"This book, about a pastry chef running from her mistakes until she runs smack into a place she can call home, is a confection. And I mean that in the best possible way: it's sweet with just the right hints of tartness and salt, and, like a great dessert, it leaves you wanting more." said author Heather Young, and she could not be more correct about this book.
The City Bakers Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller is a quick and wonderful read that I found myself unable to put away. This month I listened to this book courtesy of Random House Publishing, and it was a great start to my goal for my reading year of 2017.
Miller has written a fun, easy, and escapist reading in this novel. We find ourselves in New England, mainly Vermont with bits of Boston thrown in, so if you're like me and are familiar with this area, that's a huge bonus. Often I read novels that take place in areas I am unfamiliar with, so to read a novel based in my area of the country gave me an even bigger sense of home-ieness than this novel was already trying to give you!
Above all else, this novel is truly meant to make you feel like a baker. The scenes describing baking, and centered mainly around the main characters love for baking are the truest and most powerful scenes throughout. (And Miller even adds a killer pie recipe at the end!) I especially appreciated this detail, and the detailed descriptions of baking and cooking throughout the entire novel.
I think my favorite part of this book is our main character Livvy.
Livvy is a famous pastry chef in Boston, flees a love (and cooking) scandal and heads to Vermont where she is offered a temporary job at a bed and breakfast. She is the most eccentric, among a vast lineup of interesting characters, and amazingly lovely settings to a story that truly was able to keep my ever changing interest.
This novel truly is "A full-hearted novel about a big-city baker who discovers the true meaning of home—and that sometimes the best things are found when you didn’t even know you were looking" and thats a direct quote from the excerpt of the book for fans to see!
This novel was engaging, and kept me wanting more and more each time I put it down. Livvy is relatable, and radiant and I felt at many points that I was reading a story that could have easily been of my own.
Louise Miller is a first time author with The City Girls Guide to Country Living and I am VERY hopeful that she continues her writing career, and encounters the success that she truly deserves! If you want to view her website you can go here and view her page, where she posts recipes she's tried and information about her book!
All in all, I am highly recommending this novel for fans of contemporary fiction, and chick-lit. I have found this to be a wonderful and easy read that will stay with me for days to come!
"I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."
