Wednesday, March 17, 2010

The Icing on the Cake-Jennifer Ross

The Icing on the Cake
Jennifer Ross
Ballantine, Apr 6 2010, $15.00
ISBN: 9780345492968

In Dallas, debutant Ansley Waller enjoys being among the elite especially the envy of her sorority peers at Baylor as she is engaged to Parish, the top Texan bachelor. However, at a soiree, Parish watches Ansley behave cruelly to a girl and he becomes angry with her nastiness. He breaks off their engagement. Parish tells Ansley he prefers someone nice with an ok butt than the most beautiful woman in Texas with a nasty demeanor.

Humiliated, Ansley leaves Dallas for Manhattan where her estranged septuagenarian grandma Vivian lives. The sandwich generation in between them Hattie hates her mother who deserted her when she was five years old to run off with Charlie. In New York Vivian tells her granddaughter she has sixty days to find a job or leave. While Vivian works through a tax mess her late second husband caused to hurt her, Ansley begins baking cupcakes and opens a bakery. As she begins to find Ansley, someone is trying to insure she fails starting with the plumbing.

This is an entertaining coming of age family drama starring a likable cast. Ansley holds the tale together as she may have left Dallas with her tail dragging, but soon takes Manhattan by storm; one cupcake at a time. Filled with recipes (cupcakes of course), fans of contemporary character studies will enjoy Ansley’s efforts to add one recipe that she invents into the family “heirloom”.

Harriet Klausner

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