Frosted Kisses

Former Manhattan girl Penny has quickly discovered that life in a small town is never dull. Not when there's a festival for every occasion, a Queen Bee to deal with, an animal shelter to save, and a cute boy to crush on.
There's a new girl in town: Esmeralda. She's beautiful, French, and just happens to be Queen Bee Charity's best friend. Penny hopes the arrival of Esmeralda means Charity might be too busy to keep making her life miserable.
But Penny doesn't have a lot of time to worry about Charity. Her best friend, Tally, has recruited her to help raise money to save the local animal shelter. Then there's Marcus, the adorable and mysterious boy who Penny thinks maybe likes her as much as she likes him. Plus, this is Penny's first holiday season as a "divorced" kid -- although she has no idea what this means.
Can Penny help her friends save the shelter, navigate her new family dynamics, and get the boy, or will Charity and Esmeralda find a way to ruin everything?

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545790550
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	10/27/2015
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 5.80(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Heather Hepler is the author of The Cupcake Queen and Love? Maybe. She also wrote Scrambled Eggs at Midnight and The Dream Factory with Brad Barkley. She holds a master’s in library science from the University of North Texas and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Southern Maine. She works as a reviewer for VOYA, Kirkus Reviews, Publiers Weekly, Library Media Connection, and the New York Times. Heather lives with her family in Tyler, Texas.

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Editorial Reviews

Praise for The Cupcake Queen
"Hepler's novel is greater than the sum of its parts, held together by Penny's genuine voice and emotions. Readers will root for Penny, a talented artist, as she develops her gifts and adapts to small-town life." –Kirkus Reviews
"[A]n endearing and poignant story about standing up to adversity and finding peace in what is, rather than holding out for what could be." –Publishers Weekly
"The story is heartwarming and is as comforting as the confections produced by The Cupcake Queen bakery." –Children's Literature
Praise for Love? Maybe
"[T]eens will likely race through Hepler's heartwarming, sweet-as-a-candy-heart novel and enjoy not only the characters' drama-filled love lives but also her realistic portrayal of imperfect friendships and families." –Booklist
"[R]eaders seeking a romance with sweet, salty, and spicy moments . . . should be entertained." –Publishers Weekly
"Hepler establishes realistic, relatable, and strong characters with very endearing relationships."– VOYA

From the Publisher

This sequel to The Cupcake Queen (Dutton, 2009) starts soon after the ending of that book. Penny is feeling more comfortable in Hog’s Hollow. She hopes she has settled things with mean girl Charity and her relationship with Marcus seems to be developing nicely. It cannot be that easy though. A new exchange student stirs things up and something is going on with Tally, her best friend. Although this book stands alone, it would be easier to follow the action if readers have read the first one. By the end, the French girl gets her just desserts, Tally explains her behavior, and Marcus finds the perfect moment to kiss Penny. What makes this book stand out from other teen romances is a cast of well developed adult characters. Some of the teens seem a little flat, but the adults are not just clueless parents or oblivious teachers. Most of the adults seem to have full lives and full personalities, and it is refreshing to see the adults and teens interact in meaningful ways. Although this is mostly a fluffy high school romance, it does touch on more serious issues of absent parents—both of Tally’s parents are out of the picture, Penny’s dad is in New York, and Marcus’s mother is dead. It will be a very tough sell to boys, but girls will enjoy some time in Hog’s Hollow. Reviewer: Suzanne Libra; Ages 11 to 18.

VOYA, October 2015 (Vol. 38, No. 4) - Suzanne Libra

In this sequel to The Cupcake Queen, Hepler explores the everyday difficulties of being a thirteen-year-old girl. Like most girls her age, Penny is on an emotional rollercoaster of relatively minor, but emotionally significant, dramas, like the change from the big city to a small town, conflict over a cute boy, and tension with the new girl in school. Hepler’s characters are relatable to ordinary readers of that age, and appreciably, lack much of heavy-handed drama that seems to be a recent trend in young adult literature. Despite the fact that Penny’s parents are recently divorced, her best friend Tally has lost both parents, and her almost-boyfriend Marcus lost his mother the previous year, all three of them continue on with ordinary life like normal teens. They are dealing with their grief appropriately, but in the margins, without weighing the reader down. They laugh; they cry; they worry; but all in ways that reflect how real teens often displace the difficult issues and focus instead on the more insignificant, but immediate, challenges of teenage life. Their actions are wholesome without being preachy; and they model age-appropriate behavior, a refreshing find in a realistic fiction publishing milieu where child characters often act like adults. Reviewer: Marisa Behan; Ages 12 up.

Children's Literature - Marisa Behan

10/01/2015
Gr 7–10—Named for her dad's favorite Beatles song, Penny Lane lives in Hog's Hollow with her mother and grandmother. Following her parents' separation in The Cupcake Queen (Dutton, 2009), Penny is now navigating her way through their divorce and her father's excuses for not visiting her. Yet she remains distracted by the plans of her animal-loving, artistic best friend, Tally, who plans to save the local animal shelter by doing odd jobs for neighbors and friends. One of their clients is the mysterious bachelor Dutch, who just arrived in town and provokes bouts of rage from Penny's grandmother. As Penny tries to solve that mystery, Tally suddenly becomes distant and moody. Though initially Penny thinks that Tally's problems are the result of the mean girl Charity's escalating bullying, it becomes clear that Tally is struggling with something far more hurtful than the comments and glares from Charity and her minions. Things only get worse when their new friend Charlotte returns to the mean girl group and the new student, Esmerelda, appears to be wooing away Penny's almost-boyfriend. Reading the first book isn't absolutely necessary, but the purchase of this companion novel should be predicated on the successful readership of The Cupcake Queen. VERDICT This sweet story will win over middle schoolers, who will relate to the rocky realm of bullying, new romance, and friendships.—Lynn Rashid, Marriotts Ridge High School, Marriottsville, MD

School Library Journal

2015-07-22
Penny, from The Cupcake Queen (2009), endures barbs thrown by her bullying nemesis, Charity, but further trouble emerges when a new exchange student seems bent on stealing Penny's boyfriend. Penny's darn busy—when she's not at school, she's working at her mother's cupcake shop or helping her best friend, Tally, with odd jobs in order to raise funds to save the local animal shelter from closing. Meanwhile, her burgeoning relationship with Marcus renders her completely giddy, and she dreams that he'll be her first sweet kiss. But when Penny sees Marcus hanging out with Esmeralda, the gorgeous, new Parisian foreign exchange student, and later with Charity, she falls into worry and uncertainty. And to top it off, her parents are newly divorced, the holidays are approaching, and Penny's dealing with her increasing anger toward her father, who perennially breaks his promises to visit. A number of miniplotlines dilute the story's focus: among others, Penny suffers a concussion, but nothing comes of it save a few missed days of school, and her art teacher's relationship with a visiting artist seems suspiciously close. But as in her first outing, Penny's voice charms; she's keenly observant and wry, balancing surely between young innocence and burgeoning bravery. Readers will cheer the ultimate delivery of a satisfying, heaping dose of justice on the guilty. A mean-girl story with a big heart and soul. (Fiction. 12-16)

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