Guarding her heart and being on a cooking show might be more than she can handle. These characters are positively explosive together and when they finally realize they are meant for each other will simply be icing on the cake.

It was a cute story, but the head hopping drove me mad. I like clear cut lines between character thoughts. A good scene or chapter break to show it was happening. Overall, decent story, technical things took it down for me.

This was cute!

Think Hallmark Movie- Small town. Adorable single gal who owns bakery. Oh gee- the bakery is in trouble. Enter leading man to help save the day. Add some steam. ( insert fire emoji ).

What I Appreciated -

The Characters- Both main characters were Asian American and very lovable.

The Setting- California. I don't read enough books set on the West Coast. We need to fix this!

The Steam - This is my first Jayci Lee and the steam surprised me. As noted above I was getting Hallmark Vibes from the synopsis and the cute cartoon cover. I am a sucker for these kinds of covers. A+ on this cover. A++ on the steam.

I also found this book to be charming and a really fast read.

Jayci Lee's "A Sweet Mess" is an utterly delightful romantic comedy that left me with a permanent smile on my face. From start to finish, the story whisked me away into a world of delectable treats, endearing characters, and heartwarming moments.

The premise revolves around Aubrey Choi, a talented baker, and Landon Kim, a critical food critic, whose paths cross unexpectedly. Their initial encounter is filled with sparks, but it's not all sweetness and light. Lee masterfully crafts a deliciously entertaining plot with plenty of twists and turns, keeping me engaged and eager to uncover what happens next.

What truly sets this book apart is Lee's skillful portrayal of characters. Aubrey and Landon are complex, relatable, and oh-so-lovable. Their banter and chemistry sizzle off the pages, creating an electric dynamic that had me rooting for them from the very beginning. I appreciated how Lee flawlessly weaves humor, vulnerability, and personal growth into their journeys, making their romance feel genuine and satisfying.

Moreover, the culinary aspect of the book is simply mouthwatering. Lee's vivid descriptions of Aubrey's delectable creations left me craving sweet treats, and I couldn't help but feel a part of the enchanting bakery atmosphere she brilliantly brought to life. The attention to detail in the food-related scenes adds an extra layer of sensory pleasure to the story, making it a truly immersive experience.

"A Sweet Mess" is a perfect blend of lighthearted romance and laugh-out-loud moments, all with a delectable backdrop. Jayci Lee's writing style is engaging and flows effortlessly, making it easy to devour this book in one sitting. It's a feel-good story that leaves you with a warm and fuzzy feeling, reminding us of the power of love, forgiveness, and pursuing our passions.

In conclusion, if you're looking for a deliciously entertaining romantic comedy that will leave you with a satisfied heart and a craving for sweets, "A Sweet Mess" is the perfect treat for you. I highly recommend it to all lovers of contemporary romance, foodies, and anyone in need of a delightful escape into a world of laughter, love, and mouthwatering delights.

Aubrey Choi is a baker who lives in a small town in California. She had a rough childhood with strict Korean parents and she's so happy to be away and doing something she loves. When a mix-up occurs on a cake and a harsh review is left, her livelihood and her hard work are all at stake. It turns out that this food critic would be a one-night stand she had named Landon. He has a plan to help her bakery and they have to spend time together to do it.

This book had a super promising start. I was very much into it. The premise was great and I love a good baking story. Once things got started, they continued to decline for me. There were so many good things happening in the beginning, and then they really seemed to mellow out. Until we got the last 15-20%. Then we get a surprise and then it's over.

It wrapped up quickly, but was slow at the same time. I am interested in giving the other books in this series a try because they have the same type of trope. The chemistry and spice were good, so I definitely hope to give the others a try!

I love the recipes also! When a book gives a recipe, love that and write them down in hopes of making them!

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

This book had such a promising start. I was really loving the beginning of this book, but things went down hill, especially with the lats 20%. This wasn't the most interesting read as Aubrey move into a villa with Landon as she films a show to try to get more exposure for her bakery. She goes to some wineries. She bakes. He cooks for her. That's pretty much it. I did love how much food was actually in here and it definitely made me hungry. But, 20% from the end, my least favorite tropes came into the picture. And I could care less about the book. I was hoping the ending could save this book, but something happened that I didn't enjoy and that was the conflict for the rest of the book. Unfortunately, I didn't love this one and wish it took a different path at the end. Also, not in love with the cover.

I devoured this book.

I am honestly not sure why I waited so long to read it. I read it in literally a day. I could not put A Sweet Mess down. The characters were so relatable and deep and well written. Aubrey and Landon were so passionate and vulnerable and just so perfect for each other. Plot-wise, it was there. It was rather cute but it was a mainly character led book.

The tropes though!

That’s what stood out to me! Small town baker vs. Big City Food Critic, Enemies to Lovers, One Night Stand to Close Proximity, Forced Proximity , Low-Key Secret Baby!!

It was trope-topia, I loved it so much. I genuinely love this book and can’t wait to read the second one.

Thanks so much to the author, St. Martin's Griffin, and Netgalley for the gifted advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts. { partner } All opinions are entirely my own. All of my reviews can also be found on Instagram @Tackling_TBR and on my blog at tacklingtbr.home.blog

This was a sweet rom-com - definitely living up to the delicious baked goods in the book! It was a quick and easy read with a fun storyline, charming characters, a sweet romance, and enough mouth watering desserts to keep you coming back! What more could you need?

ARC provided by NetGalley.

I was very excited about this book. It is a contemporary romance between a pastry chef and the food reviewer who unknowingly gives her a bad review. I thought this sounded like a situation with great conflict and the rest of the summary made me think this was going to absolutely delight me. I was incorrect, I did not like this book.

The first big thing I really hated about this book is the food reviewer admits he was unfair in his review and that he should not have written a review based on literally one bite of food. But he absolutely will under no circumstances even literally consider doing a new review or printing a clarification or retraction. He comes across as a selfish coward and I fully rooted against him from this moment on. Later in the book their is discussion of his unwillingness to apologize and he actually says sorry about instances that happen later in the book but he at no point apologized for this.

The food absolutely was a choking hazard, it was a gummy worm in a chocolate peanut butter cake. But the book treats this like it is incredibly outlandish and sensational enough to cause loyal long time customers to completely abandon the restaurant. It is absolutely bizarre. And this man is supposed to be famous enough that he can singlehandedly ruin someones business but also it is perfectly reasonable that the heroine does not recognize him at all. His attempt at making things right is coming up with a convoluted round about opportunity for her to maybe save her business through exposure on a food show. Right after fully accusing her of sleeping with him for good press.

There is just nothing about this character that I like.

But it is not just him that I disliked about this book. I do not think the way this authors writes is for me at all. I found her plot be be conveyed in almost a mechanical way, almost nothing about this book was able to solicit emotion from me, and literally never was I engaged in the narrative. There was a point in time where the characters were having fun together and I thought it was cute then immediately the author tells the reader that the characters are having fun together. Her whole writing style came off as cringy and redundant.

I also found the romantic and sexual parts of this book kind of odd. When the hero meets the heroine he immediately thinks about hot she would be in bed, this sometimes works for me btu did not here. And this was before I started to hate him! This book starts out with the couple having a one night stand. It is fade to black, but then later the heroine awkwardly and vaguely recounds the encounter. It is the worst of both worlds, we get both a bad sex scene and no sex scene at the same time. Later in the book there is a sex scene that is short and vague and flowery and incredibly awkward to read. And she writes the worst dirty talk I have ever read. It just feels like the author is uncomfortable writing sex scenes but is including them anyway. It really would be a better book if it was purely fade to black.

There is also a scene where the heroine is apologizing to the hero for giving him mixed signals earlier. And in that scene she literally apologized for leaving him when he wanted to have sex with her. She says "I shouldn’t have run off and left you in that . . . um . . . condition. I didn’t mean to do that.” I really really hate this. It is just reinforcing rape culture ideology that men are owed sex and that denying a man sex when he wants it is an offense that requires an apology.

The heroine is delicate and incapable of lying and loves food but in a way that is erotic and not gluttonous. The hero gets so close to thinking he likes her because she isn't like other girls. She is offered money by the tv production company as compensation because her business will have to be closed while she is filming. Despite being in financial peril she refuses to maintain decorum which does kind of infuriate me. There is a point where this literal chef eats a lot of food and says “Did I actually eat all of this? Please tell me you ate enough, too.” Because she is worried she seemed like a glutton. I hate the underlying fatphobia here obviously, but also why is the chef embarrassed that she likes food? That is so nonsensical.

Part of the third act conflict in this book is a secret baby plot line. The hero does decide he wants the heroine back before he knows about the baby, but he doesn't actually take any steps towards getting her back until he knows about the child. I really dislike the implication here that he is spurred into action not by here but by his child. I just think it is more romantic for it to be because of the woman and not the baby and as this is a romance novel I think that is a valid desire.

Clearly this book did not work for me at all. I was bummed, I went into this book sure I would love it. But my romance hit rate is not excellent.

DNF
At this time, I'm no longer interested in this title. Thank you for the opportunity to read the book and I apologize for the inconvenience.

I'd like to thank the publisher, as well as NetGalley for providing me an ARC of A Sweet Mess. This book had me hooked from the beginning. I loved the premise of a sassy baker successfully creating delicious desserts for the town that she lives in. Then in sweeps a food critic that accidentally receives a dessert that was created for a child's birthday party. The cake was created especially per the kiddo's request and it is not something the average person would enjoy. A bad review is given and our story progresses from here. I really want to say I loved how the rest of the book went. However, there is a plot twist and it is probably my least favorite trope in the Romance genre. Had I known this was part of this book I would've skipped it. I liked the characters, the initial plot, the setting....just really had the twist that happened. That is why my rating went down to 3 stars.

A Sweet Mess is a sweet romance that will have you laughing and swooning.

Aubrey is a small business bakery owner who is doing well. That is until a bad review is written about her bakery. She will try and make things better because her business needs help. When she runs into the charming Landon again and finds out he is the one who is responsible for the review her head and heart are confused. Should she give Landon a second chance and accept his opportunity to help fix things?

She agrees with his idea of joining a cooking show. Aubrey knows that it will be tough to work with him but she will do anything to save her bakery. As they spend more time together, their attraction leads to the development of feelings.

I really like the pace of this story. The author leads with instant attraction but lets them develop their feelings and emotional connection over time. I love the food and sweets aspect of the story. Reads and sweets are the way to my heart.

I give A Sweet Mess 4 stars. A charming romance filled with food and passion. I am excited to read more books in the series.

I want a Frankencake! I am a grown woman and I want one of those cakes, damn it! I loved this book. It was sweet and charming and the love interest was perfect. Not actually perfect, but petfect.

Going into this book, I was looking for a heartwarming, light-ish read with some humor, an adorable romance, sweet treats (of course), yet still having some substance. But...this book...while I loved certain elements of it (again, sweet treats), and some of the writing was beautifully expressive and evocative, overall, this plot, this romance, this dialogue (UGH, the dialogue!!!), and almost everything that happens in this book...was so silly and over-the-top, I thought my eyes would roll out of my head.

I'm not trying to be scathing here -- I really did appreciate the messages of sticking it out with the one you choose to be with and overcoming obstacles and fighting for your loved ones and building a family with honesty, but...that didn't make up for the parts that had me groaning for the end of the book. And seriously, holy bad dialogue overload, Batman.

There was just too much effort made to make these characters supposedly charming, funny, and "sexy", which, I'm sorry, was soooo cheap to me. Ugh, the attempts at weird sexual tension were such overkill, I almost put the book down at least eight times for that alone. And maybe that makes me an uptight jerkwad...and if so, that's fine. I accept that.

Although this book was only partly enjoyable for me (once I readjusted my expectations, the things that drove me crazy initially became somewhat easier to endure), I will try out the next book in this little series. You can't win them all, and that's okay.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to review this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I loved this enemies to lovers romance and the chemistry between the MCs–I’ve been left wondering what cake tastes like with gummy worms in it.

I enjoyed this unique story!

Yet again, I started this "series" out of order. I just finished The Dating Dare by this same author, following side characters from this book, and let me tell you - it was a struggle to convince myself to finish it. Therefore I won't be spending any time reading or listening to this one because I can only imagine I will feel similarly. Sorry.

Thoroughly enjoyable and swoony. I read A Sweet Mess in two sittings! I loved Aubrey and Landon's chemistry and watching Landon try to claw his way out of the mess he made with his hurtful review. It was a tough read at times, but Lee handled the hard parts well as Aubrey and Landon worked things through. Overall, it was fun to read about a baker and a critic and what a spicy mixup a meeting between the two might be like!

A Sweet Mess isn't my favourite romance, I didn't love the second half, but I'm sure it is a good fit for some people!

Sometimes you read the right book at the right time and this was that for me. I was just so hooked on Aubrey and Landon right away. I loved how they met and even though I hated their conflict, I really enjoyed how that plot line was developed. While Landon did seem a bit too set in his ways sometimes, the author does an amazing job of showing us his background and his thought process and while you want him to change his mind, you kind of understand why he doesn't.
I adore Aubrey from start to finish and I loved watching her handle the twists life brought her way. It's possible I might have wanted Landon to do a bit more groveling, but I think he did well in the end.