Moria's Reviews > Pies and Prejudice

Wow. Yet another example of how bad a book can be when an author writes what they do NOT know. The idea of this book is right up my alley. Cozy mystery, a little magic, a little romance - I was really looking forward to it. Yes, the trope of food with magical qualities has been done A LOT, magical pies specifically are certainly not new, but I enjoy it & could always have more.

However, so disappointing to start the actual reading! First of all, if your main character is going to specialize in making pies & you are going to describe the process, maybe you should learn how to actually do it? And don't create revolting pies involving tomatoes with mayonnaise. Second, if you are going to set your story in NW Georgia, how about actually getting to know people from there? Instead, the author overdosed on cramming together every outdated stereotype & cliché possible. Characters with names like Ella Mae and Loralyn? Check. Housekeepers who spend their entire life with a family & talk like Scarlet O'Hara? Check. Swimmin' holes? Of course. Confederate Balls? Naturally. People who are scared & ignorant of "The Big City", quaint & formal notions of propriety, families who have lived & feuded together in the same small town for centuries? Why not. Did I mention the story is set in the 21st century? Because you wouldn't know it from the details. (Why yes my mother's family is from NW Georgia, I have spent a good amount of time there, and I was raised to be sensitive to ridiculous Northern & Hollywood ideas about the South, such as in this book.)

Then add a cartoonishly over the top nemesis - a grown woman who drops into businesses she dislikes just to pull fire alarms & announces proudly, to someone she hasn't seen in years, she has hired prostitutes & cheerleaders to get lucrative divorces. Her non-stop threats would be overblown even for a teen soap and quickly become excessively tiresome.

Mix in some crazy coincidences - one moment Ella Mae reminisces about a childhood crush, the next moment she stumbles on him skinny dipping at said swimming hole, only to have him be the hunky fireman who responds to said false alarm the next day!

Then there's the character of Ella Mae herself. Just returned from New York City after seven (?) years. Apparently her marriage was perfect until she caught her husband having sex with neighboring twins. By "perfect" I mean there are no details because that would require depth and character development - a trend to be followed throughout the book.

So she runs away to Georgia literally only with the clothes she had on her. How she will get her belongings back she simply has no idea. She is so traumatized she simply can no longer be expected to set foot into her old apartment building or deal with something like packing. She seems to have done nothing in NYC over the years except NOT finish culinary school. She seems to have no friends (or maturity), she's never cooked for any one but family or at school, she has zero business experience. Yet she is literally handed a pie shop & catering business to run all by herself, like it's the easiest thing in the world.

I know MANY women have woefully low standards for romance & chick lit. Not me. I couldn't finish this dreck.