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: Double Strike (Davis Way Crime Caper series #3) by Gretchen Archer

MY SYNOPSIS

Double Strike (#3) takes reins from Double Dip (#2) to tell the story of Davis Way’s mysterious/romantic/hilarious/undercover life.

If you were Davis Way, here are a few pointers to begin with your (very chaotic) life:

1. You are on the security force of a casino, sort of a spy on the team.

2. You are not easily ruffled by theft, murder, shooting because that’s what you headbutt on a daily basis.

3. You are the splitting image of your boss’ wife (if you coat an additional heavy layer of foundation, pull on some contacts and spray-dye your hair) and that—unfortunately—makes her your boss too.

4. Your relationship with you boyfriend-now fiancé is as stable as it can ever be… if your ex-ex husband doesn’t rear his shit-head, his mother doesn’t have a plan up her sleeves to throw you under a bus (literally, if she just knew a bus driver).

5. There’s a wedding date looming, but all you can think is, ‘big yay! Ya-ay! Yay? Oh, crap yay’, when your ex-ex husband drops the biggest bomb that leaves you thinking.

So now that we are settled on your character, let’s brief you on your mission. One, your boss’ son is in connection with the son of drug lords for dealing in boarding school which has gained him a suspension. It’s your duty to solve up this ‘mystery’ which you wouldn’t classify as mystery at all, because as far as you are concerned, he’s bad news, his parents just have to realize that. Two, as if these fucking drug lords aren’t posing enough problems for you on case one, they are trying to close down the casino by gambling with drug money? Find out if their legal tender isn’t legal tender at all and get the FEDs on them before they cause over three hundred employees including yourself, to become redundant. Three, the sight of the newest casino manager gives you the strangest feeling, like you know he’s up to something with his little Strike It Rich Casino within your casino to which he’s hired new staff for. Whatever the hell, he’s doing behind closed doors, it’s your duty to find out even if that means getting on some contacts and a different hair colour to work under a thirteen-year-old shape-shifted into the body of a thirty-year-old whose giddiness makes you want to shoot a bullet through your head and hope someone does the same to her just so no one passes through your plight.    

As if all the above isn’t problem enough, one fucking lawyer is causing a stir in your family by chairing the divorce between your grandmother and her husband, you have to learn how to use twitter like a pro else you lose your job, your boss’ wife is getting you into the most outrageous gigs because apparently playing her in public with her husband (enough to get your hair, which she supposes it’s hers, burnt!) isn’t enough and your boyfriend doesn’t see no future (kids) with him if you happen to keep your (very dangerous job, not to mention) after the wedding (which you are praying Alabama courts would ever let happen).

Welcome to your life… your life as Davis Way. You have big shoes to fill, unless of course your boss’ wife gives you ones twice smaller than your real size.

MY REVIEW

Do I even need to write a review for this title? Aren’t you tired of me screaming at you to go get all Gretchen Archer’s works??

I adored the storyline! Could I not really? When Gretchen Archer throws in moments you haven’t ever read in any title. One of the reasons I love about Gretchen’s Davis Way series is she takes out all contemporary topics contemporary women face on a daily basis (lack of commitment, career-hungry bitching) and puts a whole marvelous spin with lots of action(!) never pulled off that way in any chick-lit title.──★

Davis Way as usual was fantastic! Beautiful voice, humorous voice and a hilarious way of hash-tagging to completely express a thought other writers would have made her waste a whole paragraph on (Hashtag Impressive). Davis Way never disappoints and she leaves you hungry for more in subsequent upcoming titles in the series.──★★

Oh, I did love the comeback of the characters that I fell in love with in Double Dip (#ThrowbackThursday) and the introduction of some fun, funky characters that made this book #VeryEntertaining. No Hair, the team leader who is always getting pissed at our lead for having the tendency to give everyone a nickname. Fantasy, the ex-women’s prison guard who could slap a fugitive into calming down even when they knew a life-sentence was breathing down their neck. Baylor, the five-year old partner shape-shifted into the body of an adult who would never get serious on assignments. Bianca, the boss’ wife with very high standards for whoever wasn’t willing to impersonate her. Eddie The Ass, the ex-ex husband who’s always in time to remind our lead girl how much of a bitch she is. Bea, Eddie’s mother who hasn’t quite forgiven our lead for splitting the world into #TeamDavis and #TeamEddie in their blood-boiling nasty divorce battle (which to her dismay, led to her son’s fanatics defeated). Hashtag Elspeth, the twitter-nutter who would stop at nothing to teach our lead just how to create the right hashtag topics in her tweets. It’s a characterization party in this novel. #Amazing #JadoreDior!──★★★

Humor, check. Suspense, check. #LolRead #VeryGripping──★★★★★

My rating is obviously a five star! And I am very sure I’d keep giving a hundred-percent to all the books in this series before they are even conceptualized because… #GretchenFuckingWritesGood!

Double Strike as part of Henery Press’s mystery Davis Way series, “if you like one, you just might (really, really, they mean it,) like all.” Is available on Amazon in both paperback and kindle.

I recommend this book to anyone who’s been a spy or not. Anyone who loves a good mystery in their chick-lit. Anyone who’s turned on by Women Sleuths. And anyone, just anyone who wants anything to keep them laughing out loud. If you very much hate sitting on the edge of your seat during your leisure time, warning, this is not a novel to relax to! But really, how can you relax with a title so fast-paced if you blink you might have to start all over!

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

Review: Lily Does L.A by Nicola Doherty (Girls On Tour Series)

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine this: You have always wanted to be an actress. The joy of being in a theatre, cinema performing behind a camera or in front of an audience gives you a rush you can’t explain. Except the only camera you have ever been behind is that of an ad for a low-quality product on the market which wouldn’t by nay chance emerge the biggest thing close to women’s perfume.

So your cousin invites you up for a wedding in L.A. EL-ay! The Mecca of all the world’s finest people. And some way, just somehow you think you might get your break and become the next biggest thing in women’s perfumes ads close to Scarlett Johansen when you stumble upon a talent scout. Then you find out your cousin’s groom is a film agent.

Really, the universe must be speaking to you.

But then there’s your dad and your cousin speaking to you; warning you, you are not allowed to bring up anything about movies so as not to put the groom in an awkward position than he already is selecting napkin colours for guests.

Do you perhaps need to sit back and help your cousin with all her hectic wedding preparations hoping your dreams would come to life? Or perhaps, take matters into your own hands (discarding the bridal bouquet) to make your own dreams come true?

Lily’s life summed up for your utmost delight.

MY REVIEW.

Pack up your bags, quit your job and go to Hollywood hoping you would land a role in a major picture.  Loved the storyline of this book. Girl gets fired for practicing an accent on a job in a call center, Girl jets to L.A for her cousin’s wedding, Girl goes through all the wedding preparations lining herself up for auditioning for major TV roles. Superb!── ★

If you love books for their heroines, Lily is your one stop. Funny, brutally honest except for the occasional lies needed in order to succeed, secretly pissed at her dad for ditching her mother for the F-Bomb and secretly covets Emma Stone for getting her break younger than her. You would be cheering Lily on all the way considering she’s an ordinary, relatable girl who just wants to make her dreams come true and would stop at nothing just so she could become that famous actress (we all secretly want to be too).── ★★

Some other characters made reading this book fun. Think Alice the cousin who encourages Lily never to give up yet expects her to keep her acting on the down-low all through her days in Hollywood. Fiona, Lily’s soon-to-be step-mum who tries way too hard to win her over. Cynthia, Alice’s Future Mother-In-Law who’s bent on giving the couple a wedding as traditional as possible no matter what it takes. Jesse, the groom’s cousin who’s so law-abiding about everything enough to make you cringe.── ★★★

The ending to this novella was amazing, heart-warming and unexpected. I love that though it was a short-story it wasn’t predictable like a lot of others I have read. A star to the ending.── ★★★★

My rating: Four/five stars.

Lily does L.A as part of Nicola Doherty’s Girls on Tour series is available on amazon.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants something short, humorous and unpredictable. Anyone who’s wanted to follow their dreams should get this book. And if in doubt of something quick and sunny to pack for any holiday you should get this book too.

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

Book Review: The Secret Paris Cinema Club by Nicolas Barreau

 

                                                       My SYNOPSIS

Imagine this: You are the owner of a cinema that has managed to lose its charm with the public, except for a few regular patronisers who still believe in the charm of old movies. But you are not bothered despite the fact that you can count the attendees on your fingers every night. You believe in old cinematic principles where people should lose themselves in a movie without munching, eating, slurping something to knock off their attention. Except you really do not care if your cinema is filled to the brim when there’s one particular regular you are happy to see every Wednesday night. The Lady In The Red Coat.

You’ve been psyching yourself to ask her out after one movie. Or perhaps just speak to her when she casts a shy smile your way upon exiting the cinema. Amidst, incoherent speech and sweaty foreheads, you manage to achieve this somewhat unachievable feat. Your date is magical. Things are now looking up with the Lady In The Red Coat to look up to Next Wednesday.

But you can’t really have twice a lucky strike …  or can you?

Upon the meeting of a famous director, your life goes viral. You are meeting with Hollywood’s finest, walking popular actresses down old cobblestone roads, talking about the enigma and charm of Paris with famous people at the Ritz, making your very realistic serialist friend envy  your life, signing deals to make your cinema popular, pooling in a huge crowd in your cinema, getting your pictures taken by paparazzi, getting on the headlines of every major newspaper and the shitty tabloids, being clocked in the eye by a jealous boyfriend, re-reading letters from the lady-in-the-red-coat. Your life is perfect.

Until the Lady In The Red Coat doesn’t show up for your second date.

You are geared on by your obsession for her. You want to understand why she’s just disappeared all of a sudden. Tracking her down leads to no results. But really, isn’t it a no-no in the P.I business to track with just a first name?

Alain Bonnard’s story summed up for your delight.

                                                      MY REVIEW

I would never, ever read this book again! Here are my reasons:

First of all, I loved, loved the storyline. Small-business Cinema owner finds the love of his life, small-Business Cinema Owner is so close to becoming a household name, Small Cinema owner loses his girl, Small-cinema owner vows he’d find this mysterious girl if it’s the last thing he does! Quite basic really, the storyline. But perfectly executed like none I have ever read before. A star to the storyline..── ★

Don’t you just love commercial fiction based in Paris?.── ★★

Thirdly, oh, you would adore Alain Bonnard, the main character. His optimism is very inspiring really, though I must admit, sometimes he just needed to be realistic like best friend Rob yells at him. I have never connected with a chap-lit main character like I did with Alain since… (when was the last time I read Harlan Coben?). His voice is nothing I have ever indulged in before. Simple, relatable and very mature. Readers would be cheering him on to go get his girl. And perhaps, wondering where he gets his determination from searching for the love of his life all over Paris on a first-name basis..── ★★★

Next, the other characters made this book spot-on fabulous. Every single character delivered in their quest to help, or drive our lead off track from reaching his dream girl. From Orphée the female cat who lended an ear to our lead’s problems and gave indignant meows when he was fed up of listening to same ol’ lady in the red coat, same ol’. Madame Clement the inquisitive box office manager who was always around to lend her unwarranted advice. Soléne Avril, the star actress whose flirtatious attempts on our lead were not-so-disturbing to him more than it was to readers. Allan Wood, the old famous director who brought our lead all the luck he needed to make his cinema go big-time and lose his girl in the process. Robert, the realist serialist whose advice to our main character to get on with another chick would be both refreshing and annoying to the readers.  Carl, the cameraman who wouldn’t get off Soléne’s phone to avoid sending fuck-off messages to her Texas fiancée. And all the Melanies who just weren’t the Melanie our main was in search off. A star to the main characters!.── ★★★★

Now to why I would never, ever read this book again!

I loved Nicolas Barreau’s writing. It had some sort of vintage-y effect thanks to the storyline that makes it so timeless. Ridden with flashbacks and lots of foreshadowing, the suspense in this book was just too much. Trust me, I hated reading this book with a perspiring forehead and every time wondering where exactly my hankie is (because I never carry one! Shame)! I mean, I just picked this book to be entertained, not to be entertained on the edge of my seat!! Tell me, how comfortable could that be? It’s amazing how Nicolas Barreau uses a lot of flashbacks and foreshadowing from start-to-finish to keep the reader at a constant unease throughout the story! A great literary piece, that’s what this book is! And you can hardly say this to most published chap-lits!.── ★★★★★

My rating is a massive five out of five stars!

Cheers to The Secret Paris Cinema Club published by Quercus available here.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants a piece that has been so much acclaimed by reviewers and adopted by lots of publishing houses in print because of its sheer greatness! Anyone who wants to read something so suspenseful they would never, ever want to open it again should pick this. Anyone who loves their Audrey Hepburns and so many other old stars in old monochrome movies should get this title. And anyone who’s bent on looking for the one lady or gentleman in a tutu or whatever who managed to capture their heart should pick this title!

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