Meg Donohue

So here we have a pair of unlikely friends: the snobby, spoiled daughter of aristocrats and the savvy, curvy and outspoken first-generation American who was once her partner in crime. Sounds a bit cliche on the surface, I know, and who hasn't read a book about two friends from different sides of the tracks? But I was pleasantly surprised by Meg Donohue's How To Eat A Cupcake, though a few points didn't sit right with me. Let's peel back the cupcake liner and take a bite.

Initially, Julia is show more exactly the type of snot I despise: a gorgeous former prom queen who glides through life in perfect high heels. From the get-go I felt like I was on Annie's "side," believing without a doubt that Julia was capable of being manipulative and callous. It's obvious Julia is Going Through Some Things (big, oh-so-mysterioussss things) and Annie is, well . . . not. In Julia's eyes, anyway. She's too self-obsessed and delusional to realize other people have invisible wounds, too.

Annie is the tough-as-nails baker chick who doesn't let anyone -- or anything -- crack her veneer, though she's not obnoxious about it. Since losing her mother (not a spoiler; we learn this early on), she's desperate to reconnect with Lucia -- and she's convinced her mom's secrets are kept in a recipe book that also functioned as her diary. But, of course, that baby is nowhere to be found.

That's where the book derailed for me a bit -- instead of focusing on the damaged friendship between two women with a lifetime of shared history, we're presented two "mysteries" to solve: the case of someone vandalizing the cupcake shop they open in the Mission, and the creepiness of some dude who has been lurking around at night. The cases could be linked, we think, and the story dissolves into some sort of "whodunnit?" that felt awkward and out-of-place in an otherwise light novel. About cupcakes.

That's not to say it was bad. When the truth eventually came out, especially about the hooded lurker, I was surprised -- in a good way. Both Annie and Julia make amazing transformations in the story, too, which is broken down by month. Julia's calculated "way to eat a cupcake" is signature to her character -- a type-A planner; an organized control freak who can't just lose herself in a dessert. By contrast, Annie is the free-wheeling dreamer who has no trouble just biting into a pastry. And I was pleased with how their friendship changed and progressed throughout the novel.

Fans of foodie fiction and stories exploring the complexities of women's friendship will find a light, diverting read in How To Eat A Cupcake. Though I wish Donohue had delved even deeper into their shared past and explored the complications of growing up both poor and rich in the same home, it was a good read. show less

I gained weight with every page

I live in San Francisco, where this novel is so evocatively set. After the coldest, dreariest, rainiest week ever, I felt I deserved a treat. I pulled How to Eat a Cupcake off the shelf.

At the novel’s heart, are two very different women with a shared past. Annie Quintana grew up in the carriage house of the St. Clair’s Pacific Heights mansion. Her mother, Lucia, was the nanny to Julia St. Clair, and the two girls were raised practically as sisters. They show more were the closest of friends until a rift in their teen years. The last time they’d seen each other was at Lucia’s funeral, a decade prior.

As the novel opens, Annie and Julia live very different lives. Annie is a baker who has finally accepted a catering job from Julia’s mother, Lolly. What she doesn’t know is that her erstwhile friend has left New York’s high finance whirl and has moved home for the month’s leading up to her wedding. They have an awkward (and engineered) reunion at Lolly’s party.

And that would have been that, perhaps, but Julia needs something to do with herself that doesn’t involve wedding planning and nurturing the secret she’s keeping from her fiancé and the world. In the midst of a sugar high, she proposes to Annie that they collaborate on opening a cupcake shop. Despite her distrust of Julia, Annie can’t pass up the opportunity to make her dreams come true. And so an uneasy alliance is born.

As the two women work together towards a common goal, they work to heal their fractured relationship. There are many allusions to past wrongs before the full story is eventually teased out, and there are an equal number of ominous foreshadowings, because not everyone seems to want these two to succeed. Beyond that there are subplots about men, parents, business, and many, many references to delicious cupcakes! I will warn you now, the cravings became unbearable. Kara’s Cupcakes, That Takes the Cake, American Cupcake, I hit them all! Let this serve as a warning to all dieters.

The fact that debut novelist Meg Donohue’s prose was tempting enough to send me to multiple bakeries speaks volumes. In many ways, How to Eat a Cupcake is fairly typical women’s fiction. There really weren’t too many big surprises along the way, but that’s not why I was reading it. Sometimes some semi-formulaic entertainment is exactly what you’re looking for. For me, in the midst of some god-awful dreary weather, it was exactly the literary comfort food I needed. show less

My first book by Meg Donohue and it was an absolute delight. Lucy Barnes and her big dog Gully stole my heart. I felt her loss and understood why she kept turning away from home. The setting of Bantam Bay, California was as ordinary as it was magical. It is so hard to return to the place of great love and greater loss.

The concept of the power of a garden and the association of a certain flowers with our past and history was so vivid and interesting. The elderly residents of Oceanview Home show more are about to experience the “conversation of a garden” created by Lucy. They are about to be introduced to one of Lucy’s favorite memories of her mother when she was told “If you can’t find magic, you must make it.” And so she does and this story is a testament to the power of a garden and the magic and love it can create.

So many thanks to Gallery Books and NetGalley for a copy. show less

What a lush and beautifully written story inspired by Wuthering Heights! Merrow was raised on an isolated farm on the windswept coast of Northern California. The setting was absolutely vivid & amazing! Merrow lives at Horseshoe Cliff with her eccentric father and very cruel older brother. One day her father brings home an orphaned boy named Amir to live with them, and her lonely life changes. She and Amir become the closest friends. They grow up together in this wild & wonderful place by the show more sea, until tragedy strikes and their worlds are turned upside down.

YOU, ME, AND THE SEA was an atmospheric & emotional tale of love, friendship, secrets, and survival. I enjoyed the parallels to Wuthering Heights, and also the ways they differed. Lovely! Borrowed from the library. show less