This book was sent to Traveling With T for review consideration.

The City Baker’s Guide To Country Living

Summary: A full-hearted novel about a big-city baker who discovers the true meaning of home—and that sometimes the best things are found when you didn’t even know you were looking

When Olivia Rawlings—pastry chef extraordinaire for an exclusive Boston dinner club—sets not just her flambéed dessert but the entire building alight, she escapes to the most comforting place she can think of—the idyllic town of Guthrie, Vermont, home of Bag Balm, the country’s longest-running contra dance, and her best friend Hannah. But the getaway turns into something more lasting when Margaret Hurley, the cantankerous, sweater-set-wearing owner of the Sugar Maple Inn, offers Livvy a job. Broke and knowing that her days at the club are numbered, Livvy accepts.

Livvy moves with her larger-than-life, uberenthusiastic dog, Salty, into a sugarhouse on the inn’s property and begins creating her mouthwatering desserts for the residents of Guthrie. She soon uncovers the real reason she has been hired—to help Margaret reclaim the inn’s blue ribbon status at the annual county fair apple pie contest.

With the joys of a fragrant kitchen, the sound of banjos and fiddles being tuned in a barn, and the crisp scent of the orchard just outside the front door, Livvy soon finds herself immersed in small town life. And when she meets Martin McCracken, the Guthrie native who has returned from Seattle to tend his ailing father, Livvy  comes to understand that she may not be as alone in this world as she once thought.

But then another new arrival takes the community by surprise, and Livvy must decide whether to do what she does best and flee—or stay and finally discover what it means to belong. Olivia Rawlings may finally find out that the life you want may not be the one you expected—it could be even better.

 

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

I’ve had my eye on this book for awhile, but only recently read it. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting when I started this book, but it wound up being not exactly what I wanted in a book and yet.. I still really liked it.

 

What I liked:

The cover.

The town of Guthrie. It’s a small town. It’s got a Stars Hollow-ish feel. It’s the kind of place that I can picture taking children, showing them a real experience- snow, hot chocolate, a deep piney smell of a tree being decorated for the holidays. If Guthrie was a scratch and sniff sticker, I would hand them out to people who need a smile.

The relationship between Livvy and Martin’s father. They each found something they did not know they needed in each other and I loved their interactions.

 

Bottom line: Livvy was a hot mess a good chunk of the book and I found myself getting annoyed with her, but I felt confident that she would pull it together. The town and the ending put a smile on my face 🙂

 

*This book was sent to Traveling With T for review consideration. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.*

 

Happy Reading and Bookishly Yours,

T @ Traveling With T