As part of the Xpresso Book Tour
The Secret Recipe for Moving On
Karen Bischer
March 23, 2021
Swoon Reads
Blurb: Ellie Agresti’s not sure anything could be worse than being dumped by her boyfriend, Hunter, the first day of senior year.
But sharing a “life skills” class with him and his new girlfriend, Brynn? AND getting partnered with a “family” of misfits (A.J., the loudmouth; Isaiah, the horse-racing obsessive; and Luke, the tattooed stunt-biker)?
It’s a recipe for certain disaster…until an in-class competition allows Ellie to channel her angst into beating Hunter and Brynn’s team, and she unexpectedly bonds with her own group–especially Luke–in the process.
But as Ellie soon discovers, it will take more than classroom triumphs to heal her broken heart–and find herself again.
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Moving to a new school is hard enough, but moving during the middle of your junior year when all of the important school social events are happening is rougher. Fortunately Ellie met Hunter and soon they were dating and she found herself among the popular kids until the first day of senior year when Hunter dumps her and then immediately begins dating Brynn. This situation makes attending life skills class an emotional challenge, but Ellie can’t drop and then finds herself at the misfit table and comes to some realizations about judging people.
Karen Bischer’s The Secret Recipe for Moving On was a delightful YA read. I love the group of misfits and the fact that Ellie discovered she had far more in common with them and their quirks than she had with Hunter and Brynn. In fact, Ellie had to hide a lot of herself when she was with Hunter and his crowd, her desire to be a meteorologist and try new things, but could let her freak flag fly with the band of misfits. I should put quote marks around misfits because I thought they were anything but. They were very real and less judgy than the popular crowd.
Of course, there is always an impediment in all book romances and the one in this case comes from Ellie trying to live up to the expectations of the “popular” crowd and showing her own judginess when she really didn’t feel those things inside of herself. She learns something about herself and grows in the process.
The Secret Recipe for Moving On is a funny, sweet novel of a girl finding herself and more when circumstances make her take chances.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
rating:
4 butterflies and a ladybug out of 5 butterflies
Giveaway!
a Rafflecopter giveawayAUTHOR BIO:Karen Bischer has written short stories for Girls’ World and Animal Tales magazines and currently works as a copyeditor. She lives in her native New Jersey, where she has never encountered Bruce Springsteen in the wild, but does have a cat named after a member of the E Street Band.
Author links:https://karenbischer.com/https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18849890.Karen_Bischerhttps://twitter.com/kbischerhttps://www.instagram.com/karenbischer/