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6th out of 258 books
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151 voters
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The Cupcake Queen
A confection of a novel, combining big city sophistication with small town charm.
When her mother moves them from the city to a small town to open up a cupcake bakery, Penny's life isn't what she expected. Her father has stayed behind, and Mom isn't talking about what the future holds for their family. And then there's Charity, the girl who plays mean pranks almost daily. ...more
When her mother moves them from the city to a small town to open up a cupcake bakery, Penny's life isn't what she expected. Her father has stayed behind, and Mom isn't talking about what the future holds for their family. And then there's Charity, the girl who plays mean pranks almost daily. ...more
Hardcover, 240 pages
Published
September 17th 2009
by Dutton Juvenile
(first published July 10th 2009)
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I have a confession to make. It was the cupcakes on the cover that got me. I mean don't they look so delicious? I could just feel my mouth water by just looking at them. It's no wonder lately I've been craving cupcakes...
Penny Lane feels out of place since she has moved to middle of nowhere Hogs Hollow. Her mother has opened up a cupcake shop and Penny's parents are taking a "break". Penny just want things to get back to how they use to be but she finds out quickly that thi...more
Penny Lane feels out of place since she has moved to middle of nowhere Hogs Hollow. Her mother has opened up a cupcake shop and Penny's parents are taking a "break". Penny just want things to get back to how they use to be but she finds out quickly that thi...more
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Nicole
added it
When I finished THE CUPCAKE QUEEN by Heather Hepler, my first thought is that the cover is slightly misleading. But not in a bad way. You can look at the cover and think you'll be getting a cute, fun story but this book has a lot more substance to it. While it was an adorable quick read, it dealt with some issues that not only teenagers can relate to, but also others as well--a child's relationship with their parents. The main characters all had problem with their problems they had to deal with,...more
Pink Frosting with Black Sprinkles
How would you feel if you left your home town and where alone? The Cupcake Queen by Heather Hepler is a great book that shows sadness, happiness and lonliness to a girl in a new town.
Penny is a city girl with separated parents who just moved to the middle of nowhere, Hog’s Hollow. Hog’s Hollow is a small town with no tall bulidings or the smell of coffee and ciaggrettes in the morning. Hog’s Hollow is a place where people grow there own tomatoes and...more
How would you feel if you left your home town and where alone? The Cupcake Queen by Heather Hepler is a great book that shows sadness, happiness and lonliness to a girl in a new town.
Penny is a city girl with separated parents who just moved to the middle of nowhere, Hog’s Hollow. Hog’s Hollow is a small town with no tall bulidings or the smell of coffee and ciaggrettes in the morning. Hog’s Hollow is a place where people grow there own tomatoes and...more
Heather Hepler rocks!
I've read the novels that Hepler co-authored with Brad Barkley and they were wonderful, but her first solo novel is truly awesome! There is the common storyline of the "new-girl-in-town-and-doesn't-want-to-be-there," but Hepler freshens up the storyline by bringing her own unique twists to it. The characters in The Cupcake Queen are believable, quirky, and so well written that you, too, will find yourself disliking Charity and her peeps as much as Penn...more
I've read the novels that Hepler co-authored with Brad Barkley and they were wonderful, but her first solo novel is truly awesome! There is the common storyline of the "new-girl-in-town-and-doesn't-want-to-be-there," but Hepler freshens up the storyline by bringing her own unique twists to it. The characters in The Cupcake Queen are believable, quirky, and so well written that you, too, will find yourself disliking Charity and her peeps as much as Penn...more
Kristi (The Story Siren)
added it
Cute and sweet as the cupcakes on the cover!
The Cupcake Queen was just that, a very cute book. It dealt with some serious issues, like divorce, but it didn’t have much depth to it. It could have easily been much more cliche than it was, but thankfully Hepler makes it a little more interesting and incorporates some fresh ideas. Although, I will say I’m really tired about reading about the MC getting picked on by the spoiled rich popular girl.
Penny was a likable character, ...more
The Cupcake Queen was just that, a very cute book. It dealt with some serious issues, like divorce, but it didn’t have much depth to it. It could have easily been much more cliche than it was, but thankfully Hepler makes it a little more interesting and incorporates some fresh ideas. Although, I will say I’m really tired about reading about the MC getting picked on by the spoiled rich popular girl.
Penny was a likable character, ...more
This was a good book about a girl who feels like a fish out of water in a new,small town. She and her friend, Tally, must find a way to beat her archenemy, Charity, in Hog Hollow's "Hog Queen" beauty pagent.
The Cupcake Queen by Heather Hepler is a romance book about a girl named Penny and she and her mom move to a place called Hogs Hollow and open a bakery called The Cupcake Queen. At first all Penny wants is to move back to the city with her dad. Also a group of girls at school are really mean to Penny. They always pull pranks like putting pennies in her locker or fish in her locker. Also setting the sprinklers off during lunch. No one is nice to Penny except a girl named Tally and a boy named Mar...more
This story is about a girl named Penny, and her parents are divorced. The dad lives in Manhattan, and the mom lives in Hog's Hollow to open a bakery. Penny has to leave her friends in Manhattan to live with her mom and grandmother in Hog's Hollow. While Penny is there, she meets a boy named Marcus. Marcus has a dog, and they always run together along the beach. Penny's grandmother lives alongside the beach, so Penny always listens to the sound of dog barks and then runs outside to see that Marcu...more
How would you feel if you moved with your mom to some small little town coming from a big city, leaving your dad and friends behind, about your mom's new job running a cupcake bakery? Then before school even started, making immediate enemies that will be out to get you. That's what happened to Penny when she moved from New York to Hog's Hollow. Charity, a mean girl who hates Penny for no reason, tries to make her life miserable. The only things getting her through it are her new friends, Tally a...more
The Cupcake Queen is a wonderful book. I loved it and the characters. When I bought this book, I didn't realize it was a Heather Hepler book. I've become used to seeing her name beside Brad Barkley's. When I picked up the book at the bookstore it was because of my intended reason for going to the store. I had three goals I wanted to accomplish there.
First, I wanted to buy the first book in James Patterson's Maximum Ride series. I did that. Second, I wanted to get a book I hadn't heard of ...more
First, I wanted to buy the first book in James Patterson's Maximum Ride series. I did that. Second, I wanted to get a book I hadn't heard of ...more
Penny moves out of the life she loves in New York City to a life she wants to get rid of in Hog’s Hollow. Penny works at her mom’s cupcake shop and while she is delivering cupcakes to a customer’s birthday party things get messed up. What makes it worse is that the birthday girl turns out to be Penny’s number one enemy, Charity. Now attending school with Charity, Penny has to fight back and not let Charity bully her. But, Penny is not by herself. She meets Tally, a girl who also wants to go back...more
This book I bought for my middle school daughter and decided to preview it first myself. That is my excuse for indulging in a YA novel this week. I loved the book - if I was a teenager I would probably give it 5 stars. First of all the characters and situations are very realistic and believable. The author gets you to care about the main character (Penny Lane - yes most of the names are clever but that's okay with me) and really feel what she is going through. She has to leave the big city ...more
Review by Andrea @ Reading Lark
What would you do if life suddenly changed more drastically than you could ever imagine? Well, that’s exactly what happens to 14 year old Penny Lane during the summer before her freshman year of high school. Her parents have decided to separate for awhile. Her mom packs her up and drags her to the small town of Hog’s Hollow. Penny has now entered her own personal hell. Life in Hog’s Hollow is nothing like life in New York City. How can she possibly adju...more
What would you do if life suddenly changed more drastically than you could ever imagine? Well, that’s exactly what happens to 14 year old Penny Lane during the summer before her freshman year of high school. Her parents have decided to separate for awhile. Her mom packs her up and drags her to the small town of Hog’s Hollow. Penny has now entered her own personal hell. Life in Hog’s Hollow is nothing like life in New York City. How can she possibly adju...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
You know, life's too short, and when I don't like a book in chapter two I'm really probably just not going to like it. I tried to power through after getting offended in the first chapter (more on that soon) but when the tale of parental separation and move to a small town sounded so cliched I could have just filled in all the blanks for Hepler, I put this one down.
Hey, so, writers? I am many things: loudmouth and opinionated and really into musical theatre and also: I am whatever you ...more
Hey, so, writers? I am many things: loudmouth and opinionated and really into musical theatre and also: I am whatever you ...more
One of the delightful things about this book... it's first love- with cupcakes! The main character moves to a new town (I know we've been there a lot lately) and instantly makes an enemy with the popular girl, Charity, after knocking over a mountain of pink cupcakes and ruining the birthday party.
She's then befriends a funny and interesting Tally who eats straight lard.
While she suffers through school and spends free time trying to "run into" a handsome Marcus, she works wi...more
She's then befriends a funny and interesting Tally who eats straight lard.
While she suffers through school and spends free time trying to "run into" a handsome Marcus, she works wi...more
When her parents separate, Penny moves with her mother to the small town in which her mother grew up. Her mother opens a cupcake bakery, and Penny works in the bakery, mostly decorating cupcakes. It SOUNDS like a book that I should have absolutely loved. My parents are divorced, I ADORE small towns (and wish fervently that I lived in one), cupcakes are one of my favorite desserts, and I would LOVE to be able to decorate cupcakes anywhere nearly as awesome as Penny. Oh, and I love the Beatles...more
Penny’s first clue that life in Hog’s Hollow will be a little more permanent is when her mom opens the cupcake shop. Penny used to live in New York City with her mom and dad. Now her parents have split. She hoped it would be temporary. She loved her old life and now has to make a new one. Her big troubles began when she and her mom make cupcakes for the local “it girl”, Charity. An accident at the party sends cupcakes flying, filling the birthday girl’s hair with pink frosting. Charity de...more
From my blog, paigeturnersbookshelf.blogspot.com:
Woohoo! It's irritating backstory time!
I had been looking at this book for a while at my local Books-A-Million, and finally my school sold it at a book fair. I didn't know if I'd like it, but I took the plunge and bought it.
Let me tell you, it's worth the dive, especially if you're a Sarah Dessen fan (like me:) because chances are, if you thought the summary was interesting, you'll lovelovelove it.
S...more
Woohoo! It's irritating backstory time!
I had been looking at this book for a while at my local Books-A-Million, and finally my school sold it at a book fair. I didn't know if I'd like it, but I took the plunge and bought it.
Let me tell you, it's worth the dive, especially if you're a Sarah Dessen fan (like me:) because chances are, if you thought the summary was interesting, you'll lovelovelove it.
S...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Another good book from Heather Hepler. A quick read because it's so good I have to keep reading until I'm finished.
Penny is 14 yrs. old and her parents have separated. Her mother has taken her to live with her grandmother in Hog's Hollow and away from their apartment in Manhattan. Her mother then opens up a Cupcake bakery. Just cupcakes, and Penny makes all kinds of designs for the cupcakes.
She spends the entire summer hiding out at "The Cupcake Queen" and not m...more
Penny is 14 yrs. old and her parents have separated. Her mother has taken her to live with her grandmother in Hog's Hollow and away from their apartment in Manhattan. Her mother then opens up a Cupcake bakery. Just cupcakes, and Penny makes all kinds of designs for the cupcakes.
She spends the entire summer hiding out at "The Cupcake Queen" and not m...more
This book surprised me. I got it a couple of weeks ago from a clearance bin at Borders, and I have to admit that whenever I pretty much had really low expectations about books on clearance. But this one in particular proved me wrong.
The story is about Penny, a high school freshman whose world and view of it changes dramatically once her mother decides to open up a bakery in a small town in Texas, uprooting her from her life in "The City" with her parents and her whole life....more
The story is about Penny, a high school freshman whose world and view of it changes dramatically once her mother decides to open up a bakery in a small town in Texas, uprooting her from her life in "The City" with her parents and her whole life....more
Penny Lane has just moved from New York City to Hog's Hollow, where her mother has opened up a bakery called The Cupcake Queen. Penny is artistic and has a talent for designing and decorating cupcakes. It's through this art form that she escapes from the difficulties of adjusting to small-town life.
With her parents separated, 14-year-old Penny struggles with all the changes happening in her life. She's at a new school, where she already has enemies thanks to a cupcake fiasco at the p...more
With her parents separated, 14-year-old Penny struggles with all the changes happening in her life. She's at a new school, where she already has enemies thanks to a cupcake fiasco at the p...more
the cupcake queen is about a girl named penny,who is living with her mother and grandma at hog hollows. Her father and mother are seprated. Her mother runs a cupcake shop, which penny does not like. She does not like the fact that she moved from New York into a small town.It is bad enough that she moves, but at the last moment she is asked by her mom to help her make cupcakes for a birthday party, because her worker cancelled.There she meets this girl named charity,the whole party goes wrong and...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Tackling issues of separation, divorce, being the new kid at school, and teen love, Heather Hepler's novel seems to have a little bit of everything. We see the mean girl scenario play out in Penny's experiences at school, but on the other hand, we also see young love blossom before our eyes. This small little young adult novel seems to have a little bit of everything in a teen's life.
Although the cover is what initially drew me to pick up this small book, the cupcakes and bakery ma...more
Although the cover is what initially drew me to pick up this small book, the cupcakes and bakery ma...more
The novel is narrated by Penny Lane (her father was a Beatles fan), a fourteen-year-old who has just moved from New York City to the tiny town of Hog’s Head with her mother while her father, as part of a trial separation, remains in NYC. As Penny negotiates her new school and works in her mother’s new cupcake bakery, she meets a cast of characters that are both quirky and familiar: the school bully, the outcast with crazy fashion sense, the cute boy, the spunky grandmother. Along the way, she ...more
SO.... i just finished with this book and its an amazing book to read. Its about a girl,Penny, who just moved to Hog Hollow and is trying to get use the new place. But there is a problem she doenst like living there because there is a group of girls who doesnt like her. Her parents are getting a divorce but they dont tell her til like the end of the book. Along the way she meets Tally and BLake. Tally and Penny starts to become really close and she also meets this cute guy Marcus....and you know...more
After her parents announce a much needed break from one another, Penny's mom moves her to Hog's Hollow. While Penny is new to Hog's Hollow, her mother is no stranger. Penny now finds herself a part of small town life, something she isn't too sure she wants. After all, she is from NYC, the place to live.
As Penny settles into her new surroundings, she realizes small town life might not be so bad. She has a best friend, a love interest, and an enemy. To put icing on the cake, her mothe...more
As Penny settles into her new surroundings, she realizes small town life might not be so bad. She has a best friend, a love interest, and an enemy. To put icing on the cake, her mothe...more
Kit picked up this book for me to read because she wants the OK from me that it's a clean book, and I'm so glad I get to pass it on. It was a quick read, only 2 semi-committed days, but a good one! I loved Scrambled Eggs at Midnight, and Dream Factory, so I wasn't surprised that I enjoyed this book, too.
The Cupcake Queen is narrated by a girl named Penny Lane (Beatles reference). How strange is it that I've read two books with a main character named Penny Lane in the last month (T...more
The Cupcake Queen is narrated by a girl named Penny Lane (Beatles reference). How strange is it that I've read two books with a main character named Penny Lane in the last month (T...more
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I was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which I think is one of the cooler places to be born, because initially people think I’m being funny—like I’m saying I was born on the moon, but then they see I’m actually being serious. It feels like since then I’ve lived nearly everywhere (well, only in the US—which is a bummer because I want to travel so much). In high school, I was in band and honors society ...more
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“At some point you just have to let go of what you thought should happen and live in what is happening.”
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