Review: Christmas Wedding at the Gingerbread Cafe by Rebecca Raisin

Christmas Wedding at the Gingerbread Cafe


The Gingerbread Cafe, #3
Rebecca Raisin


Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Carina
Date of Publication: October 15, 2014
Number of pages: 304

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Review: Chocolate Dreams at the Gingerbread Cafe by Rebecca Raisin

Recently, while browsing Netgalley for new books, I came across this book. I had recently read Christmas at the Gingerbread Cafe and enjoyed it, so I gave this one a try as well.  This book is set just a few months following the first book, during Easter.  There was a return of all the characters we were introduced in the first book.

This book read very much like a second act in a play. The first act, book one, was all about them meeting and falling in love.  Now in the second act, that love has trials, tribulations, and tests that must be passed to prove the love is true.

Lily and Damon are living together in Lily's old house.  When Damon's daughter is visiting, she has her own room and stays with them.  Slowly they are integrating into a family.  Business has been picking up for both Lily and Damon, between their joint catering jobs and each being busier at their own stores. Plus, in order to help bring more revenue into the area, all the stores in town are gearing up for a Chocolate Festive.  So of course, to burst her bubble and cause trouble, Lily's ex husband, Joel, shows up.  He is demanding $20,000 repayment for money that he used to help get the shop going years before.  Never mind that he had lost much more than that in get rich quick schemes, including their house.  If he doesn't get the money, he plans to take Lily to court and make her sell her shop.

This was a novella just like the first book and had a quick, fast paced story.  There is no dramatic shocking moment where Lily and Damon are almost torn apart, shock, gasp, horror, will they or won't they stay together. This story stays true to the maturity level of the characters.  Lily's struggle to fight Joel, Damon's quiet support of Lily and how the two of them use this obstacle to bring their relationship closer together. I think this was an even better book than the first.  I gave it 4 stars.

Chocolate…the most irresistible temptation?

The Gingerbread Café is all a buzz! This Easter, Lily and the rest of the town of Ashford, Connecticut are planning a truly decadent Chocolate Festival. Cooking up a storm, CeeCee and Lily are not just baking a batch of their sinfully delicious chocolate-dipped gingerbread men, but an excess of chocolate truffles, squidgy, cinnamony hot cross buns and melt in your mouth chocolate eggs. The Gingerbread Café staff have definitely enjoyed the tasting process!

Add in Damon’s cute-as-a-button seven year old daughter, Charlie, up for a visit and Lily’s perfect Easter may just be around the corner. Until her ex-husband Joel turns up demanding twenty thousand dollars… Suddenly the future of the Gingerbread Café is not so clear…and Lily finds herself eating far more of The Gingerbread Café’s treats than her skinny jeans allow…

Can Lily concoct a brilliant plan to save her beloved café, convince Damon she has no feelings for Joel and still throw a Chocolate Festival the town will be talking about for years? There’s only one way to find out...

Welcome back to the warmth, cupcakes and hot chocolate of The Gingerbread Café – your home away from home

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Review: Christmas at the Gingerbread Cafe by Rebecca Raisin

You are probably looking at this post and thinking to yourself, "A Christmas Review?  But we just had Valentine's Day!"  And you would be correct.  However, who says that we can't celebrate Christmas all year long?  Goodness knows that most of the country is still experiencing enough cold and snow that they may be wondering when, if ever, spring will come.  But even if it was the middle of July and everyone was slathered in sunscreen and basking in the bright sunshine of summer, I would read and post a review about a Christmas story.  Christmas isn't just a day on the calendar, or even a season, it is a feeling down deep in your soul. It represents all the best we have to give, Peace on Earth and Good Will Toward Men.  I think the world could be a bit brighter all year long if we reminded ourselves of that basic tenant through out the entire year.

Christmas at the Gingerbread Cafe was a very cute novella that I requested and received through Netgalley. Almost the entire story is told between two shop fronts, set across Main Street from each other, in the small town of Ashford, Connecticut.  It is the story of Lily and Damon, two equally stubborn souls, who with a little bit of luck and a hefty dose of Christmas Spirit, may just end up having all their Christmas Wishes come true.

Lily has been quietly whiling away the time, waiting for her ex-husband to realize the mistake he made in leaving her and their marriage to chase after another woman and a get rich quick scheme. She has put all over her time and energy in to making her unique ginger inspired bakery and small catering company. Lily knows deep in her heart that if she can continues her success, her husband will eventually figure out where he belongs. Needless to say that she is horrified when another food shop opens right across from hers and starts siphoning away her clientele.

Damon has moved back to Ashford and brought his successful business with him. He is recently divorced and wants the stability and peace of a small town for his daughter. But as a single man in a small community, and one with deep family connections to the area, he immediately gets off to the wrong foot with Lily.  The back and forth bickering and bantering was fun to watch as they each tried to one up the other.

Ms. Raisin did a really good job of telling this story.  Both these characters were mature and experienced with love and loss and the author stayed true to them. Each was a little more cautious about their heart, and there was very little of the emotional game playing this is often found in immature characters and story lines. I was looking for a meaningful story about second chances at love and that's exactly what I got. I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads.

Christmas is the season the Gingerbread Café was made for…but owner Lily couldn’t be feeling less merry if she tried. She’s spent another year dreaming of being whisked away on a sleigh-ride for two, but she’s facing festive season alone – again. And, just to give her another reason to feel anything other than candy-cane perky, a new shop across the road has opened… Not only is it selling baked goods, but the owner, with his seriously charming smile, has every girl in town swooning.

But Lily isn’t about to let her business crumble — the Gingerbread Café is the heart of the community, and she’s going to fight for it! This could be the Christmas that maybe, just maybe, all her dreams – even the someone-to-decorate-the-Christmas-tree-with ones – really do come true!

Available at the following retailers:
Amazon     BN     Kobo