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.
