This is a romance centered around the Christmas Holiday. I am not a great romance fan but do love holiday books. It was a quick read - nothing great but satisfying for the holiday

This one was a much needed sweet and heartwarming read. Set in a village in WWII England, it recounts the (dis)adventures of Audrey, who owns a bakery with her husband, and the people surrounding them: Lily, Audrey’s stepsister, who has a big heart and even bigger problems, and Elsie, Audrey’s soon-to-be sister-in-law. While the war is still raging, these women deal with their everyday lives, the people they’re waiting for, their heartbreaks and their love stories, without losing their hope in a better future.

I really liked this book, it was well structured and the descriptions worked perfectly. I found it particularly well researched, especially in what concerns everyday life during the war. It doesn’t always happen that an historical novel makes you feel as if you were there, in the time and place recounted by the story, but this book makes you feel that way. A very cosy read, perfect for winter.

•Thanks to Netgalley and to Bookouture for the copy in exchange for an honest review•

A great book i loved the characters pull into the story the characters are lovely plot got me gripped I enjoy it all and lovely story i recommend to you all i read in a day

Amy Miller is a new author that I took a chance to read one of her books. I was not disappointed and will be looking for more of her books to read.

Review: I adored these books. Amy Miller has created a really good historical saga. 

They are written and both kept me engaged right until the end. I adore these type of books and these have become firm favourites of mine. We have strong characters in the time of war. Bournemouth is a lovely setting for this story and in a bakery, which is not where I have read this type of story from before. 

This is a saga full of drama, love, hope, friendship, family and love during the war. 

I cannot wait for the next one.

Oh my goodness, I loved the story of Audrey and her extended family! I am only sorry that it took me so many months to start reading it. On a brighter note, book #2 is nearly out and so I can read it very soon and continue getting completely immersed in the community which is centred around Audrey and Charlie's bakery in Bournemouth.

Audrey is a young woman who is married to a baker, Charlie, whose family has had a bakery in Bournemouth for generations. When war breaks out, Charlie is keen to enlist, however, his occupation precludes him from being able to do so, much to his frustration. Audrey is just happy to have her husband by her side as she works in the bakery.

Audrey seems to pick up waifs and strays wherever she goes and her home is a place of comfort and understanding. Even though she has been married for years, she has not been blessed with a child and so her maternal instinct goes to work with a little evacuee girl, her sister and various others in the community.

This really is a lovely tale of the war years and it is clear that the author has done a lot of research into what conditions people had to live under at the time and how women in particular had to manage households when there was such a scarcity of goods, including food that we take for granted these days. Gender roles also changed during these years, by necessity, and that makes for interesting reading too.

5 stars from me :)

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Enjoyed this book. It was well written. The characters were well thought out and all we likable.

What a heartwarming novel! It has all of the elements I love in a nice, cozy novel: the 1940s, a bakery, Christmas, wartime, a mysterious child, a married couple, a small town. This was a nice cozy novel that I curled up on the couch to read with a fuzzy blanket and a cup of coffee. The storyline was comfortable and enjoyable. I enjoyed this book and am looking forward to the next installment in the series.

Heartaches and Christmas Cakes by Amy Miller takes us back to the fall of 1939 in Bournemouth, England. Audrey and Charlie Barton own Barton’s Bakery providing delectable delights for the people in their area. The bakery is a place where everyone knows they will be welcomed and have a chance to exchange a little gossip. War has caused many changes in their lives including rationing of food and clothing. Audrey’s brother, William heading off to fight with the British Expeditionary Forces. William is engaged to Elsie and she wonders if he will return home to her. Audrey’s stepsister, Lily shows up unexpectedly. Lily had been working as a typist at the Ministry of Information headquarters in London. Lily’s father, Victor is a controlling man who hit Lily. Audrey knows there is more to the story, but Lily is not yet ready to confide in Audrey. The Barton’s have taken in wounded French solider, Jacques who becomes fascinated with Lily. Audrey and Charlie have been unable to have a child of their own. Evacuees arrive needing homes, and Audrey takes in little Mary Lintin. Mary has been traumatized and does not speak. Audrey knows that the little girl needs their love and a safe haven. The family is worried when the fail to hear from William after he was posted over overseas. Life is a constant struggle, but they have their family, friends and hope. Will William return home to his family and fiancé? Can the Barton family help Mary to heal? What is Lily’s secret? Will romance bloom between Jacques and Lily?

Heartaches and Christmas Cakes is a lovely story. It starts in 1939 and continues through 1940. I found the book to be well-written with good characters. Audrey is a strong, thoughtful woman who cares about her friends and family. She will do what she can to help. Audrey is the glue that holds her family together. We get to experience the ups and downs of the Barton family and those connected with them. They have so little, but are willing to share it to help others. The story has family, secrets, loss, love, friendship, pride, delectable baked goods, and hope. They have hope that the future will be better. We get to see how the war changes people and their character. Women stepped up and assumed roles that had previously been held by men. Thanks to rationing, they had to get creative and inventive. The people from this era were strong and resilient. It was fascinating to learn about how rationing worked in Great Britain. It was very different from what Americans experienced. Readers get to read about their daily struggles. I admit that I had a little trouble getting into the story. Once I got into it, I was hooked. The author did a wonderful job at incorporating the events of the war into the story and I appreciate that she did not just make this a feel-good book. The characters experience loss and have their share of troubles as well as happy moments. Heartaches and Christmas Cakes is a heartwarming story. I am ready to continue their story in Wartime Brides and Wedding Cakes.

A great heartwarming Christmas tale of love and family.

This book really lived up to it’s name. There were lots of Christmas cakes and tons of heartaches.

I enjoyed the backdrop of the bakery. It was fascinating to see how they dealt with the rations. I was also surprised at how important the bakery was during the war. They were given special privileges, such as Charlie being exempt from the war, because they had to feed people.

This was such a heart wrenching story. Pretty much everything that could go wrong to a town during the war happened to these people. A house was bombed, people were lost at war, and even a suicide. All of these things brought tears to my eyes, because they were so realistic. These were real problems that people faced during the war.

This story wasn’t so much about Christmas, though they gathered for Christmas at the end. They couldn’t decorate the town because the lights would have drawn attention to them during the air raids. But they were still able to have a happy Christmas at the end.

This book isn’t something I would typically read because it was so sad, but I enjoyed the writing. This is a good Christmas war story.

This is a fantastic 5 star family saga set during World War, in Bournemouth. Charlie and Audrey are married, they run a bakery. Charlie wants to join up however his job as a baker is a reserved occupation. Audrey longs for a child and keeps herself busy. We meet many of their family and friends in this story as everyone suffers untold hardship and problems. This is the first in a series, I believe, and did end quite suddenly. I look forward to the next one.

Normally I do not really read historical fiction, but I found myself loving this book. Will definitely be checking other books by this author

I really enjoyed this book. Excellent storyline and great main characters. I would recommend this book.

What a wonderful first novel by Amy Miller, i was hooked from the start the story with Audrey and her family was engrossing. Great Read

Autumn 1939 Bournemouth Station England. Audrey Barton ran a bakery with her husband Charlie. Lately, they had made a lot of wedding cakes for the young couples getting married right before the war. She hugged her brother William before he boarded the train. William had a girlfriend Elsie that he wants to marry when he returns from the war.

June 1940- Limited goods were getting into the country and grocery rations were in effect. Charlie was working at the bakery with Audrey. Audrey believes in keeping up morale by running a good bakery with treats to get peoples minds off the war. Mrs. Collingham is a customer who just found out her son George was a POW in Germany. Meanwhile, Audrey’s sister Lily whos a nurse just traveled from London to Bournemouth.

This is the first book in the Wartime Bakery series. Heartaches & Christmas Cakes is truly heartwarming and uplifting story. I look forward to reading more about the Barton family.

A very well written book. This book had a good plot with lots of different emotions., I enjoyed the WWII time frame. I enjoyed the author's writing and will be watching for more of her books.

Set in war-time Bournemouth this story centres round one of the town’s bakery’s, Charlie and Audrey Barton their families and friends. The Barton’s have been town bakers for generations and even war doesn’t stop Charlie and Audrey being inventive to create new ways to provide goods for their customers. Audrey is the rock in the story, the glue that keeps everyone together.
This is how the people back home dealt with not knowing if loved ones serving were even still alive, as weeks turned into months without even a letter from them. The only conciliation was that everyone was the same.  The sons and husbands of Bournemouth lost their lives like everywhere else in the country and mothers and wives supported each other when ever they could, even if it was only extra bread.
What makes the whole story so endearing is that this is the day in day out lives of ordinary people. The guilt of not going to war to fight when the job you do makes you a valuable home commodity. The poor girls caught out with false promises and the heartache of missing family and bows that are away fighting while temptation is waiting at every turn. This isn’t just one story but a web of stories that all come back to the central character Audrey. The lady with a heart of gold.
There are so many lovely characters in this story, one in particular stands out for me though, little Mary, she had so many hardships but the love of Audrey was always there for her. The story of the Bakery and the people connected to the Barton’s is to continue in a series.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC which I have reviewed honestly.

5.0 out of 5 stars
Heartwarming and candid
ByMaggie on October 22, 2017
Format: Kindle Edition
Heartwarming story with its share of heartaches, yes, but overall an uplifting but candid novel based on the 'real' lives of the ordinary people in England during the beginning of WW2. Well written, interesting characters, Ms Miller makes me ready to read the next instalment.. How very lucky we are

Oh my goodness me! What a cracking start to a series! I have no idea whether my review of Amy Miller's, 'Heartaches and Christmas Cakes', will do the book justice but I will certainly try my best.

As a lover of saga's/historical fiction, I just knew that 'Heartaches and Christmas Cakes' would be right up my street. With other books I have read in this genre, the storylines are written from a different angle where the reader gets to hear about the war, is probably involved in one way or another via a family member, and that the tale of the war is told secondhand and distant. Amy Miller's story wasn't like that. Set in the family bakery in the heart of Bournemouth, the storyline showcases a different side to the wartime devastation as the 'main character', Audrey, got stuck into situations when they arose by helping others. Where Audrey went, the reader went.

Despite being set in a bakery the story wasn't all loaves of bread and buns. Not at all. In fact the story was more about having no choice when a love one gets called up to fight in the war. Finding themselves part of a family under a name, yet also a part of a large, communal family when the town needed help. Putting own feelings aside to help the injured in their time of need. Seeing hundreds of evacuated children with frightened eyes, unaware of what would happen to them beyond that point whilst also hoping that a stranger would be kind enough to take them into their home...

Like I said above, everywhere Audrey went, us readers followed. Because of that, the storyline seemed a heck of a lot more raw than if we weren't shadowing the main character, so to speak. Of course I have read about the devastation which both wars left on the world, thanks to history books and so forth. But to then be able to conjure up an image in your mind of the emotional devastation from the fighters point of view, thanks to the authors beautiful story telling, was a lot more emotional than I expected. With factual history books it is harder to find emotion as you're given the facts in black and white. No heartfelt anecdotes or emotional undertones. Just, the facts. Yet with historical fiction books, if based on a certain point in history then the bones of the facts will be there waiting, but it's then up to us readers to turn the authors words into an image we relate to. Amy Miller told the story perfectly, therefore conjuring up images of the wartime was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Incredibly emotional though.

Even though a lot of the book is written from Audrey's viewpoint, the author does switch the chapters to a couple of the other characters viewpoints and, because all of the characters were various ages, I was able to feel a bit of release when I read one of the younger girls chapters due to the theme within that chapter. I thoroughly enjoyed reading 'Heartaches and Christmas Cakes' from different angles as it meant I got to see different sides to the war and how people were affected. Take Audrey for example; she's the mother hen of the book and of the town, having to pay attention to rationing when it came to baking cakes, whilst also looking after younger members of her family, running the bakery and assisting other people in her community. Then on the other hand, Elsie's heart was close to shattering and her own family were subjected to disgusting behaviour from other people.

Two different people, two different views, two different lives, yet joined by the love of one person and the devastation of daily life. Certainly makes you sit and think, doesn't it?

I have to be honest; this book absolutely broke me! The tears just seemed to fall out of my eyes off their own accord. I became incredibly emotional due to a lot of the storyline and it broke my heart to think that that actually happened to people during those times. Our family members no doubt fought in that war. I know my great grandad did! It's easy for me to say now seeing as I didn't have to live through that, but Amy Miller's outstanding portrayal of a heart-breaking time, certainly opened my eyes.

'Heartaches and Christmas Cakes' is an absolutely heartbreakingly beautiful novel about life, love, loss, and learning to find inner strength which you never knew existed. Amy Miller has taken my breath away with her enchanting and spellbinding literary skills.

A truly fantastic, emotional and heart-warming story. I cannot wait to read book two of the series, although based on this story alone, the author has certainly set the bar exceptionally high for herself! If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would. It deserves the entire constellation that's for sure!

'Heartaches and Christmas Cakes' is by far my most favourite saga novel of 2017.

Thanks Bookouture.