Semi-Sweet: A Novel of Love and Cupcakes by Roisin Meaney has been in my bookcase for a long time. I was interested in the central character, Hannah Robinson who has the chance to fulfill her dream of opening a cupcake shop. I really enjoyed the parts of this book that was about cupcakes. But I got bogged down in the number of characters who were related to Hannah or her friends. I wanted more Hannah! As soon as Hannah is almost ready to open her shop, her live in boyfriend suddenly took off for another girl who got herself pregnant by him. And on and on the story goes. At certain points, reading this book seemed like soap opera but other points were fascinating so the good and the bad average out to OK!

Too many characters, too many situations destroyed the story at the begining. It is set in a very small town in Ireland and I think that the author tried to give us the whole town. I liked what she wrote enough to keep reading until the end but I wish that the author would include a diagram of all the characters showing the relationships. ( )

I really enjoyed Semi-Sweet, in fact I could barely put it down and was 15 minutes late to work because I didn't want to leave it at that particular spot. At first I wasn't enthused with the jumping around at first, but it soon didn't bother me at all--I felt like I was watching a soap opera, where they cut to each of the various characters right in the middle of a good scene-it compels you to continue reading.

I was really pleased that the author didn't take any easy outs with a few of her storylines, I was expecting from the beginning that she was going to put Hannah and Adam together in the end, which is an obvious but popular plot. I was surprised numerous times by the mini-plot twists. I had hoped that there would be some reconciliation between the two moms or between Hannah and Leah, but there wasn't-which I guess is fairly true-to-life.


*received a digital copy free through netGalley
( )

Semi-Sweet is a charming story about characters in the Irish town of Clongarvin. Hannah Robinson, who recently opened up a cupcake shop, shares a flat with her best friend Adam. As best friends, both of them aspire to find happiness in love relationships, and as the novel unfolds, they are both led toward self-discovery and new beginnings.
As I read this story, I was slightly annoyed by the author’s constant juxtaposing between characters from chapter to chapter, and I felt that this literary technique detracted from my interest in the story. Since the chapters were often short snippets or scenarios, this determined juxtaposition made for what I considered overkill.
The author, Roisin Meaney, has a descriptive style that I appreciated, but on occasion, I felt that the story line progressed a little too slowly. The tempo of the story certainly picked up, however, during the sexual encounter between Nora and Patrick in his office. In this scene, as well as in other segments of the book, the author uses dialogue encoded in italics to designate what a character is thinking or saying. This technique effectively drew me further into the story.
Overall, I felt that this novel was an enjoyable read, not compelling or of high interest, but rather a pleasant novel that reminded me of the small-town setting in Jan Karon’s Mitford series of books. ( )

I just didn't really like this book, I had a hard time making myself finish it. ( )

LOVED it! ( )