Shake it Off (Wish #8)

Nelson, Suzanne. Shake it Off (Wish #8)
July 30th 2019 by Scholastic Inc.
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central

Bria has made some poor choices concerning friends and social media back home in Chicago, so her parents have decided to pack her off to spend the summer helping out on her aunt's farm in Iowa with her cousins. Since Bria doesn't find farm life as interesting as fashion, and doesn't get along terribly well with Wren, she has a rough start. She doesn't want to muck out stalls or even help in the dairy's diner, and is so unhelpful that her aunt finally tells her to go back to the house and stay out of the way. This is great for a couple of days, but Bria eventually becomes bored and feels guilty that she is not helping out when the rest of the family is working so hard. She also wants to spend more time with Gabe, whose family owns a nearby farm. Bria does make an effort at the diner, and creates a spectacular milk shake similar to those available at her favorite shop in the city, but the locals want to stick to plain vanilla. Undeterred, Bria eventually brings her cousins and aunts around to the idea of the fancy shakes. Will they be enough to keep her aunt and uncle from selling off the farm?

Farm life is difficult; my mother's family had a dairy farm that did home deliveries and at its height sold ice cream, cottage cheese and oddly, juice jugs. It's good to see a book that portrays the love of farm life many people feel but balances it with the realities or modern economics.

The Wish books are hugely popular in my library, in part because of the great convergence of food and romance. There are recipes for some of Bria's shakes at the back, as well as tips on how to construct them. I've never seen these in a restaurant, but they are intriguing, even if the one of the cover probably contains enough calories for me for an entire week! Hand this titles to readers who enjoyed Atwood's Ice Cream Summer, Simon's Sprinkle Sundaes series, Lisa Schroeder's It's Raining Cupcakes or other books where the main characters have business interests that revolve around food!