Review – Petit Four by Various Authors Edited by Lucie Simone

Cake is often a major part of life’s celebrations, both big and small. From birthdays to wedding days, cake, in all its delectable concoctions, marks joyous occasions with a sweetness that can’t be beat. But even better is the love that is shared when two people connect over a sweet confection. Maybe it’s a cute new guy wreaking havoc on a broken heart, or a beautiful woman testing the limits of love, or an old beau stirring up long lost desires. Whatever the circumstances, cake can always be relied upon to save the day when it comes to affairs of the heart. In this collection of short stories, cake is the delicious center around which each tale unfolds and romance blooms.

When single mom and journalist, Olivia, sets out to find romance in Cindy Arora’s “Cake Therapy,” she gets a little help from her friends and more than a few slices of cake to coax her off the couch and into the arms of a truly great love. Lucie Simone’s “Aprez Vous” finds success-driven Tara in Paris reminiscing of her long lost love, Jean Marc, and her niece bound and determined to reunite them. In “The Heart-Shaped Secret of Raspberry Jam” by Sue Watson, cake enthusiast, Milly, meets her match in the kitchen, and other places, when new owners take over the tea rooms where she works and her talents and her heart are put to the test. And Scott, mayor of a small seaside community, flirts with political suicide in Joel Zlotnik’s “Her Charms” when he falls for new-in-town Nicole, an entrepreneur with a passion for cupcakes, and whose latest venture proves a little too sexy for the sleepy beach town.

From San Francisco to Paris, from small towns to tea rooms, this anthology tempts readers with humor, style, romance, and the powerful aphrodisiac that is cake. Petit Four is four stories, frosted with love.

Publisher – Simon & Fig

Date Published – 5th November 2014

Pages – 278 pages

Format – Ebook / Kindle Edition

Category – Adult Fiction

Source – I was sent a digital copy of this book by the wonderful Kim Nash in exchange for an honest review.  This does not affect my review or my opinions in any way.  Thank you Kim and thank you Simon & Fig.

I would also like to thank Kim for inviting me on this blog tour for Petit Four – thank you for having me!

** Please note Tales Of Yesterday Reviews are written as spoiler free as possible**

Nom Nom Nom…..I’m writing this review of this delicious book in-between eating mouthfuls of scrummy cake!  Why you ask?  It’s simply because this book is oozing with such delicious temptation of cake that I just could not ignore my grumbly belly and my salivating mouth any longer!  Whilst reading this book I’ve enjoyed many a cupcake, French fancy, flake cake, Krispy Kreme and of course, as its Christmas, a yummy mince pie.  I can officially say that the diet went out of the window this week, but it was worth it for this book and the cake of course!

Cake is there for us through the happy and hopefully not to often sad times.  For the birthdays, the weddings, Christmas time and celebrations.  This wonderful delight of a book is filled with four short love stories that not only make you want to eat cake but also warm your heart like a huge piece of warm hot fudge cake!  All of the stories are centred around how cake brings the characters in the short stories together.  Whilst reading this book I have been taken on a trip of chocolate sprinkled delight to Paris, San Francisco , a Victorian tea room and a wonderful cocktail bar on St Patricks Day and being four short stories I was able to enjoy them and feel thoroughly on a sugar high!

Aprez Vous by Lucie Simone

I found this story so beautiful and touching.  A lovely heart-warming story set on a trip to Paris where Tara has taken her niece Marissa as a special treat following her graduation.  What unfolds is a beautiful story told by Tara to her inquisitive niece when she met a man called Jean Marc, a musician and baker, whilst travelling in Paris many years before.  Could there by a chance he still lives there?  Could this trip lead to love after all of these years?  The descriptions of Paris were beautiful in this book and made me want to revisit there very soon and of course the descriptions of the cakes and the special Petit Four cakes will linger in your mind long after you have finished the story.

Cake Therapy by Cindy Arora

This was my favourite short story in the book.  I found the writing and humour exactly my slice of cake!  The story is set in San Francisco where at the start of the story Olivia, an eager new newspaper reporter starts a new job with the experienced reporter Tammy who believes cake is the great uniter (I have to agree).  What develops is a beautiful lasting friendship between Olivia and Tammy especially over their weekly cake therapy sessions at the cake shop.  Many years pass and Tammy is leaving her job and brings in new male reporter Henry into to take over and Olivia is juggling work, being a single mom and trying to move on with her life.  Could Henry with all of his dating tips be the man to help her along the way and get off the settee and back out there?  A wonderful story of friendship, love and of course cake all served up with often hilarious consequences, a rock climbing wall experience and a great reference to The Princess Bride!

The Heart-Shaped Secret of Raspberry Jam by Sue Watson

I loved this short story about Milly, a waitress at the Victorian Tea Rooms in her town who’s love for cake knows no bounds!  Milly even has a food blog called Cake Candy which sounds to die for and likes to experiment with different flavours with cake often reflecting Milly’s moods!  The Victorian Tea Rooms is run by, who Milly calls, Scary Mary her awful boss who has two voices – one for customers and one for bossing her staff around horribly and likes traditional cakes only in her tea rooms!  With the Victorian Tea Rooms being sold what will happen to Milly and her friend Kate?  And what about Cupcake the cat?!  This short story had the most cake references in with every cake imaginable being mentioned and hats off to the cake loving stranger who orders every cake off the menu to try!  This is surely a man after my own heart…well only if he shared of course!  A mouth-watering delight of cake, misunderstanding, comeuppance and love and a great reference to Mrs Bridges from Upstairs, Downstairs!

Her Charms by Joel Zlotnik

Finally we are offered a piece of St Patricks Day cupcake charm about widowed Scott who is the mayor of his town where everyone seems to know everything about everyone!  Scott has busied himself since the death of his wife without really realising that is until new neighbour Nicole catches his eye.  Scott must make some big decisions in life and love especially when Nicole announces that, being a business entrepreneur, she is opening up a lingerie shop called Her Charms on the front high street which does not go down too well with the locals.  What develops is a lovely story of love, cupcakes, charms, a cocktail bar that sounds fab and a wonderful story about moving on from the past!

I have to admit I have not read anything by these authors prior to this book but I defiantly will be looking them up for more reads very soon.  I love a good love story and as you can probably tell a good scrumptious cake so for me this book was a perfect mix!  All in all I thoroughly enjoyed it…now back to the diet!

 I award this book 4 out of 5 Tales Of Yesterday Books

You can buy this book here

If you would like to know any more about any of the authors above, this book or any of the authors other books please click on the links below.

Lucie Simone or on twitter @luciesimone

Cindy Arora or on twitter @cindyarora

Sue Watson or on twitter @suewatsonwriter

Joel Zlotnik or on twitter @mindofjzlotnik

Have you read this book?  What did you think?  Do you simply share mine and the authors love of cake?  If you haven’t read this book has this review persuaded you to read?  I would love to hear from you!  Please feel free to leave a comment by clicking on the reply button at the top of the page or why not tweet me on twitter – @chelleytoy .  I would love to hear from you!

Happy reading oh and eating lots of cake!