What do you think?
Rate this book
Cherry Pie Cure
When Susan discovers her husband of twenty-two years is cheating on her, she is sure her life is over. And she thinks her friend Marcella’s advice that she work through her feelings in a blog is stupid. She just wants to sit on the couch in her ex’s old bathrobe, feel sorry for herself, and chain-smoke. But with the help of Marcella, a growing tribe of “strange Internet friends,” couriered packages of sex toys, and the most delectable cherry pie in the world, Susan gets off the couch and into the arms of a gorgeous (“OMFG how old is he?”) new lover who is even more delicious than that cherry pie. Will her kids let her have this new life? Will her ex? And will Susan dare step into the passionate unknown... or will she retreat to the safety of her old life?
“Soo-zaahn,” he said. “Soo-zahn,” he said it again, and I felt the bones in my toes dissolve. “I am so grateful for this gift, and so touched by your thoughtfulness. Soo-zaaaahn,” he said my name again, and I thought if he said it again I would die. “Soo-zaaaahn,” he said—and I lived, “Soo-zaahn, if I weren’t one hundred per cent sure that it was forbidden in the employee handbook, I would now cover you with kisses from the top of your head to the tips of the nails of your toes, and then back again. And back again. As it is, it is taking all of my willpower to not kiss the inside of your palm. Your elbows. To not drag my forehead along your nose and down your beautiful body and rest it in gratitude on your feet. And then… well, the next part, I will only think.”
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Susan as The Heroine. Baker extraordinaire, yoga-hater, Luddite, and an innocent prude. “I don’t think an exercise routine developed by half-starved men in India is particularly suitable to short, curvy, booby white women. My breasts get in the way of everything. OMG, I just typed breasts. How do I delete this post?”
Marcella as Her Best Friend. Entrepreneur, musician and happily divorced self-proclaimed “slut” who has an opinion on everything and a solution to everyone’s problems except her own. “Look, Susan, do what you want, but either keep on with the blog or go sleep with a twenty-five-year-old boy. Do you want to be a pathetic blob of goo in your cheating husband’s bathrobe?”
Cody and Tyler as Her Adult Sons. “What were you thinking, Mom?” “Jesus, how old is he, Mom?” “Have you no pride, Mom?” “Oh-my-god-what’s-wrong-with-you, Mom?”
Nika as Cody’s Maybe-Maybe-Not Girlfriend. “I’m totally trolling Tinder for Persian guys now. Just so you know, Mama Susan.”
sugar&spice76 as Susan’s First Fan. “Honey, we’re not strangers anymore. We’re your strange Internet friends. We’re all mothers, and we all do the dirty sometimes, ok?”
FemmeFataleFun as the Sex Toy Peddler. “Smooches. Everything in that care package is therapeutic, kitten!”
mommyshidinginthebathroom3 as The Token Mommy Blogger. “Let her smoke, Marcella. It’s been six weeks. You can kick her ass about the cigarettes in six months.”
ilikeherbooty-full as The Porn Blogger Who Won’t Go Away. “Is this what women really talk about when men aren’t around, or are you doing that just for me?
Caspian00XO as His Friend Who Hears About the Pie. “Susan? Do I get pie now? I’m emailing you my address.”
Reza as Susan’s Love Interest. “This is my telephone number. As soon as I leave, you will type it into your phone. And you will send me a text. It will say, ‘Reza, this is Sooo-zaaaahn.’ If you don’t send me this text, I will assume I offended you and will need to quit my job so I don’t offend you again, so it is very important that you send this text. Yes, Soo-zahn?”
with cameos by
John as The Cheating Husband,
Jewel of The Not-So-Spectacular-Boobs as The Other Woman,
an assortment of lurkers, trolls, spammers, “Internet idiots,” and casual visitors,
Reza’s invisible roommates, and
The Lawyer.
a “MISTRESS OF HER OWN DOMAIN” novella
“Soo-zaahn,” he said. “Soo-zahn,” he said it again, and I felt the bones in my toes dissolve. “I am so grateful for this gift, and so touched by your thoughtfulness. Soo-zaaaahn,” he said my name again, and I thought if he said it again I would die. “Soo-zaaaahn,” he said—and I lived, “Soo-zaahn, if I weren’t one hundred per cent sure that it was forbidden in the employee handbook, I would now cover you with kisses from the top of your head to the tips of the nails of your toes, and then back again. And back again. As it is, it is taking all of my willpower to not kiss the inside of your palm. Your elbows. To not drag my forehead along your nose and down your beautiful body and rest it in gratitude on your feet. And then… well, the next part, I will only think.”
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Susan as The Heroine. Baker extraordinaire, yoga-hater, Luddite, and an innocent prude. “I don’t think an exercise routine developed by half-starved men in India is particularly suitable to short, curvy, booby white women. My breasts get in the way of everything. OMG, I just typed breasts. How do I delete this post?”
Marcella as Her Best Friend. Entrepreneur, musician and happily divorced self-proclaimed “slut” who has an opinion on everything and a solution to everyone’s problems except her own. “Look, Susan, do what you want, but either keep on with the blog or go sleep with a twenty-five-year-old boy. Do you want to be a pathetic blob of goo in your cheating husband’s bathrobe?”
Cody and Tyler as Her Adult Sons. “What were you thinking, Mom?” “Jesus, how old is he, Mom?” “Have you no pride, Mom?” “Oh-my-god-what’s-wrong-with-you, Mom?”
Nika as Cody’s Maybe-Maybe-Not Girlfriend. “I’m totally trolling Tinder for Persian guys now. Just so you know, Mama Susan.”
sugar&spice76 as Susan’s First Fan. “Honey, we’re not strangers anymore. We’re your strange Internet friends. We’re all mothers, and we all do the dirty sometimes, ok?”
FemmeFataleFun as the Sex Toy Peddler. “Smooches. Everything in that care package is therapeutic, kitten!”
mommyshidinginthebathroom3 as The Token Mommy Blogger. “Let her smoke, Marcella. It’s been six weeks. You can kick her ass about the cigarettes in six months.”
ilikeherbooty-full as The Porn Blogger Who Won’t Go Away. “Is this what women really talk about when men aren’t around, or are you doing that just for me?
Caspian00XO as His Friend Who Hears About the Pie. “Susan? Do I get pie now? I’m emailing you my address.”
Reza as Susan’s Love Interest. “This is my telephone number. As soon as I leave, you will type it into your phone. And you will send me a text. It will say, ‘Reza, this is Sooo-zaaaahn.’ If you don’t send me this text, I will assume I offended you and will need to quit my job so I don’t offend you again, so it is very important that you send this text. Yes, Soo-zahn?”
with cameos by
John as The Cheating Husband,
Jewel of The Not-So-Spectacular-Boobs as The Other Woman,
an assortment of lurkers, trolls, spammers, “Internet idiots,” and casual visitors,
Reza’s invisible roommates, and
The Lawyer.
a “MISTRESS OF HER OWN DOMAIN” novella
300 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 15, 2017
3 people are currently reading
411 people want to read
About the author
M. Jane Colette
26 books78 followersM. Jane Colette’s left-brain persona spends a lot of time in board rooms, “war rooms” and court rooms parsing lies. Her right-brain persona longs to be an iconoclast and artist. When nobody’s looking, she writes poetry (badly) and throws paint at canvas (less badly). Tell Me is their first collaboration, and celebrates their joint love affair with Calgary, Montreal, texting and impractical shoes. ~ HarperCollins Publishers
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 18, 2020
This book is absolutely delicious.
The characters are so real. Their interactions are hilarious - I released sporadic bouts of loud laughter as I devoured this book in a public place, alone. I loved how each character was so unique - I felt like they were real people, and I was part of their group. I loved how they each through in their own opinion - which was totally 'them' and made me think from a different angle.
The story line is entertaining, witty, sad, heart warming....I think I felt every emotion I could as I clung to the pages, wanting, no - needing, to know what was going to happen to the main character.
I walked away from the book feeling totally satisfied - yet - wanting more. I need every book that this amazing author has ever written.
You need to buy this book, block of an afternoon, go somewhere that no-one can find you, and let yourself sink into the deep indulgence that it is.
The characters are so real. Their interactions are hilarious - I released sporadic bouts of loud laughter as I devoured this book in a public place, alone. I loved how each character was so unique - I felt like they were real people, and I was part of their group. I loved how they each through in their own opinion - which was totally 'them' and made me think from a different angle.
The story line is entertaining, witty, sad, heart warming....I think I felt every emotion I could as I clung to the pages, wanting, no - needing, to know what was going to happen to the main character.
I walked away from the book feeling totally satisfied - yet - wanting more. I need every book that this amazing author has ever written.
You need to buy this book, block of an afternoon, go somewhere that no-one can find you, and let yourself sink into the deep indulgence that it is.
May 14, 2021
I received this book from the author at a romance book convention a couple years back. I am ashamed that it took me so long to read it. I read this book in a couple hours. This was a first for the type of format it is. It was so funny and I laughed a lot as I went along. I just could not put it down. I will be reading more books from this author. I loved the idea how creative. I would recommend this books to friends :)
July 7, 2017
Susan is a mid-divorce, middle-aged woman with a petty, selfish and unfaithful estranged husband John and a couple very loving fully-grown sons, plus a small cadre of other supporters (the fiercely loyal girlfriend of one son, a local bestie, and several online supporters). At the advice of her bestie, as a kind of therapy she begins a blog about her experiences with said petty, selfish and unfaithful estranged husband and her search for self. While blogging, she picks up several followers who support her, sometimes challenge her, and form a sort of unharmonious Greek chorus to her narrative. Cherry Pie Cure is told entirely through Susan’s online essays and the resulting online comments of this chorus (actually part Greek chorus, part peanut gallery).
The story begins in Susan’s struggle to be okay and to process her husband’s actions, which include dating “Jewel of the Not-So-Spectacular Boobs” and trying to turn her adult sons against her, but quickly moves into Susan’s infatuation and courtship with Reza, a dreamy stockboy at the local grocery store who pitches woo like… well, like something that pitches amazing woo. But this story doesn’t merely revolve around whether or not the girl gets the guy: Susan also develops a deepening relationship with her son’s girlfriend, Nika; is pushed and stretched by her friend Marcella (I think of her as a door-opener here); is encouraged to love herself (in more ways than one) by her sex toy-selling online friend FemmeFataleFun (who sends care packages), and is challenged, encouraged and supported by a couple seemingly-on-the-prowl younger men online. In there, she also starts baking cherry pies as a kind of therapy, but those pies wind up garnering her loyalty, interest and love.
This is more about those friendships than the love affair—though there’s the central narrative of falling in love (tenuous flirtation, insecure interest, deepening romance) for those who want it, there’s more to be had. For me, the story is about the ways in which Susan’s friends support her, the ways in which Susan supports other people, the ways in which love is a community event as much as it is a private thing.
Plus, you know, the story is funny, too. Ha-ha funny, I mean. Susan’s clever, and hearing the tale through her voice makes it all the more fun. She’s wry and smart and afraid-but-brave. The story itself hooks you in—a good narrative, told in pieces like this (we don’t see the action directly, but only hear what Susan will tell us about after the fact), can be (and is here) so addictive.
The story begins in Susan’s struggle to be okay and to process her husband’s actions, which include dating “Jewel of the Not-So-Spectacular Boobs” and trying to turn her adult sons against her, but quickly moves into Susan’s infatuation and courtship with Reza, a dreamy stockboy at the local grocery store who pitches woo like… well, like something that pitches amazing woo. But this story doesn’t merely revolve around whether or not the girl gets the guy: Susan also develops a deepening relationship with her son’s girlfriend, Nika; is pushed and stretched by her friend Marcella (I think of her as a door-opener here); is encouraged to love herself (in more ways than one) by her sex toy-selling online friend FemmeFataleFun (who sends care packages), and is challenged, encouraged and supported by a couple seemingly-on-the-prowl younger men online. In there, she also starts baking cherry pies as a kind of therapy, but those pies wind up garnering her loyalty, interest and love.
This is more about those friendships than the love affair—though there’s the central narrative of falling in love (tenuous flirtation, insecure interest, deepening romance) for those who want it, there’s more to be had. For me, the story is about the ways in which Susan’s friends support her, the ways in which Susan supports other people, the ways in which love is a community event as much as it is a private thing.
Plus, you know, the story is funny, too. Ha-ha funny, I mean. Susan’s clever, and hearing the tale through her voice makes it all the more fun. She’s wry and smart and afraid-but-brave. The story itself hooks you in—a good narrative, told in pieces like this (we don’t see the action directly, but only hear what Susan will tell us about after the fact), can be (and is here) so addictive.
May 27, 2018
I was given an ARC of this book several months ago but unfortunately only recently got around to reading it (so sorry M Jane!!) and I could kick myself for being a procrastinator because I ADORED this book! It's written entirely from the "blogger" POV, complete with comments from a bunch of wacky "followers". I think this is why the story flowed so easy and fast...it was like reading a diary, with Susan's hilarious thoughts strung together as she navigates being a middle aged divorcé. I loved watching Susan's character blossom from meek, lonely and insecure to funny, confident and sexually brazen. Plus, the characters who follow her blog were so witty and sarcastic and supportive. This was definitely a fun, unique take on the May-December trope! Told from Susan's POV with a sticky sweet ending. I received, read and voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.
October 17, 2017
Firstly - I was gifted this book for an honest opinion.
Secondly - This book should not be read in a public place due to inappropriate bouts of giggling and laughter eg, on a night flight home to the UK (when everyone is trying to sleep).
I'll be honest I did find the story hard to get into at first, as this was the first time I'd read a story written in this style, but after the first few posts you get hooked.
As you read Susan's blog and her internet friends comments and interactions you can't help but want to add your opinion to the blog posts. I was rooting for Susan's inner minx to come out of her shell after being the good little wife for 23 years and have all sorts of fun and experiences.
If you are looking for a light hearted romantic comedy or ways to traumatise your grown children with conversations of sex this book is for you :)
Secondly - This book should not be read in a public place due to inappropriate bouts of giggling and laughter eg, on a night flight home to the UK (when everyone is trying to sleep).
I'll be honest I did find the story hard to get into at first, as this was the first time I'd read a story written in this style, but after the first few posts you get hooked.
As you read Susan's blog and her internet friends comments and interactions you can't help but want to add your opinion to the blog posts. I was rooting for Susan's inner minx to come out of her shell after being the good little wife for 23 years and have all sorts of fun and experiences.
If you are looking for a light hearted romantic comedy or ways to traumatise your grown children with conversations of sex this book is for you :)
August 13, 2019
A good story with heart, humour and sexytimes as the main character recovers her life and mojo after divorce. I empathized with Susan, and I laughed with her. The blog format worked really well, and I admire the way her reader/commenters turned into friends (some with their own plotlines). I don't read enough contemporary to know if this was women's fic, chick lit or erotic romance.
Quibble: I would have like more scenes with Susan and Reza getting to know each other outside of bed.
Quibble: I would have like more scenes with Susan and Reza getting to know each other outside of bed.
May 7, 2017
This book was great fun. Lots of believably funny moments in touch with our times.
January 25, 2025
WTF was that. Worst read so far for 2025. Let’s hope it only goes up from here.
October 15, 2019
A funny romance of an empty nester (she's 43) finding out her husband is cheating and ruining Christmas. Then she flirts with the stockboy/ cashier (he's 31) at the local grocery store. I thought that the story would be awkward because it is 100% blog posts and comments, but that is what made it a fun read. The comments had me laughing out loud much of the time; they were from Marcela, her friend, an assortment of followers, and of course, some spam.
And the cherry pie is actually pie, not a spoiler.
Warning about the c-word used to annoy and get attention. Not my favorite word.
Note: I got a review copy, enjoyed it, and 1-clicked one.
And the cherry pie is actually pie, not a spoiler.
Warning about the c-word used to annoy and get attention. Not my favorite word.
Note: I got a review copy, enjoyed it, and 1-clicked one.
July 7, 2017
I absolutely loved this book. It was an easy really really entertaining read. It's super sexy, leaving a lot to my imagination but giving lots of cues and ideas. I enjoyed getting to know all the characters and seeing the little community the created evolve. I loved the message I got from the book... to loosen up and enjoy life more. To trust that things will always work out somehow. Is one of those heart warming books that leaves feeling good.
August 13, 2017
I loved this book! Susan is getting a divorce from her cheating, douchy husband, John. Her BFF, Marcella, encourages her to blog about her feelings as a form of therapy. She's reluctant (and not so great with technology), but gives it a try. The entire book consists of her blog posts and comments from her followers. It was an interesting format, sad, poignant, and laugh out loud funny. I'll definitely be looking at Ms. Colette's backlist.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews