Review: The Sweetest Thing

Review: The Sweetest Thing by Christina Mandelski

Pages: 330

Publication Date: May 10, 2011

Counts for: Completely Contemp Challenge

Published by: EgmontUSA

Received from: Pittsburgh Public Library system

From Goodreads: In the world of Sheridan Wells, life is perfect when she’s decorating a cake. Unfortunately, everything else is a complete mess: her mom ran off years ago, her dad is more interested in his restaurant, and the idea of a boyfriend is laughable.
But Sheridan is convinced finding her mom will solve all her problems—only her dad’s about to get a cooking show in New York, which means her dream of a perfect family will be dashed.

Using just the right amount of romance, family drama, and cute boys, The Sweetest Thing will entice fans with its perfect mixture of girl-friendly ingredients.

Despite the fact that it took me almost two weeks to finish this book, I absolutely adored it. Just as the inside cover promised, I was a good book for someone who loves Sarah Dessen. We can now put Christina up on the list with Sarah, Susane Colasanti, Elizabeth Scott, and all our other great contemporary romance authors.

I loved the growth of the characters, of how Sheridan grew into her own and was finally able to come out of her mother's shadow.

The book had several key factors of a great contemp novel: The super hot boy, the best girl friend with the endlessly different boyfriends with the heart of gold, the father that only wants to connect with his daughter, the absent mother, the amazingly funny grandmother, the family bakery in the small town, the conflict of moving to a big city,  and the cute and quiet male best friend.

I cannot say more about how much this book made me feel. It made me cry, and it made me happy. It made me want to punch some people in the face, and it made me want to hug them.

And then there's the whole part where, somehow, my friends and I picked up Supernatural references out of no where. You know how I feel about that? I ain't even mad. Having a priest named Crowley was something that had my friends and I rolling over, laughing, last Saturday. 

In conclusion, this book is amazing and you should all read it as soon as possible. I don't know how anyone could not get warm gum paste butterflies in the pit of their stomach from happiness.