Book Cake

I recently baked a cake which reminded me of a book tag I've come across some time ago, namely the (quite obvious) book cake tag. Basically, the idea is that you go through the ingredients of a cake recipe and assign a book/trope to each of those. The original tag was created by Suddenlylorna but I did end up changing it quite a bit according to the recipe I used ( also I kinda wanted to try coming up with my own questions and see how that goes). I hope you'll enjoy and, without further ado, this is my version of the book cake tag.

A book that was slow at first but picked up as it went along.

Saint Death by Marcus Sedgwick wasn't really a "slow" book, on the contrary, it was fast paced and engaging. Nevertheless, I'm choosing it because I didn't realize how deeply involved I was in this story until it ended and ripped my heart out. In that sense, it did creep rather slowly on me which warrants my choice. Hopefully.

A trope that can make a book (even) better.

I've talked about this many a time and I'll continue talking about it: Good relationships. Preferably within a family or a friend group. Obviously, good romantic relationships are also very important but they are already pretty prominent. Established family and friendships, however, are not, which is sad because I believe that a book can really thrive on such relationships (such as A Little Wanting Song by Cath Crowley, the most recent book with prominent family/friendship relations I've read – wich is coincidentally, or not so much, a great book).

A very sweet book.

For this one I'm going with The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss. It's, by hardly any means, a happy book but it is very, very sweet. If you know The Kingkiller Chronicle then you're familiar with the protagonist of the Slow Regard of Silent Things(Auri) and you'll know why it is both a very sweet book but also the type of breaking-your-heart-with-only-five-word story. (And if you don't know The Name of the Wind yet then what are you doing with your life?) 

A book with a rich plot.

After I've just recently finished Crooked Kingdom, how could I not chose Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo for this ingredient? These books are filled to the brim with action, characters, betrayal, loyalty, twists and turns and (most) any other book pales in comparison.

A trope that makes you cringe.

Insta-love. Pretty much self-explanatory. 

A book you thought would be bad but turned out to be enjoyable.

Not gonna lie: Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion. In fact, I was convinced that this book was going to be a silly, weirdly romantic dufus of a book and was very much surprised when it turned out to be actually good and incredibly well written. Who thought I'd love a book about a girl falling in love with a Zombie? (The movie, however, is horrible and pretty much the less charming version of the dufus book I had expected.)

A book everyone (you included) likes/loves.

My next choice could also belong to the category above but instead I'm going to put it here: Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway. Coincidentally, this is one of those books with great friendships and parent-child relationships (all of Benway's books are like that, it's amazing). The book is marketed as a very romantic-driven story but it really is more about discovering yourself and understanding those people surrounding you. But, fortunately, if you don't believe me and still think the book sounds like a cheesy YA-contemporary-romance not worth reading you can ask pretty much any other person who's ever read this book to consolidate my recommendation.

A classic you love.

There are a few classics I love but for this one I'm gonna go with: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. A beautiful tale of understanding each other, living together as a people rather than separating as races, and empathy. There really is no reason why you shouldn't read it (it's even a "young classic" so you shouldn't have trouble understanding the language or anything).

A book you go to when you feel down.

I had some trouble coming up with a decent answer for this one because I basically read any kind of book if I'm down, as long as I'm reading I'm gonna feel better (Is it just me or does that sound addicted?) and I'm not big on the re-reading front unless it's warranted by a new release or something similar. But, I decided on Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier because it already makes me giddy just looking at those books and remembering that crazy adventure of a story. (Moreover, the movies are really silly and they always make me laugh.)

A book that covers everything you like.

For this one I'll have to go with a Graphic Novel because there is only one story that is, somehow, capable to touch on pretty much any topic ever: Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. If you haven't read those Graphic Novels yet I would highly, nay, urgently recommend doing so.

(Also, yes, that is supposed to be a Pikachu-face, the cake I made was a birthday cake for my little sister. She's turning 18 and really wanted to eat a lemon-strawberry-Pikachu cake. I'm not good with making things look nice but that Pikachu did turn out quite okay.)

And that's it! This was, once again, a lot of fun (both the baking and the tag-answering, not so much the dying of sugar poisoning while baking – I have a sweet tooth but it has it's limits and fondant is beyond those limits). I hope you enjoyed and happy reading!