Meet Me At The Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan

The past couple of weeks have been so hectic for me, I've had a few health-related things to deal with and work is just hectic.

On Wednesday we fly to Kos for a week of relaxation and I'm so ready for it.  I think all this hectic rushing around has affected my reading and I've picked up and abandoned at least three books lately.  I was beginning to despair, I thought I'd lost my reading mojo completely.  So, browsing through the shelves of books to be read and out jumped Meet Me At The Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan.  

The cover is beautiful and there are cakes in the title, surely this would mend me?    Oh yes!    Yes, it did!

Jenny Colgan has  delivered a feel-good, warm and entertaining story full of great characters and mouth watering cake descriptions.  There are recipes included throughout the story and I'm determined that I'm going to have a go at some of them.

The story is about Issy, an ordinary London girl who is made redundant.  Issy was brought up by her beloved Grandpa who was a master baker, she is warm and genuine and loves baking.   On the spur of the moment she decides that she is going to use her redundancy money to open her very own cupcake cafe.   The reader then accompanies Issy on her journey to become a businesswoman.

Jenny Colgan

Jenny Colgan is an expert in characterisation, the great guys really are fabulous, I just loved Caroline - the stick thin yummy mummy who has been dumped by her husband and can't bear the thought of having to live anywhere with less than three bathrooms.  Then there is Austin, probably the world's daftest Bank Manager - but oh, I did fall in love with him and his sticky out hair and pockets full of catapults!     The bad guys are nasty, very very nasty, the sort of villain that would get a boo every time they came on stage in Panto.

Thank you Jenny Colgan for getting my mojo back!    I'm hoping that Issy's story may be continued in another book some day, there is definitely scope for more!

A wonderfully fulfilling story, I loved it.