The Wedding Cake Girl Giveaway

The Wedding Cake Girl by Anne Pfeffer

July 24th 2012 by Bold Print Press

Seventeen-year-old Alexandra spends so much time helping others realize their dreams that she never has time for her own. An expert ocean diver and reluctant maker of wedding cakes, she longs to leave roses and frosting behind to study oceanography. Alex’s mother won’t have it—needy and dependent, Mom can’t run the family wedding cake business on her own.

No matter what Alex does, things only get worse for her. When she saves a man's life while scuba diving and becomes the local hero, Mom's angry with Alex for going diving at all. Mom discourages Alex's new friendship with Jeremy, a fun and insanely wealthy boy who happens to have a secret. Then, Alex's best friend, Zack, a hunky island guy, starts to take an interest in her as well. The problem is, he's dating another girl.

As Alex struggles to learn where she stands between her two difficult and confusing Prince Charmings, it occurs to her that maybe what she really needs is a Prince Charming for Mom. If she doesn't do something fast, they'll bury her in her "Sue's Wedding Cakery" apron with a spatula in her hand.

The Wedding Cake Girl features a colorful island setting, dangerous underwater diving adventures, a family of billionaires, and lots and lots of buttercream. The book is Alex's journey toward not only finding love, but learning how to step forward and take control of her own life, a rite of passage that faces all young readers.

Meet Anne Pfeffer:

Anne Pfeffer lives in Los Angeles, CA near a large rotating neon chicken head with her daughter and her dachshund, Taco.

For more information, visit:

Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook

Buy Link: Amazon

Excerpt :

     Someone with a whimsical imagination must have named the streets in Paradise. I head down Cinnamon Street to Carousel Avenue and turn left.  It takes me all of one minute to get to Dizzy's Dive. Fishnets full of carefully preserved sea life cover the walls. Amidst the motionless crabs and swordfish, a soccer game blares from ten TVs. Brazil's playing Italy.

     I squeeze my way through the tables. Zack's already sitting at the counter.  Technically, since Dizzy's is a full-fledged liquor-slinging establishment, Zack and I are not allowed on the premises. But seeing as how Dizzy Malone is Zack's uncle, and Spike Malone, Zack's dad, is Chief of Police, there's no one to turn us in or arrest us. Zack and I have been hanging at Dizzy's since we were little, slugging down sodas and sitting near Dizzy at the bar, where he could keep an eye on us.

     Zack listens to the person beside him, grinning broadly, his smile white against his tan. I love the way he's always himself, always calm and centered. A couple of girls walk by, checking him out, but he's waving to me.

     It's okay if Zack's with Rosie, I try to convince myself. After all, I was the one who stupidly said it was better to be just friends.

     Three months ago, Zack and I went mountain biking and stopped to rest on a hillside. I lay in a patch of sun with my eyes closed, while Zack walked around nearby. I heard him rustling in the grass, but didn't know what he was doing until I sat up, opened my eyes, and found him holding out a bunch of wildflowers. To me.

     I leaned forward, admiring the island poppies and Arroyo lupine in his hand. "The flowers are great this spring, with all the rain we've gotten!" Then I looked up.

     He had a half-embarrassed, half-determined expression on his face. "They're for you," he said.

     "Oh!" In shock, I took them and sat there, looking down at them, not knowing what to say.

      "I thought that maybe I should ask you out on a date. That is," he added, "if you're interested." He put on this "just-kidding" expression that masked the shy and serious Zack underneath and gave him an escape route if needed.

     But the word "date" meant one thing: my mother and her men. I would never live in that world or let it touch what I had with Zack.

     "I don't do dates!" The words flew out of me. I scrambled to my feet, the flowers falling from my hand. "Your friendship means too much to me."

     "Yeah, I know, me too," he said, suddenly busy brushing off his shorts with angry little strokes.

     "Zack, I...." I knew I'd hurt him, but I didn't know how to undo what I'd done. "Now I've dropped your flowers!" I wailed, trying to pick them up out of the long grass.

     "Don't worry about it." He stalked off toward his mountain bike.

     "Wait!"

     "Forget it." He asked Rosie out the very next day.

     I haven't been able to fix my mistake. We're still friends and diving partners, but it's not the same.

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Jen's Review 

Can I get an "Awwww" that was a cute book! 

Anne Pfeffer did a great job telling us all about the underwater world. I've always wanted to dive, but I am too claustrophobic to depend on one tank of oxygen to give me air. 

The Wedding Cake girl was cute though. Living on a small island off the California coast, Alex is stuck. She lives her life helping her mom with her wedding cake business. And her mom doesn't do a very good job about keeping track of things. Alex takes most of the responsibility towards the business, and always picking up the slack where her mom seems to be lacking, which seems to be more and more lately. 

Zach is Alex's best friend, and diving buddy. They great up together on the island. Zach had tried to get together with Alex, but because of her mom, and all her failing relationships, she was afraid to ruin the friendship she had with Zach. So they stayed friends... and Zach found himself another girlfriend. 

Alex and Zach were suppose to go diving one afternoon. Alex had a hard time getting out of her house with her mom needing this, or that. But she finally left. 

Zach called to cancel, saying Rosie needed him to go to dinner with her Aunt instead. Alex wasn't happy about giving up her dive... she knew the rules.. never dive alone.... but what her mom didn't know, wouldn't hurt, right? 

So down Alex goes.  As she's going down, she sees a kid swimming towards the surface. Looking around she notices him alone. Wondering why he didn't have a partner to dive with.. and then she looked down. Deep in the Kelp forest, a man was caught. 

She pulled out her knife and helped him out. 

When they came up to the surface, she had noticed the kid called 911 - scared her mom would find out, she told the man to forget he saw her, and she swam away. 

Feeling good about saving a man, but not able to do anything about it, she went back to her normal life helping her mom. The next day they packed up the catering truck and brought the wedding cake up to the Inn for the wedding that was booked that day. Leaving her mom to do the work for once, Alex decided to look around. Everything looked great. And that's where she saw him... Jeremy - And his Grandmother. She was so insistent that Alex comes back for the wedding and helps work for them a little. Of course they'd pay her. 

Since she was so desperate to raise money for collage and all that, she jumped at the chance to have a paying job. 

Jeremy - what a sweetheart! He was a great guy and a wonderful friend to Alex. He showed her how to loosen up and have a little fun. Fun! Something Alex hadn't had in a while. 

When Jeremy came back to the island for a summer job, I thought things would finally be different for Alex, But Alex was still trapped helping her mom. 

This was really a sweet story. I loved the ending a lot :) I'm a sucker for HEA's though - and I had no idea who she was going to choose. It seemed like a big toss up between Jeremy and Zach. But I think I really liked this ending best :) 

GIVEAWAY

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*Disclosure of Material Connection: I am a member of Reading Addiction Blog Tours and a copy of this book was provided to me by the author. Although payment may have been received by Reading Addiction Blog Tours, no payment was received by me in exchange for this review. There was no obligation to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own and may not necessarily agree with those of the author, publisher, publicist, or readers of this review. This disclosure is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR, Part 255, Guides Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising*