The Kid Sister Ruined This

Oh my god. The little sister moved this book so annoying and unbearable. You can't get a happily ever after if you constantly annoyed. I love Pippa but this book was.... She could have left out the little sister. She was rude to the point that I wanted to strangle her. And nobody disciplined her. Granny she did go through something but she was rude and mean on purpose. Leave out the kids sister if they're gonna run the book. ( )

REVIEW

Master Baker by Pippa Grant

High school friends reconnect after ten years apart. Both feel the other caused the separation and loss of friendship…but both would like to be friends again…if they can bury their hurt feelings and make the effort to reconnect.

What I liked:
* The small town feeling
* Annika’s dedication to her mother, sister, and her mother’s dream to own and run a bakery
* The mother’s grief over losing her eyesight
* Grady’s love of family, and the way he sweet talks his baking in the making
* The idea of the bakery war to increase income for both owners
* The baseball games
* The supporting characters and how they added to the story
* Sue – the goat & Long Beak Silver – the parrot
* That Annika had a dream and pursued it, even if it meant leaving Grady behind
* That there was growth and maturation in both lead characters by the end of the book – they began to communicate and shared their feelings rather than reliving and reverting to the way they probably behaved when in high school

What I didn’t like:
* Who and what I was meant not to like
* The emphasis on “war” between to nearby towns without ever really knowing if or what the reason was behind the discord

Thank you to the author for the ARC – This is my honest review.

3-4 Stars ( )

I ended up skimming through most of it. I didn’t love it. It was the result of the usual quirkiness and chaotic-ness being too much and going too far. It was the result of everyone, with the exception of Sloane from the frenemy book, being terrible characters. Especially the leads. I really disliked them. For one thing, we really just knew too little about Sarcasm and her residents to side with any of them in the “bakery wars” going on. And in my opinion, Grady was a jerk at times, but wasn’t nearly as insufferable and annoying … no, infuriating as Annika. So she spends the whole book talking about how she HAD to make the bakery a success and when Grady does everything in his power to help her - including waking up extra early to bake for HER bakery before going to his own and sending her a baker even better than himself - she dumps him because she feels she’s his dirty little secret and that he’s perpetuating the rivalry for his own benefit. I’m telling you, she drove me crazy.

It was bad enough seeing these two together, but even worse when Annika dumps Grady for some stupidity. And everyone, even Grady’s own family and friends, turns on Grady. I was actually kinda of flabbergasted at that buffoonery. And completely turned off. I think the real absolute worst of this book was Annika’s little sister. That girl was a menace. She was in grown people’s business and didn’t need to be. She was causing pointless problems and then it would all be flipped on Grady with accusations of him “picking on a poor little 13 year old who’s mama just went blind.” That drove me crazy.

And now, I don’t even want to read about the Berger twins or Cooper because they were annoying characters in this book. I already read Daisy’s book, so I already know how much she annoys me. But she wasn’t too bad here.

So to sum up, did not enjoy this book, did not enjoy the characters, did not enjoy the storyline. ( )

4.4 stars

There were several laugh out loud moments in this book. That is always a guarantee when it comes to this author. I love the banter and inner monologues of the characters. I wanted something more from this story though and I can't quite put my finger on what it was. I still enjoyed this story and would recommend anything this author writes. ( )