I got this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

In this book we learn about Aubrey Choi and her struggle to live an independent life running her bakery, her friendship, work ethic and a new love interest - the other main character in this book.

As a person with very progressive views I was delighted to read about characters with different backgrounds than usual - Korean - Americans. That is the coolest part of this book.

I think the author has had a good idea for story telling but somehow it wasn't very convincing. I couldn't get aboard for the love story aspect of this book at all! I couldn't feel the chemistry, I couldn't picture the main characters in love at all. Usually, when reading similar books I have a clear vision of them but the descriptions weren't really that good. The writing didn't get me hooked up to the story.

I liked the aspect of a cooking show, of a food critic but everything else e.g. the premise where the show was held, the villa where Aubrey lived during the show etc. weren't described as something believable.

I liked the food descriptions, I liked the details that went into that part of the book but everything else didn't fell deep at all, didn't feel like I can connect to the characters even though I truly wanted to.

.

Stayed up all night to finish thus because I couldn’t put it down! I laughed, I cried, I hungered for yummies; I loved this book. Just enough angst and drama, but good conclusions. Also, Bree was strong and Tara is an amazing bestie. I can’t wait for the next book and I’m sure hoping I’m not wrong on who the couple will be!

3.5 stars = I liked it. A mix-up between the special of the day and a special order for a kid's birthday, garner's Aubrey an unfavorable review that puts the future of her bakery in peril. Even though food critic Landon discovers that his hasty conclusion about Aubrey's baking - and an erroneous one, as he discovers when he tries one of her other creations -has put her on the brink of closing, he refuses to do another review or a retraction in order to preserve his own reputation. He does however, with the aid of a friend with a cooking show ,come up with a plan to get Aubrey some positive publicity to make up for his mistake.

The plan to keep things professional while salvaging Aubrey's reputation and her dream is complicated by a one night stand between the pair, that happened before the review snafu - and the attraction that still sizzles between Aubrey and Landon. The smexy times are closed door even though there is a lot of lustful longing on page. I liked both of the characters, and with dual POVs we get insights into why neither Aubrey or Landon have had real relationships before. I also liked the teeny food related glimpses into their Korean heritages. Where I had nits with the story is the way the stumbling block to their HEAs are handled - there is a fair amount of hurt to overcome and the restoration of a broken trust comes way too easily, and I would have been happier without the plot bungee cord that would have pulled them back into each other's sphere at some point anyway. What I really liked was all the food, and cooking and food descriptions.

So overall I enjoyed A Sweet Mess, I like cooking/baking related rom coms and I thought this was cute.

This is an unpaid review - ARC via NetGalley - release date 14 July 2020

The Story: Aubrey is a baker with her very own shop (very mature for 27) in Small Town, California. Landon is a food critic who gets a flat tire and gets stuck in said Small Town. Unknowingly to everyone, Landon is served the wrong dessert by Audrey's co-worker...it's a special request and is disgusting. They meet at a pub, immediately have a one night stand where she sneaks out, not having known who Landon was. Fast forward (months?) and his scathing review of Aubrey's bakery threatens to close her restaurant. He gets home and realizes one night stand girl is the owner of the bakery and he immediately tries to make amends. He ends up getting her on a cooking show with a Giada like personality, to fix her image. They stay in a villa together (of course) and have to fight off their feelings endlessly because they *just cant*. I'm sure you can guess how the rest goes.


*spoilers ahead*
My Thoughts: The book is cute when it opens, their meeting, the one night stand. I'm in for all of that. Then Landon goes back to his publisher and things get confusing from there. Time knows few limits in this book, and within one sentence Landon goes to Asia and comes back. (I had to reread this part SEVERAL times). The POV changes often on the same page, with little warning, which I'm hoping is a result of the ARC and can be tended to before publishing. The characters don't have a ton of natural chemistry, though I did find Aubrey to be a strong character on her own. Landon just seemed like a jerk for the most part. The auxiliary characters are all great. Both of their equally hapless family backgrounds get dropped on you somewhere around the middle of the book, and it is extremely confusing. It happens, then breezes on by, then becomes a big part later on?

Pros: I loved the representation and food references. This was a quick, light read.
Cons: A surprise pregnancy ruins most books.

The book was cute, and could be made better with quite a bit of editing. I really want to love this book, but just couldn't get there, without significant changes to the plot (particularly the second half).

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for this ARC.

Such a cute and funny book!
I loved the main character's love interest and their chemistry was EVERYTHING!
Highly recommend!

What is this book about?
Aubrey Choi is a baker and owns her own bakery. Landon Kim is a famous food critic that has a blog and writes restaurant reviews for a famous magazine. Landon and Aubrey meet a bar and have a passionate one night stand but not before he randomly arrives at her bakery after being stranded with car trouble. He mistakenly buys a chocolate bundt cake for a 6 year old girl’s birthday. The problem is the little girl requested the cake be filled with peanut butter and gummy worms. Not knowing Aubrey is the owner of the bakery he write a negative review. Even after finding out how he came to eat the cake, Landon refuses to write a second review to correct his mistake. Instead, he comes up with a plan to save Aubrey’s bakery. It just involves spending 3 weeks in wine country with one another. Spending time with the man who had a hand in dismantling her business (and having a one night stand with) doesn’t sound like the best idea but it’s the only option she has. What is the plan to save her business and will it work? Can Landon and Aubrey work together or will their lust for one another get in the way?


What did I think?
I thought this was a quick and fast read. I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it either. I enjoyed that it had strong female characters and that these characters were business owners and Korean American. I feel like we need more representation like this in books. I loved the talk about food and cakes. I can tell that the author really knows her stuff about food. There were parts that I found really funny and I felt like this mostly played out like a chick flick movie in my head. I didn’t love the transitions in this book. Certain parts jumped ahead a month or two leaving the reader wondering if they missed something. The author also switches between POV but there wasn’t any way for the reader to know it was happening. It would switch from Aubrey’s character to Landon in the next paragraph. I am hoping that when this book comes to a full print later this year that there will be some way to identify that this is happening. I didn’t love the plot twist and ending but it did end how must romantic novels do. Overall this is a pretty cute read. I look forward to more books by this author.

Will be going live on ramblinhamlin.com, instargram, twitter and Facebook by the end of the week (Feb 7th).

This was my first Jayci Lee title. I loved reading about Korean American characters. I loved reading about both lead characters' complicated relationships with their families. I didn't love the dialogue, the plot, or the resolution.

It might've been better to spend more time establishing Aubrey as a great baker with deep relationships with her regulars so that when the bad review threatens it, the stakes feel more convincing. I also would've liked the aforementioned family relationships to be explored earlier, as opposed to only raised after Aubrey and her love interest started to have problems. We're told that they're impossibly attracted to each other from the very first few pages. Their reason not to act on it seems sort of contrived, especially given how quickly they're able to resolve it in the end. They go from "we can't do this because of our credibility" to "never mind credibility; let's just have this baby and I'll open the restaurant I've been too afraid to open for more than ten years." Much is made about the reality baking show thing but we don't find out much of anything about what comes of the actual show?

This couple also could've done without the baby. It would've been enough just to have them convincingly bond and decide to be a public couple.

Aubrey is a self taught baker in a little California town, Landon is a food critic with a huge following. They have a one night stand when he's accidentally in town & he ends up giving her bakery a bad review due to a mix up. When they discover all this it's already too late - they are not only in love but now have to find a way to fix their problem without damaging either of their careers. The story has potential but it's a bit too sappy & there are definite holes in the plot. It was just OK for me but I did love the food references! Maybe just a bit more editing would smooth things out.

A cute romance for those who like cooking/romance books. Funny at the start, but the witty one-liners petered off the further we got into the story. I would have loved to have had more written about Aubrey's experience in developing the recipes and/or preparing for the cooking show, rather than a lot of time spent on Aria's aria. (Maybe this would come in handy in her own sequel but Aria singing opera just weighed the story down in my opinion). The ending seemed a little too rushed, and if I am being honest, a pregnancy doesn't seem like a great addition to the story, even though we could see Landon's affections for Aubrey during his own inner monologues. That being said, I did enjoy the book and would read another by the author... given that a second book could be about Seth and Tara was hinted at during the last few pages/chapter of the book.

There was little to no chemistry between the two. I wasn't invested in the characters at all and I think the love interest was a huge asshole. There was nothing really interesting or mindblowing going on here. This whole book was really predictable and there's a lot I'd rather read.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from St. Martin's Griffin through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.*

I was given this book as an ARC from St. Martins press for a honest review. With that being said, I can honestly say when I started reading this book I got caught up in it pretty quick. However, somewhere in the middle, it lost its draw. Fortunately, towards the end, the story picks back up and gives you the happy ending you love to get in a romcom.
A sweet Mess is about a small town baker, Aubrey Choi and a hot food critic Landon Kim. Through a series of misunderstandings, Landon writes a bad review of Aubrey’s bakery. Once realizing his mistake Landon comes up with a plan to save her business.
If you love romcoms, or you need a break from suspense/mysteries you may want to check it out.
Thank you St. Martin’s Press, Netgalley, and Jayci Lee for the ARC.

This book was too cute!! Full disclosure, I would love to start my own bakery one day, so I was just way too into the concept here, for starters. 🙂 Aubrey is an absolutely incredible baker living in the small town of Weldon and running her bakery, Comfort Zone. Business is booming, and she’s planning to expand into a new location. At the same time, food critic Landon ends up stranded in the town of Weldon, and writes a devastating review of Comfort Zone…because he was given a six-year-old’s birthday cake by mistake (honestly, he was SO HARSH. Wouldn’t you ask why your perfectly normal cake had gummy worms in it before putting someone nearly out of business???).

Meanwhile, Aubrey and Landon – not knowing who the other is – spend an incredible night together. As you might’ve guessed, things get pretty complicated from there… Landon is desperate to undo his mistake without ruining his reputation as a food critic, and ends up getting Aubrey a spot on a cooking show that pays enough to get her back on track. But this also means being in close quarters for three whole weeks.

I just thought this book was flipping adorable. Jayci Lee writes her characters really well, and has a great handle on their inner monologues that really sell the story to you. The plot was just a joy to read, I could hardly put it down despite having a mountain of college homework to work through. 🙂 Once the plot gets real dramatic I just could not stop myself, haha.

I loved the relationships between Aubrey and her family and friends, which were evidently really strong bonds that added to the warm feeling of the book. I didn’t find the main characters to contain the level of depth I particularly associate with the best-of-the-best, but I still really enjoyed this one. It was just a happy, feel-good read. Easy-peasy.

I highly recommend picking up a copy of A Sweet Mess when you can!

I love this!
This book really is like its title. Sometimes I was really annoyed by how both protagonist acted but with their past its understandable. Still not acceptable but, in the end when love isn't easy but not a struggle isn't it the best?

A Sweet Mess is a delicious read about a bakery owner, Aubrey, who gets a bad review based on a chocolate bundt cake. The cake looks exactly like the special of the week, except it has a peanut butter and cream cheese filling with the addition of gummy worms. It is unfortunately given to the wrong customer who happens to be a food critic. Landon also turns out to be Aubrey’s one night stand 😳. Talk about a sweet mess and an overall awkward situation! With the bakery now hanging by a thread, Landon tries to clean up the mess by offering Aubrey a proposition she can't refuse.

After reading the synopsis, I was already addicted! It gave me a sugar craving I couldn't resist. And it did not disappoint. Landon and Aubrey’s attraction sizzled and oozed off the page from the very beginning, and if I were reading the paperback version, their chemistry would've been hot enough to scorch the pages into ashes. I loved the situations they were put into throughout the book and the galore of tropes - one night stand to enemies to lovers with a side of bedsharing and forced roommates (sharing a villa). The tension between them continued to skyrocket to the point where it became frustrating when one of them ran away from their feelings.

I'm not usually a fan of super slow burns because I get too impatient, especially when the author teases the grand event several times throughout the story. And I get they had to remain professional for the sake of their careers and reputations, but still, their chemistry could not be denied. And when they finally gave in, when we finally arrive at the grand event, it felt anticlimactic and then quickly turned into heartache. For that and the transitions between the scenes and the time jumps that were a little confusing, I deducted a star. I still really enjoyed the book and the writing. It was well crafted, and I really enjoyed the writing style and Lee’s use of metaphors. A Sweet Mess has delightfully flakey moments filled with ooey gooey sexual tension, it's layered with delicious tropes, and the surprise toward the end was the icing on the cake!

I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I was happy to get an early copy of this book. It was an entertaining read for sure. Both main characters were well developed, the cooking/baking trope well delivered too. It was enjoyable and charming like a sweet cupcake (and I want more!). A good summer read that I would and will recommend.

First, I would like to thank Netgalley and Jayci Lee for giving me an ARC for an honest review of this book!

It was amazing! This story was so exciting and captivating, and had an amazing balance of humor, witty responses, and romance (and I mean who doesn't love romance). The pregnancy was a hard plot point in the romance, and the book, for me to get into (I am not a huge personal fan of pregnancy or babies). However, I know that normal women reading this book would just eat it up! All of the characters were so well developed, and I fangirled over Landon. I wold absolutely recommend this book to my friends and family, it is the perfect read to get you in a baking, and romantic mood!

A Sweet Mess by Jayci Lee started off great, though predictable. Aubrey has put her money and time into creating a bakery for her small town and others, but one review from an out-of-town critic almost sends her into complete ruin.

This book was thoroughly enjoyable into the first half, but I felt the second half was rushed and not as thought out as the first. The two main characters were bound to end up together but the random pregnancy threw me for a loop and I didn't connect with that portion of the story at all, thus the ending was unsatisfying for me.

This book was given to me as an advanced reader copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

I enjoyed this book. It liked the baking store/show concept and the sweet exchanges between characters. I thought the characters were interesting and fun to read about The dialogue and events of the story fell short at some points but overall I enjoyed it!

I am conflicted. I liked this but I also did not like it?

The problem, for the most part, seemed to be the flow of the story. The transitions between each chapter and even within each chapter were rough and need some fine-tuning. The ARC doesn't have breaks so it will literally go from Aubrey's POV to Landon's with no break or indication that you're switching over POVs. I'm hoping this is just because it's an ARC but it took away from the overall read because I had to go back multiple times to make sure I hadn't missed anything.

Additionally, the conflict is one that could've been avoided. There are some romances where there is such little communication between the characters when there is an issue and it ends up leading to a bigger problem altogether. I really don't like it because... well you're adults. Act like one. I read books with communication like this when I was knee-deep in YA romance novels, which makes sense given their age?

Also, it was a little insta-love-y.... which I kinda let go of as I went on reading but that thought still kinda lingered.

At the end of it all, it was still rather enjoyable but this isn't a book I see myself revisiting at any point in time.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for a review.

A Sweet Mess by Jayci Lee is a confectionery dream of a modern romance that was quick, breezy, romantic, and engaging.

I enjoyed the premise of the traditional misunderstanding and resulting complications to create tension and interest in opposing parties that results in eventual mutual attraction. However, despite the obvious romantic formula, Ms Lee creates a fun and interesting spin that engages the reader from beginning to end. I loved the way the author described all of the culinary delights. One can tell she has an interest and passion with baking. My mouth watered numerous times.

I also like the two main characters: Aubrey and Landon. Yes, they both have their faults and flaws, however that makes them real and complex and I was drawn to the story even more so because of this. I felt they had chemistry and worked well together.

I enjoyed the pace of the book and I also was surprised by the plot twist around the last third of the novel. I felt that definitely added an extra unique aspect to the book that sets it apart from others in its genre.

Overall, I enjoyed the modern-day romance story and was interested from beginning to end. I look forward to additional books by Ms Lee in the future as a feel she has real talent.

4/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and St Martin’s Griffin/Press for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon and B&N accounts upon publication.