I've pretty much given up on reading straight romances, but I couldn't resist the Santa hat bedecked pug on the cover of Pupcakes - A Christmas Novel (#703). The story it contained by Annie England Noblin turned out to be just the Christmas treat the cover promised. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Brydie Benson is in her early thirties, newly divorced and living in her best friend's basement in Memphis, wallowing in her misery. Elliott does what a genuine friend does; she gets Brydie out of her house and back to her first love: baking. How Brydie manages to stand on her own two feet for the first time in her life, find her true vocation, and find friends and love along the way is the subject of this novel. It also involves dogs, particularly the older, smelly pug of the cover, Teddy Roosevelt, and a dashing doctor.
I think what I liked best about this book is that addresses the problem of loneliness of many kinds. Brydie is given a chance to live rent free in a well kept home in a desirable neighborhood of Memphis as a house sitter for a woman who is now in a nursing home. The only catch is that Brydie must also take care of her beloved pug, Teddy Roosevelt, and bring him to visit her every week. Everyone in this equation is lonely; Brydie, Teddy Roosevelt, and Pauline, who has been forced out of her home and life when she has a stroke. What is hopeful here is that it is never too late to form new bonds of friendship and even love.
When Brydie, a professional baker, finds a seasonal job at a big box store bakery for the holidays, she's on the road to recovering the sense of purpose she lost along with her husband and their bakery in the divorce. It isn't always easy, and I confess that I had to hunt for a hankie towards the end, but there is a happy ending here. I hope Yule'll love it, too! (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
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