Genre:
Contemporary Fantasy/Chick-Lit
Description:
“Moorman weaves the tale of a young woman whose grandmother’s
secret—and the ancestry of her grandfather—are about to change her life
forever.
Anna O’Brien has inherited more than her grandmother’s talent for
baking and her bakery. When her boyfriend of two years accepts an architectural
job with a firm in Napa Valley, with no plans to include her, she is forced to
face an uncertain future. One late night in the bakery with her best friend,
Lily, they have a little too much to drink and follow a mysterious recipe of
her grandmothers with a secret ingredient. The next morning she wakes up to
find Elijah, a handsome stranger, baking donuts in her kitchen and things
rocket out of control.”
Author:
Jennifer Moorman was born and raised in Tifton, Georgia and now lives
in Nashville, Tennessee. She majored in English/Creative writing at MTSU. I
picked this up from her website. “My life is a writer’s journey through the
ramblings in my cluttered mind, the stories demanding to be written, my travels
along forest pathways, and my search for the ever-elusive unicorn and the end
of the rainbow.”
The
Baker’s Man is her debut novel.
For more, visit Moorman's website.
Appraisal:
I found this book to be a magically enchanting tale that weaves in
just enough reality to suspend my disbelief. Anna has always lived her life to
please others, but when Baron decides to take a job across the country, she
decides she needs to take charge of her own life and follow her heart. Anna has
internal and external forces pulling her in different directions; she knows she
wants to continue making pastries, but perhaps not in her hometown of Mystic
Water. There is a perfect place by the sea and an offer has been made, but to
move there will disappoint the hometown folks, her mother, and her friends. The
relationship with Baron is also unsettled, they were both comfortable with each
other and neither is ready to give it up, although they know it is over. Anna’s
biggest problem is she is not ready to believe this mysterious force that draws
her to Elisha is real, she doesn’t trust the magic. When her friend, Tessa,
falls head over heels for Elisha, Anna tries to take a step back. This story
explores friendship, forgiveness, and the possibilities of following your own
heart. When Elisha, her dough-boy, starts growing into his own person things
get very complicated and there are a couple of unexpected twists. The dialogue
reads true and humor is expertly woven into this heartwarming journey.
I couldn’t help but love Jennifer Moorman’s prose, each of her
characters and places had distinctive smells that Anna identified with them.
Her mother smelled of ripe cherries or rotten cherries depending on her mood,
her father like green pine or freshly cut grass. Elisha smelled of rosemary,
cinnamon, spicy chocolate and melted sugar. How could you not love that?
This is one of those stories I had trouble assigning a genre to, so I
went back to Donna Fasano’s guest post defining romance and chick-lit. I
decided it was chick-lit with a strong romantic element, although I do not
claim to be an expert on this subject. But I will tell you, if you like foodie
fiction or chick-lit you will love this story.
FYI:
Added for
Reprise Review: The
Baker's Man by Jennifer Moorman was a nominee in the Chick-Lit category for
B&P 2013 Readers' Choice Awards. Original review ran February 24, 2013
Format/Typo
Issues:
I found no significant errors or issues.
Rating:
***** Five Stars
Reviewed
by: ?wazithinkin
Approximate
word count: 65-70,000 words
No comments:
Post a Comment