A review by turophile
The Marquess of Cake by Heather Hiestand

3.0

I loved the frame of this book, but something about the construction just didn’t work for me. It’s set in the late Victorian era, as the English are beginning to see slight cracks in the lines between the Aristrocracy and everyone else, mainly because the aristrocracy is running out of money and needs to look for marriages outside the title class to sustain their estates and life styles.

Our heroine, Alys Redcake, is the red-headed eldest daughter of a Sir Bartlett who inhertited a run down mill, converted it into a mass production baking facility and opened his own highly successful tea-shop, bakery in London to complement his other businesses. He acquires that minor title in recognition of his success after pulling himself and family up out of poverty. And now that he’s a sir, he refuses to allow his daughter Alys to continue working as the chief pastry chef. He wants to marry her off so that he can find titled gentleman for her two younger daughters.

Our hero, Lord Michael, is a Marquess whose father and predecessors dragged the mainly into near financial ruin. Through his business acumen, he’s brought back the family name and fortune. He’s as handsome as they come and is addicted to sweets particularly those from the Redcake Bakery. Unfortunately, he suffers from what appears to be diabetes.

The set-up is there for an excellent story, and it certainly isn’t bad. I just wish there’d been more. I listened to a SBTB podcast with a successful author who spent years writing romances before she finally landed a contract. She started off writing historicals, but moved onto other genres because she just didn’t have the “voice” for the period tales. She also mentioned how she loved working with her editor who forced her to dig deeper into the characters.

I wish this author’s editor would have done the same in this book. Despite the historical trappings, I never felt like I was venturing back 100+ years because the voice seemed too modern. The conflict set-up was intriguing, but never fully developed.

I liked the book, but really wanted more. 2.75 / 5 on romance scale