Welcome to Sugartown by Carmen Jenner

My parents are both trained pastry chefs. So I should know how to bake a pie. But I can’t even boil water without looking up instructions (true story). After this story, I’m so tempted to become Betty freaking Crocker if it meant that Elijah Cade would eat my pie.

Oh - you’ve read this story? You want to bake pies for Elijah as well? I DON’T SHARE!

I really Really REALLY liked this story. It started out innocent enough. Ana lives in Sugartown with her family and runs the pie shop, right across from her dad’s garage. It’s a very small town, with all the fixings you’d expect to go along with it; the pretty boys that are douches, the gossips that encourage defamation, and no real way out.

And in rides Elijah. Because he shows up on a bike, is gorgeous, and tattooed to the high heavens, you know there’s a story, and you better believe it will be a good one. That is, if he ever lets anyone close enough to discover it.

Him and Ana together are hot. If you read the synopsis, you know she's, uh, innocent. And, well, he’s ridden his bike around the block more than a few times. But it still works for them. As their relationship progresses, you slowly learn a bit more of Ana and Elijah as individuals. You being to hope that our boy gets his head out of his arse quickly enough before it starts to diminish hope of an HEA.

And then all hell breaks loose.

Up until this point, I was so taken in by the witty banter; the lightheartedness of it all. And then, all goes to shit in the story.

Some people like some warning that crap is about to go down. I couldn't care less. As long as I like the story before and after the pivotal moment, the main characters can turn into kangaroos for all I care (HA! — Because I read this books while practising my Aussie accent, I just had to).

I’ll try not to give anything away during the rest of this review, so I beg for your forgiveness for making all this very vague.

Elijah has one hell of a past. And it literally catches up to him. Like any hot-as-f***, brooding, complicated man, he chose not to share that part of himself with Ana. And to say that she’s confronted by it in a horrific manner is really an understatement.

Persistence seems to be a theme after this point, but things aren’t looking for great. I’m praying that this is not one of those WTF cliffhanger books. I mean, I can handle those once in a while, and yesterday was not the day. Then our Elijah does something dumb. I mean really dumb. At this point, I was taking my glass of chocolate milk, raising it in the air, and drinking for Australia (it will all make sense!). I don’t drink, but I was praying to the chocolate-gods to give me strength to get past this point.

Ana and I chose different paths when it came to dealing with Elijah’s dummery (give me a break — sometimes words need to be made up). Sure this was added to a list of flaws, but when you choose not to lay claim, you can’t bitch about it either.

Then the author went somewhere I didn’t think she would. And it broke my heart. It actually had me taking a breather, because long gone were the days of laughing and blissful sighing. The events after ward were fully warranted, but it only broke me further.

Through all this, I have to admit that I fell in love with Holly (the best friend), Bob (Ana’s dad), Jackson (Ana’s cousin), and Sam (Ana’s brother) more than I ever though I would. They got me through parts of the book where I wasn’t sure anyone could shine a bit of sunshine on.

THEN MY BATTERY DIED ON MY EREADER AS THEY WERE SHARING M&Ms! Panic rocketed through me. This is not how it was going to end! At 11:45pm EST, I was tearing through the house looking for an extra charger.

With 3% battery, I finished the story of Elijah and Ana. I don’t rate books by stars. I rate them on whether I think they are worthy of physical space on my bookshelf.

I will allocate 4 spaces to Welcome to Sugar Town - 1 paperback for me, 1 to lend out, 1 as a back up, and 1 in the event I ever meet Carmen Jenner and grow a pair to ask for a signature.