Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe

Jenny Colgan's Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe explores one girl's highs and lows while establishing her own little bakery in London, England.

Written as a work of fiction, Colgan tells the tale of Issy Randall. Issy, who recently became redundant at her office job, searches for her life's meaning and a way to pay the bills in Colgan's work. Vibrantly colourful characters and a shifting plot-line are introduced throughout the text. Not only do readers learn the intricacies of Issy's personality, but the ins and outs of creating a bakery, too.

Teaser Tuesday (4)

"She can't listen to the women discussing stretch marks and labor pains as rites of passage. Everyone acts as if being a woman and a mother are inextricably intertwined. A fair assumption, since she made it herself. Only now does she know it's an enormous lie."

Secret Daughter - Shilpi Somaya Gowda (page 29)

The People's Chef

The creation of soup kitchens.
The improvement of the British military's diet.
The formation of the first non-pub restaurant in London.

Alexis Soyer, a French national residing in Britain, did it all.

Ruth Brandon's The People's Chef: The Culinary Revolutions of Alexis Soyer examines the modernization of the restaurant industry and European views on nutrition during the nineteenth century. Brandon tests century-old recipes in a contemporary kitchen while providing a non-fiction account of the Irish Famine, the Great Exhibition of 1851, and the Crimean War.

Happy One Year

This time last year I had just met E, now my Englishman, who happened to live halfway across the world. I decided to devote my spare time to reading and reviewing books, coffee cup in hand. I wrote my first blog post.

Today I spent my afternoon in an *unhappy* airport, experienced a torrential rainstorm, thunder, and lightening. As fate would have it, E left Canada on Coffee Tale Reviews' 1 year anniversary. The fact that this little blog has made it through a year is a bittersweet affair.

I would like to thank each and every one of my readers, followers, authors, publishers, friends, and family members for your kind comments, suggestions, or promotions.

Thank you for making a wonderful year at Coffee Tale Reviews.


PS - A 1 year anniversary isn't complete without some stats:
179 posts
41 books read & reviewed
25 yummy recipes tested

Katy Carter Wants a Hero

Ruth Saberton's Katy Carter Wants a Hero chronicles one woman's tale of self-discovery. Katy Carter, Saberton's protagonist, is a disgruntled London high school teacher who believes that the kind of men from her well-read storybook romances truly do exist. But... do they really?