Vanity Fare ~ Review

Title: Vanity Fare

Author: Megan Caldwell

Source: LibraryThing Early Readers

Goodreads Summary:

A charming novel about a 40-year-old Brooklyn mother, recently divorced, who starts writing copy for a bakery, discovers a knack for food-related literary puns, and becomes entangled in a love triangle.

Molly Hagan is overwhelmed.

Her husband left her for a younger, blonder woman, her six year-old son is questioning her authority, and now, so is she. In order to pay her Brooklyn rent and keep her son supplied with Pokemon and Legos-not to mention food and clothing-she has to get a job. Fast.

So when an old friend offers Molly a copywriting position at a new bakery, finding romance is just about the last thing on her mind. But the sexy British pastry chef who's heading up the bakery has other thoughts. And so does Molly when she meets the chef's intimidating business partner-who also happens to have a secret that might prevent Molly from getting her own Happily Ever After.

 My Thoughts:

 I won this book from Library Thing, and it arrived the day after I finished Heading Out to Wonderful.  I was in a funky frame of mind, suffering from book hangover, so I picked it up and immediately started reading it.  It was fun and silly, and the perfect antidote to the heaviness I was feeling.  This is normal for me, I do usually try to balance the books I read so if I read something pretty emotional I follow up with something easy.  I started this when I was reading Joyce Carol Oates books’ back to back to back and started feeling grumpy and depressed. Her stuff is so good, but so dark!  So I don't like to be all serious all the time.

Vanity Fare is about a forty year old rich woman named Molly whose husband abruptly leaves her, and not only is he gone, but so is their money and his job.  She is forced to get a job, but after being a stay at home with a liberal arts degree, she feels she has few options.  In the past, she had dabbled in freelance proofing and editing for her friend’s marketing firm, and when he calls with an opportunity, she has to check it out, for the sake of herself and her son Aidan.  The job is writing copy for a celebrity chef, Simon from Britain, who is opening a new bakery – and he wants his products tied into the library next door, hence the name Vanity Fare. She writes lots of puns, reworking book titles to have to do with baked goods.  Molly ends up dating Simon a few times, but really has her eye on Nick, the financial guy behind Simon.  There are a few hiccups along the way to happiness for Molly, but ultimately this book has a happy ending.

One thing did bother me- Molly was always going on about her internal editor, and would mentally note if someone used the same word more than once in a paragraph or a document.  But I counted the author using the word surreptitiously at least 6 times, and 3 times out of the 6 was on the same page. I wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be ironic or if it was a mistake, but it bugged me after reading how the character hated when that happened.   

This book is an easy feel good book.  Not too serious or dramatic, just something to read when you need a pick me up.  I could easily see reading it, while drinking a peppermint mocha latte and eating something equally indulgent.