Sugar Rush (Cupcake Club Romance)
Kauffman (Let Me In, 2009) begins the first Cupcake Club contemporary romance by introducing James Beard nominee Leilani Trusdale, who quits her hectic life as the top chef in a prestigious New York restaurant to open her own cupcake bakery on small Sugarberry Island, Georgia. Mostly, she’s running away from nasty gossip generated about her when her former boss Baxter Dunne turned over his restaurant to her to begin a successful television show. Baxter, however, just won’t disappear, bringing his show to Sugarberry and asking to use her kitchen for an episode on cupcakes. He wants to cook side-by-side, just like they did before she fell in love with him. When he shows up declaring his love for her, she doesn’t believe him, since he left her high-and-dry to weather the nasty rumors about how she slept her way into her job. Kauffman’s delightful characters, from the insecure Lani and over-confident Baxter to Lani’s Indian best friend and others, infuse this charming novel with enough sweetness to entice even readers on a diet. --Pat Henshaw