Review: a fun, light and enjoyable series that is perfect for a quick moment of escape, or for a day of delightful reading.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 1, 2014
It’s hard enough to not gush over this series: each book is the perfect sized bite to leave you with a smile on your face, AND they come with recipes! This one – a Lemon and Blueberry delight that I felt my mouth watering JUST with the ingredients. But, I digress.The Ladies of Creative Cupcakes are growing and making their mark. We check back in with Kim who is about to have her wedding, Andi’s baby is arriving any moment now, and Rachel is busy working on the bits and bobs. Stacey is the newcomer and will be managing the mobile cupcake van at the beach. She so wants to feel a part of the three girl’s friendship: after a tornado destroyed her Nebraska home and left her grandmother dead, she travelled for years with her mother and father: never setting down roots, never feeling safe. In fact, Stacey is a bit of a nervous Nellie: her one goal is to have a house of her own, with a storm cellar and plenty of supplies to get her through every conceivable disaster.Dave Wright is also selling at the beach: handmade icecream that is knock your socks off delicious. Dave himself nearly knocks Stacey’s socks off: she feels the pressure to find a date for Kim’s wedding, and she has little to no confidence in her looks or ability to have a relationship after some truly bad experiences. What she doesn’t realize is that Dave’s ‘ignoring’ her is solely to focus on his own business: after his sudden divorce his ex-wife took him for everything and he is struggling to make ends meet and nursing his broken heart.There are several subplots that weave through this story: checking in with the ladies we know, and finding a new competition that will test everyone, Stacey’s money issues, her obsession with doing well for the business, and Gloria, a supposed homeless woman that Stacey can’t help but want to take care of, who pays her in sea glass. Each subplot served to provide more of an insight into Stacey’s personality and thought process, and her desire to make friends is a near palpable ache that readers will completely empathize with, and cheer her on every step of the journey. She channels a favorite fictional heroine to find her inner strength, and her use of “Kate would” as her mantra when things got tough was endearing.Then we have the budding romance between Stacey and Dave. When an unexpected refrigeration failure brought them together to sell to customers as a team, rather than as competitors, their ability to work together and become something more shows the potential for a real love relationship, even though Stacey has trouble seeing it almost until the final pages.The Cupcake Diaries series is comprised of lovely stories that are sweetly touching and hopeful, with a happy ending for everyone. Characters are real and easy to relate to, and you’ll find that each story gives a snapshot to check back in on the characters that were featured in the earlier stories. Darlene Panzera has created a fun, light and enjoyable series that is perfect for a quick moment of escape, or for a day of delightful reading.I received an eBook copy from the publisher via Edelweiss for purpose of review with Tasty Book Tours. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.