Review: Always a Baker, Never a Bride by Sandra D. Bricker.

Posted November 3, 2010 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments


Rowena’s review of Always a Baker, Never a Bride by Sandra D. Bricker.

Hero: Jackson Drake
Heroine: Emma Mae Travis

Thirty-six-year-old Emma Rae Travis has been baking specialty cakes and melt-in-your-mouth pastries at The Backstreet Bakery in historic Roswell, just outside of Atlanta, for the last six years. But here s the rub about her job as a baker … Emma is diabetic.

When she tastes her creations, it can only be in the most minute portions. Emma is considered an artisan for the stunning crème brulee wedding cake that won her the Passionate Palette Award last year, but she s never even had one full slice of it.

When Jackson Drake hears about this local baker who has won a prestigious award for her wedding cake artistry, he tells his assistant to be sure and include her in the pastry tastings scheduled at his new wedding destination hotel the following week. And for Jackson, that particular day has started out badly with two workmen trapped in a broken elevator and a delivery of several dozen 300-thread-count bed linens in the wrong size abandoned in the lobby. But when the arrogant baker he met a week prior in Roswell stumbles into the dining room with a platter of pastries and a bucketful of orders, he knows for certain: It s going to be a really rotten day.

Can these two ill-suited players master the high-wire act and make a go of their new business venture? Or will they take each other crashing downward, without a net? And will the surprise wedding at The Tanglewood be theirs?

This was a pretty quick read for me, it took me just one day to read it and I thought it was cheesy but cute. I think what kept me going throughout the book was not the romance (because this is a Christian fiction book, the romance was way tame then what we’re used to here at Book Binge) but the baking.

I loved the way that this book was put together. Each chapter starts out with different recipes for cakes, brownies and other confectionery delights or wedding day tips or anything that had to do with weddings, wedding cakes, baked goods and just everything cute and sweet. The story itself is pretty simple but the characters stood out and I enjoyed getting to know them.

It was pretty interesting to see a diabetic heroine in a book because I deal with diabetes all the time with my Mom. The whole checking their sugar, the insulin shot and all of that stuff, I’ve never ever read about it in a story before and seeing it portrayed in one of the books I read was pretty interesting. Having first hand knowledge of all of this was pretty neat and I enjoyed reading about Emma Rae’s experience with diabetes. What made it even more interesting was she’s a diabetic baker. She bakes cakes and she can’t eat them, how in the world does she do that?

But Emma was really one of my favorite characters in the book. I liked Jackson but for me, Emma Rae and her shining personality is what had me all interested in reading more. Emma’s an award winning baker for her cakes and she goes to work for Jackson Drake, who is opening a hotel resort for weddings and the sort. He’s making his dead wife’s dream come true and I thought it was cute but some of Jackson’s thought processes got on my nerves. The whole going back and forth thing with Emma made me want to smack him upside his head once or twice but on the whole, the book was cute.

This book is a Christian fiction story so there was quite a bit of Christian stuff in there, lots of God has a plan for us all and God loves you and is always with you so if you’re not into that kind of stuff then this is probably not the book for you.

I enjoyed getting to know Jack’s sisters and Emma’s assistant Fiona. I thought they were great additions to the story but Emma’s parents storyline had me rolling my eyes down the street because it didn’t mesh well with the story, it felt forced and if it hadn’t been in the story at all, I think I would have liked it better.

Overall, this book was pure cheese but some of the cheese was good so I’m giving this book a 3.

Grade: 3 out of 5

This book is available from Abingdon Press. You can buy it here.


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