🍨🍧🧁 “The Secret to Happiness” (Cape Cod Creamery #2) (2023) 🧁🍧🍨– Book Review

 

MY REVIEW

 

Series: Cape Cod Creamery (Book #2)
Paperback: 304 Pages
Publisher: Revell (May 2, 2023)
Language: English
ISBN 10: 0800739485
ISBN-13: 978-0800739485
⬅️ Click Photo for Purchase Information

 

“Escape to Cape Cod--where you just might find the secret to happiness
 
 Callie Dixon had the world by the tail . . . until it all slipped away. Fired from her dream job after making a colossal mistake, she's escaped to her aunt's home on Cape Cod for time to bounce back. Except it isn't a home, it's an ice cream shop. And time isn't going to help, because Callie's bounce has up and left. There's a reason she made that mistake at work, and she's struggling to come to terms with it.
 
 Things go from bad to worse when Callie's cousin Dawn drags her to a community class about the secret to happiness. Happiness is the last thing Callie wants to think about right now, but instructor Bruno Bianco--a curiously gloomy fellow--is relentless. He has a way of turning Callie's thoughts upside down. Her feelings, too.
 
 Bruno insists that hitting rock bottom is the very best place to be. But if that's true, how is it supposed to help her figure out what--or who--has been missing from her life all along?”

 

Thank you in advance to the publisher, Revell (a division of Baker Books), for providing an advanced review copy through Interviews & Reviews. A positive review was not required nor requested, and all words are my own.

 

Suzanne Woods Fisher is one of those major names in contemporary romance as well as Amish romance. So, I’ve been trying to read more of her work.  Have read two Amish stories, and the entire THREE SISTERS ISLAND series. 

 

This is the second book in the author’s Cape Cod Creamery series. It is best to read the first book prior to this one. Leo the Cowboy from The Sweet Life returns and has a bigger role in this one due to his connection with Callie and another character. 

 

In addition, it gives the history of the ice cream shop along with Dawn and Kevin’s history. Without reading that one first, readers might get some “spoilers”. 

 

Like the first book, this one features “ice cream” items – only they’re popsicles.

 

Also returning from The Sweet Life:

 

🍨 Marnie

🧰 Lincoln

 

Fisher introduces:

 

📖 Bruno

🍲 Jesse

 

The story is told through multiple POVs – Dawn, Marnie, Callie. Though the focus is mostly on Callie and her story. Her story also has elements of depression, grief, anxiety, as well as a debilitating illness (MS). 

 

In addition – Marnie is a breast cancer survivor, while Lincoln is a thyroid cancer survivor. 

 

These subjects might be difficult for some readers.

 

Like the first book, there are “quotes” before the chapters. I loved the one from Disney’s Frozen to start it off. After that, they’re all pretty much ice cream centric – fictional and real. Nothing too inspirational. 

 

This starts off with Callie making a colossal (and a bit severe) mistake during a food safety conference (of all places).   

 

As a result, Callie ends up at the Penn State Ice Cream School where she connects with her Aunt Marnie. That leads Callie to Cape Cod and staying with her aunt and cousin.

 

However, given Callie’s turn of events, she’s not the same cousin Dawn remembers and competed with as a teen. Callie is a shell of her former self. 

 

Tired of her cousin’s pity party, Dawn eventually drags her to a conference to get her back to her old self. Dawn thinks this “funk” is only about Callie losing her job. Yet, there is more on Callie’s mind than an impending lawsuit regarding the food poisoning incident. Dawn somewhat gloats about Callie’s misfortune there.

 

This is where the main story comes in to place about the secret to happiness and how Callie is trying to find it. Of course, it will be different for everyone. It isn’t a quick fix, which is what Callie is looking for. 

 

Callie, secretly – and as therapy – starts to reorganize the ice cream shop, as well are-bake some items that Dawn isn’t too good at baking. There is an increased interest in the items. And, Callie sees more potential for the little shop. 

 

The message of the seminar (and story) is about living in the present and not worrying about what’s in the future. Callie begins connecting with the man putting on the seminar – Bruno. She’s also increasingly becoming closer to little Leo and wonders about his parents. 

 

However, the one thing mainly preying on Callie is the health issue which also claimed her mother’s life. Callie can’t go forward without knowing, though she’s afraid to find out.

 

It is Callie’s worry over that medical issue that tend to bog down the story a bit. In addition, with the dates in the story, this reads more like a diary causing it to slug along despite taking place over a four (4) month period. 

 

This read more like a “self-help” book which wasn’t that interesting to me. I did like the inclusion of the anecdote “life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away”. A high school friend gave me this particular anecdote in a frame which has been on my desk for over 10 years. 

 

I did find the resolution about the lawsuit a bit unrealistic, given the severity of the situation. 

 

Despite this being categorized as a contemporary romance, there is very little romance between the characters – Callie and Bruno. The only romance was an upcoming wedding. This, in my opinion, is more like contemporary fiction. It is a quick read that doesn’t stand out that much. It truly suffers from “middle book syndrome”. It wasn’t a bad read, just not a stand-out kind of read.

 

As this is from a Christian publisher, there will be themes of faith, but it isn’t too preachy if you’re used to the author’s writing as well as the genre. 

 

I’ll be reading the next book in the series as it’s about Brynn – Dawn’s best friend. I’m also hoping that the Callie/Bruno story gets a proper conclusion.

 

Fans of the author might want to check this out. 

 

 

 

RATING: 

 

3 ⭐⭐⭐/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – Goodreads 

 

3 ⭐⭐⭐/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – Bookbub 

 

3 ⭐⭐⭐/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – Personal Rating (see rating explanation in this blog: https://readingexcursions.blogspot.com/2020/01/rating-system-2020-changes.html; update: https://readingexcursions.blogspot.com/2022/07/what-goes-into-my-reviews-2022-edition.html)

 

 

DATES READ:  5/11-5/12 (2023)

 

 

Previous Book in the Series: 

Series: Cape Cod Creamery #1

Paperback: 320 pages

Publisher: Revell (May 3, 2022)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0800739477

ISBN-13: 978-080073948

⬅️ Click Photo for Purchase Information

 

“Dawn Dixon can hardly believe she's on a groomless honeymoon on beautiful Cape Cod . . . with her mother. Sure, Marnie Dixon is good company, but Dawn was supposed to be here with Kevin, the love of her life (or so she thought).

 

Marnie Dixon needs some time away from the absolute realness of life as much as her jilted daughter does, and she's not about to let her only child suffer alone--even if Marnie herself had been doing precisely that for the past month.

 

Given the circumstances, maybe it was inevitable that Marnie would do something as rash as buy a run-down ice-cream shop in the town's tightly regulated historic district. After all, everything's better with ice cream.

 

Her exasperated daughter knows that she's the one who will have to clean up this mess. Even when her mother's impulsive real estate purchase brings Kevin back into her life, Dawn doesn't get her hopes up. Everyone knows that broken romances stay broken . . . don't they?

 

Welcome to a summer of sweet surprises on Cape Cod--a place where dreams just might come true.”

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

Suzanne Woods Fisher is an award-winning, bestselling author of more than thirty books, including The Sweet Life, The Moonlight School and A Season on the Wind, as well the Three Sisters Island, Nantucket Legacy, Amish Beginnings, The Bishop’s Family, The Deacon’s Family, and The Inn at Eagle Hill series. She is also the author of several nonfiction books about the Amish, including Amish Peace and Amish Proverbs. She lives in California. Learn more at www.suzannewoodsfisher.com.

She can be found on the following social media accounts: 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SuzanneWoodsFisherAuthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suzannewoodsfisher/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/suzannewfisher

 

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