You're Baking the Viral Olympic Muffins

Celebrating Bookstore Romance Day or Want a Short Read

Hi friends,

Hope you had a great weekend.

If you’re a romance fan — or a lover of independent bookstores — please check out this auction I helped organize to support my neighborhood indie, East City Bookshop, which recently suffered flood damage. The lots include signed books from Jasmine Guillory, V.E. Schwab, Ali Hazelwood, Laura Hankin, Sarah MacLean, Alicia Thompson and more. (Anyone who tries to outbid me for the signed Kate Clayborn collection has another think coming.) The proceeds will help cover the costs insurance doesn’t. Bidding runs today through Wednesday the 14th at 11PM.

This week, I’m spotlighting some gems from my archives. I’ll be back next week with three new picks for you.

And, now, what to read if …

The Olympic Muffins Inspired You to Bake

Snacking Cakes by Yossy Arefi

Henrik Christiansen, a Norwegian swimmer who competed in 800-meter and 1500-meter freestyle, went viral last week after documenting his obsession with the Olympic Village’s Coup de Pates Maxi Muffins with Intense Chocolate on TikTok. (The Today Show has a copycat recipe if you want to give it a go). According to a press release I received last week from JournoResearch, “worldwide searches for "chocolate muffins" have surged by a staggering 1,523% since Christiansen began sharing his love for the treats on social media.”

If you were one of the thousands searching, check out Snacking Cakes, Yossy Arefi’s fabulous cookbook. The recipes are all simple enough to not require too much concentration, but they are involved enough to give you a break from the news.

So what is a snacking cake, you might be asking? It’s a simple one-layer cake, often glazed, perfect for leaving out on the counter for a quick bite. The recipes in this book are fantastic and varied — including fruity cakes, chocolate cakes and vanilla cakes. My favorite — so far — is the vanilla spice cake. It makes the house smell warm and cozy whenever I bake it, and it’s perfect with a cup of tea or coffee.

The best part of Snaking Cakes is that none of the recipes require anything more than the standard ingredients you have in your pantry, or more than 45 minutes’ baking time. This makes it the perfect cookbook for when you’re craving something sweet but don’t want to run to the grocery store. Just because we’re not Olympians, doesn’t mean we can’t eat like them.

You’re Ready to Celebrate Bookstore Romance Day

The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams

The sixth annual Bookstore Romance Day — a nationwide celebration of romance novels and the indie bookshops that sell them — will be held on Saturday, August 17^th. Historically, many independent bookstores have declined to carry romance, even though it’s a wildly popular genre (I guess out of some misguided sense of literary snobbishness?), so Bookstore Romance Day highlights the ones that do with events, sales and more. You can see a list of participating bookshops here, and check out the online activities here. (East City Bookshop’s support of romance readers is one of the many reasons I’m happy to be hosting this fundraiser.) If the idea of a community of readers enjoying romance novels brings you joy, grab a copy of Lyssa Kay Adams’ The Bromance Book Club.

As the book opens, baseball superstar Gavin Scott is shocked to learn his wife is unhappy in their marriage. After he melts down with her revelation, she asks for a divorce. A friend confesses that he, too, went through a similar marriage struggle, and found support in an unlikely place, the Bromance Book Club, a group of powerful men who read romance novels to strengthen their relationships. Gavin reluctantly agrees to give it a go, and begins to read the club’s latest pick, Courting the Countess, with the goal of becoming the hero of his own love story.

As someone who runs a romance book club, I expected I would like The Bromance Book Club. I did not expect it would make me laugh so hard that the friend I was on vacation with told me to “read faster!” so she could have it next. The genre regularly gets criticized for setting unrealistic expectations for women, but this book shows even the outlandish plots of a book like Courting the Countess offer lessons in how to build a real happily ever after.

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You’re Craving a Short Book

My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite 

I recently recommended this book to a friend going on her honeymoon and remembered just how good it is — so I wanted to spotlight it again. In just 230 pages, Oyinkan Braithwaite packs in murder, family feuds and twist after twist. 

In case the title didn’t give away the book’s premise, its opening pages do. In them, Korede, a nurse, is bleaching the site of her sister’s latest murder. After each of her sister Ayoola’s crimes, Korede steps in, transporting the body and stopping Ayoola from posting anything suspicious to Instagram. At the beginning of My Sister, The Serial Killer, Korede is almost resigned to serving as her sister’s fixer. That changes, though, when Ayoola sets her sights on the handsome doctor Korede has loved from afar for years. 

My Sister, The Serial Killer isn’t a whodunnit. We know from page one who the killer is. It’s not even focused on decoding Ayoola’s motives. Instead, it’s a family drama focused on the relationship between the sisters and their parents.

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Thanks for reading! I’ll be back in your inboxes next Monday.

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