Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey

Title: Waiting for Tom Hanks
Author: Kerry Winfrey

Genre: Contemporary Romance

If you are a fan of romantic comedies, this is the book for you! Hopeful romantic Annie Cassidy is waiting for her own Tom Hanks to come and sweep her off her feet. She knows that the road to love will be fraught with impediments, misunderstandings, and montages, but she feels confident that the right man will come along and invite her to join him on his houseboat where they can float off into the sunset.

Small problem(s): she lives in a landlocked area, her social circle is small (consisting primarily of her gamer uncle and her barista bestie), and she's a writer by trade, so that solitary work doesn't exactly throw her in contact with eligible men. All this changes when a rom-com starts filming in her small town and Annie gets a job helping the director. 

Spoiler Alert: If you're still meaning to get around to some of the older rom-com movies, watch them first. Winfrey has no problems dropping plots like they're hot so if you had any doubt as to how the movies end, you won't after reading this book.

- Sarah R.

Check out Waiting for Tom Hanks @ the library.

Simple Cake: All You Need to Keep Your Friends and Family in Cake by Odette Williams

Title: Simple Cake: All You Need to Keep Your Friends and Family in Cake
Author: Odette Williams

Genre: Cookbooks, Non-Fiction

Australian by birth, New Yorker by marriage, Odette Williams set out to create a cookbook for making cakes that would pay homage to one that every household seemed to have when she was growing up, the Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book. Williams was inspired by the simplicity of the book from her childhood and has produced one similarly streamlined in which there are just ten cake recipes and fifteen cake toppings. Using these building blocks, the baker can combine their favorite cake with their chosen topping, or choose to follow one of the recipe variations on either, to create their own masterpiece. Simple Cake encourages a return to baking simplicity and the author advocates for including children in the baking process and baking cakes to nurture important relationships in our lives. The well-tested recipes and the attention to making the baking process easy make this a solid start to any cake baking that you might try.

- Elizabeth

Check out Simple Cake: All You Need to Keep Your Friends and Family in Cake @ the library.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cinder
Author: Marissa Meyer

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction/Fantasy

Though Cinder is the best mechanic in New Beijing and the breadwinner for her family, her stepmother treats her like she is a burden. It's true that cyborgs like Cinder are treated as second-class citizens - even used as guinea pigs in an effort to find a cure for letumosis, a disease currently ravaging the planet. 

Prince Kai is in the horrible position of needing to prepare to take the throne if his father, the Emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth, doesn't recover from the dreaded "Blue Fever." If Emperor Rikan dies, it will be up to Kai to try to work out a treaty with the Lunars, a different race from the Earth's satellite that have the ability to control minds and seem to be looking for an excuse to wage war. Their queen, Levana, is rumored to have killed to capture the crown, but a more legitimate heir is out there.

When Cinder is hired by Kai to fix his droid, it will forever change her destiny. Will she live through the spreading plague? Will she be able to help Kai with his droid and the information it holds? Will she find a dress for the royal ball? Read this first book of The Lunar Chronicles to find out.

- Sarah R.

Check out Cinder @ the library.

The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle

Title: The Dinner List
Author: Rebecca Serle

Genre: Romance, Coming-of-Age Fiction, Audrey Hepburn

When you begin reading and Audrey Hepburn is one of the characters, you know you are in for a treat. When Sabrina and her best friend are in college, they craft the classic list of the five people, dead or alive, who they would like to have at their thirtieth dinner parties. The lists get forgotten as lives get lived and love is won and tragically lost. Enter Sabrina's thirtieth birthday and Audrey Hepburn, among others, is seated at a table in a fancy restaurant and having dinner with her. How would you live out a few hours of borrowed time as you savor a meal with your ideal dinner companions?

- Elizabeth

Check out The Dinner List @ the library.

The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez

Title: The Friend Zone
Author: Abby Jimenez

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Josh Copeland just got out of a long term relationship with pretty much only the clothes on his back, but he's OK with that because his ex-girlfriend, Celeste, decided she doesn't want children. She can keep the house, and her new boyfriend, Brad. Josh wants kids and lots of them so he's moved on: to a new state, a new job, and hopefully (fingers crossed) a new gal. He just needs to get through his duties as Brandon's best man.

Kristen Peterson pulls no punches, adores her Yorkie, and has been cursed with  lady parts from hell. Mars is less hospitable than her uterus. She hopes she can keep it together long enough to throw her bestie, Sloan, a killer bachelorette party. 

As they're thrown together, will Josh and Kristen be able to get past the past to a combined future, or will the obstacles prove to be too much to overcome?

I laughed. I cried. I enjoyed all the movie references. 

P.S. This book will make you want street tacos.

- Sarah R.

Check out The Friend Zone @ the library.