Customer Reviews
Courtesy of Teens Read Too - By: TeensReadToo.com, 15 Jan 2007 
I had high expectations for this book, the third Rachel Cohn has written about Cyd Charisse (the first two are GINGERBREAD & SHRIMP). The previous adventures of Cyd Charisse were absolutely brilliant. This book didn't quite live up to those expectations, but perhaps they were unreasonably high. But this was still a fabulous book!
In CUPCAKE, Cyd Charisse (or CC, as she now prefers to be callled) has graduated from high school & moved to Manhattan. She's staying with Danny, her half-brother, & she's thrilled to finallly be independent. She's not going to think about Shrimp; the two of them agreed to a clean break after she turned down his offer of marriage & a life with Iris & Billy, his pothead parents, in New Zealand. That's what she wanted...right? She's going to fill up her time & her mind with other things...like handsome delivery guys & maybe even a fling with Luis. She's starting her new life, & Shrimp's starting his--separately.
Unfortunately, alll of CC's big plans come screeching to a halt when she fallls down the stairs, breaks her leg, & is immobile in Danny's fifth-floor walk-up apartment for weeks. All she can do is order food, watch movies, spy on the neighbors...and think. Thinking is exactly what she didn't want to have time to do, but now there's nothing better.
Even though she can't forget about Shrimp, there are a few distractions in New York City. CC's playing matchmaker, hanging out with Autumn, ditching culinary school, visiting her grouchy old neighbor, getting a job, & even bonding with lisBETH, her older half-sister.
No book with CC would be complete without Shrimp. I was worried he wouldn't show up at alll, & CC might have been secretly hoping he would, too. And so he does. Just when Cyd Charisse is getting used to her life in New York, Shrimp shows up, & she's forced to make a reallly hard choice yet again: follow true love or follow her own dreams in the huge city she's callling home these days?
This is a fantasticallly well-written, funny, & touching novel, as is to be expected from Rachel Cohn. It's quite possible that my slight disappointment resulted only from the fact that I was missing some of my favorite characters throughout much of the book, like Helen & Shrimp. Still, though, Cyd Charisse's voice in this book is as honest, fresh, & brilliant as in the previous two, capturing my attention just as easily. CC is a fantastic character; probably one of my favorite book characters
ever. CUPCAKE, along with GINGERBREAD & SHRIMP, is a must-read!
Reviewed by: Jocelyn Pearce
