The Cupcake Diaries: Sprinkled With Kisses by Darlene PanzeraMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Cupcake Diaries: Sprinkled With Kisses by Darlene Panzera is a March 2014 Avon Impulse publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
Stacy McIntyre is working at Creative Cupcakes trying to make ends meet and pay back her former roommate for a few favors the girl did for her. Her former roommate has been quite nasty with Stacy about everything, especially since she was the one that invited Stacy to stay with her in the first place. Either way, Stacy is desperate for money. When an opportunity arrives for Creative Cupcakes, the ladies ask Stacy to operate their beach front cupcake stand for them, promising her a large cut of the profits if things go well. Stacy sees a way out of debt and jumps at the chance. But, thinks don't go as well as Stacy hoped. For starters, Dave Wright has set up in ice cream stand in the spot Stacy thought was reserved for her cupcake stand. She finds out that it's a first come, first serve situation and she's been knocked off her prime location. So, Dave and Stacy become fierce rivals....until one day when Dave's refrigeration goes out. Stacy could have used Dave's bad luck against him, but instead she decided to give him a hand. Now, Dave is thinking he and Stacy might be good business partners, but he's also hoping they will be romantic partners too.
The Cupcake Diaries series is always fun to check in on. These are sweet, heartwarming, charming and funny stories that always lift my mood. In this instance Stacy is really not all that aggressive until she has to fight for her corner of the beach. The truth is Stacy has let people run over her in the past and really does need to stick up for herself a little. Stacy is just not wired for heartless business tactics and she is too nice to let Dave down, although he hasn't been very nice to her. Dave's a little sour on romance when he meets Stacy and her reaction to his horning in on her business gives Dave the wrong idea about her. With one act of kindness, Dave and Stacy begin an inventive business project together, but is Dave just taking advantage of Stacy's unassuming personality?
This is another great short story/novella in the series. I enjoyed getting to know Stacy and I think her way of handling situations in life could have put her danger of being used, and at times it appeared that was the case, but instead, she caused people to stop and take a step back and think about how they were behaving and realize how poorly they were treating a really nice person. Since Stacy has had a few bad experiences she find it hard to trust Dave completely and has her faith in him tested. Even though these are very light hearted contemporary romances there are some things in here that we can all learn from.
Overall this one is a B+
