Review and Giveaway: The Wedding Cake Girl by Anne Pfeffer

Today I am lucky to be spotlighting and offering a giveaway for Anne Pfeffer, author of The Wedding Cake Girl.  Be sure to check out my review after the awesome excerpt.  Also, don’t forget to enter the awesome giveaway.

Date Published: July 24, 2012

Synopsis:

Seventeen-year-old Alexandra spends so much time helping others realize their dreams

that she never has time for her own. An expert ocean diver and reluctant maker of

wedding cakes, she longs to leave roses and frosting behind to study oceanography.

Alex’s mother won’t have it—needy and dependent, Mom can’t run the family wedding

cake business on her own.

No matter what Alex does, things only get worse for her. When she saves a man’s life

while scuba diving and becomes the local hero, Mom’s angry with Alex for going diving

at all. Mom discourages Alex’s new friendship with Jeremy, a fun and insanely wealthy

boy who happens to have a secret. Then, Alex’s best friend, Zack, a hunky island guy,

starts to take an interest in her as well. The problem is, he’s dating another girl.

If she doesn’t do something fast, Alex will spend her life making wedding cakes and be

buried in her “Sue’s Wedding Cakery” apron with a spatula in her hand.

The Wedding Cake Girl features a colorful island setting, dangerous underwater diving

adventures, a family of billionaires, and lots and lots of buttercream. The book is Alex’s

journey toward not only finding love, but learning how to step forward and take control of

her own life, a rite of passage that faces all young readers.

Excerpt:

Someone with a whimsical imagination must have named the streets in Paradise. I head down Cinnamon Street to Carousel Avenue and turn left. It takes me all of one minute to get to Dizzy’s Dive. Fishnets full of carefully preserved sea life cover the walls. Amidst the motionless crabs and swordfish, a soccer game blares from ten TVs. Brazil’s playing Italy.

I squeeze my way through the tables. Zack’s already sitting at the counter. Technically, since Dizzy’s is a full-fledged liquor-slinging establishment, Zack and I are not allowed on the premises. But seeing as how Dizzy Malone is Zack’s uncle, and Spike Malone, Zack’s dad, is Chief of Police, there’s no one to turn us in or arrest us. Zack and I have been hanging at Dizzy’s since we were little, slugging down sodas and sitting near Dizzy at the bar, where he could keep an eye on us.

Zack listens to the person beside him, grinning broadly, his smile white against his tan. I love the way he’s always himself, always calm and centered. A couple of girls walk by, checking him out, but he’s waving to me.

It’s okay if Zack’s with Rosie, I try to convince myself. After all, I was the one who stupidly said it was better to be just friends.

Three months ago, Zack and I went mountain biking and stopped to rest on a hillside. I lay in a patch of sun with my eyes closed, while Zack walked around nearby. I heard him rustling in the grass, but didn’t know what he was doing until I sat up, opened my eyes, and found him holding out a bunch of wildflowers. To me.

I leaned forward, admiring the island poppies and Arroyo lupine in his hand. “The flowers are great this spring, with all the rain we’ve gotten!” Then I looked up.

He had a half-embarrassed, half-determined expression on his face. “They’re for you,” he said.

“Oh!” In shock, I took them and sat there, looking down at them, not knowing what to say.

“I thought that maybe I should ask you out on a date. That is,” he added, “if you’re interested.” He put on this “just-kidding” expression that masked the shy and serious Zack underneath and gave him an escape route if needed.

But the word “date” meant one thing: my mother and her men. I would never live in that world or let it touch what I had with Zack.

“I don’t do dates!” The words flew out of me. I scrambled to my feet, the flowers falling from my hand. “Your friendship means too much to me.”

“Yeah, I know, me too,” he said, suddenly busy brushing off his shorts with angry little strokes.

“Zack, I….” I knew I’d hurt him, but I didn’t know how to undo what I’d done. “Now I’ve dropped your flowers!” I wailed, trying to pick them up out of the long grass.

“Don’t worry about it.” He stalked off toward his mountain bike.

“Wait!”

“Forget it.” He asked Rosie out the very next day.

I haven’t been able to fix my mistake. We’re still friends and diving partners, but it’s not the same.

Review: 

This was a wonderfully story full of emotional teenage angst which will force the reader to relive all of those horrible teenage moments.  Moments like your first love and frustration with your parents and the beginnings of making choices for yourself.  I loved the character of Alex.  She knows what she wants and tries to do what she can to become who she wants to become.  Alex is forced to put so many people in front of herself that it becomes frustrating at times.  Also, her love triangle with Zach and Jeremy really is good, but again very frustrating.

Overall, I think this book is definitely one to read.  But, I must warn you.  You will finish this book and still be wracked with the emotions that it has stirred in you from your own coming of age.  The characters are well-developed for teenagers and at times the adults seem more like needy children and teenagers than the teens do.  You really route for Alex to find what she wants and you just want to give her the support you find her support system is lacking.  I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who likes a good Young Adult novel.

I would like to thank Anne Pfeffer for allowing me to read this terrific novel and Reading Addiction Blog tours for letting me host this tour stop.  For more information about Anne Pfeffer click on her links below.  For more information about The Wedding Cake Girl you can check it out on Barnes and Nobel, Amazon or any other book retailer.

Giveaway:

To be entered in the giveaway just tell me what your favorite kind of sweet treat is and be sure to leave your email address so I may contact the winner.

Author Bio:

Anne Pfeffer lives in Los Angeles near a large rotating neon chicken head with her

daughter and her dachshund Taco.

Contact Links:

Website: www.annepfeffer.com

Twitter: AnnePfeffer1

*Disclosure of Material Connection: I am a member of Reading Addiction Blog Tours and a copy of this book was provided to me by the author. Although payment may have been received by Reading Addiction Blog Tours, no payment was received by me in exchange for this review. There was no obligation to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own and may not necessarily agree with those of the author, publisher, publicist, or readers of this review. This disclosure is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commision’s 16 CFR, Part 255, Guides Concerning Use of Endorcements and Testimonials in Advertising*