Aubrey is a dutiful daughter – successful and independent –but not yet married, and living her own life (happily) far enough away from her parents to feel confident, but close enough to check in. Her parents, while not “thrilled’ at her chosen career as a baker are happy that she’s successful, and if she could find a good Korean boy to marry – all the better.

Landon is a well-known food critic and blogger with a solid following and a bit of a stick up his rear. He’s stubborn and inflexible: he won't revisit decisions, even when he could be wrong. He’s traveling around and planned to review Aubrey’s bakery-but a mix-up in which he got a child’s cake instead of what he ordered means that he’s unhappy and plans to make that clear in the review.

A chance meet and one-night stand, both thinking about the other and plenty of drama, including a not so positive review, plenty of friend interference and a dash of ‘woe is me’ until he’s forgiven drama and we have it. Adorable and cute – Landon was one who needed a swift kick and was forgiven a bit too quickly, but he did tick all of Aubrey’s boxes and seemed truly contrite so there was some adjusting for me with the end of the story. Full of food, wine and some mouth-watering descriptions, this is another to add to the reading list for the summer when you want to get away from it all

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest” review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

Review first appeared at <a href=” http://iam-indeed.com/sweet-mess-jayci-lee/" > <a> I am, Indeed </a>

A Sweet Mess wasn't as sweet as I would have liked it to be.

The story follows Aubrey and Landon, both driven and career-focused who shared a love for food. Aubrey owns her own bakery, while Landon is a well-known food critic. When a flat tire brings Landon into Aubrey's bakery, he gets a not-so-delicious cake meant for someone else and a one night stand - one of those things turns out better than the other.

Aubrey leaves their one night stand to focus on her bakery, which is on the edge of failure, and Landon cements that failure when he writes a review of her bakery based on the taste of a cake meant for a child who loves gummy worms. He doesn't find out until after that the owner of the bakery he just decimated is in fact the woman who he can't stop thinking about...oops. What ensues is a plot to bring business back to Aubrey's bakery where she conveniently has to spend a lot of time with Landon. No, they definitely won't keep hooking up and fall in love...

I enjoyed the outcome of this story, which was sweet (no pun intended), but I was not a fan of the journey it took to get there. There were so many obstacles that just felt melodramatic when they compounded on each other - failure to communicate, abandonment and daddy issues, pride, and cowardice, coming from both main characters. Add in a couple of other romance tropes (if you can believe it) and it was more than a LOT.

This book just wasn't for me. I'm sure there are others who will love it. I will have to try another of Jayci Lee's books to see if it lands a bit sweeter on my tongue.

This was not only a great read but it was quite original. I can imagine a food critic stopping by for a quick bite and a coffee as he passed thru town. But when he took a bite of what looked like a divine chocolate cake and found all sorts of candies and nuts in it, he just had to write a scathing review. And it didn't matter that the cake he received was the brainchild of a 6-year-old who requested all the candies specifically for his birthday.

In spite of all the letters from fans of Aubrey's bakery COMFORT ZONE, Landon never gave a second review. It would spoil his reputation as an honest food critic. But after hearing from Aubrey and understanding the mistake Landon felt as though he had to try and do something. Plus he was more and more attracted to the feisty baker.

Written with heart and descriptions of the baked goods so well that you could almost taste them along with the sensuality that filled the pages this was a great read, and a lot of fun

This was just kind of average and not what I expected. I really am coming to expect lower quality books when it comes to books with the illustrated covers. I didn't love that the characters don't match what is on the cover either.

Oh my goodness! Sweet Mess by Jaci Lee was such a swoon-worthy read! The main characters have great chemistry, and I loved them together. If you love descriptions of food that will make you want to cook, this one is for you, too. It also has one of my favorite tropes, but I won’t spoil that!

If you’re looking for a great summer weekend read, this is it!

Aubrey Cho is the owner of a bakery and her greatest joy is baking wonderful, yummy pastries. Everything is going well for her until a food critic writes a horrible review about the bakery. His review was based on a baking mix up/misunderstanding.
I enjoyed this cute, sweet story. I always enjoy a story that has a food theme.
Overall, Sweet Mess is a enjoyable contemporary romance with a cooking theme.
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

I give this book a 3 out of 5 stars.

I loved all the cooking scenes, although I do wish I would have gotten a little bit more of the cooking show than we did end up getting. Also while I really liked Aubrey’s character and all of Aubrey’s and Landon’s friends, I wasn’t necessarily the biggest fan of Landon. This book also contains the accidental pregnancy trope which is honestly like my least favorite trope. And I don’t believe that he would have went back to her if he hadn’t discovered she was pregnant. I also didn’t like how Landon just assumed that Aubrey would be ok keeping their whole relationship a secret…made no sense. I also felt like the book progressed a bit slowly for my liking.

A deliciously sweet romance!!! This is my first book by Jayci Lee and I look forward to reading more of her books!!! Will Aubrey and Landon have a happily ever after? Will Landon's cooking show save Aubrey's bakery? Read and find out!!! Enjoy!!!

Her worker served the wrong person. She served it a food critic. After a bad day she had a one night stand. It just happens that she slept with the critic.

Her co-worker tries to fix it and goes to where he works and give him another desert has him try it but he is not a Critic who re?does a review so he has come up with a plan to put her on a cooking show to fix the issue and he goes to her to tell her.

She takes the opportunity and on the way there her jeep breaks down and he comes to get her. She bakes her way to a win and a romance.

Their romance thickens and she believes she is pregnant before she could even share any sort of news with Landon rumours get out that they may be sleeping together so he tells people that she means nothing and over hears it.

She is definitely pregnant. So she goes back home cause she knows Landon doesn't feel the same about her. He ends up realizing that he loves her and finds a pregnancy test.

He then goes back to get her. He buys a house and gets a place for his own restaurant. She does take him back after he grovels a lot. They have their baby girl and end up getting married shortly after.

I loved this book. It was light and fluffy plus it had food. If you love baking and romance this is the boom for you.

2.5 stars

Food-centric romances always make me hungry! I definitely wish I had a dish of Aubrey’s pretzel bread pudding to eat while reading A Sweet Mess.

While I’m not a stickler for realism in my novels, I had a hard time getting past the initial setup for the book, which involves hero Landon, a restaurant critic, writing a negative review of heroine Aubrey’s bakery—based on a single dessert eaten during his one and only visit to the shop. That just doesn’t happen (critics make repeat visits to check for consistency and taste many different dishes), and Landon specifically tells his editor to fact-check the review … which would have given Aubrey and her staff the chance to explain the mix-up resulting in Landon eating a cake not meant for general consumption. So the initial conflict between the characters was based on a scenario that just doesn’t hold water, and at that point I was tempted to DNF. But I’ve seen positive reviews of the novel elsewhere, so I pressed on.

And I liked A Sweet Mess but didn’t really click with it. Aubrey and Landon seemed strangely uninterested in each other’s histories; they never ask basic questions like “Where did you grow up?”, and a good chunk of the book has passed before Aubrey explains the backstory with her family. The book feels longer than I think it actually is because their relationship moves at a glacially slow pace, and there’s so much push-pull “we should be together/no we shouldn’t.” I always know I’m in trouble when I feel like I’ve been reading forever and then see that my Kindle says I’m only 36% of the way finished.

Nonetheless, I settled in to find out how Aubrey and Landon resolve their differences and the pace does pick up. I liked that the book features two Korean American protagonists, which is still very unusual in romance novels. What I think I really want is a book about Aubrey’s best friend, bar owner Tara, so I hope Jayci Lee writes her story next! And if she includes the recipe for that pretzel bread pudding, I’d really appreciate it.

I'll be brutally honest. I did not like this book. At all. I did not care for the characters, the story, or the romance angle. I especially did not care for the writing. I know this was a very anticipated novel, I'm just not sure why. I have not read anything else by this author, but the writing style from this book has dissuaded me to ever read anything else by her regardless.
I wanted a simple romance novel to cleanse my palate between murder mysteries, but this turned out to be quite a disappointing read. I'm sure other people have liked this book, it's probably just not for me.
I wish I had liked it, but then I also wish it had been better.

If there’s any connection to food in a book I’m immediately interested and the first time I saw this cover I knew this one would be for me. Throw in an enemies to lovers romance, great humor and wit, and did I mention there’s a lot of food? From desserts to five course meals to wine, it made my foodie heart happy.

Audrey is a pastry chef who has her own bakery. Landon is a food blogger and critic who stops in one day and accidentally gets the wrong order in the form of a cake with a surprise filling of gummy worms intended as a special order for a little girls birthday party. He writes a scathing review and her business takes a nosedive, then he feels bad and ends up offering her a spot on TV as a guest host on a hugely popular food based show. So I definitely liked the premise and besides my love of food I’m a TV addict as well so it basically combined some of my favorite things all in one book. This one was really charming and cute, the characters had great chemistry and banter and I liked Aubrey more than Landon but I did end up like them together in the end

This is one of those reads where I REALLY like it in the beginning, but as the story continues and as it meanders around I like it less and less.

The beginning was sweet but the middle to ending got a little messy to me.

It could be because one of the storylines is one that I simply don’t enjoy- the unexpected pregnancy. .

Parts of the story flowed well and others dragged on and onnnnn. I feel the supporting characters were thrown in and not developed or flushed out well enough. I couldn’t connect to them because I simply didn’t understand how the main characters knew them. That aspect felt rushed.

This contemporary romance does include forced proximity and forbidden love tropes. I did feel the forbidden love aspect was a bit dragged out- I couldn’t quite grasp why it was just so forbidden.

A few extra background storylines felt forced and didn’t quite fit. I think it just was trying to go in too many directions.

Overall, I wish the book just didn’t take a few turns it did and I would have liked it more. The book was great with how it incorporated food and baked goods so much- it made me so hungry! It was a good, mostly light hearted story. It had closed door romance that was a slow burn. I appreciate how the author was able to create the tension and chemistry between the two main characters in the first half of the book.

I absolutely loved this book! Aubrey and Landon were the best. I enjoyed the descriptions of food and baked goods, and the setting was so beautiful. This book was such a comfort read.

A Sweet Mess by Jayci Lee (2020/08/11)
Rating 3/5 Stars
Disclaimer: Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher (St. Martin's Press) for providing me with an ARC to review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
TW: Cheating, Death of a loved one

This story follows Aubrey Cho who owns a bakery and ends
up having a one-nightstand with a guy she meets in a bar. The next day when she goes into work, she finds out that she got a bad review from a really well-known food critic who happens to be her one-night stand.

When Landon Kim finds out that he gave a bad review to a bakery all because of a misunderstanding and then also finds out that his one-night stand is the owner of that bakery he tries to do damage control. He offers Aubrey a way where she can save her bakery by attending a cooking show. All Aubrey has to do is spend three weeks in California for filming and the she will be able to keep her dream alive. However, when she gets to California, she finds out that she will be sharing a Villa with Landon and surely, she can manage that? Right?

I enjoyed this novel. I found the characters to be really likeable and although I didn't find their love story believable it was really entertaining to read about. I liked how food was such a prevalent theme throughout the novel and how it wasn’t just motioned and then forgotten.

What hindered my enjoyment of the novel was that there wasn’t any excitement or anticipation for when the couple would finally be together. I also wished we had gotten more scenes with her actually being filmed for the show especially because she was filming for a few weeks. I also wasn’t a big fan of the conflict at the end and didn’t really think it was necessary for the plot. There was a surprise pregnancy and when the hero found out he bought a house to live with the heroine and also proposed. It felt like everything that happened at the end was way too sudden and didn’t feel realistic.

Overall, this was a really cute story, just not one that I loved and adored. Definitely check this book out with you are looking for a really sweet romance that will make you laugh a lot. Once again thank you to Netgalley and the publisher St. Martin's Press for providing me with an ARC to review.

#1 - I received a copy of this ebook from Netgalley for an honest review.
#2 - First the "Ummm, What?"
We are told, in both the book blurb and in the beginning of the story, that our MCs are Korean, but on the cover they look Caucasian with dark hair. My suggestion: change the cover couple to match the story's characters. Also, this was listed on Amazon as a Rom-Com, but it seems more Rom than Com. Yes, there were a few comedic moments, but not enough for me to think that it was comedy. And, that is why it only gets 4 stars from me. I was really looking forward to some Comedy to sooth my brain from thinking about Real Life.
#3 - This was an enjoyable romance, with all the pitfalls, misunderstandings, and food descriptions, that let me get away from Real Life for minutes at a time. (Yes, minutes at a time, because, you know, Real Life.)

This was unfortunately not for me. The food descriptions were excellent and as a hospitality major I was laughing along with them about the CIA and cringing about the super gross special request cake.
However, I wasn't clicking with the prose and even when I later attempted on audio, I wasn't able to click with some of the plot and writing choices. Part of it is the descriptions of sex that was had behind a closed door, after the fact. None of it is as detailed as actually depicting a sex scene, but I think I would prefer to have the door open or the door closed, without someone telling me how great the sex was and what they did. And that was my biggest issue: the telling. I was told often about their chemistry rather than really seeing it.
Whatever the case, I stopped reading around 30%.

I started enjoying this story a lot until Landon started getting hot and cold with Aubrey all the time and she accepted everything.
Then I didn' t connect with the couple.

The best part about this book was our heroine and hero. Aubrey and Landon were on fire together and their chemistry was scorching. I was rooting for them from the beginning and all the back and forth was excruciating fun. I also really loved the baking aspect of the story and I was salivating over all the amazing food they were eating. I did think the story started to get very repetitive in the middle and I wish that it had been edited down to keep everything moving at the same pace. This is Lee’s first non category romance which is important to keep in mind because those romances have word count parameters which means that Lee was really given clearance with this story and it shows. There is so much packed into this one book that it was overwhelming. The romance, a reality tv show, baking, family drama and more that would be a spoiler but I think you get the picture. I do love Lee’s writing and she is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors when it comes to intense emotional and sexual connections.

A Sweet Mess follows the romantic relationship between a baker and a food critic after the critic is accidentally given a child’s creation and write’s a bad review.

I really enjoyed A Sweet Mess. The relationship felt real, and I could tell the author went to great lengths to keep Landon (the love interest) from having any toxic male qualities but still be a realistic person with flaws - and I appreciated it. Landon has easily been added to my top book boyfriends of 2020, and I can’t wait to see other readers fall in love with him.

The main characters’ meet-up and ensuing romance was really fun and cute. I especially loved all of the different food mentioned, although, I think Korean and Korean-American readers will get EVEN MORE out of the food description and the familial interactions.

I really enjoyed Aubrey (the main character and baker) and thought she was really sweet and cute. However, I thought her initial one night stand seemed out of character for how she seemed to act the rest of the book. I especially thought it kind of weird/immature how she kept on running away from Landon (literally). Even though I liked her as a character, I found this to be annoying and while she later on saw growth, it was kind of annoying to see her running away so many times.

There’s a bit of a “plot twist” later on in the book (maybe around 67% of the way through) that I wasn’t a fan of. But I thought the author still handled the twist and everything that came after very well.

Overall, I found this to be a really cute romcom. I’ve seen some reviews stating that this was “steamy,” and although the characters are “romantic,” I found those particular scenes to be pretty glossed over. The characters clearly had chemistry and their attraction was written well, but the “steam” was not quite there.