See full review here!

3.5 stars

I received this book from the author, and here is my honest review:

I really enjoyed reading this one. I read it pretty quickly, and I was always looking forward to picking it back up. I loved the fact that the story wasn't thoroughly predictable and the characters weren't so typical and were very random. Maddie is a fun MC, and getting inside her head is certainly an adventure. She grows quite a bit during this novel, and it's a frustrating but fun journey.

Maddie is More...

All in all this story was adorable. Now, that word is simply meant to be my opinion. Here are the facts.

1 - The main character is easy to relate to. Not the best parents, wants a car, her boyfriend is a weirdo and all of her feelings I had at eighteen as well. She is moody when appropriate and the rest of the time she is unintentionally witty and fun. The writing sometimes sounds like the author is trying too hard to be upbeat but that is ok.

2 - Development. Every story has a hero and a villain More...

This is a hard book to rate. Dalya Moon is a good writer and the writing is humorous enough to make you laugh out loud. The story however, is dull and very slow. I kept reading becasue I was hopeful and it is a quick read. I was 90% finished before it ever really grabbed my attention. The central character Maddie, is a young woman who goes to work at a bakery and ultimately creates a product that gets the attention of a food network producer. The story is about her and the people in her life inc More...

Here's a rundown of some of the things I loved about this book:

1. Maddie. She is such a great female character. She has flaws, good traits, makes mistakes, and is just so believable. I could really relate to her.

2. Actual relationships between female characters. Maddie has a sister with whom she clashes over her decision to eschew becoming a dental hygienist in favor of working in a bakery. She has several female friends, and has to deal with her would-be actress best friend's jealousy when she More...

Dalya Moon has a fantastic writing style that carries wit, entertainment, and oh JOY for the geek references mixed into Chick Lit! Bonus points for including mentions of Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Cyborgs, and even Helvetica - in the context of Chick Lit no less!

At first I thought Maddie's experiences really seemed more like a 21 year old than an 18-year old, but then the memories of MY 18th year started tumbling back as I continued to read. It's much more fun to read about being 18 than More...

Meet Maddie Bird , one day a Checkout Operator asking customers "paper or plastic?" and the next day working as a Bakery Assistant at Angelo's. What started off as a new career move ended up being a whole lot of firsts for Maddie. The first is Drew , her co-worker - he is hot, handsome and can bake . Even though Maddie has a boyfriend already called Parker , she can't help but feel drawn to Drew and starts to wonder whether it is possible to have a love triangle like they do in the movies - thin More...

Practice Cake is about Maddie, a recent high school graduate torn between childhood and adulthood. Unfortunately, she exhibits her childish side by making every single possible wrong decision for the entire book. She exhibits her adult side by...

Sorry, I got nothing.

Maddie takes a job at a bakery to pay for her dream car. She then stumbles into reality tv, has a lot of boy problems that could be solved by TALKING to the people she's necking with, spends all of her car money on frivolous things, More...

Maddie starts out with a carefree simplicity and I love her sense of humor, especially the discussion of the name of the cookies and Mrs. Henderson. Life, being life however, changes and so does Maddie and life has her soon maturing.

She lives with her older sister Melanie and works at Angelo’s Bakery with hunky Drew but dates Parker. Her friends are Jaslene, Chloe, and Zoe. Because Chloe desperately wants to avoid wrinkles, she refrains from showing expressions, either happy or sad, causing Mad More...

I really liked this book. It was funny, had a very authentic voice, and was very well-written. Full review to come.

Full review:

Confession: I used to really enjoy reading contemporary women's lit, but then I gave up on it. There was a golden age of romantic comedies and contemporary women's lit where the stories were great, the heroines were admirable even with their flaws, and the heroes were worth a woman's notice. Nowadays, not so much. Maybe I'm just not seeing the right movies or reading the More...

Practice Cake is a feel good YA novel. The concept and the plot were a lot of fun. I rooted for Maddie throughout the story as she goes from not very sure of herself to assertive. The other characters? Not so much. It seems that every single person Maddie meets, with the exception of her male boss, is both mean and vain. They also don't seem believable as real people. Her friends are an actress and a fashion blogger. She goes clubbing with her boss's wife. Many of the side characters are one dim More...

Brief summary:
Maddie, a recent high school graduate has taken a bakery assistant's job at Angelo's bakery. There she meets Drew, her hot colleague, who she can't help but flirt with despite already having a boyfriend. Pretty soon, though, things change. She's single, acting a little boy crazy and she's the star of a new reality show filming at her bakery. Over the course of book, Maddie learns about family, friendship and knowing herself.

Review:
This wasn't always an enjoyable read. On the surfa More...

First of all, I want to thank the author of this book (Dalya Moon), for giving me the awesome opportunity to read this book. I fell in love with the book straight away and like her first book, I could not put it down. It was so intense, with always something happening. Also, everything was explained in great detail so I understood every word she wrote in this book. Well done, Dalya!

I could really connect with all the characters and it almost felt like it was written for me, and me only! I know t More...

I hereby profess my love for Maddie, the lovable protagonist of Practice Cake. See Maddie isn't sure where her life is taking her, but she does know that for now baking is something she really enjoys doing. Being around all those gorgeous cakes and pastries is pure heaven. Of course, it doesn't hurt that her coworker is rather yummy himself! Never mind the fact that her current boyfriend thinks it's a waste of time. What does he know? Maddie is a teenage girl at her best and worst, all at the sa More...

This was a cute and quick read geared toward young adults/teenage girls. Taking place in a bakery, this story provided me my own memories of high school and the types of lessons learned during that stage of my life. As other reviewers mentioned, there is a great dose of surprise events and I definitely couldn't have predetermined the entire course of events although I was entirely satisfied with the way things culminated by the end of this read.

For me, the quotes and lines that stood out, were l More...

First off, I must admit that this is certainly not my genre of choice. However, as I have said before, I think it is good to go outside your comfort zone once in awhile.

Practice Cake sounded like a cute, quick read and the author is from Canada! Thus, I agreed to take it on for review. Sadly, it did not deliver for me. While the storyline would have made for a quick, fun read, the writing lacked in most areas. I am assuming this book is being pushed out as a YA Contemporary as the main characte More...

I won this book from a Librarything Member's Giveaway. I thought the whole idea of the bakery reality show to be a great idea for a book so I was really interested in reading this book. After reading it I have mixed views on it. To me it seemed like two different people wrote this book. The writing style in the beginning is different than the writing style in the middle and end. To be quite honest when I was in the beginning of the book I thought I wouldn't end up liking the book. In the beginni More...

Practice Cake not only talks about baking, or cookies recipes, but also talks about problems that normal people can affront in their life. Maddie is a normal young girl, who lives with her sister, she has a boyfriend that doesn't understand why she is working at a bakery, he doesn't like her new job, and every single opportunity he has he lets her know his opinion. But she loves her job, is tiring, but she likes it, specially her co-worker, Drew. Is in that moment when everything gets a little b More...

Fun and flirty read. I really enjoyed this book. The characters were definitely relatable. This book has a good moral, to follow your dreams. I was so thankful that Maddie decided not to go to Australia with Drew. I'm pretty sure that would have been the worst mistake of her life, given the experiences she'd had with him. It was fairly obvious what type of man he was and I had an idea that Echo and him may have had something going on before it was even revealed. It was great that Maddie's sister More...

Near the very end of this book, all that Maddie has gone through comes into a brilliant focus with this clear line:

"The world is full of people who are willing to use you, and they aren't always who they seem."

I barely learned this lesson only a few years ago, and I daresay that some never learn it. What Ms. Moon has wrought with "Practice Cake" is a beautiful novel for young women everywhere by giving voice to a protagonist called Maddie who seems to meet all the wrong men.

At first, I was annoy More...

I got this book on Amazon, and when I started reading it I couldn't stop. I love Maddie-for two reasons: she is kind and hopeful. She is kind in that she does what for others without a second thought and being young she has hopes of having a good time and learning as she goes on. In the beginning her crush on Drew, her workmate got me thinking that he could be the right guy, because Maddie finds him cute and funny and also able to laugh at himself.
I hated him however when he asked her if they co More...

I was completly taken with this book. I loved every aspect of it. A young girl taking a job in a bakery to earn money for a car. She learns quite a lesson along the way. She enjoys her job at the bakery and eveything is going great. Her job is great, her bosses are great, her boyfriend, and the new hottie at work seems to like her too. They get a great oppertunity at the bakery for a tv show. Everything starts off great and then everything goes bad. She finds out who everyone really is. I enjoye More...

First I would like to thank the author, Dalya Moon, for giving me the opportunity to read this fantastic book. I'm so glad I requested a copy because I really enjoyed reading it!

Practice Cake proved to be a cute, delightful and enjoyable read. The story flows really well and I didn't find myself getting bored with it once. This book is also very well-balanced; with the right amount of humor, heartache and serious dilemmas. There is also a wide range of characters that are woven into the plot and More...

Originally posted on These Pretty Words.

I really wanted to love this book. I gave it more than a fair shake considering I was ready to flounce at chapter four, but I held on until the end because the author is such a sweetie. Unfortunately the story never really grabbed onto me. I loved Maddie – she's funny, brazen, a little blunt, a lotta snarky –but in my opinion the other characters were written without clear characterizations. There were many moments throughout the book where I had to double More...

This is the story of 18 year old Maddie. She has just gotten a job at a bakery. Although she has a boyfriend she is crushing on her co-worker Drew. A reality show ends up being filmed at the bakery where she works. I don't want to give away too much of the story as it would contain spoilers.

Overall I did like the story and the twists/surprises in the story. I had a little trouble relating to the main characters, which were mostly teenagers, as this is geared more towards young adults. The book d More...

I got this book because I was looking through the free Kindle downloads and it looked cute. In the end, that's exactly what is was: cute. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, especially after the first 1/2 or so.

The protagonist is likeable enough, although some of the supporting characters weren't as fleshed out as they could have been. Also, a couple of the conflicts were solved a little too neatly to be entirely believable. Still, this was a nice, light read and funny enough in places to More...

I liked how this book embraced the new adult age group perfectly. For those of you who don’t know what new adult books are, they are books with protagonists who are 18-25 years old. They tend to be a lot like Young Adult books just with a bit older characters. Graduating high school and attempting to enter the ‘real world’ is a really weird time for all of us. Practice Cake examines that awkwardness. Juggling friendships, work, and dating is hard for anyone. To me, it was perfectly captured. I p More...

Title Thoughts: It's perfect.

Cover Thoughts: I think it is adorable and it makes me think of the flowers Maddie had to put on a cake.

If you are a friend of mine on Goodreads, then you know one thing that I loved about this book was how I could relate to it simply because of the depiction of real events. An example would be that the Canucks losing the Stanley Cup and going bonkers. There were riots and everything. Maddie experiences the side effects of that in this book and I thought it was cool More...

Moon has created a hilarious novel; she’s a wonderful storyteller, capturing the reader’s attention from the very beginning with her true to life characters and their amusing circumstances. Practice Cake is about Maddie’s struggles—a coming of age story, if you will—in which she has to deal with a controlling boyfriend, a crazy job, her sister and her sister’s unfaithful boyfriend, and an unhelpful egotistical friend, all while taking part in a reality TV show that begins to consume her life. I More...