Heather Hepler’s newest book, The Cupcake Queen, will be out in September 2009 from Penguin.
Penny’s parents need a break from each other. So the summer before her 
freshman year, she and her mom move from NYC to her mom’s home town, Hog’s Hollow, population 5,584. With her old life slipping away, Penny holes up in the back room of the cupcake bakery her mom has opened, designing and decorating endless cupcakes, wishing things would get back to normal.
School starts and Penny finds herself the target of a decades old rivalry and in the sights of a mean girl and her clique. Things go from bad to worse on a daily basis as her parents seem less and less likely to reconcile and Penny feels more and more isolated. She does find a few bright spots in her dark universe in Tally, a spunky cool girl and Blake, Tally’s funny boyfriend. There’s also this amazingly cute guy Penny keeps running into on the beach, Marcus. Now she just needs to figure out what she wants and how to make that happen.
Penny and Tally are very likeable characters, whose struggles and friendship form the base of this heartwarming novel. Penny’s first person narration is genuine and full of emotional resonance; it’s sophisticated and wry, but also reveals that she’s still the 14-year-old casualty of her parents’ divorce. We root for the girls and feel happy for Penny when she realizes that: “I can understand why people say this place is where life is like it should be. No bright lights and pretty wrappings, just life with its sadness and its happiness all mixed together.” An enjoyable, charming book for sure – and now I am going to go bake something!
- Posted by Cori
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