Lee5605
Downtown Bakery is a tender, bittersweet coming-of-age story about dreams that rise like warm bread-and the heartbreak that can make them fall.
Lina Howard is seventeen, almost eighteen, when she walks into her new public high school determined to start over. Homeschooled for most of her life, Lina is quiet, observant, and artistic, happiest when her hands are dusted with flour or stained with paint. Raised in London by her gentle, hardworking parents-James, a former film producer turned workshop craftsman, and Eve, a warm-hearted baker-Lina has grown up dreaming of a life shaped by warmth and simplicity. One day, she hopes to own a small bakery in Paris, where cinnamon and sugar scent the air and dreams feel possible. At first, school surprises her. She makes a best friend in Abby, a bright, red-haired girl from Ireland with a voice meant for stages. Lina begins to believe this new chapter might finally be kind to her-until she meets Alex. Alex is everything Lina isn't: loud, popular, reckless, and cruel in the careless way boys often are when they don't yet understand consequences. As captain of the football team and the school's favorite troublemaker, Alex singles Lina out, teasing her relentlessly and mocking her love for baking by calling her "Pancake Girl." Lina tries to ignore him, but when she finally snaps, their clash lands them both in after-school detention-marking the beginning of a connection neither of them expects.
Things grow more complicated when Lina befriends Isabella, a sharp-tongued, beautiful cheerleader who seems both intimidating and strangely welcoming. The three of them become tangled in a fragile triangle of friendship, jealousy, and unspoken longing. Lina finds herself falling for Alex slowly, painfully-just as she realizes he belongs to someone else. What begins as stolen glances and quiet moments turns into a secret that changes everything.