The Ultimate Pi Day Party

The Ultimate Pi Day Party (2019) Jackie Lau (Baldwin Village)

Josh Yu is a successful CEO and on the list of the “35 Most Eligible Bachelors Under 35 in Toronto.

But he doesn’t have love. Of a partner or his father. Despite the fact that everything he has done is to try and live up to his father’s expectations.

Sarah Winters’ dream was to move to Toronto and open a bakery, and for the past year she has managed that. Sure, she wants to get bigger, but right now she is succeeding in her dream–even if she is a bit lonely.

“The butter tart guy wanted fifteen butter tarts, one letter on top of each tart to spell ‘Will you marry me?’ Then he contacted me the day of, wondering if he should have six more butter tarts to add ‘please’ to the question.”

When Josh comes in looking for someone to provide pie for his “ultimate pi day party” she is hoping this might help her make it bigger–and is he maybe flirting with her?

“But why do you personally need to spend an hour on a Wednesday at a pie shop?” She looks at me suspiciously. “I bet the person you’re meeting with is a very attractive woman, am I right?”

“Why would you say that?”

“No reason.” She smirks.

What I loved about this story: the food. YUM. So much pie!

He snaps his fingers. “Nutella. I want you to make me some kind of Nutella pie, and something else with hazelnuts— whatever you think would work.”

I don’t even like hazelnuts or Nutella, but the pies and tarts still sounded amazing.

I also loved Josh’s best friend.

“It’s so nice to meet you,” Amrita gushes. “I’ve heard so much about you. Josh talks about you all the time.”

“Does he?” Sarah sounds slightly alarmed.

“Almost never, to be honest, which is why I decided I had to meet you.”

What fell flat for me: Sarah’s new friendships, and parts of conflict between Josh and his father–especially where things fell apart.

I loved that Sarah was trying to make friends (and was succeeding) but I never really quite believed she was making friends with Chloe and Valerie. Part of it was that this paralleled her relationships with Josh, and I had a very hard time believing she had the time to run her business, start a relationship and make new best friends. Especially since she was still putting 12+ hours days into her business.

I wanted her to be friends with Chloe and Valerie, I just never believed she was actually doing it.

And there was a ton of boinking. Which: boring. I mean, all those pages of sex could instead have been spent on baking and food.

But the biggest problem was the conflict with Josh and his father and why things fell back apart. Which lead to The Conflict. Both bits felt manufactured and ridiculous and irritated me.

So, despite the food, the story overall was a bit of a disappointment.

Publisher: Jackie Lau Books
Rating: 6/10

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