Sasha, I think we can be friends – The Scandalous Life of Sasha Torte by Lesley Truffle – Book Review for NetGalley

 The Scandalous Life of Sasha Torte

Revenge, redemption … and pastry. The witty new novel from the author of Hotel du Barry, for fans of Jonas Jonasson.

In the winter of 1912 on the wild West Coast of Tasmania, Wolfftown’s most notorious heiress and murderess, Sasha Torte, tells the tale of her own spectacular downfall.

Forsaken by her parents and raised by criminals and reprobates, Sasha becomes a world-famous pastry chef at the tender age of seventeen. Entanglement with the disreputable Dasher brothers leads to love, but also to a dangerous addiction.

Behind bars in Wolfftown’s gaol, Sasha sips premium champagne as she recalls a life of seduction, betrayal, ghosts, opium and an indiscreet quantity of confectionary – and plots her escape.

The Scandalous Life of Sasha Torte: revenge, redemption and pastry, is a novel of dastardly deeds, intrepid protagonists, dark villains, wild gangs, luxurious hotels … and murder.

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Sasha likes hard centre, I love soft centre… we can be friends. And I am talking chocolates, what did you think?

I am not off my head with champagne and devilishly delicious pastries and gateaux or am I?

If you are looking for a yummy fairy tale for power girls (women), look no further. Sasha Torte’s memoirs is the book for you.

Your head will spin from all the colourful Tasmanian history (when I say colourful, I do not mean just colours of the foliage), kaleidoscope of fashion, jewellery, desserts, lovers, trysts, intrigue and vigilante heroics.

This book is an amazing concoction that could have taken place only in this very young country of ours. Anything could have happen in Tasmania in the early 20th century and anything and everything did. Tasmanian tigers walked on estates, drunks quoted Shakespeare, whores dubbed in magic and gentry walked the tightrope (literary and figuratively).

I absolutely love Sasha Torte. I am as in love with her as I am in love with dark chocolate (that’s a lot). She is an amazing character. Even when she is on drugs she is adorable. Sasha is lovable through all her bipolar episodes. She is a very strong, determinate and… through everything that happens to her, she is very content with everything that happens to her and around her.

This book is truly a fairy tale for grown up strong women of this world. It’s a nice escape and a revelation. It’s a gift and a surprise on every page.

I absolutely loved the book, pastries and ghosts and all.