Bake off, but make it bookish!
Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame is the cozy adventure of a lithe septuagenarian ready to take a little piece of the world for herself for the very first time.
Jenny Quinn bakes every day. She uses antique scales to weigh her ingredients, and recipes passed down to her from the women in her family. Recipes tell their own stories, you know, of the women who wrote them down, and the time they recorded them. One day on a whim, she decides to enter a televised baking competition, but she’s so unsure of herself (and specifically her bread baking skills) that she keeps her application a secret from her beloved husband. It’s only the second time she’s kept something from Bernard, and the guilt starts to rise like her nemesis: yeasted dough. Remarkably, she gets through to audition after audition and eventually, she can’t hide it any longer, and she realizes she doesn’t want to keep her other secret anymore either. She’s just not sure how to tell it.
Okay seriously, this book gives all the cozy feel-good vibes of Bake Off. Jenny is patient and kind and so sincere it hurts a little bit, but in a good way…? Somehow Olivia Ford has really captured the essence of that British baking competition and infused it into this story perfectly.
Some of the book focuses on some flashbacks to a young Jenny, who finds herself in a very difficult situation. The world was different in those days, especially for women, and I found that storyline so heartbreaking and emotional.
The writing was so engaging and compelling it was easy to connect to the story. A delight all the way through. Like a hug in a book!
5 stars, no notes.
Details
Title:: Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame
Author:: Olivia Ford
Genre:: Cozy General Fiction
Publisher:: Pamela Dorman Books
Length:: 384 pages
Audio Length:: 11h 12m
Audiobook Narrator:: Melanie Crawley
Published:: January 30th, 2024
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars
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