Tag: baking

The Secret of Orange Blossom Cake by Rachel Linden

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The Secret of Orange Blossom Cake is a wonderful, magical healing read! It is filled with love, regrets, hope and mending past choices. It is also filled with Italian delicacies and of course the Orange Blossom Cake! Yes, there may be a bit of magic, but in the end the power of strength comes from inside themselves. In the end it’s all about familia!

Jules Costa has an on-line cooking show with her roommate. But when he is wooed by an LA company to star in his own show, he decides to take the opportunity and go leaving Jules to have to decide to end her beloved show. But she also has a bigger problem. She signed to create a cookbook of her favorite Italian recipes. Unfortunately, since her father’s tragic death years ago, she can’t even remember the food she cooked with her Nonna Bruna in Italy where her family has an olive farm. And her deadline is fast approaching.

Enter her mother who decides she wants to spend the summer with Jules’ stepfather and Jule’s stepsister Alex has nowhere to go so her mother is insisting they both go to Italy to visit Nonna Bruna. But Jules has never really been close to Alex and has not stepped foot in Italy since her father’s death. But she decides to take the trip because she hopes Nonna will be able to help with her memory of all the foods they use to cook when life was so simple.

But when they get there, Alex already wants to go back and basically sits on her phone or in her room alone. And Jules discovers that her first love, Nicolo has not only come back to their small town but is helping her Nonna with the upkeep of the farm. You see Nicolo’s Nonna and Jule’s Nonna have had a feud going on forever with no one really know what happened.

As the girls settle in Jules discovers her Nonna’s recipe book. It is blank. She asks Nonna but she will not tell her why. But Nonna does tell her about a recipe which has magical properties, Orange Blossom Cake. But they must figure out how to create the recipe. Could this cake be the answer to all their prayers?

As they all work together to find answers, they also discover there has been much left unsaid since Jule’s last visit. As the healing begins, everything starts to fall into place. But is it really magic or just love? Will we ever know?

The Secret of Orange Blossom Cake is such a funny burst of love, even though it has heartbreaking moments, in the end those moments are what make you stronger and happy and at peace. Oh, and yes, the recipe for this magical cake is at the end of the book!

Thank you #NetGalley #Berkley #RachelLinden #TheSecretofOrangeBlossomCake for the advanced copy.

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A Legend in the Baking by Jamie Wesley

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In the second book of the Sugar Blitz series, we discover another romance in the making , although in this story we have two lovebirds who have known each other since childhood and know each other’s deep dark secrets…or so they think! They secretly have had crushes on each other forever but are afraid to say it as they don’t want to ruin their relationship. But, now at Sugar Blitz Cupcake there is an explosion happening…and not from the oven!

What on earth will it take for these two shy paramours to finally realize they are soul mates? Well, a great deal! Both are stubborn and hurt and did I say stubborn? And in this enjoyable, funny and well-crafted story it will all eventually mix together like a well beaten cupcake with plenty of icing on top!

Sloane Dell, whose brother Donovan is a football player and part owner of a cupcake bakery called Sugar Blitz Cupcakes along with two other football players has just been passed over for a job she knows she is ready for at the social media company she works at and spontaneously quits leaving her with no job and no money.

As she goes to the bakery to tell her brother what’s happened she finds August, one of the other owners and her life-long crush baking. And he sees her. And of course, the sparks fly. As Sloane tries to find a job, her brother decides he could use a social media genius to assist them as they have decided to branch out. And unfortunately, that is not going so well. So, as Sloane spends more time at the bakery and August seems much more nervous, they both must try and figure out what to do with each other.

Having to work this closely together makes them look back at their past relationship and although they deny the chemistry, it’s clearly there. But they must somehow learn to work with each other and try to deny the alchemy. But unfortunately, this is difficult as they encounter jealousy, embarrassment and mistakes.

A Legend in the Baking is adorable, witty, sexy and will have you smiling from start to finish as if you were in the store helping make the cupcakes and figure out how to get these two together!

Thank you #NetGalley #St.Martin’sGriffin #JamieWesley #ALegendintheBaking for the advanced copy.

https://www.amazon.com/Legend-Baking-Novel-Jamie-Wesley/dp/1250801877/ref=sr_1_1?crid=23GY10BJ9CGTV&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.bpto6HNtEtCQjVugLDk6QwAN4XiL67XaGjgu4izUQKU.WLaZ5Kmk6hLQQj48QPNF-zYihtfGh1T0TYm42gGF3_Y&dib_tag=se&keywords=a+legend+in+the+baking+jamie+wesley&qid=1734537467&sprefix=%2Caps%2C112&sr=8-1

The Secret Ingredient by Sue Heath

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The Secret Ingredient is just the most beautiful story filled with grace and kindness. It’s about friendship, loss and the coming together of people through companionship and recipes from their pasts. It’s about heartbreaking pain and how with the help of others even though there is darkness, you can get to the light. In more ways than one.

Kate Shaw’s life changed in the blink of an eye. Now, three years later, with the grief and guilt still overwhelming her, she decides to quit her job as a teacher and do something else. Not sure what, she just knows she as to do something to stop her life from spiraling out of control. Not very close to her mother, she carries her burdens alone. In the dark. With no comfort.

But that suddenly changes when an elderly man named Charles knocks on her door. He tells her the story of how her home use to be a bakery of sorts with tea and he and his wife Mary used to go there. He tells her his wife is ill and the one thing he thinks will help her are the scones which came from this bakery. Now, Kate not only does not cook, although her grandmother did and she still has her recipe book, but the thought of any kind of cooking breaks her heart.

But Charles convinces Kate that Mary would so much appreciate the scones that she could help her make them. In the meantime, as Kate is looking around her neighborhood, which while working she really never did, or never wanted to do, she meets another person, Della who loves to garden. Della offers to help Kate with her gardens which have been neglected. In return, Kate invites her to the tea to try the scones. Della is divorced and lonely, but her dog is everything to her. Of course, she jumps at the chance. Then there is Jack, who himself was a famous restaurant owner/chef who gave everything up. You see, Jack has lost his mojo and by mojo, his sense of taste. Without that, he has nothing. Or so he thinks.

And those my friends are the wonderfully charming characters you will learn to love and care about, even if you say you won’t. It’s about opening up about fears, pasts, guilts and losses. It’s about a group of unknowns who meet and through the love of eating, cooking and memories begin to bond and grow in strength separately and together. My friends, it’s about love.

Each person brings something to the table as they not only share meals but share themselves with the others. Every person has their own special secret ingredient in life. Sometimes if your very lucky you will find others whose ingredients will combine with yours and you will find true happiness in your life too.

Thank you #NetGalley #OneMoreChapter #SueHeath #TheSecretIngredient for the advanced copy.