Keep Calm and Carry a Big Drink, by Kim Gruenenfelder

A sequel to There’s Cake in My Future (AKA Wedding Fever), this novel lacks the zip and zing of its predecessor. Using the same cake pull charm motif gets a bit tired the second time around and the plot clunks in several places. We get to experience Seema and Scott’s catastrophic Anglo-Indian wedding and the birth of Nic’s child but it is essentially Mel’s story. The sole remaining single girl must take some risks to find her true self, get over her dark dating past and find true love. Along the way there is sex, laughter, friendship and lots of alcohol. Reading more like a Maui travelogue than a novel towards the end, it does inspire a desire to visit to Hawaii, but hopefully it sees the end of the cake charm tales.