Brief Book Review: Jenny Colgan

In the last month I had the chance to read two of Jenny Colgan's novels. The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris and Meet Me at the Cupcake Café. I originally found Colgan's novels because I was looking up books with cupcakes (because obviously cupcakes are the best and I love them) I then ordered Cupcake Café, found out my sister already owned an ARC copy, returned it and got Chocolate Shop. Both were cute, relatively "fluffy" books, but I enjoyed them. I'm putting them both into one very brief post, because I'm a super procrastinator and don't have time for two long ones.

I started off by reading The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris, here's a synopsis.

As dawn breaks over the Pont Neuf, and the cobbled alleyways of Paris come to life, Anna Trent is already awake and at work; mixing and stirring the finest, smoothest, richest chocolate; made entirely by hand, it is sold to the grandest dames of Paris.

It's a huge shift from the chocolate factory she worked in at home in the north of England. But when an accident changed everything, Anna was thrown back in touch with her French teacher, Claire, who offered her the chance of a lifetime - to work in Paris with her former sweetheart, Thierry, a master chocolatier.

With old wounds about to be uncovered and healed, Anna is set to discover more about real chocolate - and herself - than she ever dreamed.

Who doesn't love chocolate? Ok, I know there are people (crazy people!) who don't, but the vast majority do. I am one of those people so this book enticed me. I found her accident a little random, she fell at work and ended up losing two toes. Weird right? I mean it was something that put her in the hospital and back in touch with her teacher, but losing her toes? I just couldn't wrap my head around it.

I kept forgetting that Anna was originally from England, so she wasn't really as far from home as I kept thinking (ie Canada). I really liked getting to read about Paris, and I would have loved to have visited Thierry's chocolate shop.

The book wasn't bad, although I could predict most of what was going to happen, and some of the characters were a little far fetched. Basically if you're looking for something light to read, and especially if you love chocolate, this is a good book to grab.


I read Meet Me at the Cupcake Café second, and it was an adorable read.

Having grown up in an apartment above her Grandpa Joe's little bakery, Issy Randal has always known how to make something sweet. She's much better at baking than she is at filing, so when she's laid off from her desk job, Issy decides to open up her own little cafe . But she soon learns that her piece-of-cake plan will take all her courage and confectionary talent to avert disaster. Funny and sharp, Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe is about how life might not always taste like what you expect, but there's always room for dessert!

For whatever reason, I was irrationally irritated by the main character's name. Her full name is Isabel, but goes by Issy, which I'm not sure if it's supposed to be pronounced like it's spelled or like Izzy. But I kept reading it Issy, which bothered me. Luckily that didn't stop me from enjoying the book.
 
For a while now I've wanted to have my own cupcake shop. Even though everyone else has told me it's a stupid idea. Luckily Issy had a lot of support (other than her d-bag of a boyfriend) and created this adorable little shop.
 
Speaking of d-bag boyfriends, he seriously needed to jump off a building. I hated him so much, and would tell anyone around me (mostly people from work), whenever he did something stupid. Fortunately I knew what was going to happen and she meets another lovely gentleman.
 
All in all, super cute book that made me really happy to read.
 
Both books were cool, they had recipes in them for you to try out, and I really enjoy books like that. I haven't tried any yet but hopefully I'll be able to soon.
 
Jenny Colgan has quite a few more books that I am really interested in reading now that I've read these two.