NEW RELEASE
How To Eat A Cupcake - Meg Donohue (2012)
This revolves around the lives of two childhood best friends Annie Quintana and Julia St Clair as their paths finally cross a decade after their falling out in high school. Julia, the rich "ice princess", has become a successful career woman and is happily engaged to Wes, or so it seems. All she feels now is a sense of desperation as she attempts to takes control of her life by battling depression, which Julia tries to conceal along with secrets that would jeopardise her upcoming wedding. Annie, having inherited her mother's talent, has become a talented pastry chef at a small bakery. Her mouth-watering cupcakes creations have won favours of many customers and even her boss, and she dreams of opening her own bakery. The former friends' lives start to intertwine when they make the decision to open a cupcakery together. As they navigate through the ups and downs of their unlikely partnership, Annie and Julia are forced to stay united as a series of sabotage accidents threaten both their lives and shop. I loved Donohue's style of writing, and the blending of mystery and food into this good old-fashioned tale of friendship and love. A surprising ending with lots of amazing characters, this book certainly presents itself as a great debut. (XT)
How to Eat a Cupcake, by San Francisco-based Meg Donohue, is a story about two childhood friends who fall out then meet up again a decade later. The summary says: "Funny, free-spirited Annie Quintana and sophisticated, ambitious Julia St. Clair come from two different worlds. Yet, as the daughter of the St. Clair's housekeeper, Annie grew up in Julia's San Francisco mansion and they forged a bond that only two little girls who know nothing of class differences and scholarships could - until a life-altering betrayal destroyed their friendship. A decade later, Annie is now a talented, if underpaid, pastry chef who bakes to fill the void left in her heart by her mother's death. Julia, a successful businesswoman, is tormented by a painful secret that could jeopardise her engagement to the man she loves. When a chance reunion prompts the unlikely duo to open a cupcakery, they must overcome past hurts and a mysterious saboteur or risk losing their fledgling business and any chance of healing their fractured friendship." How to Eat a Cupcake is out in March.