Eventown by Corey Ann Haydu

"I have to wait again, before putting the frosting on.  The waiting is hard.  I want everything to be delicious all at once.  I want to skip over the hard parts, the boring parts, the lonely and sad and angry parts. 
But if I do that, the cake won't be good.  It won't be right.
So I wait.  Even though it's uncomfortable and too hot in the kitchen.  Even though I don't feel like waiting for the good part."  p. 324

"'Lawrence would have loved this,' Naomi says. 
It's a sad sentence; a sentence that makes us miss him a little bit more.
But like the cake, the missing is a little sweet, too, a little wonderful, a little sad, a little messy and crooked and delicate and strange."  p. 325-326

"No one's smiling right now, listening to a sad story about losing a job, but we're all together.  It doesn't look sunny and beautiful and perfect.  It's so much better than that...
Love, in the way we take care of each other when we're hurting.
Love, in a town covered in vines and thorns and roses and color.
Love, strongest in the worst, scariest, most painful moments.
Love, even better when the sky is gray and your heart is breaking."  p. 309