Review: Cupcakes at Carrington's by Alexandra Brown

Georgie Hart loves her job – running the luxury handbag concession at Carrington's Department store in the pretty seaside town of Mulberry-On-Sea, and treating herself (once too often!) to a red velvet cupcake with buttercream icing in Carrington's café.

But Georgie is thrown into disarray when Carrington's is plunged into a recession-busting makeover, cueing the arrival of femme fatale Maxine, who wields the axe in her immaculately-manicured hands.

It spells a recipe for disaster for Georgie and soon she is fighting not only for her job, but also for the attentions of her gorgeous boss, James. And when hot newcomer Tom arrives, who may or may not be the best thing since sliced bread, Georgie must decide where her loyalties really lie…

Review: cupcakes and a department store, what could be wrong with that? Throw in the amount of designer handbags in this novel and a sumptuous love story and the answer is absolutely nothing. Cupcakes at Carrington's has the perfect formula for any chick-lit lover, and indeed anyone who has every shopped in a department store. I knew I was going to love this book as soon as I picked it up, I'm not sure why i waited so long to read it to be honest. I love books about shops and this debut reminded me of Ali Harris's debut which i also loved!

Georgie is a fabulous female lead. The thing that I really loved about her character was that she had a past, and she had some problems with debt. I felt I could really relate to her as a woman and felt i trusted her more because of her past. Now she did seem to have trust issues when it came to men, which i also loved bu ti did find msyelf shouting at the book at times, willing her not to be so silly and just go for it with him! There are some really strong supporting characters in this book too which i am sure all readers will enjoy. I loved best-friend Sam and was willing her to have a happy ending right from the start just as much as i was Georgie. I also loved GBF Eddie and Georgie's assistant Annie, these were larger than life characters which we all know we have found in a department store. Maxine reminded me of Miranda Priestly from Devil Wears Prada all the way through, I thought that she was a fabulous addition to the novel!

The storyline was nice and simple and totally realistic, a store taking drastic measures during this recession era. It fitted in really well with the programmes that have been on recently about department stores and also follows other books which have chosen to tackle the financial issues within the retail industry head on. I really respect this author for dealing with thees issues. Of course because the book is set in a department store, there is plenty of mention of handbags and i found myself totally wanting to go home and stroke all my lovely bags. I think I'm definitely in the market for a new designer bag now! The cupcakes in the cafe also sounded delicious so make sure you have plenty of sweet treats to hand when you're reading this one!

There is something for everyone in this book, definitely a chick-lit classic in the making. It was a very quick read and not difficult to get into right from the word go. This is definitely something to read in preparation for the release of the Christmas sequel, a perfect combination!

To grab your copy of this fab novel, click here

I had an Alexandra Bown Marathon on holiday last week so look out for reviews of all her stories in the coming days!