By Shelley Shelley Shepard Gray, Rachel J. Good & Loree Lough
“A Christmas Cake for Rebecca” by Shelley Shepard Gray
The bakeshop is Rebecca’s and is very successful. She has found peace and happiness even though she never married. She also has created a one-of-a-kind delicious plus beautiful Christmas cake that people literally make orders for in June! She has always limited the number to 100 but a new hire unknowingly has increased that to 150. How will she get them all done? Add to that stress Aden is back. He broke her heart 20 years ago when he left. And he keeps showing up at her shop.
The story is sweet and was my favorite of the three. The novella is complete & completely enjoyable. I ended up liking Aden after all. And I would LOVE to have one of Rebecca’s special Christmas cakes.
Rating for “A Christmas Cake for Rebecca”: 5 stars.
“Best Christmas Present Ever” by Rachel J. Good
This story is nicely linked with “A Christmas Cake for Rebecca”. We find out the name of Rebecca’s shop and that Rebecca is the kind of boss you always wished for. Our female lead, Lizzie, seems to be extraordinarily clumsy. But she truly cares about people and a widower with a very sick little girl pulls her heart strings like nothing else. Oh … she is why Rebecca went from 100 to 150 cakes. There is a dog in this story too. I’m a sucker for cute puppies.
I liked this story a lot but it did have a major errors. At 43% of the trilogy, a major error … “X would stop by the hospital around ten…” Obviously X was placeholder while the writer was determining names. However, this error should have been caught multiple times. As this has a well-known publisher, I’m astonished it never was. At times too ‘Englisher’ words were used. For example, I can’t imagine an Amish man saying he was going to “park” the horse & buggy.
Rating for “Best Christmas Present Ever”: 3.5 stars.
Minus 1 star for the “X” placeholder and .5 stars for the non-Amish wording utilized several times.
“The Christmas Cupcake” by Loree Lough
I was disappointed that this story had little to do with the characters from the bakeshop. For me, this story felt disconnected for the other two.
Builder Asher meets schoolteacher Tess at the bakeshop and eventually he asks her to help him learn to read and Tess shares her burden — a father who is never satisfied with anything she does. He finds fault with everything and is cruel. Yet away from home, she can be the person she really is.
I just couldn’t get into this story although it did have one statement about the bakeshop that resonated with me. “Because here at Rebecca’s Porch, whether my order is large or small, I get the same friendly treatment.” Rude treatment can drive customers away permanently and I have been such a customer.
Rating: 3 stars
A thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Kensington Books, for the opportunity to read and review an ARC (advanced reader’s copy) of this book. The opinions expressed in my review are my own.
Trilogy rating: 4 stars (5 + 3.5 + 3 = 11.5 / 3 = 3.8)
Cover rating: Good. The bright yellow words are much harder to read on a small screen such as an iPhone or in a grid of a Kindle Fire.
Publish date: 28 Sep 2021
#ChristmasattheAmishBakeshop #NetGalley
