4 Star
After Ansley was publicly dumped by her fiancé, she flees to New York to live with her grandmother who she has never met. She handles her heartache and disappointment by baking cupcakes and when her grandmother gives her an ultimatum to get a job or get out, she makes a bold move in an attempt to transform her life.
Lydia - 4 Star
Although I had reservations when I started this book with not being sure about the character, I was pleasantly surprised with this chick lit novel as the story unfolded. This was a great single girl tale that was easy to read and full of delicious sounding cupcake recipes that were spread throughout the book after each section.
Ansley’s transformation was interesting, especially as I didn’t find her character likeable at first and this lead to a few times where I wasn’t quite convinced of its believability. I was content in the end though. There were also a few moments I was unsure of how the grandmother was written and if she would have thought the things she did, in the way she did, but these were also fleeting. These were my only two concerns about this lovely story.
I thought the strained family relationships and the cupcake recipes sprinkled throughout brought a new dimension to the single girl starting over story line and loved the combination of baking and family history. The story of the grandmother kept me intrigued as did finding out if Ansley could make it all work.
Pick up The Icing on the Cupcake if you’re looking for a light easy read with a great starting-over theme, not to mention want to bake some of the fabulous recipes – I haven’t yet, but they sound scrumptious and their names are great: Black Bottom Heartache, Green with Envy Cupcakes, and my personal favourite I’m dying to try, S’more Cupcakes just to mention a few!
Kathryn - 4 Star
This was a fantastic concept for a chick lit novel - I still keep looking over at it and feeling an urge to make some cupcakes- so obviously the recipes were a great (or not!) addition to the story!
Truthfully though I wasn’t too keen on the heroine for a good portion of the novel. She was perhaps painted a little too harshly at the start and I didn’t warm to her for a quite a bit based on her super bossy character. However the cupcake recipes made me warm to her quite well and as the story went on I began to really like her. Maybe she was just a little too extreme in the beginning but who cares- she was likeable in the end!
One of the best bits about it for me was the three generations of women. Jennifer Ross did a fabulous job of giving each of them unique personalities while still connecting them as family. It was interesting also that there was very little reference to Ansley’s father and her fiancĂ© wasn’t really delved into either. We are introduced to a couple of other men throughout the novel and although they play a part in moving the story along they seem to be there as supporting roles and not equal players. I liked this as it really left the most room for Ansley, her mother, grandmother and girlfriends and I really appreciated that we were encouraged to bake, eat and share cupcakes throughout!
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