Landon Kim is a food critic who finds himself stranded in a small town due to car troubles. While there, he decides to try out a small bakery owned and managed by Aubrey Choi. Due to a mix-up, Landon ends up trying a special made dessert for a 6 year old's birthday party and ends up giving the bakery a bad review. On top of that, Aubrey has a one night stand with Landon and doesn't realize he is a food critic until after. Landon then tries to make amends and clean up his mess. Will they be able to save her business? And will they be able to keep their hands off each other?

This had a good story line but was very slow in parts. I had to keep putting it down and come back to it. I love the idea of the book but the execution could use some work.

This book was given to me an an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in an exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated in any way.

First, thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC!

I requested this because it sounded like a cute romance novel, which is was. The female protagonist owns a bakery, the male protagonist is a food reviewer. Complications ensue when they have a one night stand, the guy writes a bad review of the bakery, the woman's bakery takes a hit, and the man tries to help her fix everything by getting her on a reality show.

I really enjoyed the cutesy romcom-ness of the story and the character interaction. The chemistry between Aubrey and Landon sizzled when it needed to. I love a slow burn, but there were too many almost moments where at the last minute they were like "oh no we can't do this!". The last three chapters felt really long and drawn out, whereas it could have ended with a quick epilogue.

An annoying thing that I disliked: I don't ever want a surprise pregnancy in a romance book. I don't think "awwww, they're unexpectedly having baby and are so in love" is romantic at all. Also, romance heroine, the fact you haven't had your period in two months and your clothes suddenly don't fit isn't because of stress. Why are you waiting days to get a pregnancy test?! Go take care of that shit RIGHT NOW! In this book in particular, the surprise pregnancy felt like such a dramatic element to throw in there, on top of all the other parental/work/money drama that was already happening. The story didn't need more complications.

While overall I thought this was cute, it just wasn't one of my favorites. I'd try more of Jayci Lee's books to see if any of them fit me better.

This kind of book is right up my alley; food and romance together? Yes please. An Asian American focus? Even better.

Unfortunately, I didn't buy the two main characters as realistic people. They often did and said over-dramatic things with minimal explanation. IMO they didn't have much depth/development to them and their motivations felt flimsy. Same with the romance. The humour fell flat for me. I just found it difficult to connect with anything.

The prose itself was fine, though the dialogue was sometimes repetitive or just... odd. I'd find myself taken out of the story thinking 'no one normally talks like this'. If it was consistently odd, then it would've come across as a stylistic choice. I don't think that was the case here.

A Sweet Mess was a sweet romance. I had a travel day today and was able to read the novel on my flights in just a few hours. It was exactly the kind of light, feel-good reading needed when you are stuck on a plane. If you like a bit of food writing mixed in, you’ll definitely enjoy the descriptions of baked goods and cooking. It’s closed-door romance, so if you’re not looking for vivid descriptions of the steamy moments, you’ll be fine with this one.
Thanks to @netgalley for the e-ARC.

Unfortunately not my favorite. While the story was cute, I just could not get into it.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC.

I received a free E-Arc of this book in exchange for an honest review! All of my thoughts and opinions are my own. This book was about Aubrey Choi who runs a highly successful bakery in the foothills of California away from her strict Korean parents. But when a cake mix-up leads to a harsh review, from a famous food blogger, threatens all of her hard work and her livelihood, she never would have guessed the food critic would have turned out to be her one-night stand.
Landon Kim realizes his mistake but can not review the bakery a second time without compromising his integrity. So in order to correct his mistake, he walks back into Aubrey's bakery offering to help try to save her business by giving her a spot on a famous cooking show. Will Aubrey be willing to take this chance in order to save her business or will the undercurrent attraction between them lead to more that a sweet mess?
Overall this book was really good. I enjoyed the way the author described the different ingredients and textures of the pastries and desserts Aubrey made throughout the book. The chemistry between the two main characters was well written and full of angst. Landon was a man fully committed to helping Aubrey, but at times, I felt frustrated with him because he had a lot from his past he still had not dealt with, which caused some problems with his growing feelings for Aubrey! Both of the main characters had really supportive friends that I would like to see have their own books. The ending was well done and very satisfying. I thought both characters changed a lot, for the better, over the book as well as a realistic view of their future relationship. I believe the story got a little fast toward the end of the book. I mean whole months would past in a matters of paragraphs. All in all, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend this book to those who love food and romance! I can't wait to read more books by this author!

This rom-com started out great - I really thoroughly enjoyed the first third of this book. It was funny, I liked the tropes involved (and the spin on “there’s only ONE BED!”), I squealed audibly, etc. I was invested! 4 stars so far.

The middle third slowed the story waaaaaaaaaaaay down for my taste, and it really wandered away from it’s comedic beginnings. I was excited about Aubrey’s opportunity and curious to see how a professional baker went about researching and creating a recipe, and of course, for there to be more sparks between her and Landon. But what was supposed to be, I think, exquisite torture while they both tried to resist each other, what it actually was was just kind of a slog. It just felt...repetitive. Perhaps if we had only had one POV to work with it might not have felt so, but with both, it just felt like we were hearing the same things, simultaneously, from both characters and just zzzzzzzzzzzzz. Things are definitely sliding to the 3.5 star arena for me.

The latter third was just...YIKES. I truly didn’t think romance did this trope anymore - it felt so 80’s? It took the story in such a completely different (and unwelcome for me) direction, I just wanted it to be over. And luckily, this part felt rushed, so it was over rather quickly. Down to 3 stars.

And that’s where it stayed for me. It started great, but deteriorated for my taste. There seemed to be very little character development to make this story work.

I think if I had my preference, this would somehow become a higgghhhhhhly edited down version, like possibly novella length, and change the ending. Yeesh.

All that said, I feel like the author certainly has a ton of potential and I would definitely try another book by her in the future.

Also for those interested, the steam factor is verrrrrrrry low/fade-to-black. Just FYI.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5/5 stars

Aubrey has poured her heart and soul into her bakery. She has risked everything for her dream, and it's finally coming true. Until a scathing review leaves her struggling to stay afloat. The real shock? The reviewer was the amazing man she shared a one-night-stand with! She tries to explain that there was a cake mix-up which resulted in the odd and honestly bad piece of cake he tasted. To save both of their reputations, he offers her an opportunity to rebuild her reputation by proving to America that she really can bake. To do this, she must spend three weeks in California working closely with him and try to keep her feelings out of the picture.

This was a solid contemporary romance. I really appreciated a novel that featured Asian-American protagonists. It was a really interesting concept, but I had hoped that the characters would be developed a bit further. Aubrey had an interesting backstory and family dynamics that could have been expanded upon. I found the first half of the book to be a good pace, and then it started to slow down. Despite the pace, it was a cute story and not-so-typical contemporary romance.

This. Was. So. Good.

I want to be her, in her cute bakery, in her little camp site, in that amazing villa, at Moonstone Beach! This was so descriptive, I could actually picture everything. I wish I could taste all of her goodies and all of his cooking. The only thing for me was the ending took a bit too long to get to the good stuff. Also, I don't care what anyone says, that weird franken-cake sounded amazing!

3.5 stars
A cute story from a new to me author. It was a cute spin on a rom com. It was second chance love/ foes to lovers/ as well as a one night stand all mixed into one book.

I received this book complimentary from NetGalley but all opinions are my own.
Oh, this was so so sweet. Aubrey is a lovely character and so is Landon. Their story was excellent. I really like the setting and storyline and just all of it was so so good!! What a lovely setting and plot. I loved their shared love of food and now have like 10 new dishes and desserts I need to try based on the mouthwatering descriptions. Mmm.

Tropes, all the romance tropes in one novel. I mean, there is nothing wrong with tropes but ones hopes to see them done in a new and different way. Alas. What Jayci Lee does do is longing. Sweet glorious longing between two people made for each other. You could eat the delicate marshmallow treat right out of the oven or you could wait and have two wonderful desserts made by a pro pastry chef. It is worth waiting for.

Man, how hard is it to write a review of a book where the inciting incident was a bad review. It tears the couple apart! I may have choked a little on the gummy worm tropes but the rest of the cake was delicious.

Thanks to Netgalley for ARC.

I give this book two out of five stars for poor dialogue construction, lack of connection to the characters, and a lot of manuscript construction mistakes an editor should have caught. The good news is, my review is based on an ARC through NetGalley. I read this book in January 2020 and the publication date posted is July 2020, which means the author and publisher hopefully plan to do some major edits and revisions before this gets released for publication.

Some of the things I had problems with:
1) Poor dialogue construction:
a. The characters all sound the same-none of them have their own unique voice aside from the child Andy, the kid who thinks peanut butter and gummy worms should be cake filling.
Even a thorough line edit would improve this.
b. American’s born on the West Coast, and born pretty much everywhere else in the United States, don’t swear using the term “bloody”. We leave that to our cousin’s in the U.K.. Its use by American's is generally considered strange and a form of cultural appropriation. The average American does not have "bloody" in their cursing lexicon, so having a highly educated, born and raised Asian American hero using it is odd. Then to have the upper class born and raised Asian American female use it makes the dialog bizarre.
2) I don't like insta-love stories, and I didn't feel any real connection between the characters. The reader is told a connection exists, but never really shown its development aside from a few blushes and electric touches. I get that in order for the conflict of “no second reviews” to work, there had to be a greater moral and even potential legal liability issue to occur. It’s why the protagonists had to fall into bed together to begin with, right? No, I'm not convinced. Did they really need a one night stand in order for the same issue to be a conflict? Why couldn’t the paparazzi said to be following around the most eligible bachelor and famous food critic be the problem? A few pictures of him cuddled up with the heroine at the taproom and published would cause the same inferred but not confirmed relationship that puts the no second review rule into effect. I’m throwing that out there, because the respect factor for both characters drops dramatically with their choice of falling into bed and then falling into “insta-love”. Most romance readers HATE insta-love, me included, and if their connection can become a little more plausible/realistic/healthy adult life choice in the beginning the overall enjoyment of their story will increase. Plus it just creeps me out that the heroine paints herself into a situation that replicates what some of her daddy issues are about.
3) Someone please edit this before July 2020.
a. There is an overabundance of the author failing to resist the urge to explain (RUE).
b. There were a couple really awful sentences where I seriously didn’t know what was being said or conveyed. There was one line where I couldn’t tell if the hero was asking a question or giving a command.
c. The transitions are problematic. The scene where the hero first returns to the office after being stranded in the Sierra’s flows from him having a confrontation with his boss to him suddenly returning from a month overseas. I read that page twice trying to see if it was just me reading too fast for comprehension, but no there needs to be a much cleaner transition there. Most of the narrative would be improved by a clear delineation in the point of view shifts. A good space between paragraphs or even just a chapter break. Those transitions were really rough, and border on head hopping.
d. There’s strange formatting around some of the character dialog, where something is said and then immediately followed by an action being taken by a different character that is unrelated to the statement made.
*I hope this work gets some editing TLC and I am willing to take a second look and modify my review in the future if it does.

I'd like to think i gave this book a fair shot. I was forcing myself to continue very early on, hoping it would improve and just didn't.

I couldn't care about the characters, they were very bland. This felt very insta-lovey, I understand instant attraction but all this talk about how it's something deeper when they have been in each other's presences for a few hours tops. Couldn't get into it.

The best part of it was honestly the food descriptions, all sounded very yummy.

This had good intentions but didn't meet up to them.

I enjoyed the first half of this book more than the second. The back and forth between Landon and Aubrey started to get a bit tiresome, and the ending wrapped up too neatly. The food segments were fun to read, as was the banter between Aubrey and Tara. Overall this was a nice read.

Very fun! Love the dialogue, the female lead is absolutely stunning and down to earth. I love stories about bakeries, and this is so sweet.

This was a super fun, cute love story. Sometimes an easy read is just what you need to lift your spirits. I really enjoyed the characters, and was happy a few recipes were included, reading about the delicious foods made me hungry!

This was a cute, cozy rom com and the two main characters were great. This was much better than I thought it was going to be and there are many good rom coms coming out in 2020. This was a quick, easy and enjoyable read and more light-hearted with a few laughs.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and Jayci Lee for ARC in exchange for an honest review. I hope everyone likes this as much as I do.

This is a fun romance that follows two Korean MC's. One is a pastry chef and the other is a food critic. It is engaging and there is enough depth with the main plot and the side characters to keep things interesting. It did take me forever to read because of my reading mood, but I wish I could have sit and binged it.

The books would switch POVs without warning, but that could be due to the fact that I read an eARC.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

Aubrey is a baker with a strict Korean family. The traditions are present throughout the book, which I thought was cool. Meanwhile, Landon lacked development and depth.
While it's a cute book, it was pretty slow, and starts to fall in the realm of unbelievable a lot. At face value, it's an enjoyable rom-com.