The Cake Shop in the Garden

The title suggests the common format of “Youngish heroine, hit by crisis, starts cute small business, eventually triumphs.” Carole Matthews often writes stories with more interesting plots, and here is one of them. Early-forties Fay is already running the cute cake shop, and is overworked and stuck in a rut. The author is very good on character and plot, more so than many in this genre. However, the heroine does need to be shaken until her teeth rattle for being such a willing doormat, which is annoyingly true-to-type for many romances. That irritation aside, this is a cut above most chick lit.