Isabel (Issy) Randall is a hot ass mess. She's sleeping with her douchebag boss in that delusional way of maybe this is love but in reality he's just using her for sex and food; she hates her desk job; and now she's been laid off from said shitty desk job and her douchebag boss knew all about it. And yet she still pines away for him...UGH! Now...the being laid off thing I can totally sympathize with...been there, done that; but it worked out for me in the end. However, I can't deal with mooning over this dick, Graeme. He wouldn't commit to her, wouldn't let her spend the night, never went to her place, never met her grandfather, dropped her off in the fucking RAIN because he didn't think coworkers needed to see him dropping her off at work...THEN she finds out at the same time she's losing her job that HE KNEW THE COWORKERS KNEW THEY WERE FUCKING! You, sir, are a MASSIVE TOOL. And yet she still misses him! Bitch, get it together. Cry and mope over your job, sure...but not this asshole. Okay...moving on...
Issy was raised primarily by her grandfather who had 3 successful bakeries so she, of course, is genetically predisposed to be a baker as well. (Side note: Gramps has Alzheimer's...be prepared for some potential teary-eyes.) With a quite handsome severance package, Issy decides to go through a slightly late quarter life crisis (she's 31) and rents a space to open her own bakery. This is when we start to see a change in Issy. She finally starts to get her shit together. She's working her ass off to make her bakery a success...the mortgage doesn't pay itself after all. And, there may be a new love interest in the picture in the form of Mr. Austin Tyler, the banker. Oh Austin. Austin is one of the good guys...just one of those guys who you feel you can tell anything to, so you do. They immediately have a connection and he schools her in all things finance and making a business hopefully successful. Just as she's starting to get her shit together, both professionally and personally, here comes Mr. Fuckface, Graeme back into the picture again and she's blinded by her chiseled abs. His personality is shit and he continues to treat her like she's a secretary. In case you can't tell, this guy gets under my skin and I want to kick him in the dick. He's worked out some scheme to buy a whole lot of property for his company, her cafe included, to develop condos and put money in his pocket. Screw you, asshole.
Thank GOD, Austin was there. He risks his own job to put a squash on Graeme's plans...at least temporarily...long enough to buy her some time to figure something out so her business isn't closed down just when it's really getting good. He's seriously a knight in shining armor...and who couldn't fall in love with that?!
There's a lot more to it and a lot of other relationships and story lines that go on through this book and I really liked how Colgan gives you a piece of everyone's point of view and what's going on in their lives. Issy, at certain points, feels completely alone and like the world is crashing in around her, but it actually turns out she had a large support system in the people surrounding her. She always had everything she needed right there in front of her, she just had to go a bit out of the way to find it. And who hasn't had to go through that before?
There are several interweaving plots but not in the Game of Thrones kind of way. Just enough to where I'm pretty sure there is a character somewhere in this book that is going through something we can all relate to. I liked Issy's courage and determination to put all she had into a business. God knows, if I knew I could make it in this shitty economy, I'd own my own little cafe, bakery, bookstore...but sadly for me, Barnes and Noble and Starbucks would put my ass out of business. I liked seeing Caroline, on her rich high horse, get knocked down a few pegs to a more realistic level. I liked seeing Pearl getting that chip on her shoulders removed, even though I still think she should have made a go at it with the postman. There's just an all around sense of these people from different walks of life coming together to help one another out and better one another's lives...which is very similar to how the town they all live in is. It's a very eclectic neighborhood, and here you have an eclectic group of folks coming together to basically become a family.
It was a cute, light, funny, enjoyable read. It's definitely one you should bookmark for taking with you this summer to read on the beach. And by you mean, I mean women. I'm about 98% certain dudes would not like this book :) And that's okay. I'll definitely be reading more by Jenny Colgan. And I might even have to try out some of the recipes in here...see if I can make a go of any of them.
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