Review: Second Helpings at the Serve You Right Café Tilia Klebenov Jacobs

Title: Tilia Klebenov Jacobs
Author: Second Helpings at the Serve You Right Cafe
Published: April 8, 2015
Publisher: Linden Tree Press
Pages: 143
Genre: Contemporary
Review: ebook provided by NetGalley and publisher















What if the world didn't want you to go straight? Out on parole after almost ten years in prison, Emet First is repairing his shattered life. He has friends, a job, and his first date in a decade. The young woman, Mercedes Finch, is lovely but wounded. When her deranged brother learns about Emet's past, he will stop at nothing to destroy him--and suddenly Emet has everything to lose.

I received this book via NetGalley to give an honest review.

 The cover is honestly what drew me into this book. It just seems so inviting to read. With this story we are taken into the life of Emet which isn't much of a life to tell but it is enough to where we see him get a second chance in life. 

Emet committed a crime and works in a bakery with Eden Rose the owner. Emet is really good at using his hands to bake scones and other delicious goods. So when he meets a woman named Mercedes Finch he believes his life is going to be good even though he is worried about her not liking him and his past. After a first date of confessions Mercedes brother Clay has it out for Emet and will stop at nothing to make sure Emet is out of her life and that Mercedes stays at home. Now the romance in the book wasn't really there and Emet and Mercedes never moved past the first date by that I mean they never got together for a second date even though it is mentioned later on. With the things that are going on with Mercedes brother and his craziness the timeline seems to play out over a short period of time. It wasn't like a week later this happens or a month later this happened it was just so fast with all the drama from the brother. It just moved to fast for me. 

Now there was a lot of description with the food which was okay being as it is the Serve You Right Cafe but I wanted more from the main characters. We also get to know a bit more about Eden Rose and how she came to be working at the Serve You Right Cafe. 

Another neat thing I enjoyed in the book was how Eden would write sayings or ideas on the wall and have her customers write what they thought on there. It is something that you get to see a lot of creative minds come up with something for the people to see.

I have to say my favorite characters in the book were the homeless couple. Their charm and wittiness was just perfect and gave us some humor with them. 

I did find Emet trying to turn his life around and even seeing the good when things were going downhill for him towards the end was perfect. It just goes to show some people can get a second chance in life and it could just happen in a coffee shop. :) But he didn't grow enough and maybe that is because he had only been out a month. I am torn between a three wine glass rating and a four wine glass rating. This is more of a relaxing read so I am going to give this a four rating. 

Tilia Klebenov Jacobs holds a BA from Oberlin College, where she double-majored in Religion and English with a concentration in Creative Writing. Following an interregnum as an outdoor educator with the Fairfax County Park Authority in Virginia, she earned a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School and a Secondary School Teaching Certification from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Despite lacking the ability to breathe fire except in the strictly metaphorical sense, Tilia has taught middle school, high school, and college. She has also won numerous awards for her fiction and nonfiction writing. She is a judge in the Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition, and she teaches writing in two prisons in Massachusetts. Tilia lives near Boston with her husband, two children, and two standard poodles.