Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I checked The Cake Therapist out from the library because I love food, whether it’s eating it or reading about it; I was expecting a cake version of Sarah Addison Allen’s Garden Spells.

Yeah…not so much.

To be honest with you, it’s hard to pinpoint some of the differences, in part because they’re subtle and in part because I finished this before I left for RI (it was near the bottom of the ‘to review’ stack).  What I can say is that while the past in Garden Spells tended towards flashes of memory or history that aided in characterization, the past in The Cake Therapist was the starting point for the story.  I didn’t immediately see how the story bits were going to fit together, but fit together they did–and I enjoyed the fitting.  It’s possibly a type of women’s fiction that is slightly less my thing, but it was worth the read.  Neely’s transitions–both emotional and physical–are a wonderful thing to see, and the scenes from various points in the past were compelling.  Since trying to give a more detailed synopsis without drowning in either details or spoilers is proving impossible for me tonight, however, I will simply say this:  the story has more appeal than what meets the eye, so if you’re waffling about this one, take the plunge.

Although it may make you hungry for cake.