Book Club November 2025- Mrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame
By: Olivia Ford
Published Year: 2024
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
Pages: 384
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): A huge-hearted, redemptive coming-of-old-age tale, a love story, and an ode to good food
Nothing could be more out of character, but after fifty-nine years of marriage, as her husband Bernard’s health declines, and her friends' lives become focused on their grandchildren—which Jenny never had—Jenny decides she wants a little something for herself. So she secretly applies to be a contestant on the prime-time TV show Britain Bakes.
Whisked into an unfamiliar world of cameras and timed challenges, Jenny delights in a new-found independence. But that independence, and the stress of the competition, starts to unearth memories buried decades ago. Chocolate teacakes remind her of a furtive errand involving a wedding ring; sugared doughnuts call up a stranger’s kind act; a simple cottage loaf brings back the moment her life changed forever.
With her baking star rising, Jenny struggles to keep a lid on that first secret—a long-concealed deceit that threatens to shatter the very foundations of her marriage. It’s the only time in six decades that she’s kept something from Bernard. By putting herself in the limelight, has Jenny created a recipe for disaster?
What I thought
I listened to this book on audio in April and loved it. Recommended it to Denise who then ended up choosing it for book club. We also this month read a book picked by Denise’s 6 year old son. He picked The Land of Stories. I won’t do a full review o that one but I will do a quick review on that one too.
I thought I had written a review on Mrs. Quinn previously, so had planned on reposting that. However, I apparently did not and I didn’t re-read it for November. Therefore, my memory of the details of this book are a little foggy. I do remember really enjoy the storylines that were similar to Great British Bake Off. The audiobook was also very enjoyable.
Mrs. Quinn and her husband were both gems. I loved how this book wasn’t just a fluffy rip-off of GBBO but had a lot of substance to it. We realized at book club that this is Ford’s debut novel which made it all the more impressive.
For Land of Stories, I originally read this book back in 2015 and proceeded to read the next two books in the series. I was trying to think of books to recommend to Denise’s son and remembered how much the 2nd graders I had worked with loved this series. He listened to it and enjoyed it so much that he picked it and wanted us to read it for book club. I decided to listen to the book this time around since I had read the physical copy 10 years ago.
This series is so much fun. It has the magic of fairytales reimagined to appeal to kids in present day. I love how the series has little twists on the original Grimm fairytales so the dark stories are acknowledged but it’s light enough for children to read and enjoy. I will continue to recommend this series to children and am tempted to continue listening to the next few books and finish the series.
What Book Club Thought
We had a lot of great discussion regarding both of these books. Mrs. Quinn was fun to talk about because there are some heavier storylines within it that we got to pick apart and analyze. We also enjoyed comparing the baking show in the book to GBBO since we’re all fans.
Land of Stories was really fun to discuss, not just because we got to talk with a 6 year old about it, but because there are some fun adult jokes written in that we all got to enjoy. On top of that, we all like fairytales so it was fun for us to talk about what interpretations we liked and what we didn’t.
Both of these books are super fun reads. Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame, even though it seems like a light novel, has a lot of good discussion points. Land of Stories would be a great recommendation if you have kids in your life. You could read it with them and enjoy it just as much as they do.