Cupcake

CC may be all grown up in her mind and moving to Manhattan, but the rebel is still there. She can also move to a new city, get a new greenwich village approved do, jello shot her way to blackout-ness, but none of it can help her forget SHRIMP. This novel is a fun and quirky read with plenty of hi-jinks and funny secondary characters to keep the pages flipping. Dare I say I like this depiction of a cooler, seedier Manhattan than Gossip Girl's glossy, rich, and clean world? I just did.

Okay, I probably liked this book better than the first two, Gingerbread and Shrimp. I liked how CC grew up a bit, and she actually appears to learn something. The ending was sad and yet perfect at the same time, and throughout the book it was just the right amount of Shrimp-ness that made the book about him, but not completely about him. So, overall, my favorite out of the series. And now I am REALLY sad that it's over, and I'm going to miss this series more than I would have expected.

I've read every single bbok by this author and this is absolutely my faborite. Cyd is a spunky 18-year-old kid that moves to the big apple to start her new life with her gay half brother Danny. Soon after moving in Cyd takes a nasty fall down the stairs in her 5-story-floor appartment that makes her immoble for a month. After her recovery Cyd soo then starts her new life which include: her true love coming back, a new job, new friends, a new. sis, and a whole lot more.

After graduating from high school and reluctantly breaking things off with her long-term boyfriend Shrimp, spirited, sassy Cyd Charisse (call her CC) is ready to move on - or at least pretend that she is. Though she loves her family and her home in San Francisco, CC can't wait to live it up in New York with her fantastic older half-brother Danny. She just knows life in the city will be great. After all, what could be better to distract her from Shrimp-missage than the larger-than-life Big Apple? Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men . . . and women named after famous dancers. While walking down multiple flights of steps, CC breaks her leg in three places. (No one ever said she had the grace of her namesake.) Being cooped up in Danny's apartment is not exactly what she had in mind. Luckily, her leg heals more quickly than her heart. CC knows the value of a good friend, and she stays in touch with her old buds - like Autumn, who is attending college in New York - as she makes new ones - like Max, a cranky yet lovable middle-aged neighbor, and his cat. She keeps in touch with her mother, who both aggravates and oddly inspires her, and her half-sister lisBETH, who tends to simply aggravate her. Her bio-dad is still less of a presence in her life than her stepfather, but everyone is at least making an effort to reconnect. Though she continues to wonder what Shrimp is doing in New Zealand, a chance encounter with an old fling serves as a brief distraction. What about her career? CC gets enrolled in a cooking class, but stops going when it isn't what she thought it would be, preferring to sample Danny's latest batch of cupcakes than make her own. While on the search for the perfect cappuccino CC stumbles upon the L U _ C H _ O N E _ T E, an old-fashioned-looking dinner run by a Goth-punk boy. In a matter of minutes, she has a new job and an unexpected ally. Just when things are starting to look up, a blast from the past tears open that hole in her heart and makes CC re-evaluate her priorities and her life. Author Rachel Cohn has created a unique and memorable character in Cyd Charisse. The girl readers know and love from the previous books has grown up before their eyes. CC thinks she is more independent than ever, yet becomes aware of her sometimes co-dependency on Shrimp and others. It is this kind of acknowledgment that shows her maturity, yet lack thereof. Though CC is constantly searching for freedom from her family, but not quite ready to be wholly on her own. Young adults and older teens who have gone through or are currently going through that same awkward period will definitely relate to her in more ways than one. Readers first met CC in the book Gingerbread, then reunited with her in the follow-up novel Shrimp. Cupcake is the third and final book in the Cyd Charisse cycle. Due to CC's increased introspection and consideration, it is also the best. CC is older, wiser, and sassier. She's finally become comf

I had high expectations for this book, the third Rachel Cohn has written about Cyd Charisse (the first two are Gingerbread and Shrimp). The previous adventures of Cyd Charisse were absolutely brilliant. This book didn't quite live up to those expectations, but perhaps they were unreasonably high. But this was still a fabulous book! In CUPCAKE, Cyd Charisse (or CC, as she now prefers to be called) has graduated from high school and moved to Manhattan. She's staying with Danny, her half-brother, and she's thrilled to finally be independent. She's not going to think about Shrimp; the two of them agreed to a clean break after she turned down his offer of marriage and a life with Iris and Billy, his pothead parents, in New Zealand. That's what she wanted...right? She's going to fill up her time and her mind with other things...like handsome delivery guys and maybe even a fling with Luis. She's starting her new life, and Shrimp's starting his--separately. Unfortunately, all of CC's big plans come screeching to a halt when she falls down the stairs, breaks her leg, and is immobile in Danny's fifth-floor walk-up apartment for weeks. All she can do is order food, watch movies, spy on the neighbors...and think. Thinking is exactly what she didn't want to have time to do, but now there's nothing better. Even though she can't forget about Shrimp, there are a few distractions in New York City. CC's playing matchmaker, hanging out with Autumn, ditching culinary school, visiting her grouchy old neighbor, getting a job, and even bonding with lisBETH, her older half-sister. No book with CC would be complete without Shrimp. I was worried he wouldn't show up at all, and CC might have been secretly hoping he would, too. And so he does. Just when Cyd Charisse is getting used to her life in New York, Shrimp shows up, and she's forced to make a really hard choice yet again: follow true love or follow her own dreams in the huge city she's calling home these days? This is a fantastically well-written, funny, and touching novel, as is to be expected from Rachel Cohn. It's quite possible that my slight disappointment resulted only from the fact that I was missing some of my favorite characters throughout much of the book, like Helen and Shrimp. Still, though, Cyd Charisse's voice in this book is as honest, fresh, and brilliant as in the previous two, capturing my attention just as easily. CC is a fantastic character; probably one of my favorite book characters ever. CUPCAKE, along with Gingerbread and Shrimp, is a must-read! Reviewed by: Jocelyn Pearce