PHOENIX — Rachel Linden’s first book was titled “Beans!”—the exclamation point made it more exciting, according to 6-year-old Linden—because beans were her favorite vegetable. She bound the story in Cheerio boxes, and to this day, her mom still has her “original manuscript.”
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“That was my first book, but I have always been a storyteller, and I’ve always been writing stories,” Linden said. “I had written several books before I decided, you know, I really think I want to try to do this as a career.”
And so far, Linden has had quite the career: She’s the author of eight books, including her latest, A Sprinkle of Sweet Serendipity, hitting shelves May 19.
The book follows Paris-trained chocolatier and single mother Emmie Wynne. Emmie gave up on her dream years ago when she returned to her Pacific Northwest tourist hometown to help run her family’s candy store during a time of trouble. On her 34th birthday, Emmie has just one request: To be given the vision that every Wynne woman is given once in their life, a glance into her future.
What she sees is delicious, to say the least: Her own artisanal chocolate shop and her hunky celebrity crush down on one knee! When said celebrity crush suddenly comes to town with a delectable offer, Emmie’s glimpse seems more like a reality than ever before.
Now, Emmie has to decide: Does she take the dream being offered to her? Or does she stay in her life, where she’s reconnecting with her former high school baker turned brooding tattooed baker, and see what the pair can mix up together?
A Sprinkle of Sweet Serendipity is Linden’s first romance, she explained to 12News in an interview. Her previous titles have been referred to as “magical realism book club fiction” (try to say that five times fast). To Linden, the difference between the two is clear: Is the romance the primary plot, or a secondary thread in the story?
Whether women’s fiction or romance, both genres have what Linden loves most about writing: stories that are life-affirming and have a happy ending.
“At the end of the day, it’s about human connection helping to heal us and helping to make us our best selves,” Linden said. “And I love that.”
Her books also almost always have a dash of the magical in them, something that Linden says brings a “little bit of questioning and wondering to the everyday.”
“I got asked in an interview once, they were like, so how do you use magical realism? And I was like, ‘I have no idea. How do I use it?’ And I gave some not great answer,” Linden said with a laugh. “And then I got off the call, and I was like, ‘How do I use it?’ And I thought, oh, and I looked back through all the stories, and I was like, oh, I use it as a vehicle for personal growth for the character.”
In A Sprinkle of Sweet Serendipity, Emmie is part of “the sandwich generation,” Linden said. She is tasked with taking care of her mother, whose health is failing, and she is raising her six-year-old son, all while also running their family business.
It’s an experience Linden can relate to. She is also taking care of elderly relatives, raising her own kids, and holding down a job, just like Emmie.
“Everywhere I look, I see women who are just asking the questions: ‘OK, in the midst of all these responsibilities where so many people depend on me and I’m caregiving for so many people, who am I and what do I have? What’s left of me and what’s left for me in the world, more than just the roles that I take on for others?’” Linden said.
When writing an essay on being part of the Sandwich Generation herself, Linden stumbled across the statistic that approximately 23% of American adults identify as being part of the Sandwich Generation.
“That’s a tremendously high number,” Linden said.
Linden said she knows people have been “sandwiching” for generations—her own parents did it—but having a term allows people to explore how both draining and beautiful it is to be the caregiver to those we love most.
“The goal for this one is that people who find themselves in this hard situation begin to ask themselves, ‘How can I allow myself to have a voice in my own life?’” Linden said.
And while Emmie, being a Sandwich Generation caregiver, is similar to Linden, Emmie’s training as a chocolatier is not something she shares with the author!
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“I love this kind of research because it’s literally just reading articles and watching videos of people like ‘A Day in the Life of Me in My Paris Chocolate Boutique,’ and then you just watch someone make chocolate,” Linden said. “I watched a chocolate competition—it’s just very interesting because I love chocolate, it’s very interesting to see what goes into it.”
In addition to the sweet chocolate and treats in the book, readers are also “treated” to everyone’s favorite love-it-or-hate-it trope: The love triangle.
“I didn’t know it was controversial until people started reviewing this and being like, ‘I usually hate love triangles, but this one was really sweet,’” Linden said with a laugh.
Emmie has two men vying for her heart: Her celebrity crush, Henry Summers, or her former high school boyfriend, Jakob, who has grown up since she went away to Paris and is now a hunky, tattooed baker.
But the love triangle represents something bigger than simply who Emmie ends up with: It also follows the main plot line, whether or not Emmie’s dream is still the one she’s had in her head for all of these years.
“Romance is about anticipation, not surprise, and so, it’s not like there’s an enormous question, I think, about who she’s going to end up with,” Linden said. “…Because the whole process is her deciding not to take the life that’s been ascribed to her, but to forge her own path to become the captain of her own ship again, in her love life, in her career, in her relationships, in her community, all of it.”
It’s this sentiment that Linden says she hopes readers take away from A Sprinkle of Sweet Serendipity.
“I hope that readers take away the message that no matter what circumstances they find themselves in, what responsibilities they have, what roles they are needing to play at whatever stage of life they’re in, that there is still joy to be found in their own journey,” Linden said. “And that they get to be the captain of their own ships in pursuing the things that really bring them joy and purpose in life.”
A Sprinkle of Sweet Serendipity hits shelves May 19 and can be found wherever books are sold.
To keep up with all of Linden’s work—and to keep an eye out for the romance Linden already has in the works—follow her online, on social media or visit her website.
For more book and literacy stories, check out “Reading Arizona” on YouTube and 12News.com. If you have a story pitch for Reading Arizona, email [email protected] or reach out via Instagram, @thatjournalistwhoreads.
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