Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe (A Novel with Recipes)

Issy’s grandfather once owned a great bakery and taught her the precise way to create perfect bread crusts, crumbly scones, and anything else he baked up. But now, many years later, Issy bakes only for her coworkers in the law firm she works for, and her grandfather has been placed in assisted living because of his dementia. The only joys Issy has are in the delicious cakes she makes, and in her boss-boyfriend - until she loses both in one day. A string of people being let go leads to Issy having no job and no man, again. But inspiration strikes when she realizes that the charming, tree shaded-storefront at the end of a block corner would be the perfect place to turn into a bakery, instead of a juicing station or a baby clothing store. Her dream comes to life when she finds the help of two clashing personalities she can call coworkers, and Issy is happy again, even without a man in her life. But her now-ex thinks he can get her back with a sneaky business building plan. Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe will make you long for a cute little cafe on the corner with a bench under a pear tree, where you can eat baked yumminess, and maybe even be kissed by a handsome man. For similar recommended readings, discussion questions, or a themed recipe of Pineapple Cream Cupcakes with Pineapple Cream Cheese Frosting, visit Hub Pages or Letter Pile.

Light and frothy, perfect for the summer or a head-cold (which is what I've been suffering from). Who else gets a head-cold in the middle of summer??

In any case, this was a fun novel, and it included a slew of really great sounding recipes! The novel is set in London, where a thirty-year-old women has realized what we all realize at one point. We're getting older and unhappy with our safe course. Issy has a boyfriend she likes, but who doesn't like her. She has an ok job, but it doesn't make her happy. Her mother is distant, her grandfather is sick, and her friends are all settling down. When she gets laid off in a crap economy with no job prospects, she takes a crazy chance and follows her passion - making cupcakes!

Opening a cupcake cafe may seem a little nuts, and maybe it is, but she's so sweet and passionate for baking that you cannot help but be swept up and want her to win. Naturally, there are a few bumps along the road. Should she go back to the jerk boyfriend or give a new guy a chance? How will she run this cafe without her grandpa's guidance? Can she settle into the community?

Issy is a sweet character. She's so innocent, even though, at times, you wish she should could see the true character of her jerk boyfriend. On the other hand, I think most young women have had a relationship like this at some point, so it's not that terrible a flaw. The supporting cast adds a great comedic element, and I liked that none of the characters felt too...typical. They were quirky and adorable!

Reviewed by Allison
Book provided by NetGalley
Review originally posted at Romancing the Book.

Review: Part Romantic Comedy, part Chick-lit, Meet Me At The Cupcake Café is a charming story set in a little town off London about a woman who loses a job and finds her dream of opening a cupcake café.

Instilled with a natural talent for baking by her beloved Grandfather, Issy Randall finds her life and her romance with her boss turned upside down when she is made redundant (a British term for downsizing). At a loss as to how she's going to live, she finds herself wandering into the funny little building she has seen every day as she waits for the bus. Using her separation package funds, she signs a lease on the building, and she's off and running, muddling through bank loans, hiring a staff, ordering supplies, dealing with builders, and the dreaded fire inspector.

At times the story was a bit difficult to follow as the point of view would suddenly switch to a different character mid-scene, and then go back to the main character. The author wrote from the point of view of pretty much all the characters, which is a bit much in my own opinion. I would have liked it better if it was kept to at least Issy, her best friend, the first boyfriend (the louse!), and the man who becomes Issy's new love interest.

I so enjoyed all the characters who rally around Issy, from her voluptuous siren of a best friend, to the down-on-her-luck single mother she takes a chance on, to the strange little man who runs the ironmonger shop next to her, to her charming rascal of a grandfather.

Issy's journey takes her from doing the safe, ordinary, boring job at a property development company to taking a risk, not just on a café, but on herself. She learns a great deal about herself and what she can really do once she sets her mind to taking that chance and blossoming into the woman she becomes.

In my opinion, the job of an author is to sink the reader into the story, to make them want to continue reading and not put the book down until finished. I also feel it's the author's job to take the reader on not just an adventure, but to take them on an emotional journey. If I laugh, or cry, or rage at what the bad guy is doing to bedevil the hero/heroine, then the author has succeeded in that job while writing a story. And Jenny Colgan succeeded in taking me through all of those emotions. I was so involved in the story that for a short time after finishing it, I caught myself thinking with a British accent. So bravo, Jenny!

And to top off this charming story, recipes are included!

Basically I enjoyed this upbeat story (I got as a library book.) I found it believable, interesting, the characters well developed with their own unique quirks. Except for the MC's narcissistic boyfriend; his character was simply self-centered. I thought her little "epiphany" was well handled. I'm not sure if her employee's love life benefited the story or not, but it was quite human. I found it hard to believe that little Joseph was so rejected, and then suddenly so popular, at his daycare.

British novels, I find, tend to get into more mundane description which slows down the action for some of us "Let's cut to the chase" readers. When I got to the last third of the book, when things really started to happen, I did some skimming, hopping over party & day-to-day details so I could stay with the action. But over all the story played out well.

This is quintessentially a story about remaking one's life from a real low point and having faith in a dream unrealized. Issy Randal is a young woman who grew up around her grandfather's bakery, where he pulled together a community after the war with his sweet treats. Now, Issy was trying to get her grandfather to help her pull her own life together after losing her job, by remembering his recipes and giving her advice on how best to run a bakery of her own.

While the story is really about Issy and how she pulls together her life, I liked the back story with her grandfather. There is the beginning of the novel when Issy loses her job (trust me, I'm not giving anything away there) that we are introduced to her boss and boyfriend, who really crushes her self confidence. I hated to see how she allowed this one guy to break her! It was so much better to watch the recipes and people she met through the bakery to transform her life, which is essentially what the real purpose of the book ends up being about.

Each chapter features a sweet treat and recipe, which then also follows another step in Issy's life. Getting the bakery isn't an easy transition, as we can imagine. Luckily--and ironically enough--Issy's banker is a nice, young single guy who takes a chance on her, but who also has his own interesting back story. He finds Issy's sweet treats and story very endearing and wants to believe that she can make it, but wonders if she can really beat the odds.

On the whole, I found the story to be a quick and easy read. There were sections of the book near the middle that lagged a bit, and where I did feel that I knew what was going to happen, but I can't say that this dissuaded me from finishing the story. While I found Issy likable, I also couldn't completely relate to her in other ways. She was a bit gullible and vulnerable, which is how the range of characters should be--as varied as there are people in the world, so I went with it.

The recipes are sweet and made me wish I could bake a little better. The story is a tad predictable, but still generous and giving. I just always wish that I lived a little bit closer to a bakery or could read IN a bakery while reading a book like this!

I spent a significant amount of my early 20s devouring books by Sophie Kinsella and Jane Green. I'm not sure why I veered away from the genre, but Meet Me at the Cupcake Café was an adorable and fun story that reminded me of why I love British Women's Fiction so much.

Meet Me at the Cupcake Café centers around Issy Randal, a sweetheart of a woman who finds herself jobless and boyfriend-less, and she's lost. As the granddaughter of a baker, she grew up learning the art of baking, it's her art. In a moment of inspiration, Issy founds the Cupcake Café. Starting a business is no easy task, but with the help from her new friend Pearl, banker Austin, and her friends, the café is bound to be successful. But Issy learns that happiness with her job does not guarantee happiness in her personal life. At the end of the day, her friends have their own lives, and she is still lonely. All the while, Issy and Austin have become friends, of sorts, though Austin is hesitant to become involved with a client. And then there's the ex-boyfriend Graeme....Gorgeous, charismatic, and an utter self-involved jerk. But with Austin's hesitance and Graeme's sudden re-appearance in her life, Issy may just make the wrong choice.

This was such a fun story, one that left me smiling and craving a cupcake. I love Women's Fiction, mainly because though there may be a romance of sorts, they're ultimately the heroine's personal journey. Meet Me at the Cupcake Café was also a story of friendship, and that's where it truly shined for me. I loved that Issy found such deep and strong friendships in the women around her. These were the women who helped keep her afloat when she was down. When the business struggled, and when she struggled with the men in her life, Issy always had her friends.

A story about finding one's self and friendship, and a slew of delicious recipes, Meet Me at the Cupcake Café is a story that left me with a smile on my face, and a strong sweet tooth!

What could be better than a wonderful story interspersed with mouth watering recipes. Meet Me at the Cupcake Café is a winner on both these points. Issy Randall grew up in her grandfather's bakery learning to bake from an early age. After she is laid off from her job at a local real estate firm, she decides to open a bakery/café, after all, everyone keeps telling her she is a natural in the kitchen.

Things don't go exactly as planned, but that doesn't stop Issy. She keeps trying new recipes and baking more. Along the way, she makes good friends with the women she hired to help run the café and with the banker who arranged her business loan. If only she could get beyond her ex-boyfriend, who was also the boss who fired her, then life would be perfect.

Issy is the kind of person that I would include as a personal friend. She cares for her elderly grandfather as well as the welfare of her staff. She has a good grip on what it takes to run a business and turn it into not just a money making venture, but a fixture in the community.

I'll admit, that while I was reading this book, I experience severe cupcake cravings. In fact, it was so bad that I resorted to a boxed mix, the white cake with coloured sprinkles. Oh, they were so good, but I'm sure they were nothing compared to the ones that Issy would have made. Included in the book are numerous recipes from Issy's grandfather. Most of them I found very appealing and would enjoy re-creating in my kitchen.

I am almost disgusted with myself for having never read a Jenny Colgan book. I have always seen her books around but don't ask me why, have never managed to pick one up. Thankfully, I finally got around to buying this book which was released in 2011 with its very enticing cover. I started reading and immediately loved the main character Issy. Issy's Grandpa Joe ran bakery's his whole life and has passed his love of baking on to Issy.

Very early on we meet Issy's pathetic excuse for a boyfriend Graeme (who I despised from start to finish) along with some other characters that feature in the book. When Issy is made redundant from her City job she takes the plunge and sets about opening her own type of Bakery called The Cupcake Café.

Jenny Colgan has done a grand job of making the readers feel for Issy. We see her struggle with lost of things at once and try to manage starting a new business, her love life, the care of her Gramps as well as having some sort of social life. What made this book a little bit different is that at the start of various chapters (I cannot recall if it was every one) we see Issy's recipes for her famous Cupcakes. There is something refreshingly different about that approach, and some of the descriptions that go with the recipes had me chuckling.

I read three quarters of this book in one day, I read in the morning, my lunch break, my commute and even when I was washing up! I then eagerly picked it up the following morning and finished it. The story is a lovely read and you feel like you are taking the journey with Issy and you can't help but will her success on. I loved the characters, including the feisty Pearly and difficult Caroline both who work with Issy. I also loved Issy's flatmate Helena who has a very brisk attitude. You also see other local characters come in and they all add their own flavour to the story.

I was really excited to see that Jenny Colgan has a follow up to this book due out October 2012. I think a follow up would be brilliant, especially as the end of this one is extremely open-ended with many possibilities for the characters. Overall this was a book that I loved in every way, and it especially cheered me up as I am in the middle of my own very precarious start of a new business. This book was a real `feel-good' read and I loved every bit of it. Highly recommended.

Issy Randall grew up in her grandfather's bakery. That means she can bake. When Issy's boyfriend, Graeme (who is also her boss) fires her she is at a loss of what to do. On a whim she signs a lease for a store front and opens her own bakery, Cupcake Café.

This is a warm and funny story that I could not put stop reading. Although the story was a little off-the-wall. Issy was warm hearted and a little annoying. She was blind to a lot of what was happening in her world. She was blind to what a jerk (that is a nice word) Graeme was and how horribly he was using her. She was blind to how unfit she was for her office job. She was blind to a lot of other things happening in her life. But I have to say she had a heart, a huge heart, for everyone she encountered whether a stranger, customer, or friend. I'm not sure I know anyone like Issy.

Immediately you could tell who the bad guy and good guy would end up being. It didn't matter to me. I enjoyed getting to know them, especially the good guy Austin. He won me over when it was shared that he gave up his dreams to raise his baby brother when his parents passed away. Austin had his moments but for the most part I love him.

Meet Me at Cupcake Café is an entertaining novel that I certainly recommend to all my friends.

Meet Me at the Cupcake Café is a standalone novel written by author Jenny Colgan. I expected to love this book- I mean what's not to love about cupcakes and chick lit? While I did like this book overall, it was more of an "ok" for me. I started out really enjoying the drama of the main character Issy sleeping with her boss, getting laid off, then feeling empowered by her ex-coworkers to open her own bakery. I loved Issy's grandpa, and I thought the addition of recipes was a very nice touch. But aside from those things, the story just felt really long. Then, I was so disappointed that (view spoiler) I listened to the audiobook which was well done. If you like cupcakes and you like chick lit, you may enjoy this book.

My favorite quote:
“Life was always easier, reflected Issy, when you were carrying a large Tupperware full of cakes. Everyone was happy to see you then.”

Reading a good book while eating cupcakes. No better combination and that's what's to be found in Meet Me At the Cupcake Café. Ms. Colgan has managed to combine an interesting, witty plot with recipes for various sweet treats scattered throughout its pages.

I found myself cheering for everyone in this book. They're skillfully drawn and come across as real people with issues we can all relate too, like losing a job, aging parents and grandparents etc. The lead character, Issy, is fun to follow as she deals with what to do with the rest of her life. There's also Pearl who I thought was a memorable character and who often had the funniest dialogue.

Despite its 400 plus pages, the story seemed to clip by and you find yourself wanting to read just a little more at each sitting. I'll definitely be looking out for more of this author's books. If you enjoy chick-lit with a British setting, plus tempting cake recipes, this might be one for you to try.

Originally posted at Long and Short Reviews

The Cupcake Cafe has a really pretty girly cover and inside there are cute little drawings of cupcakes and cups of coffee throughout, but what really made this book different for me were the recipes at the beginning of each chapter for different cupcakes and cookies. They sound so mouthwatering that I really must make some of them. There's also a section at the end of the book with recipes and a guide to baking the perfect cupcake! Reading this book whilst on a diet (like me!) is really not a good idea ;-)

The main character is Issy who is a really sweet natured young woman and an extremely gifted baker. At the start of the book Issy works in an office until she is suddenly, without warning made redundant. It was at this point in the story that I really connected with Issy. Maybe it's because of my work situation at the moment, but I really felt her anger and despondency.

Apart from Issy, my favourite characters in the book were Austin and Gramps. Austin was Issy's Banker and he was just such a nice guy and I instantly felt an attraction to him. He had a bit of a crush on Issy and I really, desperately wanted them to get together. Gramps, Issy's grandad was in a home as he'd started to suffer with dementia, but he was just so lovely that I really felt Issy's heartache as his condition worsened.

We also had the joy (or not) of meeting Graeme, Issy's ex. Graeme was a slimy, arrogant piece of work and I loved hating him. I could `see' him stood there with the arrogant smirk on his face and I just wanted him to go away and crawl under a rock. I felt very protective towards Issy and I could feel my hackles raising every time Graeme came back into the story.

After the first few chapters I thought I knew where this book was going and I was right in a way, but there were some really good twists and turns which surprised me and made things not quite as predicable as I first thought. I loved Jenny Colgan's writing. It's humorous, intelligent and easy to read. Her descriptions of Issy's cakes where so spot on that I could taste those cakes for real!

It's a long time since I've read a chic-lit and I really enjoyed Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe. I felt nice and relaxed at the change of pace to my usual reads and I really looked forward to picking this book up each evening. At 456 pages, it's not the smallest of books, but it most definitely warmed my heart and chilled me out.

I liked it, and would recommend for folks who love a good makeover story with a bit of romance. It was an easy book to read after I got past a bit of a dragged out start to the story, (the reason for a 3 not 4). Once she got the cafe, it was really great.

You probably know this story. A young woman loses her job and decides to try what she does best and open a cupcake cafe. You know there will be a Bad Boy and an almost unseen Love Interest. You know this poor woman is going to struggle to run the cafe. But you know that Good will triumph and that this woman is going to find Love and Happiness at her cafe and that's why you will read it this summer and love it, despite its predictability. You will, I assure you. You will love it.

Between the great characters and a fun tale about a lady finding her way, plus awesome recipes, this book seems to have it all!
I wish I hadn't taken so long to read it. I also can't wait to get baking after the holidays and try some of these yummy sounding recipes.The vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream are making my mouth water just thinking about them.
Tons of fun raveled into this boo. Love how truly heartwarming it is and know lots of you will love it too!

Issy Randall inherited her love of baking from her grandfather and collects his recipes, making them for friends and co-workers. After she loses her job, she enlists the help of friends and a handsome banker to turn hobby into career in Jenny Colgan’s charming Meet Me at the Cupcake Café.

Funny, sad, rotten boyfriends, great friends...recipes I have to change from British to America , lol. At first I wasn't sure, but this book just grew and grew on me. I think I shouted at her once. Maybe twice.