When an architect and a baker team up to create a life-size gingerbread house, love happens in this sweet and heartwarming book based on the Hallmark movie, A Gingerbread Romance. I enjoyed this book very much and look forward to reading more stories by Lacey Baker.

Hallmark and NetGalley provided an ARC of A Gingerbread Romance, but I was under no obligation to comment on the book, and this review reflects my honest opinion.

Architect, Taylor Scott has teamed up with a baker and single dad, Adam Dale for a giant gingerbread house competition. At first, they don't see eye to eye on anything but the more time they spend together, the more they find themselves enjoying each other's company and learning new things about themselves. This is a sweet, lighthearted Christmas romance. It has all the wonderful things I look for in a Hallmark Christmas movie. Likable characters, family relationships, a heartwarming romance, and a festive holiday atmosphere. This book is based on a Hallmark movie and I am really excited to see it! Overall, I recommend this book to anyone looking for a feel-good romance. Thank you to Hallmark Publishing for this ARC. The opinions expressed are my own.

If one is in search of a cheesy holiday romance, this book covers it pretty much. I liked the slowburning romance in A Gingerbread Romance, but it was still a predictable read. A pet peeve of mine was Taylor's need to be right and in control, especially considering she admits she's clueless about baking. On a positive note, I liked the theme of the importance of family and having something that feels like a "home".

Definitely a 3.5 star book. I am a lover of all things Christmas, including Hallmark, so I knew I couldn't say no to more Hallmark books. The story of this one was really sweet and a lovely read. I had a few areas that held me back when reading it; however, overall it was still wonderful.

First, I think there were some details that didn't carry over into the book as well as the movie has. I didn't realize until about 60-70% the race of the characters. I would have loved to have known that earlier on in the book.

Second, and this plays into a pet peeve of mine... I really disliked Taylors need to be right and in control, especially in the context of baking which she had already said she had no experience in. It was a plot point used later to change the design as she came more into the feeling of Christmas and family again though.

Overall, I really enjoyed the story even if a few things didn't feel believable to me. On screen I can see how it would translate better though. I really enjoyed reading it and even read a few bits aloud to my son while he was falling asleep.

This book has made me want to begin all my Christmas baking! It’s all about gingerbread and the sweet things that go along with Christmas. (There’s even a gingerbread recipe at the end of the book that looks delicious.) But what I loved most of all about this book was the theme of home, family, and discovering the most important things in life. I liked the characters of Adam and Taylor and enjoyed watching their relationship grow as they built the gingerbread house. Brooke, the little girl, was adorable and added a child’s view of Christmas to this story.
As always, Hallmark takes us right to “the heart of Christmas”. I enjoyed reading this book.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

The story of Adam, a baker who is stuck doing basic cookies and donuts and Taylor, an architect longing for home. These two team up to create a life-sized gingerbread house for a city competition. Through the process they find more than the right recipe for gingerbread.
This story was very sweet and realistic. I enjoyed how the plot and pace were both realistic and it would make a great introduction to the Christmas season. I loved hearing of all the Christmas traditions and should have made a list of them all for myself.
The characters were interesting, and while there was a lot of internal dialogue, there was also a lot of growth and self-learning.
If you enjoy the traditions of Christmas this would be a great read for you.
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

n my opinion, no company does a Christmas story better than Hallmark. And this story is no exception.

Based on the Hallmark Original Movie, A Gingerbread Romance is the story of Taylor Scott, an architect working her way up the in the firm for which she works. Taylor has never lived in one city very long, being the daughter of two parents who relocated frequently for their jobs. She remembers the desire she had as a child to have one place to call home - something she has forgotten about as an aspiring architect. She is challenged by her firm to make a life-sized gingerbread house together with a baker in a local contest. When her originally appointed partner chooses to join another team, Taylor joins forces with a local baker, Adam, who she meets when he delivers a Christmas tree cake to Taylor’s office. Adam is a widower who had to put his dreams of culinary school on hold after the sudden death of his wife in order to support himself and his young daughter Brooke.

While it was not love at first sight, the partners begin to work well together. Adam and Brooke show Taylor what it is like to have a traditional Christmas and she starts to see a different life for herself.

I really enjoyed the book despite the fact I had watched the Hallmark movie last year. The central theme of family and traditions have great importance to me personally. I loved the graphics of the gingerbread house at the beginning of each chapter and feel it added to the coziness of the book. I highly recommend this book to those who want to read a sweet, Christmas story. I rate this book 4.5/5 stars (rounded up to 5 stars).

Thank you to Netgalley and Hallmark Publishing for the ARC of this book in exchange for the honest review that I have provided here.

Hallmark really love it I'd coarse I watch every Hallmark movie even the mysterious! Having the books to read now is that much more exciting. Now it seems the books are coming out before the movies. Which gets me more excited.

I read and savored this heart-warming holiday story on a hot summer’s day in August. Yet, as I unpacked this gift of a book, I was swept away to mid-December, thanks to the vivid descriptions. I could see the sparkling lights on the tree, smell the spicy gingerbread baking, taste the peppermint bark, hear the Christmas carols, explore the Christmas Market, sense the feelings of love and family…all the wonderful moments of the Christmas season came alive for me.

Taylor is a successful up-and-coming young architect, always traveling to an exciting new project. New places are all she’s ever known. Her parents did the same thing, traveling the world with their own high-powered careers. Yes, Taylor knew her parents were loving and supportive, yet she always longed for a settled home life, and especially a home for Christmas.

When Taylor returns to her modern townhome in Philadelphia a few weeks before Christmas, she plans to work hard and achieve the next goal on her upward career path. However, when she receives a surprise assignment, her world of budgets, and timelines collides with the sweet smell of gingerbread, and a handsome young baker with an adorable daughter. Adam leads with his heart, he gives his all to his baking and his family. He believes you can’t plan everything and there’s always time for fun. He is the exact opposite of Taylor or is he?

This book is based on the Hallmark Channel Original Movie. I’m glad Hallmark featured diversity. This story succeeds as a movie or a book and will have you sensing all the joy of the holiday season. A recipe for Gingerbread cake with lemon butter sauce is included-yum!

Thanks to NetGalley and Hallmark Publishing for a digital review copy. This is my honest review.

3.5 Stars

This is cheesy and adorable. It’s exactly what it says on the tin: a novelization of a Hallmark Christmas movie. No sex, minimal kissing, and lots of baking. Really enjoyed the Philadelphia setting + Black MCs + meddling coworkers + idea that you can be happy in a big city (so many of these Christmas hallmark movies are about small towns). As a person who lives in Philly, I liked the concept of a gingerbread contest in Christmas Village. Abrupt ending (I wasn’t satisfied with post-black moment scenes) but the rest of it was cute.

Taylor is focused on her career. As a child her parents moved around alot and that has been what Taylor has been doing. She did buy a townhouse so that she could have a place to come home too in between her business stops. She is hoping to be promoted to an office in Paris but first she has to help her firm win the Gingerbread contest. She needs to design the best full size gingerbread house that she can to win this for the firm and secure her promotion.

She thinks she has designed the perfect house but now the baker that was going to work with her went to work for the competition. She looks all over and tries to find a baker. Finally she finds one, but they have had words recently and she has to beg him to do it for her.

I really enjoyed this book and I think you will too.

This is such a great Hallmark Christmas read! I could not put it down once I started! I love Christmas reads and this one is no exception. Lacey Baker gives us everything you want in a Christmas romance in this read!

Taylor is an architect that is usually on the move with her numerous jobs in other states. Taylor is in the running for a nice job in Paris that she has longed for a long time now. Depending on how she does with the Gingerbread House competition will determine where her next job will be. Taylor can't believe they are making her compete in the Gingerbread House competition. She is an architect for goodness sake!

Taylor is to meet with a great baker that is supposedly going to be her partner in this competition. When Taylor has her meeting with Annabelle, she seems distracted and doesn't really want to talk to her. She just takes it as Annabelle being busy and having other things on her mind. If only that was the case! Taylor gets the call that Annabelle that partnered up with her rival company for the Gingerbread House competition. How can she do that? So, now Taylor sets out to find a great baker that will be her partner in the competition. When she calls around to local bakeries, everyone is busy and turns her down. Taylor remembers the baker who brought the dessert to the office for their party the other day, and she knows she has to call him and ask if he will partner with her. When Taylor finds out that the bakery is owned by someone else, but Adam is the main baker, she knows that she has to go and make a face to face contact with him, but was there some sparks that flew between them when he was at the office the other day?? Taylor wasn't sure.

Adam loves his job at the bakery but it does require some crazy hours for him and with Brooke, his young daughter, he has to enlist the help of his sister after his wife passed away. Adam is determined to make things work though. Adam decides to partner with Taylor to prove to Brooke that you can dream big even if you don't always win. Taylor and Adam set out to make their Gingerbread House and have problems at first seeing eye to eye. They both are used to being in charge and have a hard time compromising. Brooke helps in this aspect though. Taylor quickly falls in love with Brooke and adores the young girl.

Will Taylor get her dream job and fly away to Paris on Christmas Eve or will she discover what she has been missing all these years? This is such a great read that you will not regret picking up. Lacey Baker has done a great job giving us a story that has all the feels!

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All opinions are my own. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book!

A Gingerbread Romance is a very good Christmas romance. Loved the plot and the characters. I actually had seen the Hallmark movie and still enjoyed reading the book. A good clean read.

A Gingerbread Romance is a wonderful story coming at Christmas time. The characters are strong driven people. They clash and then start to banner and find a common ground to work together. You'll find them struggling to build and communicate their ideas together. An enjoyable read.

A Gingerbread Romance written by Lacey Baker is a wonderful holiday romance story from Hallmark Publishing. Philadelphia is holding their very first contest to build a life-sized gingerbread house. Ogilvy & Associates Architecture is entering the contest, and Taylor Scott has been assigned to holiday project. If she does well on this community event, she could get the job of her dreams - a promotion to their Paris office. Her boss has set her up with Philadelphia's best pastry chef, Annabelle Renard, to win this contest.

Taylor goes to meet with Annabelle and she is asked how much experience she has in the kitchen. Taylor admits that the answer is none, and Annabelle gives her a look that shows that she is not impressed. Next, Taylor gives her a rundown of her architectural accomplishments and explains that she knows how to take charge and she is ready to lead. Annabelle told Taylor that she would need to get in touch with her boss, Linda, who she was doing this favor for. She then turns away from Taylor and it seems that the meeting was over.

Taylor returns to the office for their holiday party and meets Adam Dale in the break room as he is dropping off a commissioned tree cake for the party. Unfortunately he placed the cake down for a moment, and it was on top of a set of plans that Taylor was working on and ruined them with cake frosting. Adam tries to wipe away the frosting but ends up doing more damage to the plans. Soon Taylor finds out that her boss is upset because Annabelle has decided to join with Crestford, a competitor, because they offered her top billing on their promotional items for the competition.

Now Taylor is on the search for a replacement baker and is having no luck at all. She finally tracks down Adam Dale out of sheer desperation. Adam finally agrees to be her partner in the contest when his daughter Brooke pleads with him that he would make the best gingerbread house ever. Adam will do anything for his daughters happiness. Sadly she lost her mom and as a single dad he takes his parenting responsibility very seriously, even giving up his chance to graduate from culinary school in order to provide for his daughter.

Now that they are a team, Taylor proudly shows him the sleek, modern design of the gingerbread house this she has designed, and explains that they will need very thin gingerbread to make the house work. Adam explains the issues of cracking that will happen if they go too thin, but Taylor is running the show and Adam tries to go along. He thinks the house should be more traditional, more homey. This project is off to a rocky start, when the first try at making a gingerbread recipe that could work, results in a burnt mess. Is there any room for a gingerbread romance? Will they be able to work together and build a winning house for the contest?

Adam and Brooke show all the holiday traditions that Philadelphia has to offer, and convince Taylor that having a good time is important. She finds herself wanting to find a place to call home instead of being a jet-set architect that she has always dreamed of being. Will winning this contest bring the future that Taylor is looking for or have her desires changed since she came into Adam and Brooke's lives?

A Gingerbread Romance is the perfect book to get ready for the 2019 holiday season!

What a sweet book, no pun intended. Taylor and Adam team up to create a life-sized gingerbread house for a city wide-competition. If they win, Taylor could land her dream job in Paris and Adam could gain enough notoriety to interest investors in his own bakery. Adam a widower, with a dynamite, talented daughter begins to fall for Taylor, all the while saying he isn't interested.. Taylor's whole goal is to win the contest so she can get her fabulous promotion. while ignoring her real heart's desire. No matter who well they think they know what they want, fate intervenes and - because this is based on a Hallmark movie - all live happily ever after. A fun book, one that easily reminds you of your own Christmases past and really makes you hungry for gingerbread.

One of the things I love about Hallmark romances is that they are sweet and clean. The only thing 'hot and heavy' in this book is a pan of sweet potatoes, but the romance is adorable! Two people, living very different lives, have been broken by their past. They have different dreams and goals, but are thrown together in this contest. They not only make a giant gingerbread house, but learn that their dreams can change, and they can fill each other's empty spots.

A wonderful heartwarming Christmas story that will keep you turning the pages. A very enjoyable read with a wonderful recipe at the end. Thank you Hallmark Publishing via NetGalley for the ARC copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Fun, flirty, magically delicious story full of majestic holiday cheer sure to fill hearts with the true magic of Christmas for many holiday seasons to come. 5/5 stars.

I gobbled this book up. The characters are spot on, with real life problems and relatable issues. The story line moved along with just enough obstacles/issues to keep it interesting. Even better is the recipe for gingerbread with lemon sauce at the back of the book. That brought back so many childhood memories. I will be baking it for Christmas this year!