Review of The Sweetest Thing by Christina Mandelski

In the world of Sheridan Wells, life is perfect when she’s decorating a cake. Unfortunately, everything else is a complete mess: her mom ran off years ago, her dad is more interested in his restaurant, and the idea of a boyfriend is laughable.
But Sheridan is convinced finding her mom will solve all her problems - only her dad’s about to get a cooking show in New York, which means her dream of a perfect family will be dashed. 

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When Sheridan Wells was younger, her mother left suddenly without warning. Now, she's 15 – but still believes that her mother loves her wants to come back. When she's not searching for her mother on the internet, she's known as Cake Girl – as she makes beautiful cakes. This is unsurprising – her Mother, Father and Nanny all cook something, Nanny and her Mother also did cakes but her Father cooks... other food... anyway, when she hears the announcement that her Father has got himself a TV Show – and wants to move to New York with her, she decides to try and bring her mother home. Later on, this leads to some unexpected consequences for Sheridan, but also helps her move on with her life.

I got pretty much what I was expecting from this – a fluffy contemporary read about a girl that makes cakes and does not want to move away from home. I enjoyed watching Sheridan grow up in the end, and make the right decisions for once! The community Sheridan lives in seems to be quite close, which I liked but I did find that some of the characters were lacking a personality, which was a bit odd.

Sheridan herself is a character that will grate on a lot of reader's nerves. Despite her age, she's spoilt rotten by her Father, who she seems to think is the bad guy and she is obsessed with finding her Mother – despite everyone else knowing that her Mother clearly doesn't want her any more. The only thing Sheridan gets from her Mother is a birthday card every year, which she reads over and over again. I couldn't help but think that Sheridan would have benefited if her Father had never given her the birthday cards and had told Sheridan the truth about her Mother ages ago. The other characters in this, other than the ones lacking a personality did seem rather cardboard, jealous cheerleader type, best-friend-who's-a-boy-and-fancies-her, etc.

For a first novel, this isn't too bad and I certainly enjoyed reading it! I would love to read a sequel though, as the potential move to New York doesn't happen, at least not in this book anyway. Even if a sequel doesn't happen, I hope Christina writes more books, as I expect her writing will improve over time. Less aggravating main characters next time please!

4/5

Received free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review