The First Love Cookie Club

Normally I don't read romance novels. However, the author of this book is coming to town this weekend, and my local book club is a (nominal, because we meet at the site) host for a meet and greet for the author and publisher on Friday night. I thought I should read at least one of Lori Wilde's books before she gets here.

I was pleasantly surprised.

The First Love Cookie Club is the third book in the Twilight, Texas series. They don't need to be read in order. What makes this series interesting for me is that Twilight is loosely based on my town of Granbury, Texas. I wanted to read some of the books to see if I could recognize any of the people, places, or events described.

Lori Wilde did a good job of giving a feel for the town without show more necessarily being too specific about locations. We have lots of bed-and-breakfasts similar to the Merry Cherub, we do have a downtown courthouse square (just four blocks west from my home), and the lake is nearby as well (two blocks south). She specifically mentions Hood County (where we are located) and Highway 377 here; but otherwise, this could be any other small North Texas town on a lake. That is a plus in my opinion, as many readers can identify with the setting. Yet the descriptions of places still made me feel this was definitely set in Granbury.

The story is set in December, beginning with Twilight's annual Christmas festival with a Dickens theme. Well, Granbury has its annual Candlelight Tour of (mostly historic) Homes the first weekend of the month, many of the homes are Victorian, and some of the tour guides and carolers dress in Dickens style. There's a parade (albeit the weekend before) and lots of other holiday events that, once again, are typical of many small Texas towns.

Then there are the people. I swear the members of the First Love Cookie Club must be modeled on some of the well-known female personalities around town, past and present.

Our lead characters, the main couple, are Sarah Collier (aka Sadie Cool) one-hit-wonder author of a children's book, The Magic Christmas Cookie, and Travis Walker, local bad boy turned game warden and model single dad. Travis' daughter Jasmine (aka Jazzy) suffers from a life-threatening illness and writes a letter to her favorite author - Sadie - wanting to meet her before she dies.

Sarah doesn't know Jazzy is Travis' daughter, and Travis doesn't know Sadie is really Sarah - who, nine years ago at age 15, interrupted his Christmas Day wedding to Jazzy's mother to tell him the magic "kismet" cookies she and her grandmother bake every Christmas make her dream of her destiny - him.

Despite the corny set-up, I found Sarah and Travis to be well-developed characters. Sarah, the only child of two successful heart surgeons who have little time for her, now lives in New York City and is rather anti-social. Travis is an amazingly understanding heartthrob who reminds me a lot of MY husband. Travis has had a tough life too, losing both of his parents at a young age, and his shotgun wedding wife Crystal leaves him due to her immaturity and inability to deal with Jazzy's illness.

Both Sarah and Crystal have secrets that help explain some of their behavior - Sarah's is hinted at early on. Another character with a secret is Travis' aunt Raylene. Her subsequent behavior, however, comes totally out of the blue and isn't really explained in this book. Supposedly it's explained in a novella, but I felt it was disruptive here.

The only other gripe I have is the name of another minor character - the sheriff, Hondo Crouch. He was a real person (the man who invented Luckenbach, Texas, and a swim coach at various children's camps in Texas until his death in 1976 - I actually met him). For those of us old enough to remember him, having a character with his name is a bit disconcerting. I can understand Hondo as a first name for a Texas sheriff character, but I wish Lori Wilde had come up with a different last name.

All in all though, this was a fun, easy, Christmas romance. I'm off to read The Christmas Cookie Collection (four novellas about members of the First Love Cookie Club, including Raylene) next.

© Amanda Pape - 2014

[This book was borrowed from and returned to my local public library. A variation of this review also appears on Bookin' It.] show less

I really enjoyed this book. I felt like the problems and emotions were ones that were realistic. While both Travis and Sarah have issues, none of them seem to overwhelm the story. It starts with Sarah as an awkward teenager discovering that the guy she's been dreaming of is about to marry someone else. After humiliating herself by trying to stop the wedding she swears she will never risk her heart again. Fast forward nine years, and Sarah has become a successful children's author. When she receives a letter from a sick fan, she reluctantly returns to Twilight, only to discover that the little girl is Travis's daughter.

I had a little trouble connecting with Sarah at first. She was so resistant about going to Twilight that she came across show more as a bit selfish. Even once she was there she seemed rather standoffish. Some could be blamed on her memories of that day, but other things about her life are slowly revealed and begin to explain her problem. Her initial meeting with Travis shows her that she has never really forgotten those feelings for him. She also knows that she won't stay in Twilight so there's no sense in starting anything with him, tempting though it may be. She doesn't count on the ladies of the cookie club doing their best to push them together, or that Travis seems equally drawn to her. As the week goes on Travis and Jazzy start to break down the walls that Sarah has built up to keep people out. She starts to connect with them and others, but still doesn't see herself as able to have that happy ending.

Travis was a wonderful hero. From his kind attitude toward Sarah on his wedding day to the amazing father he is today he is awesome. He may have made a mistake by getting his girlfriend pregnant when he was twenty, but he was determined to do the honorable thing and take care of them both. He was an involved father from the beginning, and even more so when Jazzy got so sick. He took on the role of both parents when his wife left them, making Jazzy the center of his world. When Sarah came back to Twilight he was surprised by the strength of his attraction to her. He would be very happy to see where it goes, but he has some of his own baggage to overcome. Between watching his dad fall apart after his mom's death and then his disastrous marriage, Travis resists the idea of soulmates, fearing that his life would fall apart too if he were to lose someone he cared about that much. I really liked the way that he saw Sarah's pain and fears and gave her the space she needed to process what they were beginning to feel for each other.

Even as they began to acknowledge their feelings for each other, there were still some obstacles to overcome. Jazzy's mother comes back to town, causing Sarah to question her own place in their lives. Sarah has some professional problems that also interfere with her decision making process. Then there is a health crisis with Jazzy that brings a whole host of feelings to the surface, causing both Sarah and Travis to take a good look at what they really want from life.

The town itself is another character in the book. I enjoyed seeing the various Christmas traditions and how they worked with what Travis and Sarah were going through. The people had the usual small town nosiness and tendency to interfere, but mostly in a positive manner. There was a secondary storyline that was left hanging, but it is addressed in a later series of novellas. show less

Snow and a cosy house in a small town and the word ‘Cookie’ on the cover.
That gives you a fair idea of what to expect from this book.

You have to be in a particular (as in, hugely festive) mood to get the most out of it! It turned out I was feeling rather festive, so I enjoyed the book quite a bit; though I did some skim reading when we got to the scenes with the interfering old biddies and the magical baking!

The First Love Cookie Club opens with one of the most painful, embarrassing scenes I’ve ever come across in a book – with an awkward adolescent Sarah declaring her love for Travis at his wedding to another woman. She makes a bigger fool of herself in front of the entire town than I could ever believe it possible for one show more person to do. There’re actually a few scenes like that throughout the book; I was covering my eyes in embarrassment for her a few times! Luckily Travis sees things differently, and though he screws up once or twice, he comes through in the end. It’s nice when the man wants the relationship and is the one putting his heart on the line. Usually it’s the woman who has to convince the man they should be together.

As with all of these small town stories that are so popular these days, this one’s all about ‘I didn’t realise how much I hated my evil city life until I moved back to my cosy little hometown’. Now, good for you if that’s what you want, but I can’t stand the way the two lifestyles are presented: two ridiculous extremes. The city is a hotbed of depravity and isolation, while back in the land of Betty Crocker everyone is living a 1940s lifestyle and loving the business out of their cookie baking parties.

Unlike many of these books, however, this one was balanced with some more serious and interesting issues.

Travis’ daughter is extremely ill – it’s not known if she’ll survive. Sarah has scars of her own – emotional scars, but also a serious injury we learn more about as the story unfolds. I was worried at the start; a cute little sick kid with a Christmas wish was bound to give us those Hallmark moments. I should have had more faith in the author because she didn’t go that route.

For the most part I enjoyed the book. What I liked best was the immediate connection I felt with Sarah – she was a character I understood and sympathised with. Though I’m generally no fan of children in books, Travis and his relationship with his daughter Jasmine worked for me just fine.

Every so often I became annoyed by the dialogue. Travis and Sarah would converse for a page or two at a time with one-liners, and I lost track of which person was saying what. I also didn’t like the way Sarah’s face was continually described as having ‘salmon-coloured lips’.
Weirder still was the love scene. There’re things I don’t appreciate in scenes like this – such as references to beds banging walls or lines like, “He was totally into her”. I also don’t like references to body parts being discoloured or the hero saying ‘whoops’ in the middle of it all. It made for some very awkward reading!

This was definitely one of the better Christmas-themed books I have read. It’s always nice to read about some snowy little town when Christmas where I am is hot and sticky. Entertaining with a bit of depth, and an author I intend to read more from in the future. show less

You can also read my review here: http://www.bookbybookreview.blogspot.com/2011/10/review-first-love-cookie-club.h...

"You can't always get what you want" ~ The Rolling Stones

Or, can you?

In Twilight, Texas, it seems that true love is something that is not only a sought after dream, it's a way of life. And for Sarah Collier it's a dream that eventually turned into a nightmare. Can she return to her past, get beyond the memories and come out a winner?

The First Love Cookie Club is not at ALL what I expected. First off, I had no idea that it was a Christmas book so what a wonderful surprise that was and, having never read Lori Wilde's books before, I didn't know how the story would flow.

I found that the story not only had the warm feelings show more of Christmas - that special feeling in the air that makes you want to be a kid again - but also had the romance of first love and the mystery of things unknown. It really was a well put together story and one that I felt a huge part of.

Having grown up in a small-town, the traditions of Twilight brought back so many fond memories that I often found myself smiling and wishing for simpler times. It really felt like the author was writing from experience and didn't miss a note when it came to the fun and excitement of the holiday season.

Overall, this was a great holiday read and one that I am glad to have picked up. I have now added the remaining three 'Twilight' novels to my TBR list! show less

The First Love Cookie Club by Lori Wilde
Twilight, Texas series #3

Sarah Collier, a.k.a. Sadie Cool, reluctantly returns to the little town where she spent summers and holidays as a child. She had always loved her time in Twilight and had wonderful memories of time spent with her grandmother. Unfortunately, she left the town in shame nine years before when, as a besotted 15yo, she had crashed the wedding of a neighbor boy she had grown up with and was sure she was destined to marry. Her last memories were of her being sent home as the wedding guests laughed at her and the groom, Travis Walker, patting her on the shoulder with a sorry look on his face.

Sarah has lost her belief in destiny and true love and the power behind "kismet cookies", show more which her grandma taught her to make and when, on Christmas Eve, you slept with some under your pillow, would tell you in your dreams the identity of your soul mate (in her case, it was Travis).

Now, as the author of a beloved children's book about the magic of Christmas, she is asked to return to Twilight at the request of a dying little girl. How can she say no? She will have to swallow her pride and face the town again. It may be harder than she thought, however, when she realizes the little girl's father is none other than Travis Walker, now single after his wife abandoned the family when she couldn't handle their daughter's illness.

This was a nice story but I kept wishing it would have been better than it was. I think what got me the most was there were gaps in the story that made me go "huh?". There were instances where we were told about the connections between certain characters, esp. between Sarah and the little girl, Jazzy. We never really saw them spending any real time together but later on in the story, their closeness would be referred to in a few sentences about how they shared a special connection. The connection between the H/h also seemed rushed as we were once again told that they cared for each other but not really convinced that they had time together as adults to really get to know each other. It all seemed to be based on chemistry and/or the matchmaking done through the ladies in the cookie club and the magic of the kismet cookies. It made the possibility of a HEA seem a little contrived or unbelievable. show less

The First Love Cookie Club by Lori Wilde, third in the Twilight Texas series, was great and not marred by reading it out of order (I tend to do that with holiday books). I loved both the story and the characters, and i'll be reading more of the series.

A light tale of Christmas in a small town that personifies the Christmas spirit. Lots of description of small town events. The danger came at the end and resolved itself when the various characters learned to forgive.