Hamilton sometimes just gets the opposite effect than he wanted, “of course I was coming. You don’t have your car here.” He was obviously p****d, his face tight and his eyes narrow. For some reason, his glare didn’t scare or annoy her. It turned her on." Hamilton is a very proper man, “because you just thanked me in a very proper way for letting you eff my mouth.” There are times Hamliton is not a slow man, he moves at lightning speed, “I don’t have panties on, either.” In less than two seconds, he was right behind her, pushing up the tails of her shirt—well, his shirt, technically—and squeezing her *** with both." I liked this book, I loved Hamliton.

Katie Allen (aka Ruggle) has this trademark humor that always pulls me in. I read Acting Lessons, the first book in her Off Guard series and the feel good vibes continued to book two, Baking Lessons.

Leah’s a baker, and she looks forward to her visit from her rigid landlord, Hamilton, who has one itsby-bitsy weakness. Leah’s cream-filled cupcakes. (The food! Mind out of the gutter, ya’ll ;)) I mean, this was food porn to the nth degree, and I loved it! I also have such a soft spot for the rugged, gentle giant who has this gruff exterior but inside he’s pure marshmallow.

This book was super sweet and sexy. Their chemistry is pretty instantaneous, but Leah’s the one who has to break through Hamilton’s walls by setting these “Hamilton-traps” but when Hamilton’s vault cracks…Perfection!

He’s strong and steady—honestly, structure is his middle name!—there’s also the fact that he’s a virgin hero, ya’ll. (*reviewer combusts*). Add that to the slow burn…just be prepared for a long, agonizing wait. There’s also a stalker situation Leah deals with, and added another depth that didn’t detract from the main romance.

My only complaint was that Hamilton’s back-story is still one big ole mystery at the end. It’s a plot thread that was just left dangling. We learn he has an Army background and suffers from insomnia, but they never go deep into conversation about him or his childhood, and the lack of connection was something I desperately missed.

There’s also a frosting scene that completely threw off the ending. I seriously spent way too much time thinking about how unsanitary and uncomfortable and WTF it all was (I mean, I don't think it would be a good idea), and it dragged out the ending unnecessarily. Not to mention that it didn’t jibe with Hamilton’s sanitary obsession.

I still really enjoyed this book. Delightful humor, taut tension…I’ll be on the lookout for more from this author.

4 Entertaining Stars!

A very nice and enjoyable romance. I really appreciated the style of writing, the plot and the characters.
Strongly recommended.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Carina Press

The pastry chef in me (done that for 12 years) and the romance lover in me are in awe! This was a

sweet read in every way.

Leah is a lovely chatty and fun character, someone I would not mind have as a friend in real life 🙂

She loves her bakery and gets immense satisfaction from feeding people. Her landlord however is uptight and difficult to deal with. She makes it her mission to annoy me him till his eyes twitch. It helps he is obsessed with her sweets.

Hamilton, the landlord in question, is uptight and he knows it. He is rigid and keeps to himself. Leah's messiness unnerves him, heck, her whole being unnerves him! Underneath all that though he has a heart of gold. When Leah needs most he is always there to help her. And when she is threatened by an unwanted admirer, he intervenes.

And with that, Hamilton becomes part of her life and her of his.

These two are adorable together. The friendship and relationship they built in her shop was a treat to my ears! 😉 They complimented each other in every way. He made her a little more careful and responsible and she thought him how to let loose a little.



I didn't know going in this book was part of a series, I guess now I have to go and get the first book!

The only reason for it not being 5 stars for me is that the 'sexy' scenes were not all my kind of thing. There is a scene towards the end with frosting that really was not for me... you will know which one when you get to it. This is a matter of personal preference though, takes nothing away from the amazing story Katie Ruggle (Katie Allen) created.

Didn't realize this was the second in a series, so obviously, you don't have to read them in order. A cute little romance story between baker Leah and her landlord Hamilton. I liked that the story was long so you got to know both of the main characters. All the characters were interesting and well drawn and the plot was good. I could just smell the cupcakes and bread as I was reading. The sex scene in the kitchen was maybe a little strange, but that didn't matter too much over all.

I had a hard time getting into Baking Lessons and ended up not finishing at 30%. There wasn't anything wrong with the book, per-say, as it was well written with good character development. Just wasn't hitting the spot for me.

Very HOT story. Flawless writing. Good characterisation. Loved it.
This ARC was provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review that is all my own.

Adorable! Absolutely adorable. Loved the whole sweet floury mess of our baker heroine and the landlord who thought so, too!

Oh my goodness. Ham and Leah. I wasn't sure if they could top Jamie and Topher, but they were GREAT. Honestly, they might not have topped Jamie and Topher (because I REALLY liked those two), but they held their own.

Ham is uptight and a little appalled by baker Leah's messiness in her bakery kitchen, but utterly adorable all the same. He's also unable to stay away from Leah's baking. Which is a good thing for her because having someone like Ham on her side makes a difference when things go south.

For her part, Leah's inability to let someone walk away without plying them with baked goods (especially when they love her stuffed cupcakes as much as Ham does) puts Ham and Leah on a collision path of sexiness. Once she starts to see him as more than her super hot, rather uptight landlord, she grows to like the socially awkward, often clueless man.

Seriously, these two were adorable together. Ham likes Leah's baking (and the uncompromising rigidness of what she has to do to make her baking creations come to life) and Leah teaches Ham to unwind a little and get a little sloppy. THEY ARE GLITTERY HEARTS AND SWEET THINGS AND YESSSSSS. (although I don't think Ham would appreciate the application of glitter anywhere around his person. LOL)

I'm seriously smitten with both books so far in this series and I can't WAIT to see what book 3 brings.

I love books about love and cooking or baking. This one hit me on all the right buttons.
Leah is as sweet as her baking products. In fact she is exceptionally tender-hearted with surprising opportunities to present her caring side to everyone, which sometimes turns into laugh-filled scenes, even though Leah doesn’t mean for it to. I felt like Leah and I could have been real-life friends, not just a reader and a character on a page. The only problem this causes for Leah and everyone else is she is reluctant to allow a question in her head to affect her heart, meaning she may allow an opportunity to slip by, whether for sex or for love.
Hamilton is Leah’s landlord and he has a surprising amount of shyness and inability to act on his own desires. Leah simply gives him more chances than he deserves, which is what the poor man needs, even to the point that he is confused by her talk and actions. Sometimes this peeved Leah, but often it simply made her laugh. Hamilton comes off as cold although he is anything else but unapproachable. He is unpretentious and waits for Leah to make the first move in a social or sexual situation.
And even when she was irked with Hamilton, she was always kind to him.
Hamilton was adorable. He's so awkward and uncomfortable around people that it takes a while for the reader and Leah to realise that he's not rude or stand-offish. He simply doesn't get social interactions the way normal people do. On the other hand, Hamilton awkwardly tries to explain himself and usually fails.
Hamilton finally gets past his tongue-tied latent teen-aged phase and becomes the hot man Leah needs him to be. Meanwhile, Leah must pretend to be demure more than she actually is, until Hamilton is comfortable with the aggressive side of Leah.
This is a lovely novel that explains how an outgoing person can persuade an extravert that there is an opportunity for the two of them to become a couple. It is part of a series but definitely can be read as a stand-alone story.

Baking Lessons is a fun-filled look at a sweet bakery owner and her frosting-loving landlord as they get to know each other and get creative with buttercream frosting. Ms Allen delivers another laugh inducingly sweet romance with a heaping side of steamy.
After reading Acting Lessons, I was excited to dive into Baking Lessons because of the fun I had with it. I had hoped that Baking Lessons would be just as much fun and it was. There was a moment of such hilarity that I had to put down my Kindle and grab my sides from laughing uncontrollably out loud. Ms Allen did not disappoint with this installment of the series.
I loved Leah. She's so adorable and cute. She's also extremely kindhearted. She saw the good in everyone around her and gave them many, many chances. Even when she was in danger, she made excuses for the person endangering her, not that she was careless about her safety. I loved the way she tried to figure out Hamilton and she tried everything she could to push his buttons. Reading the way she puzzled over him was highly entertaining. And even when she was irked with Hamilton, she was always kind to him.
Hamilton was adorable. He's so awkward and uncomfortable around people that it takes a while for you to realise that he's not rude or stand-offish. He simply doesn't get social interactions the way normal people do. It's what makes him such an interesting character. As much as Leah is trying to figure him out, Hamilton is trying to figure her out to. He doesn't understand why she likes him and why she's nice to him. I loved watching him try to explain himself to Leah and struggle for the words. It made him so endearing.
While this story was sexy and steamy once Hamilton got past his awkwardness, it didn't have any of the strange role playing that happened in Acting Lessons, for which I am exceedingly grateful. I'm also a lot happier with the ending for this story because there was a much more definite declaration of feelings between Leah and Hamilton. It felt a lot more like the kind of happy ending I prefer.
Although this is the second book in the Off Guard series, it can be read as a standalone. There's a brief mention of James from Acting Lessons in the story but it's so brief that it's of no consequence to Leah and Hamilton's overall story although the series whore in me liked hearing about Topher and James again.
I hope there will be other books in this series because I am enjoying these books tremendously.

Baking Lessons by Katie Allen was a very entertaining read. It was easy to get drawn in from the very first page. The reason behind Hamilton's strange behavior was very refreshing and something I have not read in a book before.
I would have liked to get a bit of Hamilton's point of view and there were a few parts that dragged a bit for me.
Baking Lessons is well-written, with a good sprinkle of humor and a sexy, brooding landlord.