Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian Review

Hey ForeverBookers,

How are you all? Is it hot where you are? It is where I am!

I’ve just finished Stay Sweet, a cute, summer contemporary standalone. Yes, that’s right, I read another standalone. This one is about an ice cream stand and the lives of the girls that run it. 

3.5 Stars (4 Stars on Goodreads!)

Stay Sweet is a contemporary story written in present tense that tells the story of Amelia, a Meade Creamery stand girl, in her town of Sand Lake. Amelia has been at the stand for years with her best friend Cate. This is the last summer before college for both of the girls. The Stand has been going for years, way before Amelia was born. It was founded by Molly Meade, who we meet at the beginning of the book. When Molly is found dead however, what will happen to the Creamery, the friendships of the girls that work there and the management of it? You’ll have to read to find out...

I read Stay Sweet for 3 readathons. They were:

My N.E.W.T’s exams - I want to be a writer/journalist in the Wizarding World so I need to get an A and an E in History Of Magic, an A in Muggle Studies an an A in any other subject...I read “Stay Sweet” for the A in Muggle Studies, the prompt being: A - Cover that includes an actual photo element because the girl (Amelia) on the cover and the ice cream are look real. 

The Cardcaptor-a-thon - The Sweet Card...I had to read Stay Sweet for this card because it’s about ice cream and it’s got scoops of it on the cover! Also Sweet is in the title, so perfect! - #5

Reading Rivalry - Authors name larger than the title of the book...Siobhan Vivian has more letters than Stay Sweet so it worked perfectly for this challenge. 

Fiction Feud Society - Some of the challenges this month pertain to there being a certain colour on the covers...Yellow is one of the colours and the title of Stay Sweet is in yellow, as well as 2 or three of the ice cream scoops being a shade of yellow, so again perfect. 

Popsugar Reading Challenge 2019...A book with a title that contains “Salty,” Sweet,” “Bitter,” or “Spicy”...The Book is called “Stay Sweet.”

NOTE: There is a little swearing in Stay Sweet. Not too much but enough that I noticed it. Also there’s betrayal of a friend. It’s nothing sinister, but it’s there nonetheless. 

Spoilers Below...

“There are lots of summer jobs for the teens of Sand Lake and each one comes with its own perks. Being a lake lifeguard means your tan lasts until October. The mall is air-conditioned and employees get a discount at the food court. Babysitters can make serious cash, especially if they get in good with the good tourists. But Amelia always dreamed of being a Meade Creamery girl.”

This is one of the first lines in “Stay Sweet.” It simply explains that Amelia, our main character has considered other jobs but nothing but being a Meade Creamery girl interests her. She’s dedicated to the Creamery, which I’ll go into more later. “Stay Sweet” is also very girl centric. There are only four male characters mentioned. Two of which are only ever side characters. 

“Maybe Amelia should let Molly know that if she needs anything this summer, anything at all, Amelia would gladly be of service. Molly could surely use the help at her age. Though what if Molly found Amelia’s assumption offensive and ageist.”

This shows how kind and considerate Amelia is. This doesn’t change throughout “Stay Sweet.” She doesn’t want Molly, the woman that set up Meade Creamery in 1944, to think she’s being too much though or give the wrong impression. If Amelia had had more backbone some of the events of “Stay Sweet” wouldn’t have happened the way they did. Being sweet (the emotion) and kind is good but being a pushover isn’t and that’s what I felt Amelia became in the middle of the book.

“The walk-in freezer was full of ice cream, Cate. Ice cream she made with love that no one will ever get to eat. And I’m sitting here trying to remember what Home Sweet Home tastes like. I’ve probably eaten that ice cream a million times, nearly every summer of my life...But I can’t remember. It’s...gone.” Amelia is distressed about Molly’s passing. Molly was like a grandmother to her. She can’t remember the flavour of her favourite ice cream, Molly Meade’s own creation. Will she remember it??? You’ll need to read to find out! 

“I can’t come up with one good reason why we, the last-ever Meade Creamery girls, shouldn’t be the ones to eat it.” This is where things start to go a little awry for Amelia. Cate, the speaker in the quote above is suggesting that the girls break in to the Creamery and literally eat ALL the remaining ice cream because they think the stand will close now that Molly Meade has died. Now, if I’d been Amelia, I wouldn’t have let Cate tell me what to do. Cate has a very domineering personality that you’ll either love or hate. I HATED her!!! I couldn’t stand how she made all Amelia’s decisions. I was like Please stand up for yourself, Amelia, but she always seemed too afraid to, too afraid of losing her best friend. Amelia even makes her Head Girl at one point to prove their friendship is more important than anything else...does Cate make a good Head Girl??? You’ll have to read to find out!

Another important character in the story is Grady, Molly’s grand nephew. Amelia isn’t sure if him at first but when they get to know each other she knows she can rely on him. 

“Amelia doesn’t often see boys wearing expensive suits. It’s the colour—a deep, almost velvety blue—that gives it away. And it fits him perfectly.” This shows that Grady is well-to-do. As Amelia gets to know him, does he remain posh and aloof or does he get to know Amelia. His father is strict on him. Grady wants to be on holiday with his college friends in Amsterdam, but his father wants him working at the stand. He’s a business student, so his dad thinks this’ll be the perfect opportunity for him to show what he’s learnt. His dad isn’t very nice to him because he’s so strict, as I wrote above. He thinks he should want what his dad thinks is best for him, which he doesn’t. He wants to make his own choices in life. Does he? You’ll have to read to find out...  

“Amelia hates that her cheeks are heating up. He is that handsome.” Amelia thinks Grady is good looking. Of course, knowing me if you’ve read any other reviews from this blog, you’ll know I LOVE romance and that every book I read HAS to have some. Also Grady has his own issues, like his mothers death, which happens before the start of the book to contend with so there are some serious aspects to the story too. “Stay Sweet” did have romance, although I was expecting slightly more. There was a lot of business talk, which I didn’t hate but this is a Summer contemporary so I thought there would be more kissing and hand holding, when there wasn’t much of either of those things. It’s because Amelia was too dedicated to running the Creamery the way Molly Meade would have liked, I think. She was a little too business minded to care about falling in love, which isn’t necessarily realistic at her age but it’s still how the story was written. I’d say that Grady was the third or fourth most present character after of course, Amelia and Cate. Molly is referred to a lot too, even though she dies at the beginning of “Stay Sweet.”

“How can I run an ice cream stand if there’s no more ice cream?” He startles surprised by the volume of his own voice.”

What most of this book focuses on is Amelia and Grady’s search for the secret recipes of Molly’s ice cream, especially her “Home Sweet Home” flavour, which as I’ve said above, is just hers. Amelia has eaten it so many times but she doesn’t know what went into it. Can they find the recipes? You’ll need to read to find out!

“You were right. Cate wasn’t a very good manager,” and “it was worse than you know, actually.”

If anything I wish we’d have gotten more dialogue and perhaps information from and about the other girls at Meade Creamery. The story felt very much like it was hinged on Amelia’s and Cate’s experiences, when there are lots of other female workers brought up but not focused on at all. For example, when Amelia asks the girls about how Cate has been as Head Girl, she gets lots of responses, a couple of which I’ve quoted above. The only problem is we don’t know how reliable those responses are because we don’t know anything about the girls that give them. We know that Cate is very domineering so we expect they’re giving correct summaries, but we don’t know. That’s the main thing that I didn’t like about the book. If we had known more about the other girls I think my rating would have gone up at least a star.

There were other little things that I didn’t love, like there not being quite enough romance but the main plot of finding the recipes was fun to read. I even enjoyed reading the parts where Cate is mean to Amelia. Yes, she was horrible but it’s always good to have an antagonist in a story. Otherwise, it becomes boring to me. I wrote “Cate being a b****, after so many quotes in my notes. The word b**** isn’t ever used in the text. It’s just what I referred to Cate as. I don’t think she really ever cared about the Creamery. At least, not to the same extent as Amelia. That’s why we see her enjoying her job at JumpZone, when she thinks there’ll be no more stand after Molly’s death. She’s fine to just move on when there’s a new/better opportunity. In a way I wish that Amelia had been like this. If she had have been I think the story could have potentially gone to more places but I understand that the ice cream was central to the story so Amelia had to want to keep it open. Otherwise, it would have closed, no question!  

I said above that Molly is mentioned throughout the book. That’s because in their search for the recipes, Amelia and Grady happen across Molly’s diary. We get excerpts of this throughout the second half of “Stay Sweet.” We learn about Molly’s love life as a young Meade Creamery girl, as well as why she made “Home Sweet Home” too. 

Overall then, I enjoyed reading “Stay Sweet.” I’m giving it 3.5 Stars because it was great for this time of year! I did crave ice cream while I was reading, which I think you’re meant to do, as the ice cream is centric to the plot, but I wish the author had focused a little more on the lives of everyone at the Creamery and not just Amelia, Cate and Grady. I wish the story had gone beyond the parameters of the Creamery as well. We saw a little away from it but not enough, I don’t think. Every other chapter seemed to be based at the Creamery, which made the reading experience a little slow. “Stay Sweet” is really a story of friendship, I think rather than romance or adventure. Yes, both of those things happen somewhat too but Amelia and Cate are definitely the main characters that the plot ultimately revolves around.

Stand by for my next review, coming soon! It’s a buddyread, which I’m super excited about!...