The Coincidence of Coconut Cake

The Coincidence Of Coconut CakeByAmy E. ReichertWhat it's all about...This is a book about lies, misunderstandings, hope, love, power, kitchen magnets and cheese curds! Yes! Cheese curds!!! I learned so much about Milwaukee traditions and institutions while I read this wonderful and heart warming book. I laughed...I cried...I got angry! It was amazing!My thoughts after reading this book...Lou is a chef and Al is a mystery restaurant reviewer. Al writes an incredibly horrific review of Lou's restaurant which leads to the restaurant's eventual demise. Later...she meets and falls in love with Al...who doesn't realize that he is responsible for Lou's restaurant disaster nor does Lou realize he is the reviewer who personally destroyed her restaurant. Yikes! They made a pact when they met to not talk about their jobs! They are so happy bouncing through Milwaukee's festivals, Brewers' games and other Milwaukee traditions...pristine cow barns at the State Fair...polka dancing at the German Festival...innocently eating and drinking and kind of falling in love while all of this happens...until Al discovers who Lou is and what he has done. Oh my! Is there any way at all to fix this?What I loved best...I loved Lou and Al and John...Al's strange work friend...and Sue and Harley...Lou's good friends as well as sous Chef and pastry person. I loved the sweet German couple...Otto and Gertrude who had a favorite table at Lou's restaurant. I strongly disliked Devlin...Lou's original creepy lying fiancé. I loved the Milwaukee restaurants and shops and museums...I loved googling all these places and discovering that they were real! I loved learning about fresh squeaky cheese curds! I loved this book.What potential readers might want to know...This book touched my heart in a way that I can't really explain. There were sweet soulful moments...there were sad moments...there were lessons learned. I loved the way this author shared this story. I loved the way she wrote. It's fun and beautiful and sad at parts but all of it was just a lovely love story. It kept my interest the entire time and at the end...well at the end...there is a yummy recipe for Lou's coconut cake! Readers who love this kind of book...a book that feels real...should love reading The Coincidence Of Coconut Cake! I have told everyone I know about this book. I just sent a copy to my niece who actually lives in Milwaukee! I can't wait to book chat with her about this.My copy came from Edelweiss!

The Coincidence of Coconut Cake was aptly named as our heroine, Lou, is the chef owner of restaurant Luella’s in Milwaukee. She has just baked the titled coconut cake to deliver to her fiancee’s house for his birthday. As she was walking to his house, she run’s into our British hero, Al, on the street. He is struck by her smell of vanilla and coconut, and fondly remembers her as he goes about his every day. Lou doesn’t have quite as good a day because she delivers the cake to her fiancee who is caught with a co-worker in their underwear. Dropping the cake, she rushes back to her restaurant and has the absolute worst day of cooking/service ever. Of course, this is the day that Al, the food critic for the local paper, chooses Luella’s to critique. Needless to say, he was pretty brutal. Drowning in her sorrows at the neighborhood pub that night, tipsy Lou, meets charmed Al, not knowing he was “the” food critic and offers to show him around Milwaukee.This is the set-up for this love story. Through showing Al what the locals love about Milwaukee, she rejuvenates her restaurants vision and also opens Al’s eyes to the charm of this city. The reader is in on who Al truly is, while the two of them are completely ignorant of the fact she is the owner/chef and he the critic that has tanked her restaurant. These two characters were completely likable, the setting original, and the food explored really yummy making this a really light, enjoyable weekend read. A perfect vacation book!The food references in this book just about killed my resolve. Sweets and cheese being two of my absolute favorites. The city of Milwaukee also needs to put this book in all of the hotels as a guide for what to do and where to eat. Assuming they are all real events and places, I may have to plan a trip to Milwaukee myself. The city was as charming a character as Al and Lou.

I chose to purchase this novel because it's set in Milwaukee, a city not often featured in fiction. Since I was born and raised in Milwaukee, I wanted to know how the city was portrayed. I'm also a retired food writer, and this is a book involving a chef and her restaurant. Not to mention the appealing cover and interesting title.I enjoyed the food, the recipes, and the wonderful descriptions that took me "home" to the city of my childhood, the place I still love to visit because it truly can be as much fun as this book suggests. I could taste the calamari at Festa Italiana and hear the squeak of a good cheese curd.But I can't say the same about the love story that this book tells. For one thing, I never learned to care about Lou, the female protagonist who makes a mean coconut cake and owns a struggling French restaurant. She is a perpetual victim with no backbone who panders to her scumbag fiance, Devlin. I did finally warm to Al, the British guy who hates Milwaukee but stays to write mean-spirited restaurant reviews for a local paper, including a scathing review of Lou's place. However, I never did figure out what's keeping this bitter Eton graduate in Brew City before he meets Lou.The love story itself was predictable and sometimes tedious, with a bit of unbelievable thrown in. Maybe some people swoon at first sight, but Al was enough of a cynic, I found it hard to accept that he could be that obsessed with Lou from moment one. Considering their mutual -- albeit unspoken -- attraction, the passage of sometimes multiple weeks between their "non-dates" was also difficult to comprehend, as was their mutual ability to never mention what they did for a living. In short, it wasn't really a question of reading to find out what would happen between them, but rather how long it would take.The writing is okay, and the book isn't terrible. On the contrary, a lot of folks seem to love it. I just wanted a little more substance and a little less coincidence, I guess.

Needed something light to read , I am normally murder mystery, and that can get a little depressing so this book was fun ,. Just what I wanted in these rather bleak times.

Un buen libro para pasar el tiempo

A book that made my mouth water and made me feel happy. A light read Received in good condition

Arrived in great condition.

Livre sympa à lire. Mais le schéma de l'histoire d'amour est trop classique. La recette du coconut cake dedans est très bonne par contre.