Vanity Fare: A novel of lattes, literature, and love

by Megan Caldwell

Overview

Vanity Fare is a charming romantic comedyof food, family, literature, and romance in which a 40-year-old newly single Brooklyn mother embarks on a culinary writing career and finds herself at the center of a deliciously tempting love triangle.

Molly Hagan—“a heroine who’s wittier than Ellen DeGeneres on speed” (New York Times bestselling author Sabrina Jeffries) is overwhelmed. Her cheating husband left her for a younger blonde, her six-year-old son is questioning her authority, and she’s starting a job as a copywriter for a local Brooklyn bakery.

She doesn’t need the complications of a new love. But the bakery’s sexy British pastry chef is determined to win her heart. And there is his intimidating and oh so irresistible business partner...who happens to have a secret that might prevent Molly from getting her own Happily Ever After.

Funny and sweet, Megan Caldwell’s charming romantic novel includes five delicious recipes developed with the pastry chef from Union Square Café.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062188366
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	12/26/2012
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	398
Sales rank:	862,524
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Megan Caldwell grew up in a remote town in New Hampshire where she devoured every book of fiction in her well-read parents' library. An English literature major at Barnard College with double minors in political science and religion, Megan wrote and edited reviews for a music industry magazine for fifteen years. Eventually, she became editor-in-chief and went on to develop conference programs for the industry. Now she is the community manager for Heroes and Heartbreakers, a romance novel website, where she blogs daily as Megan Frampton about the fiction she reads. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and son.

Editorial Reviews

Set in present-day New York, Caldwell's new novel concerns insecure Brooklynite Molly Hagan, a soon-to-be-single mother heading up an important marketing campaign for sexy celebrity dessert chef Simon Baxter; in the process, she becomes smitten with his colleague. After her erstwhile husband announces that he won't be able to pay child support, Molly accepts an assignment writing copy for a celebrity pastry chef from John, a mutual friend of her and her husband's. But there's more to the job than writing; John wants Molly to "keep an eye on" his cold, shady partner, Natalie Duran, who lands the kind of high-profile clients that John has "only dreamed of." Simon's business partner, Nick, is suspicious of Molly's credentials, but his good looks and soft-spot for Molly's Pokémon-obsessed son make Molly swoon. Will all the flirting—between Molly and John, Simon and Molly, and Molly and Nick—get in the way of Molly's work, both covert and otherwise? Caldwell, who writes romance novels as Megan Frampton, has a good feel for New York City, name-checking institutions and peopling her world with multiethnic characters. Though the usual chick lit tropes, like convenient coincidences (how many times can Molly run into her husband and his new girlfriend?), make it necessary to suspend one's disbelief, Caldwell's story flows, and although Molly's constant self-doubt and whining can be grating, readers will identify with her attempts to rise from the ashes. Agent: Louise Fury, L. Perkins Agency. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

...a charming winter read...” — Romantic Times BOOKclub

“Caldwell’s light intrigues and bevy of supporting characters cast an old-fashioned spell on her modern Brooklyn romance.” — Kirkus Reviews

“...readers will identify with [Molly’s] attempts to rise from the ashes.” — Publishers Weekly

“It has everything I could ask for in a book, a brilliant plot, brilliant characters, witty writing (I LOVE witty writing), it’s snarky, it’s just plain fantastic. Do pick up Vanity Fare, it will surprise you — in the best way possible.” — Chick Lit Reviews

From the Publisher

...a charming winter read...

Romantic Times BOOKclub

It has everything I could ask for in a book, a brilliant plot, brilliant characters, witty writing (I LOVE witty writing), it’s snarky, it’s just plain fantastic. Do pick up Vanity Fare, it will surprise you — in the best way possible.

Chick Lit Reviews

"...a charming winter read..."

Romantic TimesBOOKclub

Can a 40-year-old divorced mom find happiness with a rich, dashing pastry chef? Surprisingly not, in this pleasing debut of single parenthood, temp jobs and literary desserts. Molly's story is sadly familiar: While helping her husband, Hugh, through law school, Molly put her career on hold and then gave it up entirely when Aidan was born. Now that Hugh has run off with a younger woman and lost his job with an investment bank, Molly is without child support, health insurance or much of a future. Thankfully, her friend John throws some copy-editing work her way, but when he calls with a bigger project, it may be the thing to re-establish her career. Celebrity chef Simon is opening a bakery across from the New York Public Library and needs a clever theme to tie the world of fatty delights to old, fat novels. Molly barely hears the assignment, mesmerized as she is by Simon's green eyes, thick hair and roguish charm. And he's flirting with her. In a British accent. Molly is soon coming up with pithy dessert names--A Room of One's Scone, A Raisin in the Bun, Tart of Darkness (the menu descriptions begin each chapter)--allowing her love of punning to finally pay off. Too bad she has to work with Simon's American partner, Nick, a bad-tempered businessman who seems permanently disappointed in Molly. As she juggles work, Aidan (she's the kind of real-world mom whose parenting includes a few too many hours of TV mixed with liberal bribes of Pokémon) and now her bankrupt mother, who has moved in, Molly tests the dating waters with Simon. Simon may be hot, but it turns out he is also obnoxious, self-centered and controlling. Molly's friends encourage her to sleep with him anyway, but she's beginning to have feelings for Nick, who is not as forbidding as he seemed. Caldwell's light intrigues and bevy of supporting characters cast an old-fashioned spell on her modern Brooklyn romance.

Kirkus Reviews