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| Sweet Love | 
 enlarge | Author: Sarah Strohmeyer
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 335301
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 0525950648
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780525950646
ASIN: 0525950648
Publication Date: June 19, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
An irresistibly delicious novel about the power of love and dessert.
Like other well-meaning mothers, Julie Muellers believed she did the right thing when she secretly ended her teenage daughters crush on Michael Slayton, a wild older neighborhood heartthrob with a penchant for Shakespeare and the pedigree of trailer trash.
Twenty years later, Betty Mueller has come to realize that was a big mistake. Her daughter Julie divorced and raising a teenage daughter alone is a workaholic obsessed with her career. And Michael, the one man who could make her happy, is the one man to whom she wont speak.
Now dying and determined to make amends, Betty stages her last great feat of motherhood by reuniting the couple in a dessert class where she hopes the sweetness of a chocolate almond Torta Caprese will erase the bitterness of a wretched misunderstanding.
Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said thy edge should blunter be than appetite, Shakespeare once pleadedthough it will require more than poetry and passion fruit for Julie and Michael to renew their love.
It will, in fact, require the sweetest sacrifice of all.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Yes! June 19, 2008
19 out of 21 found this review helpful
Julie Mueller once loved Michael Slayton, but that was long ago, as a teenager. Now Julie is in her forties and the single mom of a teen. She is a television reporter for a station in Boston. Out of the blue, for Mother's Day, Julie receives three free dessert classes at The Famous Boston Cooking School (from her own mother). Julie did not really want to attend, but her mother guilts her into going. So Julie's next three Friday nights will be learning to make scrumptious desserts from Chef D'Ours.
Turns out there is more going on than Julie would have believed. Michael Slayton is a fellow student. Julie cannot help but wonder if her mother knew that at the time of purchase. Perhaps her mother is playing matchmaker. However, that would be odd since her mother is one of the main reasons they never got together so long ago. Also, six years ago, Julie did something that seems to have ruined Michael's career. There is no way Michael would ever forgive her for that.
Michael is the least of Julie's worries lately, though. Her mother is having dizzy spells lately and Julie is worried that something serious may be going on. Then there is work, where Julie is being considered for a position on the national election team. That would be a big step up. One thing is certain, Julie is about to make some tough choices and learn that when it comes to family, career, and dating, you should always follow your heart.
***** In my opinion, this is Sarah Strohmeyer's best book to date. There is a lot more going on that my synopsis mentions. I only hit the main items, but there are several secondary items happening and they quietly flow throughout the story. The best thing about this author's writing is that every single thing is believable, from the characters to the problems. The reader can easily identify with Julie. By the time you finish this gem, you may very well look at your mother in a totally new light. *****
Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.
Sweet, Sexy, and Totally Delicious July 2, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Sarah Strohmeyer's Sweet Love is a paean to both sweetness, as in desserts, and love, romantic and familial. Betty Mueller starts off the tale by buying her daughter Julie and Julie's one-time crush Michael, who she hasn't seen in six years, slots in a local dessert class. Julie rolls her eyes but agrees to go, not realizing how easily she will be seduced into the thrill of making these masterpieces from scratch, a far cry from her mother's back of the box recipes.
Meanwhile, reporter Julie is grappling with a possible promotion at her job as a TV news reporter while trying to hold off the woman gunning for her job. Throw in a tragic murder, an overeducated homeless man, sizzling passion and jealousy between her and Michael, and various family health crises, and you've got yourself a story that's full of snappy drama as Julie grapples with her own heart's calling, which she's kept buried for a long time.
The tension between Julie and Michael is built to perfection, and the supporting characters, from Julie's daughter Em to her best friend Julia and eccentric work crew, are all masterfully worked into the story. The fraught mother/daughter relationship, a battle of wills, is one that will be recognizable to many moms and daughters of various ages. And let us not forget desserts, about which Betty Mueller waxes so enthused at the story's start. Strohmeyer makes sure to infuse sweetness of the edible variety in most every chapter, from chocolate orgasms to creme brulee and beyond. How to craft these mouth-watering deserts is a source of generational tension between Julie and her mom, and also a path to seduction.
This is a sweet, tender, sexy and wonderful romance that I raced to get to the end of, even as I was sad to put it down. The title is fitting on many levels; Strohmeyer looks at the highs and lows of different types of love, and ultimately at how strong the pull of it is. This is the first book of Strohmeyer's I've read, but it certainly won't be the last.
Crushes, coincidences, and cupcakes June 30, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Sarah Strohmeyer was inspired to write SWEET LOVE as a way of honoring the memory of her beloved mother, but also to gain closure after she passed away. The book opens with a prologue, written from the viewpoint of Betty Mueller, who feels a need to correct a wrong she thinks she did to her middle-aged daughter many years ago. Betty did not approve of Julie's budding crush on Michael Slayton, a family friend who was a bit older than Julie's teenage years. In the same breath, Betty also confesses that she loves desserts (and cooking in general) and believes it's what helps make the world go 'round. She admits that her own daughter hates to cook because she was a slave to her kitchen. Julie will have none of that.
Looking at Julie today, Betty sees an unhappy, divorced, middle-aged woman with a teenaged daughter. This, she believes, is all her fault. Through some finagling, she manages to get Julie into a very exclusive cooking class focusing on desserts. What Julie doesn't know is that Michael also has been given this same gift. When the two attend their first session, Julie is shocked to find the love of her life there. It's the beginning of a renewed acquaintance, in which both Michael and Julie are reminded of their joint pasts, the friendship they shared, walking down memory lane and thinking of what had ruined their relationship --- a misunderstanding that occurred between them in their professional lives.
Julie is embarrassed to even see Michael, because her feelings for him --- the crush she had when she was growing up --- was never reciprocated, as he only saw her as his best friend's little sister. And obviously those feelings still remained, because why would she be reacting this way to him after all these years? To make matters worse, Michael doesn't come to class alone. He brings a very attractive woman with him, and Julie is convinced they are involved.
Betty continues her manipulating, hoping to get the two of them together. But as she's doing this, she's also dealing with her own issues that will bring Julie and Michael even closer together.
SWEET LOVE is written in a very humorous tone, but there are also a lot of touching emotional scenes. I believe this is the best book Sarah Strohmeyer has written thus far. While her earlier novels, which comprised the Bubbles series, were light comedies with one-dimensional characters but still a lot of fun, her stand-alone titles have an added depth to them. SWEET LOVE continues to showcase her humor, but there is a serious side to this book --- with the characters being much more rounded and three-dimensional, changing and growing from their mistakes, and a few heavy themes that definitely bring more to the story.
As always, I was not disappointed by Strohmeyer. Her book especially rings true for me because I too have recently lost my mother.
--- Reviewed by Marie Hashima Lofton
superb family drama June 21, 2008
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
In Watertown, Massachusetts, cancer survivor Betty Mueller regrets what she did two decades ago that cost her beloved daughter the love of her life. She serendipitously destroyed Julie's relationship with older Michael Slayton because she felt her daughter was too young and he too wild. Now twenty years later, she realizes Michael was Julie's one.
She wants to make amends before she dies as she would love one last a glimpse of the happier carefree teen that her machinations changed into a workaholic divorced single mom. However, Betty knows Julie, a Boston TV reporter, refuses to speak to Michael so her goal seems impossible, but this time mother knows best (at least she prays she does). Betty cons Julie into attending famous French chef Renee D'Ours dessert class at the Famous Boston Cooking School; recently divorced Michael is attending too.
On the surface this may seem like a typical second chance at love, but Sarah Strohmeyer refreshes the theme with plenty of humor, just desserts, and Shakespeare especially the sonnets. Betty is terrific as she understands the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Michael and Julie are classic star-crossed lovers, but there is no real Shakespearean villain, only a caring dying mom.
Harriet Klausner
 Not her typical story line July 22, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I bought this sxpecting it to be another light and funny book. It still had funny parts but was also very srious. This was a great book but wasn't like her last two. As long as you don't expect Sweet Love to be a silly romance you will enjoy it.
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