Sarah Ockler

Hudson Avery gave up a promising competetive ice skating career after her parents divorced when she was fourteen years old and now spends her time baking cupcakes and helping out in her mother's upstate New York diner, but when she gets a chance at a scholarship and starts coaching the boys' hockey team, she realizes that she is not through with ice skating after all.

Bittersweet

Hannah Yang

Third time I've read Bittersweet and I still love it as much as the first time - now, that's a good book! Bittersweet is basically my go-to comfort realistic fiction novel because it's got everything I love: cutesy romance, sooome drama, friendship and family troubles, an awesome main character, and cupcakes.

Hudson Avery is an incredible figure skater.. at least she was. Three years ago, she had the chance of a lifetime, a ticket out of Watonka, a way to pave an amazing life for herself. Then she lets it all go when her father leaves with a female Elvis impersonator. Good thing Hudson's the Cupcake Queen of Watonka, and her fresh new cupcake recipes keep the family's diner afloat. Barely. 

Hudson's settled into her new life, but she's far from happy with it. She's still dreaming of figure skating, and of her ex-skating-bestie Kara. Ex. Former. No longer. Now she's just stuck waitressing and baking cupcakes, and even with Dani and Bug at her side, all she wants is to get out of Watonka. 

When Hudson gets a second shot at her figure skating dreams, she makes a deal with the hockey team: help them train, and they get her ice time. Who knew she'd end up caught between Will Harper, hockey captain and Kara's ex, and Josh Blackthorn, co-captain? Worse, as time goes on, the bills are getting harder to pay and a bad review could shut down Hurley's forever. But as Hudson always says, she's never met a problem a proper cupcake couldn't fix.

Okay, summary over: THIS BOOK IS GREAT. There's a perfect balance of conflict + resolutions, character development, humor, great dialogue, and who could forget the amazing cupcake descriptions?


  I had major plans. Heart-shaped dark chocolate and white chocolate cupcakes, a thick pillow of pink strawberry whipped cream frosting with a light sugar glaze, edible silver glitter, hard candy gemstone accents, all arranged on mirrored trays twined with white Christmas lights. Photo-worthy, cupcake-archive quality all the way.

Can I get one of these cupcakes?!? 

The writing was perfect, no technical flaws, but I think the best part was definitely the dialogue between the characters. Especially Josh and Hudson, who are so so so cute together. My inner girly side was dying.


  I scrape my thumbnail over the red streak - no change. "Seriously. You should see what I'm wearing."
"Mmmm," he says, his voice going low and smoky. "What are you wearing?"
I know he's trying to be all cheesy porn star, but the way he's breathing into the phone sends a squiggly shiver down my back. "Um... it's... I'm... the Hurley's dress... thing."
"Kidding, Avery."
"I know." I shake my head at my reflection. Thankfully, Josh can't see my bright pink face through the phone.

That isn't even a decent example! And I'm not even including dialogue between the other characters! *flails around* But here's another one for Josh and Hudson, just because I can.


  He kisses me on the forehead, caressing my cheeks with his thumbs. "But I was. And you're lucky I've seen a lot of those survival shows."
"With the guy who eats bugs?"
"Precisely."
"You're such a boy. No wonder my brother likes you."
"Your brother likes me? Score!"
"Score if you like robots, army men, and hamsters."
Josh laughs. "Who doesn't?"

Apart from Hudson and Josh, whose relationship I loved because it was so natural (they start out as friends for like.. all of the book. They become an official couple on page 376 of 378.) Their friendship was so fun because of their playful bantering, inside jokes and music swapping. Even though I'm hardly a hockey or figure skating expert, I loved reading about both of them.

Hudson's relationships with everyone are pretty cool. She and Dani also had awesome conversations, and I love how their friendship is so sisterly, but also realistic. They fight when it makes sense, but not all the time, and neither was super irrational or had any irritating traits. When they were fighting, it was hard for me as a reader because I understood that Hudson wanted to chase her dreams, but Dani wasn't ready to let go of Hudson as a friend. Both sides made sense.

Hudson and Bug have one of the cutest sibling relationships, too. Bug is Hudson's younger brother, and a total smarty pants. One of the best scenes in this whole book was at the very end, when Bug asks Hudson "Dad's never coming back, is he?" Their father leaving really tore the family apart, and the loss that came with his departure is shown throughout the whole book. I loved that we readers could see the impact of his affair on the family, rather than just boring descriptions of how hurt they felt etc. 

All of the characters were very well developed and multidimensional. I loved all of them (except for maybe Hudson's dad, Shelvis, and Will. Ew.) and although Hudson made some far-from-admirable decisions, she was a relatable and likable character. Reading from her perspective was fresh and interesting, especially since Sarah Ockler captured the feelings of falling in love for the first time really well (not that I'd know, ha!)

"Oh, definitely," he says. "I just... I feel bad about before. I wanted to check on you." He rubs his head again, hair still messy and adorable. "No permanent damage, right?"
"Nah." Just the temporary mental kind, causing my mind to wander dangerously into forbidden crush territory.
The whole plot develops at a smooth, nice pace, and although it's realistic fiction, so it captures the essence of everyday life, Bittersweet manages to craft an amazing story about finding the place you're meant to be, letting go, and discovering what you want for yourself. Because that's life in a nutshell, and well, life is pretty bittersweet.

I'd recommend this forever and ever and ever. A story that's quirky, original, and adorable, Bittersweet is a super sweet read!

Jaclyn

SO SWEET! & so relatable! Loved every minute of it!

Elizabeth Dobson

I really like this author's style of writing (I loved Twenty Boy Summer) but this story line fell flat. The main character is whiny and unrealistic and all the supporting actors are extremely flawed. I didn't find one likable character in the whole book. I'll read her other stuff but this book didn't do anything for me.

Jade Flynn

“No matter what happens next, I'm not letting this turn into another two weeks of silence, the entire history of us summed up in a series of near misses and almosts just because neither of us had the snowballs to say anything.” 

A girl who is desperate to leave her life behind and get back the life she thought she was supposed to have, but along the way she finds out that maybe she really belongs somewhere in between. I've loved all of Sarah Ockler's books and this one was no different & I'll be eagerly awaiting Ockler's fourth novel.

Bittersweet

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