This is the first book I've read by Lara and I quite liked it. The great part about mixed author series is that you discover many brilliant new writers. For me, this book was like wrapping myself up in a blanket of soft clouds.

That is the only way I can express the way Wes and Noelle fall in love. There's nothing rushed or hurried about their feelings. More like they allowed themselves to let the love just flow over them and then they open their eyes and realize they love each other. Yup this may sound whimsy or sappy but that's exactly how I felt it happen.

ARC provided by the the publisher via NetGalley for voluntary review consideration.

Wes and Noelle are the 5th and last book in the Bachelor bake-off series. I really liked this one, and this series is a fun one. Each of the books is written by a different author, and yet they all blend well together. Noelle had been a ballet dancer, but after the car accident where she lost her parents she also was injured and can no longer dance. Teaching dance though, is a way to still be in the arts, and she enjoys it. Wes is the bachelor who she helps teach how to bake cookies, pies and cakes. Naturally they fall in love, and the pathway there has a few bumps, but of course there is a HEA. Still fun, and light reading. Highly recommend this book and series.

Despite the interesting premise, this book was a little dull and I had a hard time keeping my interest in the story. Book 1 is by far the best of the series so far.

A book that features finding love in unexpected places, the characters are likeable enough, but not very realistic. It was cute, but nothing special.

This book follows a very commonly used theme. Billionaire falls for damsel in distress and becomes her hero. While I didn’t dislike this story, I didn’t especially like it either. Nothing in it to make it memorable or make me want to go back for the others. This is a quick, clean, slow growing romance.

Noelle and her sister Holly move to Marietta, Montana for a fresh start. Noelle was in an accident that broke her leg and caused muscle and tissue damage that ended her ballet career. That same accident took the lives of their parents. Noelle opens a dance studio where Wes’ niece is a student.

Wes St. Claire runs the family business in New York. The St. Claire family is very wealthy and owns homes all around the world. This little town in Montana seems an odd place for such a wealthy family to own a home.

In an effort to get his son drawn into small town living, Daddy St. Claire volunteers Wes for a bachelor bake off auction. And, through his niece, the ballet teacher becomes his baking instructor. Wes is only in town short term and Noelle is there for the long haul.

I was drawn more to Wes’ brother, Mike, and his daughter, Annalise, than to the main two characters. I’d like to see Mike’s story.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC provided by NetGalley.

In A Recipe for Romance, we find Wes, a very successful business man who is visiting his father, and Noelle, a former professional dancer who, due to an injury, moved and started a dance studio. Wes is only there to visit and plans on helping his day with a business transaction and going back to his life in New York. Until he meets Noelle. Having never been in love, because he closes himself off and is highly focused on work, he doesn't realize that he loves her until he makes a mistake that just might be the end of the relationship.
Noelle is perfectly happy with her sister and her career, so when she gets volunteered to help Wes, whom she is extremely attracted to, learn how to bake for a bachelor bake-off auction, she is hesitant. Not being able to say no to Wes' niece, who is also one of her students, she agrees to help Wes. While teaching him how to bake, her feelings grow into wanting to be more than friends, but she tries to push them back because she believes he is only there for the auction and then going back home.
This was a very sweet book and I really rooted for the characters to be together, but there were times that I wanted to smack them both. I felt she was to hard on him when he told her about the business deal he was helping his dad with. I also felt that he was wrong not to tell her sooner, but understood that he wanted to know as much as he could before talking to her.
Overall, I really liked this book, I just wish that his brother Mike, her sister Holly and Frachesca will get stories. I don't think it will happen, because this is the last book in the series, but maybe Ms. Van Hulzen can develop a new series so these side characters (who I personally fell hard for) will get their happy endings as well.
I received an ARC, via NetGalley and I willingly wrote a review.

a sweet read

a continuing series with a Bake off charity event as the main thrust. This time a fella who can't bake and a dancer who is back in Marietta to open her own dance studio. She gets tricked into helping him bake and the both end up with each other.

A Recipe for Romance is the fifth delightfully sweet book in The Bachelor Bake-Off series written by author Lara Van Hulzen. Thanks to NetGalley and Tule Publishing for the advance copy.

Rating: 4/5

Overview:

This series, set in Marietta, Montana concerns the participants in the Bachelor Bake-Off which is being organised to help finance ‘Harry’s House’, a house where it is planned children can go, take part in activities, learn key life skills and be helped with their studies. A safe place for them all being created in memory of Harry Monroe, a first responder who was tragically killed whilst endeavouring to help an elderly couple. Each story in the series has one of the bachelor’s participating in the bake-off as the focus.

My Review:

This is the fifth novel and, sadly, the last book in this series and this time the main characters are wealthy businessman, Wesley St Clare, and ex-ballerina now dance teacher Noelle. Wes is visiting his father, brother and niece in Marietta, only intending to stay for a little while before returning to his home and work in New York. He initially can’t understand why the other three have settled in the small community but does admit that all seem much better and very settled there. Wes can’t help remembering how his mother suffered and eventually died in the small town and those memories detract the location from his point of view. However, his father seems to be playing quite an active role in the community and both his brother and niece seem happier there, too. One night he goes out to the local saloon for a drink and that’s where he sees Noelle for the first time. After a deliberately clumsy encounter he introduces himself and gets her to dance with him. The attraction is starting but a phone call tears him away and he doesn’t even know her name . . . but his father enters him in the Bachelor Bake-Off and his niece volunteers her dance teacher - Noelle - to help him! Another great recipe for romance ☺

This is a warming story of love after tragedy. For me, the heroine of the story is Annalise, a delightful young matchmaker and I really hope someone will write a romance for her father, Mike - maybe with Annalise as the matchmaker in that one, too! I’d really like them to have their own happily ever after, too. This time there seems to be less connection to the community in Marietta as both main characters are relatively new arrivals in the town and the villain of the story is also someone from out of town. The plot has plenty of twists and turns as they are chauffeured around and even jet off to New York for a surprise trip - by private jet, of course. It is a very different story in the series but still thoroughly enjoyable and can easily be read as a standalone or in conjunction with other stories in the series. There are surprises, misunderstandings, a couple of shows, a man with plans and much more in this story, a great set of ingredients creating a books to escape into!

Many thanks to the publishers for gifting me a copy of this novel, via NetGalley, with no obligation. This is my honest review.

what a great addition to this series. truly enjoyed this and did not want it to end. everything about it meshed so well.

Meet Wesley St. Clare, the fifth - and most loaded - bachelor got shanghaied into taking part in Bake-Off competition. His tutor is Noelle Olsen, a former ballet dancer who opened dance studio in town after a tragic accident ended her dancing career. What's a dancer got to do with teaching how to bake? An adorable five year old student of her, that's what.

This fifth entry to the story is quite a sweet, sedate-paced one; the highlight for me actually was five year-old Annalise and her father (and Wes's brother) Mike. Yep, totally missed the focus there. I just thought Wes and Noelle's story too down pat billionaire and damsel-in-distress. Now Mike... The pain of what he and his daughter's going through had a whole lot of potential to a gripping story!

But let's talk about Noelle and her prince charming; he who lived in a mansion, went everywhere in driven town car or flew in the family private jet. See, their story was sweet, true. Albeit lukewarm. Wes was the perfect gentleman; even his way of dealing with painful memories of his late mother was civilised. Same went for Noelle with her own tragedy. Although their mutual attraction was instant, the romance was muted; almost like an aside.

No, I don't mean to imply the story as boring, because it's not. At least I don't feel an aggressive dislike to both characters! Although frankly, A Recipe for Romance lack some sort of oomph that made it more memorable than the previous Bake-Off stories. And - perhaps due to the character's newness or temporary living in the Marietta - I didn't feel the small town inclusiveness as I did on previous books. Heck, other than Harry Monroe there's not much mention of people involved in the Bake-Off itself! The upside of that is: this book could be read as a standalone. All in all, A Recipe for Romance is a nice introduction to Lara Van Hulzen's books for me.


Advanced copy of this book is kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The fifth and last book in the Bachelor Bake-Off series set in Marietta, Montana has tied up the series perfectly. Not only is the chemistry between Wes and Noelle off the charts, but their relationship and all the players and pieces involved affected the town and served to benefit all its members.

Wes and Noelle had a unique sweetness to their chemistry in that each was so unsure of the other, making they both played it safe. In doing so they created a dynamic that drove the story from beginning to end. I truly enjoyed their coming together for a HEA.

I've read other books by Ms Van Hulzen, enjoying each one...this one can be added to the pile of those of hers I'd read again for the pure pleasure of it.

This book was provided by the Publisher and Netgalley, I am voluntarily providing my honest review.