Cherry Danishes and Something about a Boy

Diary of a Baker's Son #1

by Daniel Elijah Sanderfer

What happens when the delightfully clumsy son of a baker meets an emo wallflower?

Jeffrey Towler is clumsy, so clumsy and awkward. But when a cute emo boy moves into the house across from his mom's bakery, an awkward crush quickly turns into a budding first love.

J.P. doesn't socialize much, he hasn't since his mom died a couple of years ago. At sixteen, he's just learning how to maneuver this thing called life. Factor in a strained relationship with his dad who is having his own crisis and you have all the ingredients to create something beautiful or something disastrous.

Join Daniel Elijah Sanderfer for this coming of age romance about two completely opposite boys who find the recipe for something unexpectedly sweet.

AUTHOR'S Newly edited and formatted version uploaded July of 2020.

Genres: M M Romance, LGBT, Young Adult

117 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 31, 2019

About the author

Daniel Elijah Sanderfer is an internationally best-selling author of more than one hundred fifty books. He was born in Stuart, Virginia, and raised in the Southside region. He's lived in numerous places across the eastern United States but now resides in rural Lee County, where he lives with his husband of twenty years, William.

His books feature LGBTQIA+ characters from all walks of life but primarily focus on rural living. He's received several award nominations, including Best Author on Goodreads and Best Y.A. Short Story. His works can be found primarily on Amazon, as well as other retailers nationwide. Several of his works are also available in audiobook format.

Before he became a writer, he worked in the hospitality industry for fifteen years, where he received the R.O.S.E. award nomination two consecutive years in the Louisville, Kentucky Metropolitan Area. His works showcase queer and other characters living their authentic truths. They always contain messages of hope, as well as life lessons. He's a proud, gay own voices author with a large fan following on social media.

You can find information about his life, as well as news on upcoming releases, in his Facebook fan group, Sanderfer's Socialites.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most adorable story ever!

[Mrs.V · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so funny and cute. Jeffrey and J. P. are both 16 and their attitudes towards life is that you can only have when in this world-altering part of life: the absolutenes, the finality, the feeling everything you do or feel is huge and life changing, and you just feel so much!
I loved Jeffrey's and J.P.'s POVs, they're both so cute and funny and a total mess.

There's also an interlude from Roger (J.P.'s dad) who is elaborating his own unresolved feelings, and in this part the book is maybe a little less PG-friendly than strictly YA.

[Larry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pleasant surprise.

I don’t tend to read books about underage boys, but the writer caught my attention with his writing style and humor. I am glad I read it. I am not sure I identify with it. One doesn’t have to identify with a good story. You just read it and feel good that you did. I will look for other books by this author and hope they are as good.

[Terry D Witt · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has everything

I loved reading this book. It looks at love and intimacy from different angles. This story has just begun. There is more to be told here and I’m so excited to continue this journey. The only critique I would offer is, not regarding the writing but, the editing. I have never been one of those talented readers capable of digesting large swaths of a story at one glance. I read every........single........word. So, the misspellings/typos are stumbling blocks for me more than most. This book could use a good combing over so as not to enflame the OCD of its readers. I loved it none the less.

[Penumbra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Diary of a Baker’s Son: Cherry Danishes and Something about a Boy is the first book in the series, ‘Diary of a Baker’s Son’. It’s told from the first person pov of just about everyone who’s in the story, although mostly from Jeffrey Towler’s, and JP’s pov.



I don’t normally read YA stories, but the blurb sounded interesting and I like reading stories about food. I have to say I’m disappointed. This book was all over the place. It couldn’t decide what it wanted to be. We had povs from not just Jeffrey and JP, but also from JP’s dad, Roger, and even Van, the football player Jeffrey had a crush on at the beginning of the story who broke Jeffrey’s heart by turning him down. Not only that, but the author threw in just about all the sad things they could think of to happen to the characters. Jeffrey’s heart is broken by Van. JP was bullied at school plus his mother died so he moved with his dad to Jeffrey’s town. Not only that, he suffers from manic depression and it doesn’t sound like he’s on any meds or seeing a therapist. Roger lost his wife and is so lonely and now admits he’s bi and really wants to be a Daddy to a boy. Van lives in foster homes that don’t care about him and he wants someone, meaning a Daddy, to look after him. I could see the promo for the Daddy/Roger and Van/boy book coming a mile away. But when they meet, Roger perves on Van who’s only seventeen-years-old and in high school. That is creepy and doesn’t belong in a YA story. Not only that, but Roger tells JP about his first experience with a boy in detail. Is this a thing with parents nowadays to connect with their kids? It’s like everything but the kitchen sink is thrown into this story. It would have worked much better if the author focused on just Jeffrey and JP, because there was too much stuff happening to too many other people, let alone the main characters in the book, that it just made the plot messy.

I wasn’t a fan of the povs either. Even though it was in first person, it was confusing when it slid from past to present tense and then every character broke the fourth wall! Why was it necessary to add so much extra narratives to this story? An editor was needed to strip this plot down and tighten it up. Also, there were quite a few grammatical errors and one big inconsistency error when Van explains his age compared to JP. It totally didn’t make any sense. And one of my pet peeves, monologue. This story was almost all monologue of characters telling the ‘Reader’, as they called us, about their thoughts, feelings, what they were doing, about their past and about anything else you could think of. I want to feel a story, not be talked at, and the characters talked. What also needs fixing are the character voices. Too often they either sound the same or Jeffrey sounds like his mother when he talks to JP. So voices are inconsistent.

The author had Jeffrey and JP talk about why they liked the other person enough so that I could tell they liked each other, at least for now. They end up with a HFN I’d say. Roger opens up to his bisexuality and his desire to be a Daddy. All the characters who talked their pov always mentioned how lonely they were, so I’d say the theme of this book is loneliness. The only one who seems happy in the story is Jeffrey’s mom.

Overall, Diary of a Baker’s Son isn’t what I expected. It could do with a good editor and a rewrite. There are too many characters, too much monologue, mixed tenses and grammatical errors. I can’t recommend this book to anyone although some reviewers seem to like it. I give this book, 2 Stars.

[Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute

A lot of grammatical errors and typos and stuff (dude get an editor) but very sweet. I love MMs with a happy ending.

[Kennie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confusing mix of several diaries of most characters in the story.

[Ernesto Rivas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful!

What a beautiful and innocent view about two young men that literally stumble upon each other and discover what true love is all about. Beautifully written. Bravo!

[Thibaut Nicodème]

mentioned as bad but in a way that compelled me to consider reading it for myself

[Matthew Hawkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice Story

Enjoyed this, was a nice warm story focused on coming of age and about becoming aware of suppressed feelings, good read

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confused and unfocused. Good story buried in here, but could do with some rewrites.