Ellie Kay

Sophie Copeland is on a cross-country trip which will end in Boston at her best friend's new bakery. When her car breaks down in Green Valley, she decides to stay for a few months working at Donner Bakery. She gets a temporary rental from Joel Barnes; he runs an auto repair shop though she's already had her car taken to Cletus Winston's shop. While Green Valley is generally a friendly place, there is some dark secret about Joel that makes people stay away from him.
I really liked the first show more two books in the series and we get to see a lot of Tempest and Joy here in the third book, though I miss Joss. This book was just okay. It's told completely in Sophie's POV which I think was a mistake because Joel was just a cipher for most of the book. I would have liked to get his view on Sophie and what was happening in Green Valley. Their relationship wasn't all that much, mostly lust and sex between two lonely people with long periods of no contact (we're talking two months, so when they don't talk for two weeks, it doesn't make for much of a chance for any relationship to develop).
Sophie wasn't all that interesting either. She's confident enough to travel across country by herself but obsesses over her failed reality tv show appearance. I couldn't get a fix on her personality and finally just gave up. The Paul Newman fixation was odd, I guess meant to show her as quirky, but she was mostly tired and didn't want to talk to anyone.
I usually like having the Winstons and their friends show up, but except for Joy, the rest didn't seem like themselves in the other books. And if you've read the other books, the plot was pretty predictable. It's not a bad story, but it just wasn't for me. show less

Third time's the charm people! I'm not gonna lie, I didn't have much hope for the series after reading the first two installments of the Donner Bakery but this one was a keeper! Everything just flowed nicely, the characters were decent and the chemistry between the leads was smoking hot! Sure there was the whole instant love bit going on but it was easy to overlook and was good enough to eat!

I was excited to receive this book free as part of the Early Reviewer program on Librarything. I enjoyed one of her earlier books which was "Shop, Save, Share". In that book she taught me how to be a coupon queen. Her current book The 60-Minute Workout focuses on finances. I already knew a lot of the information contained in this book since I've been frugal all my life and have been a long time fan of Dave Ramsey. I agree with just about everything Ellie Kay has to say in this book except show more encouraging a graduate of high school to obtain a credit card in order to "build credit". Letting a kid barely out of high school own a credit card is like letting a toddler handle a loaded gun. I just don't think kids are responsible that way. Anybody who listens to Dave Ramsey knows that there are other ways to build your credit score.

Overall this is an excellent book for people who know little or nothing about finances. show less

This small guide offers practical suggestions on household money management. Its author (a graduate of a small religious school and who has 7 children) draws on her experience as a wife and mother to offer common – sense advice, illustrated with anecdotes about her life and family.

The book covers such topics as budget, retirement, debt reduction, money saving, ways to travel cheaply, how to save for college, and how to launch a home- based business. Each chapter is organized around the show more metaphor of a physical workout. The chapter begins with a "warm-up" (commonly a short test or mental preparation, along with some self- affirmation), followed by "strength training" (goal setting for the exercise, and overcoming of obstacles); a "cardio-burn" (research on costs and means money saving, decisions on how to set specific goals); “heart rate measurement “(implementation and measurement of performance); and finally a “cool down” period (self- affirmation; plans for the next workout). At the beginning and end of each exercise, she urges the subject to “say something positive” about their efforts and progress, as a means of self – encouragement. That is good advice for positive activities in general, and especially applies to financial worries, to avoid guilt and paralyzing self- incrimination.

No book is for everyone, and frankly, I found the suggestions offered herein to be obvious and of the standard advice one can find widely online. What’s more, the author's relentlessly chirpy tone and periodic anecdotes grew tiresome. However, it is clear that some other reviewers have found the book’s advice helpful and its tone encouraging. Therefore, someone who has not previously thought about how to manage their finances may well find this book helpful. show less