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Everything seems to be going perfectly for Maya Davis – she’s got a good job at a coffee shop, loving parents and is happily single. At least until her best friend unknowingly starts dating Maya’s high school sweetheart, her annoyingly perfect brother moves back to town and her coworker starts showing interest in her. Apparently God’s will for her is to spend her days commiserating over ice cream – or does He have more to teach her?

My sister was sweet enough to let me take this book with me to Texas, as I was in serious need of some light reading for the plane ride. I managed to read most of it before getting too sick to read during that flight. It even had me craving a Starbucks mocha frappe – and yes, said craving was fulfilled during our trip. Hurrah for a Starbucks at the BMX!

My thoughts on the book?

Cool Beans is: predictable and implausable. Still, in a funny way, I couldn’t help but finish reading it. Maybe it’s because I’m such a fan of Miss Match. Maybe it’s because I found myself identifying with Maya just a little bit – I know what it’s like to play the comparision game with siblings in your head, definitely.

Miss Match remains the better of Erynn Mangum’s works. It feels much more original and the plot (as hilarious as it might sound!) less contrived. Cool Beans is entirely too similar to the Miss Match series. Let’s see; we have a main character who is prone to being dramatic, likes to quote lots of movies, adores chocolate and coffee, has a best guy friend who goes way back with her, indulges in chocolate and chick flicks when depressed…sounds a bit like Lauren Holbrook, huh? The plots are slightly different – the main characters have different lessons to learn from God, after all – but the main characters and some of the supporting ones feel very much the same.

Nevertheless, it proved to distracting enough for a turbulant plane ride. I give it a 3 out of 5 stars.