What are you currently reading?
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
For Study: The Ramayana by Ramesh Menon
What did you just finish reading?
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Review up tomorrow)
The Coincidence of Coconut Cake by Amy E Reichert
The Flying Circus by Susan Crandall
What do you think you’ll read next?
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
Trust No One by Paul Cleave
Tess of the D’Urbevilles by Thomas Hardy
Travelling requires easy, light reads. Even if I am already in the middle of something when I leave–I usually pause it for something else while I’m gone. I can never give a difficult book the time and effort it requires while I’m travelling because there are too many distractions–other people, things to do, constant stops and starts. That is why there is a whole genre called “Beach Reads” that are always touted in the summertime. People do not want complicated when on vacation.
Thankfully, I had a couple of these on my Kindle, ready to go. Yesterday’s The Flying Circus was a great travel read, and I had started it in anticipation of my trip north. And when I finished it, I pulled up The Coincidence of Coconut Cake.
Modern romances always make great “beach reads.” (And no, I didn’t go to the beach, but I’m going to use that genre title.) They are usually light and fun, have a similar plot pattern, and almost always resolve themselves at the end.
The Coincidence of Coconut Cake was exactly that kind of book. Lou runs a fairly successful French restaurant in Milwaukee, and is thinking about opening a second place with a changing menu. Her fiance, though, is completely unsupportive of her dreams. Always trying to convince him, she shows up early on his birthday with a surprise coconut cake–her grandmother’s famous recipe–only to find his secretary standing in his living room in HER negligee.
Devastated, she tries to go back to work, thinking that will help her keep her mind of it. Unfortunately, she completely screws up order after order, on a night when the Devil Incarnate is reviewing her restaurant. He destroys her.
A while later, she meets a handsome British freelance writer and teaches him all about Milwaukee charm. They fall crazy in love, of course. And, well…you’ll have to read the rest…if you haven’t already figured it out.
Even if you have, go read it. This book, just like the title, is super sweet, with a hint of vanilla. It’s pretty hard to put down, once you start it (even if you get carsick and have to stop every chapter to look out the window). I don’t read too many books from the actual romance genre anymore, but this one was completely uncheesy…well…I can’t say that. It WAS set in Wisconsin after all. But it was delightful.
And, I mean, the whole thing was about cheese and burgers and beer and cheese, so…you know I had to love it. Come on. That’s my whole vocabulary right there!
NetGalley provided this ARC for unbiased review. Book to be released on July 21st.
As I Lay Reading 