Review
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Title: The Icing on the Cake
Author: Elodia Strain
Publisher: Cedar Fort
Year Published: 2007
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 295
ISBN: 978-1-59955-011-4
Price: $14.99

Reviewed by Katrina Holgate Miller

lodia Strain’s debut novel, "The Icing on the Cake", flirts with the internal pressure that Mormon women in their twenties put on themselves to meet cultural norms by winning the mating game. The protagonist of the story is Annabelle Pleasanton, a twenty-four- year old journalist for a small regional magazine in Central California. The Hebrew and Latin meanings of “Anna” are “favor” and “lovable”, suggesting the possibility that in spite of past failures at romance, Annabelle might just win this one. The “pleasing” in “Pleasanton” portends that the protagonist will meet social expectations. The protagonist’s name thus describes the plot and climax of the story.

"The Icing" is an initiation story about Annabelle’s quest for acceptance as an adult in the working world and in the Mormon culture. In this quest, Annabelle must develop the self-confidence needed to be her real self in the presence of others. At the beginning of the book, she is insecure and self-effacing. She expects rejection by male peers. She goes to unusual lengths to buy a cake for the Christmas party that would please her boss. At the end of the book, Annabelle is able to preserve her sense of being OK as a person when it appears she would be rejected by both her boss , a female peer, and the man of her dreams. Annabelle likens the process of finding all the parts of her that were lost as a result of her trying to always please others as “the icing on the cake”. In becoming an empowered woman, she wins the respect of her boss, colleagues, and the man of her dreams.

His name is Isaac: returned missionary, free-lance photographer, owner of a titanium watch and a 1968 Firebird. At the beginning of the book, Isaac is presented as mature and independent. He has the social skills to handle the traditional interview by Annabelle’s parents in a suave and confident manner. Isaac has built a network of strong and talented associates, whom Annabelle meets and befriends in her duties as a writer. Isaac, however, has an Achilles Heel. He had been burned in a previous relationship and has a fear of commitment. He never has kissed Annabelle or stated his desire to have an exclusive relationship with her. However, he is quick to misinterpret situations that Annabelle encounters in her work and in her family as evidence or personal betrayal. He becomes cold, distant, and arrogant. His immature attitudes and behaviors at the end are a foil to Annabelle’s more mature mannerisms. Nonetheless, Annabelle is able to see through his regression to a shining person. At the conclusion of the denouement, both Annabelle and Isaac has passed through the narrow passageway of excessive self-focus and defensiveness and are now ready to fully engage with each other.

Though the book is a fun read for all populations of women, it is particularly suited to young twenty-somethings who are in the marriage market. The book contains a powerful message to them: In the quest for a mate, it is important to first become a marriageable person. The book realistically draws attention to some of the basic elements of finding “true love”, from physical attraction and the desire to touch to a more spiritual attraction and the desire to promote the development and well-being of the other person. Unlike most books about the romance of young adults, this book never has the main characters touch in ways that outstrips their level of emotional maturity nor their level of commitment to each other.

Some readers might be interested in the comic escapism that the book offers. The humor in the book is largely slapstick. For example, Annabelle gets in a cat fight at a wedding shower she went to in order to deliver a cake. Her mother grabs the other girl’s fist as she starts shoving it toward Annabelle. Annabelle inadvertently starts a fire in the kitchen of the chef she was trying to interview for her magazine. Annabelle introduces herself, in the prologue, as a girl looking for a “boy to love’. For a girl and boy, slapstick humor might be appropriate. Many adults, including this reviewer, prefer humor that is more subtle and sophisticated.

"The Icing on the Cake" is a story that Mormon women in their twenties want to be their own. And Mormon women in their forties and fifties will get a chuckle—even if they do not like slapstick-- out of the resemblance of Annabelle’s antics to those of their own daughters or even their own “once upon a time”.