The Cupcake Queen by Heather Hepler is a young adult novel about life, love, and creativity. The main theme of the book is life, and learning to deal with whatever it throws at you.14 year old Penny Lane has grown up in the big city her whole life. But when Penny's mother tells her that she will be opening a bakery in Hog's Hollow, Penny is forced to leave her home in Manhattan and move out to Hog's Hollow with her mother and Grandmother. Penny has to start at a brand new school where Little Miss Popular, Charity, constantly bullies and makes fun of Penny. Charity and her other stuck up followers spend each and every day planning new ways to ruin Penny's life. But Hog's Hollow isn't all that bad. She soon meets two new friends, Tally and Blake, and they try to find ways to get revenge on Charity and her friends. Plus there's Marcus. A boy with a dramatic past who also seems to be taking an interest in Penny. On the flip side though, Penny is crushed when she finds out that she will have to make a life changing decision between staying in Hog's Hollow with her mother or moving back to Manhattan with her Father.
This book really had nothing special about it. In fact, I thought it was rather boring. The story is very slowly paced and the more you read, the more you want to stop. This book is very confusing. You have to do a lot of infering which I do not like. Serioiusly, they don't explain ANYTHING! Also, most books I read seem to drag on, however, this book didn't do that at all. Instead, I felt like the story ended too early! On the other hand, there were things about this book that I did like. First of all, I LOVED all of the characters in this book. The characterization was done very well. Charity for example, is made out to be a snooty, mean, brat and she does so many things that make me just want to reach into the book and strangle her. AND I LOVE THAT!!! I love it when the characters come to life. Also, I have a particular interest in baking and culinary arts (haha, I wanna be a chef when I grow up) and since this book focuses a lot about creativity, baking, and decorating, I was definately interested in it. This book has no swear words, bad scenes, or anything bad. One last good thing about this book, is that I liked how a lot of kids can relate to Penny and her problems. Divorce, moving, bullying, and fitting in are all major issues that Penny has to deal with. I like being able to actually relate to the characters.
All in all, I felt like this book deserved a C+. There were many things I liked about the book, but I'm sorry, I just cannot deal with all the infering and confusion that comes with this story. But if you can handle having to guess what's going on every 10 pages, then you might like this book.
4 comments:
Nice review! I like how you said what you really thought about it, that it was slow and confusing. Rather than just saying it was okay. Because of that, I now know not to get that book.
that was a good book review. Im glad to know not to pick that book up when i go to the library.
Although you didn't like this book I thought that it was really good that you told about it, then told why you didn't like it. I think although it might be one I want to read. Thanks for the review (:
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