The Icing on the Cake - Elodia Strain

by Tristi Pinkston | More from this Blogger

29 Mar 2007 07:51 PM

This new LDS chick-lit release from first-time author Elodia Strain tells us the story of Annabelle Pleasanton, copy editor at a local magazine. She's been given the opportunity of a life-time - to write an article about the fanciest restaurant in town. She's also been given an assignment - bring a Portuguese cake to the office party. It would appear that getting the cake would be, well, a piece of cake, but the bakery is located an hour and a half away, plus it has moved to a new location since she was there last. While looking for directions, she meets Isaac Matthews, a handsome, charming photographer, who ends up being assigned to work with her on the article.

Their relationship gets off to a great start. He's wonderful, she's smitten, he knows all the right things to say and she's more than willing to listen to them. But the heat is on at the restaurant. She's making mistakes right and left and in order to set everything right, she's asked to date the nephew of the head chef - which makes her new romance very awkward.

In the middle of all this, her best friend is getting married, and the bridal shower is being thrown by none other than the woman who stole Annabelle's prom date years ago in high school, and it looks like she's also after Isaac. Determined not to let anything get in the way of happiness, Annabelle ends up making a bigger mess of things, or so she thinks. With some explaining, some forgiving, and some cake, everything works out all right in the end.

Author Elodia Strain's voice is fresh and up-to-date, perfect for the chick-lit genre. Some of her aside comments made me laugh out loud. There were a few minor misunderstandings that threw the characters off-track for a bit that could have been resolved with a sit-down, let's-talk-about-it conversation, but overall I enjoyed the story quite a bit. I'm seeing a long, successful career ahead for this novelist. And I learned how to spell "Portuguese" just for this occasion.

(This book was published in 2007 by Cedar Fort.)

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Learn more about Tristi Pinkston

I've been a blogger for Families.com since August of 2006.

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