Book Review | Love Is What You Bake Of It @lovebooksgroup

I’m kicking off a new week and happy to also be the start of a blog tour with a book that was some great weekend reading.

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The only love Kally Andarakis is baking is in the form of the sweet treats she whips up in her café, The Coffee Klatch.

Kally never believed herself to be a person worthy of love, but when an intoxicating man she considered out of her league pursues her, she risks everything to be with him. Later, when tragedy strikes, truths are revealed that leave Kally brokenhearted and untrusting.

Eight years later, Kally is a successful pastry chef running the café she’d always dreamed of owning. With a home of her own, a profession she’s passionate about, and the support and love of friends and family, Kally is content with the life she has carved out for herself.

Until the day Max Vardaxis walks into her café…

With arguing parents, meddling relatives, an overly energetic grandmother, a man-crazy best friend, and the long ago, mysterious disappearance of a grandfather, this new man in town is just one more complication in Kally’s life, if not the main one.

Kally must now decide whether to keep her heart safe or to once again take a ‘whisk on love.’

Amazon | Goodreads

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When I first saw the cover for Love Is What You Bake Of It  I just knew it was going to be a fun read and it didn’t disappoint. I mean I love baking so that was a big draw and let me tell you I have been craving some sweet treats something rotten since reading this book.

I love romance books that involve big and sometimes overbearing families and this book has that in spades, in fact, I really wanted to get to know more about the family but I feel they will be the subjects of some of the further books in the series so I’ll just have to wait.

It’s hard not to like Kally, she is her own person and even though she has been through some tough times I liked that she stood on her own two feet and followed her dreams even when it was the cause of a bit of contention in her family.

I liked that even though this was Kally’s story we got to hear from the perspective of some of the other characters in the book, to give a background on how the characters had made it to where they were.  I also enjoyed getting to go back to her first relationship to see how it had affected her and see the reasons for why she was more cautious around Max.

Kally’s budding relationship with Max was really sweet, there are of course some misunderstandings and dramas that cause some bumps in the road and they both have a lot of baggage from their past. However, their meddling family and friends really helped them along and definitely provided some extra entertainment.

This book was very entertaining and a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to trying my hand at some of the recipes between its pages. I’m also interested to see where the series goes next and to find out more about Kally’s family.

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Effie Kammenou is a believer that it is never too late to chase your dreams, follow your heart, or change your career. She is proof of that. At one time, long ago, she’d hoped that by her age, she would have had an Oscar in her hand after a successful career as an actor. Instead, she worked in the optical field for 40 years while raising her two daughters.

In 2015, three years after the death of her mother from pancreatic cancer, she published her debut novel, Evanthia’s Gift, book one in a women’s fiction, multigenerational love story and family saga, inspired by her mother and her Greek heritage. Kammenou continues to pick her father’s brain for stories of his family’s life in Lesvos, Greece, and their journey to America. Her interview with him was published in the nationally circulated magazine Reminisce.

Evanthia’s Gift: Book One in The Gift Saga was a 2016 finalist in the Readers Favorite Book Awards.  Waiting for Aegina: Book Two in The Gift Saga was awarded finalist status in the 2019 International Book Awards and Chasing Petalouthes, the last book in the trilogy, had also placed in the Readers Favorite Book Awards for the 2018 contest.

Her latest novel, the first book in a new contemporary romance series, is now complete. Love is What You Bake of It, follows Kally’s path to independence despite her sometimes stifling family and her tumultuous road to finding love. But it wouldn’t be a Kammenou novel without a delve into the past, or the references to mouth-watering foods.

Effie Kammenou is a first-generation Greek-American who lives on Long Island with her husband and two daughters. When she’s not writing or posting recipes on her food blog, aptly named cheffieskitchen, you can find her entertaining family and friends or traveling for ‘research.’

As an avid cook and baker, a skill she learned from watching her Athenian mother, she incorporated traditional Greek family recipes throughout the books for a little extra ‘flavor.’

She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Theater Arts from Hofstra University.

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