying for just another Christmas miracle just as Issy is. From  Pearl, the assistant manager who has the most adorable son and dealing with his father who isn’t all too adorable. Caroline, she’s got too much snark in her to light up the café and piss everyone off in the process, going through a divorce and trying to keep a sane head at the same time. Helena, the best friend who’s too occupied with her very obnoxious daughter who is all she seems to talk about when Issy makes an appearance. Issy’s mum who spends her time travelling the world to finding herself enough to bother about her daughter and changing her name frequently to suit every religion she’s taken up. Darny, the too-eco-conscious brother of Austin, Issy’s boyfriend who poses way too much trouble. So much more characters I loved I cannot mention, because I am afraid this review would burst at its seams.──★★★

This book had a very romantic-comedy-like ending that gives you just the right amount of chest-expansion after finishing it. Though very predictable, you would wish you could finish this book at a sitting if the main character wasn’t always insisting you needed to get your Christmas baking over and done with.──★★★★

My rating: Four-point-five stars.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves their seasonal reads with just the right touch of romance and comedy. Anyone who loves their chick-lit character giving away recipes evenvthey consider as very secretive. Anyone who loves anything with enough warmth to last them through this hectic festive season. And anyone who just loves to stop, munch on a cupcake and relax because there are lots of cupcakes in this title.

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads. 

Author Info

Jenny Colgan is the author of numerous bestselling novels, including Christmas at the Cupcake Café and The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris, which are also published by Sphere. Meet Me at the Cupcake Café won the 2012 Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance and was a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller, as was Welcome to Rosie Hopkins’ Sweetshop of Dreams, which won the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year Award 2013. Jenny is married with three children and lives in London and France.

Author Links

Website:  http://www.jennycolgan.com/
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/jennycolganbooks
Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/JennyColgan
Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/39272.Jenny_Colgan

Rafflecopter Giveaway (2 e-copies ofCHRISTMAS AT THE CUPCAKE CAFE)

Book Review: On The Rocks by Erin Duffy

MY Synopsis.

I have wondered what wearing a $ 4000 Ivory strapless Vera Wang gown with a forty-foot train in all it's beautiful satin and lace glory, would feel like, No doubt it will feel like HEAVEN! But being dumped Via facebook was definitely not part of it, this is saying a lot with such a wild imagination as mine. Of all the worst ways to breakup with someone being dumped on the most popular social media while adorned in the most  gorgeous and expensive dress you would ever wear in your life has got to be right up there with being  jilted at the altar. It’s the worst. Can't Imagine.

You would know since your demented boyfriend of ten years decided that he would rather move to a desert half way around the world than spend the rest of his obviously pathetic life with you, after slipping a gorgeous emerald cut stone ring around her finger.

Six months later, still Thirty One with your maternity clock tick-tocking away and still fiancèless, you end up bitter, 30 pounds heavier, with a passionate relationship with the frozen section of the super market and the verbal communication skills of the kindergarten kids that you teach. Awesome right?

And I've not even mentioned, that your very psychotic Mum who is great at everything else especially being mean and annoying except being the Mum you always wanted,  would just not  burger off.  There’s a point in your life you wish mums could be dumped on Facebook too. Oh and your sister who has been trying to steal your shine like forever happens to be getting married when you are not. Apparently the world does not stop to grieve with you.

But it's good to know that with all the craziness going on in your life, you are brave enough to let your Godsend Bestfriend woo you into leaving your self-made prison and spending the summer at Rhode Island, which turns out to be just the thing you need to put your life back together. Enough to tell your jerk of an ex-fiance to go fuck himself, when he considered comparing you to a dog was the best way to convince you to give him a second chance, what a douche! And to make friends with the king of verbal sparring and a German hunk. Minus the bestfriend dating a married man drama and hideous fights, it turns out to be the best summer of your life. I guess magic does happen when you allow yourself to live again. Even though it involves kissing some frogs along the way. Yuck.

Story of Abby Wilkes life.

                               

                           MY Review


I was drawn in by this book from the get-go. Story line is on point, it gives great advice. Breakup is not the end of life,it wasn't for Abby and it should not be for anyone. Abby shows it as she gathers courage and moves on with her life. She allows herself to have fun again and explore the dating world out there. Such great advice to young ladies out there. This advice was not lost on me, and I am arming myself for the future. Lol. Am not hoping for a breakup, but breakups are a part of relationships, and you have to kiss some ugly, slimy frogs to find the one true prince. Hmmm sound advice, and all in Erin Duffy’s On the rocks.

Amazing characterisation in this book. I loved Abby the lead character soo much, and I am sure you would too.  Funny, interesting and awfully good at quipping and verbal sparring. I can’t mention sparring and forget Bobby the King of Verbal sparring, I fell in love with him. He is soo damn good, I found myself amused most of the time. Oh I was rooting for Abby to fall in love with him. Not forgetting Grace, who unfortunately falls in love with a married man, at least we get to see life from the point of the mistress of the married man. The book would not be complete if Abby's mum and sister were excluded. Gosh her mum, she is unbelievable, who wears a wedding gown to her daughter’s wedding? Not forgetting Wolf the German cutie. He is the best, he made me laugh soo hard my ribs hurt.

It's fun, hilarious and gives great advice. It's an amazing book. Just the thing for all ladies finding it hard to live after a horrible breakup. It's about time you lived your life! Start by reading this awesome book by Erin Duffy, I promise you would love it. Abby is in a better place than she would have been if she got married. She is happy and fulfilled, more importantly she is single and living her life.

I enjoyed reading this book soo much that more than once I went back to read an interesting part again and again. Nice work Erin. Thumps up.

Rate: four point five stars.

On The Rocks is available on Amazon.

Her work not done here. Off to make her post her review on Goodreads.