'The Coincidence of Coconut Cake' by Amy E. Reichert review

The Coincidence of Coconut Cake, written by novice author Amy E. Reichert, will be released July 21, 2015 via Gallery Books.

Reichert bakes up a romantic comedy featuring a talented chef, an egotistical food critic, love, and delicious food that touches both heart and stomach. Her protagonist Lou, a moniker of Elizabeth, is a wonderful chef who recently opens a restaurant and discovers her fiancé Devlin with his scantily-clad intern. From there, Reichert grates Lou across emotions of anger, despair, heartache, doubt, and rage in her restaurant Luella. Unfortunately for Lou, the notoriously harsh food critic, A.W. Wodyski, happens to be dining at Luella’s the evening Lou makes a mess of her kitchen and alarms the staff, resulting in a scathing review and the genesis of Louella’s steady decline in patronage.

Crushed and depressed, Lou encounters Al, a handsome Englishman, at a bar and soon the two agree to not only stay away from the topic of professions, she because it is too painful and he because he must use a pseudonym to remain anonymous, but also to tour Milwaukee together in an attempt to sway Al’s negative view of her much-beloved hometown. Of course the two fall in love and eventually Al realizes Lou owns Luella’s, the restaurant he obliterated in his critique, for he is the infamous A.W. Wodyski.
In this age-old-tale, Lou feels she has yet again been deceived and Devlin appears from seemingly nowhere to make matters worse by outing Al’s true identity and attempts to win his beloved back.

This is where I begin to have a problem.

Warning! Spoiler Alert!

Despite the anxious excitement created from Lou and Al’s love story, Devlin’s character, the use of a stereotype, and an author who put a little too much of herself into the story took away what could have been a satisfying treat.

Reading a predictable story isn’t necessarily bad if that is what you enjoy, but the inclusion of a villain, yes, I said villain, not protagonist, who disappears after the second chapter, reappears for an extremely brief moment in chapter 15, and then waits patiently to reappear at the most convenient moment in chapter 23 is unforgiveable. Why does Devlin care so much about Lou? From the beginning it is clear that their relationship is doomed. There is nothing to indicate that their love was ever as sturdy as a pound cake, much less substantial enough for Devlin to maintain feelings for a woman who hasn’t spoken to him in nearly a year.

Devlin’s character is so austere and pompous, it is difficult to understand how he and the fun-loving, laid-back, happy-go-lucky Lou came together in the first place. An explanation of their relationship at the start would have given the novel more substance; and easing up on Devlin’s overly-dramatic antics when confronting Lou with Wodyski’s true identity would have made him less of a Disney-villain and more of a realistic antagonist. He should have also appeared throughout the novel if his feelings for Lou really are as strong as he claims. Devlin’s character was a disappointment that could have been easily remedied, however his character is not the only issue with The Coincidence of Coconut Cake.

Stereotypes. Authors beware! Stereotypes are one of the worst things you can do! Someone needs to get Reichert that memo stat! Though there are only two instances of stereotyping, they stand out quite boldly against the backdrop Reichert creates. Throughout the entire book, there is only really mention of the English, which Al is so it makes sense, and Milwaukeeans, which also makes sense since the story takes place there, however, what doesn’t make sense is that Reichert introduces the staff of Lou’s restaurant and blatantly announces that the busboys are Mexicans. Why did she feel that this was necessary? At first I wondered why it was announced out of nowhere, then I let it go, not wanting to subscribe to the overly-sensitive people who are offended at every little thing, but later Reichert points out that the busboys losing their jobs would be terrible because they were sending money back home to Mexico in an effort to support family members.

Whoa.

What the heck was Reichert thinking when she decided to add this to her story? It literally did nothing to spur the plot, help with character progression, or really do anything except to point out that not only are Mexicans only capable of working the least glamorous and lowest-paying positions in a restaurant, but apparently they also have to send money to Mexico because there is no conceivable way that anyone with Mexican roots could possibly be American citizens with American families and culinary aspirations. Right?

After calming down, I realized that yes, I did blow the Mexican stereotyping out of proportion, but the reality is that it not only point a finger at Mexican “standards,” but it also distracted from the story because it made no sense to include it. Another thing that needs to be addressed is the odd addition of children’s toys as references in similes.

Nowhere in this novel will you find anything to do with children, so why are situations and items being compared to children’s toys, rather than food/kitchenware/writing tools? The first time I encountered a toy-related simile I was caught off-guard, but moved on. The second time I began to wonder if a child was going to be introduced, but by the third time I realized that the author had to have children, otherwise their toys would not appear in this story. Sure enough, she is a mother. All stories have bits of an author’s life and soul in it, which is expected and completely understandably so long as it makes sense in the book, however comparing things to Slinkys and Sit N’ Spins sticks out like a French fry on a wedding cake. It just didn’t make sense.

Now, after saying all of these negative things you might be wondering why I still chose to give it 4 stars out of 5. The answer is simple: I like the basic plot. I like all of the love found in Luella’s regulars, Gertrude and Otto,’s relationship, I love how Al’s coworker John is a reflection of Al’s life in Milwaukee, I love that Lou’s best friends realize their love, and I do enjoy how nicely and neatly packaged the entire story ends. What can I say? I’m a romantic! The story is a good one and the food described is enough to make me drool. The setbacks it contains might not be immediately realized by most readers and they certainly weren’t enough for me to stop reading, but they definitely kept this story from a solid 5 stars.

C'est la vie. I’m sure the film version, which I predict will happen after the book is released and gains popularity, will take care of The Coincidence of Coconut Cake’s faults and will perfect this charming romantic tale between arch nemeses chef and critic.