Salt & Sugar by Rebecca Carvalho

The Quick Cut: the grandchildren of two rival Brazilian bakeries begrudgingly work together to save their families respective businesses from a takeover attempt. Drama ensues as emotions get involved.

A Real Review: Thank you to Inkyard Press for providing the ARC for an honest review. Working with family at a minimum can get difficult. Whether its different perspectives, opposing work styles, or frustrating problems, things can get heated very quickly. For how complex it can be though, it can also create strong bonds to make success happen. When a superstore chain moves into town, Lari and Pedro do the unthinkable to save their families bakeries: work together. Lari has lived her entire life watching her family bake and run the family savory bakery, Salt. She also has watched her family continue to compete and argue with the bakery across the street, Sugar. They used to work together, but years ago ended up enemies after a partnership went south. Now generations continue the rivalry and pass it down to their kids. However, superstore Deals Deals threatens that continuing rivalry by coming into town and pitting them against each other, in the hopes of taking both businesses down. Can the rivals work together to take down a common enemy? Or end up taking their family businesses down quicker instead? This is a cute contemporary story that manages to weave together an adorable rom-com with plenty of cultural exposure on what Brazilian food and families can be life. So much of what happens in the story tells you how important holidays are and what communities do together to stay together. The story is told through Lari's perspective, but Pedro features heavily as they go from enemies to partners to more. At first, it seems like there's a valid reason for the family rivalry. However, then the different sides start to see one another's perspective and slowly changes their ways. Fighting alone will only cause more pain. Working together will save them from certain doom. While I enjoyed the overall story, it definitely has it's rough spots. At 368 pages long, it's definitely a longer contemporary story. While I enjoyed the story's journey, it also read long too and I'm more of a fast paced reading girl. The plot has a lot of elements too it, which mostly work together. However, it's so much working together that as a reader I started to nitpick the parts that felt unnecessary. If you enjoy a highly complex story, it won't bother you. I'm just not exactly the reader they aim for with these tales. My rating: 4 out of 5