Goodreads | Kimberly’s Website

-Synopsis–

For readers of The Calamity Club and The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, this Depression-era historical novel follows a young woman who opens a pie shop in small-town Ohio while building the family she never had.

Lila Young arrives in Lima, Ohio, determined to leave heartbreak behind and create a future of her own. More than a successful pie shop, she longs for something she’s never truly had—a place to belong. As customers gather over coffee and homemade pie, friendships with Agnes and Maggie become the sisters she never had, and quiet, dependable Vern earns her trust one daily bank deposit at a time.

Then Lila discovers that hidden mob money begins flowing through her pie shop without her knowledge. As hidden loyalties surface and the people she loves are forced into impossible choices, she’ll have to decide whether protecting the life she’s built means walking away from those who’ve become her family—or risking everything to fight for them.

A hopeful historical novel about found family, resilience, forgiveness, and second chances, Cutie Pies by the Slice blends small-town charm, the dangers of Prohibition-era crime, and the comfort of a neighborhood pie shop into a story that celebrates the families we build when life doesn’t go as planned.

-Review–

I would like to begin by thanking Kimberly Nixon, Wings and Roots Press and NetGalley for allowing me access to this ARC in exchange for my honest opinions. I would also like to thank Lydia Jacobson from PR By The Book for personally reaching out to me regarding this book as well. Thank you all!

*Trigger Warning: because the mob has such a steady presence there are stories of violence occurring as well as one scene showcasing actual gun violence and death featuring blood, some domestic violence but nothing too graphic.*

Cutie Pies By The Slice follows the main perspective of Lila Young as she struggles to grasp a strong hold of her life after the death of her mother. Having been estranged from the remainder of her family and feeling unworthy of love, she comes to terms with the fact she will remain flying solo through life. Unbeknownst to her, the love and connections she craves, is much closer than she realizes.

This is a great story of found family, redemption, forgiveness and one woman’s journey of finding her home within the melancholic setting of lawless prohibition within the Great Depression.

As mentioned previously, this book is mainly written through the eyes of Lila herself. However, there are specific chapters throughout that showcase different perspectives. These perspectives add some much needed background information regarding certain aspects that effect Lila personally. While I was caught off guard with the sudden changes, I appreciated the dramatic irony. Without them, certain plot lines would not have meshed so well, akin to skipping crucial episodes within my favorite TV show.

Another aspect that I was a bit caught off guard by was the pacing. This book is incredibly fast paced, in that about 4 years passes within the 300 or so pages. While this allowed the readers to get a good grasp of how much progress Lila was in fact making in her life, I did wish the whole pie shop plotline would have begun a bit sooner and had a bit more time to focus on her baking and growing the business. The quick pace also made it a bit more difficult for me to connect with the majority of the characters as it felt like they were here one moment, gone the next. The pacing is the main reason for the four-star rating.

My favorite quality of Kimberly’s writing in this book is her immersion. As mentioned, this book is set within the late 1920’s – early 1930’s. This was a very tumultuous time in the United States, made apparent with various mobs gaining control while many families were hardly scraping by. Many business owners and innocent people were being strongarmed into salacious activities, just to pay back debts and feed their families. These harrowing choices and consequences are made perfectly apparent within the pages of this book.

Jumping from various cities within the mid-west, we get a good picture of how different classes at this point were dealing with the economic crisis. You had the lower class who were forced to work seemingly endless hours sometimes within dangerous working conditions just to put food on the table. On the flip side, you had the upper class business men and their families who were seemingly hardly effected by the crisis. I enjoyed this parallel since most other Great Depression historical fictions I have read, almost exclusively showcase one of these viewpoints.

The women’s fiction genre I also thought was handled very well by Kimberly. There is not just one overall feminist viewpoint which I very much appreciated. There were women who were more than willing to settle down as modest housewives and raise their children. While there were others who focused on marrying wealthy in order to take advantage of the social perks that came with such a role. There were also differing opinions about working women as far as what jobs were appropriate for them and what happens when someone pushed those boundaries.

The relationships between the women of this book could each have had their own individual stories, which was incredibly beautiful.

Lila Young was such an inspirational main character within the story. As mentioned, she starts out having just lost her mother and having inconsistent communication with her brother. Fortunately her brother does come through for her, helping her get a job in Lima. Knowing that she can’t just continue to rely on him indefinitely, she finds her own place to live and remains mostly independent for the entirety of the book. When the economy tanks, she struggles with feelings of hopelessness with destitution being an ever looming threat.

Amongst the threat of financial ruin, Lila is also dealing with the reality that all her closest friends are getting married and moving away. She has dreams of having her own family someday but she struggles even imagining this eventually coming to fruition. Regardless of all the negative thoughts and grief she is feeling, she continues to press forward until eventually opening up her own pie shop in Lima.

The baking in this story was one of my favorite little gifts of this book. I myself enjoy the past time, even though I have yet to master the elusive pie making. The fact Lila used baking as a continued connection to her mother was very sweet and personal. I thoroughly enjoyed the different pie flavors she would put out each day and really getting to experience the townspeople falling in love with her and her pies. I could feel the passion and love flowing through the kitchen as well as smelling those amazing scents wafting through the chilly air.

There are some romance plots in this book but it mainly takes a backseat. The majority of the time, the love is experienced by side characters giving more of an outside looking in perspective. Where Lila is concerned, the romance felt fleeting in a way due to some unfortunate circumstances that befall her but nevertheless, the book ends on a high note I would say.

All in all, I was thoroughly impressed with Kimberly Nixon and her Cutie Pies by the Slice. I would highly recommend this book to any and all who enjoy American historical fictions. Specifically those that showcase a dark period in our history while allowing glimpses of the more beautiful stories and lives that still marched forward.

Once again, I would like to thank Kimberly Nixon, Roots and Wings Press, NetGalley, and PR by the Book for bringing Cutie Pies by the Slice to my attention and allowing me access to this ARC. All in exchange for my honest review and opinions. Thank yall so much!

-About the Author–

Award-winning author (2024 International Firebird Award for Fiction and 2024 Runner-UP Category fiction in the BookShelf Award) Kimberly Nixon is passionate about family stories. Her mother passed on a plethora of family tales, featuring strong, determined—and sometimes wild—characters. Kimberly wrestles these personalities into strong female characters in her works of fiction. She is a member of the Women’s Fiction Writing Association, several writer’s groups, and the Writer’s League of Texas. Kimberly lives in Austin, Texas with her husband Paul and prescribes to the motto ‘Live a Great Story,’ seeking adventures whenever she can. Her upcoming release Cutie Pies by the Slice is a historical fiction novel inspired by her mother’s best friend in a mob-filled city in northwest Ohio in the 1930s.