It takes forty muscles to frown, and only twelve to jam a cupcake in your mouth and get over it.
This book is perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen. So far, I've read Bittersweet and Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler and I find the themes/writing style is quite similar to Sarah Dessen.
I liked this but I didn't connect with it enough to feel much more than mild like. The premise sounded so promising. I've always loved watching figure skating and I adore cupcakes possibly more than anything. Alas, I was kind of disappointed with this book.
My main gripe was that it felt too long and generally dragged out. I don't care if a book is 400 pages long, as long as it pulls me in and makes me feel something. I didn't feel much except exasperation that the plot wasn't moving forward quicker.
I mostly found the first half to be dull. The second half was slightly better, but that might've been because I knew the book was getting to the end. That's never a good thing, when you are awaiting the end.
I think I'm in the minority here, as most reviews I've read have been four and five star reviews, full of gushing. I can't gush but I'll point out the good things.
I loved the way each chapter was named after a cupcake the main character, Hudson, had created, with the cupcake being described(these cupcakes all sounded amazing). None of the characters really affected me in any way but I can see that there would be people who would probably relate to Hudson. The romance had some sweet parts(but there wasn't enough development or sexual tension for my liking).
I was annoyed by Hudson sneaking around to go skating. I found the hockey plot-line kind of boring and I thought Will was so bland that I didn't even see the point of his existence! I don't think a love triangle should be in every Y.A book but I don't mind if you at least make it a believable love triangle(such as the magic Stephanie Perkins weaves or the one in The Sky Is Everywhere.)
I was annoyed by how selfish Hudson's mother seemed. She didn't seem to care at all what Hudson wanted in life. I know if I'd grown up skating and stopped because my parents got divorced, my mother would've encouraged me to start skating again. I thought it was pretty crappy of the mother to get her daughter to work in her diner for free and expect her daughter to be available whenever she wanted. Her mother seemed to think her daughter never had plans important enough, that they couldn't be cancelled. I know that was supposed to be one of the main plot points but I just found it annoying. I think I'm a little sick of Y.A books that use parent drama as a main plot point, trying to show the main character as having sooo much on their shoulders. Sometimes it seems the formula for a Y.A book is: family drama + love triagle + insecure and/or misunderstood main character. I didn't see anything fresh in this.
I will say this was the first book I've read using PulseIt and that might've affected my judgement slightly. The reader on PulseIt kept freezing on me and it was taking me forever to read the book. I think my enjoyment of the book might've increased if I'd been reading an actual book but I don't think my opinion would've changed much.
I would recommend this to anyone who loves contemporary Y.A or Sarah Dessen(as they're similar writers). I personally didn't love it but that's just me. I did like it but I might've liked it more if it had been shorter. I like things too the point. That doesn't mean I hate long books. It just means I like my writing to have a purpose at all times. I hate filler.
But yeah. Cupcakes, romance, family drama, figure skating, hockey, friendship drama. If a few of those things interest you, you'll probably like/love this book. When it comes down to it, it's a fluffy, cute book and would be perfect for someone looking for a simple comfort read.
No matter what happens next, I'm not letting this turn into another two weeks of silence, the entire history of us summed up in a series of near misses and almosts just because neither of us had the snowballs to say anything.
3 and a half stars out of 5
Have any of you read it? What did you think?
Lisa x
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