I make desserts professionally, and have a multitude of dessert cookbooks. Out of more than 25 books I already own that focus on desserts, this one is the best for helping bakers of all levels of experience to create beautiful, specialty desserts. If you're looking for directions for a Cool-Whip based pie, or detailed explanations of baking chemistry, this book doesn't have that. What it does have is more than 100 recipes that will look and taste as though they came from a specialty bakery. The directions for each recipe are very, very straightforward, and even novice bakers will know what to do. At the same time, the recipes are brief enough not to annoy the already-experienced baker, and for professionals or semi-professionals, you will love that almost all of the ingredient lists include cup measurements, but also *weight* measurements, for those who prefer to scale amounts. There is a beautiful photograph accompanying every recipe, and I appreciate that the pictures show some of the desserts with a piece missing, so you can see what the layers of a cake will look like inside, how runny (or not) a fruit dessert might be, etc. Most of the recipes include ingredients I already have in my pantry, and even though I live in a very rural area and have a terribly stocked local grocery, all of the ingredients have been readily available at the store. No obscure ingredients--nice!With many dessert cookbooks, I leaf through and add a tiny Post-It Note on recipes I'd like to sample. With this book, it would be easier if I had just flagged the ones to skip! Seriously, there are that many I'd like to try. So far I have made the Warm Pear Cake with Walnut Caramel Topping (yum), the Pecan Caramel Cheesecake (no-bake filling, and double-yum!), and the Honey Nectarine Cheesecake (sorry, but this one we didn't like at all). Though we've loved most of the recipes tried so far, by far the best is the Coconut Cheesecake (baked filling). It is to die for, though like all recipes, I made a few changes after trying it the first time. Changes I made: Add 1/2 teaspoon coconut flavoring to the filling, for a tiny extra punch of flavor, add 1 tablespoon extra cream to the bittersweet chocolate glaze on the top, so it's not quite so firm, and bake in a 10" springform pan rather than a 9", because this is one beautifully tall cheesecake! It was great as written, but the changes made it suit my needs completely.If you need a dessert that will make guests say, "WOW!", this is the book you need. I would have gladly paid ten times more for this book, and if something happened to it, I'd buy another copy right away. Have fun!