A Second Bite at the Apple

A Second Bite at the Apple

Dana Bate

Genre: Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): Sydney Strauss is obsessed with food. Not with eating it--though she does that too--but with writing about the wonders of the gastronomic world, from obscure fruit hybrids to organic farming techniques. Since food journalism jobs are more coveted than Cronuts®, Sydney pays her bills working for one of TV's biggest egomaniacs--until she's left scrambling for shifts at a local farmers' market.

Stacking muffins for the Wild Yeast Bakery isn't going to win her any James Beard awards. But soon Sydney is writing the market's weekly newsletter, and her quirky stories gain attention from a prominent food columnist. After years of putting her love life into deep freeze, she's even dating again. And then Sydney gets a shot at the story, one that could either make her career or burn it to a crisp--along with her relationship and her reputation...
 
Review:  I enjoyed reading this book about a young woman making her way through a career change from an okay job with a morning show to a dream job as a food writer.  The research that she does to write articles for the farmer's market newsletter was quite interesting, and the descriptions of the food sold were mouthwatering.  But I thought the story was lacking in two ways.  First, her fixation on her high school and college relationship was a little strange, wouldn't most people have moved on after five years?  And secondly, it drives me NUTS when girls do completely stupid, selfish and thoughtless things in books (SPOILER ALERT - Sydney stole emails from her boyfriend to write an expose that got him fired) and then everything works out alright.  She should have been forced to live with the real consequences of her actions and not get her happy ending.

Rating: 3 stars