Review and Giveaway: All's Fair in Love and Cupcakes by Betsy St. Amant

Don't miss Betsy St. Amant's latest fiction release, All's Fair in Love and Cupcakes. A "sweet" tale of two best friends and the choices they make between dreams and a possible "sure thing," St. Amant's novel is sure to satisfy your romantic-fiction craving.

Betsy is celebrating with a fun Kindle giveaway and a Love & Cupcakes Facebook party!
One winner will receive:

• A brand new Kindle
• All's Fair in Love and Cupcakes by Betsy St. Amant

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on September 18th. Winner will be announced at the "Love & Cupcakes" Author Chat Party on 9/18. Betsy will be hosting a "sweet" book chat, giving away prizes, and answering questions from readers. She will also share an exclusive sneak peek at her next book project!

So grab your copy of All's Fair in Love and Cupcakes and join Betsy on the evening of September 18th for a chance to connect and make some new friends. (If you haven't read the book, don't let that stop you from coming!)

Don't miss a moment of the fun; RSVP today. Tell your friends via FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning. Hope to see you on the 18th!

My Review: Surprise! It’s a romance involving cupcakes

Kat Varland is twenty-six, and works in Sweetie Pies, her aunt’s cupcake shop in Bayou Bend, Louisiana. She bakes the same vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry cupcakes each day because Aunt Maggie won’t sell any of those “weird” flavours … which leaves her testing them on her best friend, high school football coach Lucas Brannen. But things change when she’s accepted as a contestant in reality cupcake show (yes, really) Cupcake Combat, and takes Lucas to LA as her competition assistant.

It’s pretty obvious that there’s more between Kat and Lucas than simply being long-time best friends. Both would like the relationship to be more, but both are too scared to take the next step, for fear they’ll ruin their friendship, and the LA trip tests them in more ways that one when Kat realises the prize for winning the contest is a year-long internship in a famous New York bakery, and Lucas realises that winning the contest will mean losing Kat.

Kat lacks confidence in herself, which I thought was sad. Her father is a pastor, but it seems she’s always taken second place behind her sister, Stella, beauty queen. The focus of the story was on Kat so we didn’t get to see much of her family, but what we did see was glossed-over Christianity, where being seen in the right places and with the right people is what counts. Kat’s more than that, and Lucas encourages her. Usually.

While I enjoyed the story and the characters, I did feel it took a long time to get anywhere, and both Kat and Lucas engaged in a lot of introspection that didn’t exactly get them anywhere. This was exacerbated by the fact we could tell they were interested in each other from the get-go. If one had been interested and the other took a while to return the feeling, it wouldn’t have seemed so drawn-out. However, it was still an enjoyable romance with a food backdrop (always good), and I’ll be interested in reading more from Betsy St Amant.

Thanks to Litfuse Publicity and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Betsy St Amant at her website.