You’ve Got Coffee

Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice – Katie Cicatelli-Kuc
Scholastic Press, 2024

You probably already know that most pumpkin spice flavored coffees do not actually contain any pumpkin. The name of the autumnal coffee isn’t particularly dishonest, since “pumpkin spice” refers to a mix of flavorings typically used in pumpkin pie.  In Katie Cicatelli-Kuc’s wonderful new young adult/adult novel, the presumed rivalry between two bakeries develops along with an original recipe for the beverage, one which defies the ordinary, commercial one.  I’m using the word “presumed” because rivalry, with all the nastiness that implies, is a minimal part of this sweet, but not excessively so, story of romance between competitors.

Employees of two establishments producing or selling the same product fall in love.  There have been many examples, in books, theater, and film of this situation, from Jean Meltzer’s Kissing Kosher, to Alexis Castellanos’s Guava and Grudges, (more on that one soon), to the Hallmark holiday movie Hanukkah on Rye. Of course, the most iconic example is Nora Ephron’s You’ve Got Mail, in which the contested store sells children’s books, not pastries. Ephron’s film is based on The Shop Around the Corner, the 1940 classic film directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan.  (Shop is a reimagined version of the Hungarian play, Parfumerie, from 1937, subsequently adapted as the musical She Loves Me in 1963, and revived as recently as 2016. This is not an exhaustive list, just some of my favorites.).

In Pumpkin Spice, Lucy Kane works in her mother, Joanna’s ’s café, Cup o’ Jo, in a quiet New England town.  Then one day, a new business appears, a franchise in the corporate chain, Java Junction; the facile alliteration of their name contrasts with the Cup o’ Jo’s identification with an actual person.  There are contemporary touches in Pumpkin Spice. Lucy’s mother is single by choice, and one of her best friends has two moms.  Instagram influencers play a prominent role, and their silliness is gently exposed without exaggerated parody.  The underlying premise and tone of the novel is timeless.  Teenagers need to decide on their own paths in life.  Mother-daughter relationships can be both close, and affected by conflict.  Love confronts obstacles.

Cicatelli-Kuc respects her audience and avoids melodrama.  The obstacles confronting Lucy Kane, and Jack Harper, the son of Java Junction’s owners, are not of the Romeo and Juliet variety. The Harpers and nice people with no particular culinary background. They own a business, and they have moved with their son from place to place, whenever corporate headquarters demands a new location for their stores.  Java Junction is not Fox Books. Jack’s amiable personality has developed partly as a result of this peripatetic life.  Lucy’s background is remarkably stable by comparison, but she has always felt called upon to support her mother’s shop, solely dependent on one strong and talented owner. At least she has always thought that was her role in the future.

The novel’s pace is compelling, the characters believable, and the ending both satisfying and open-ended.  Young adults will relate to the story, but so will grownups.  Don’t forget that “when you read a book as a child it becomes part of your identity, in a way that no other reading in your whole life does.”