A viral rant turns August, a cupcake bakery’s silent partner, into the hottest bachelor in town. He’s forced to work with social media manager Sloane to capitalize on his popularity. The intense chemistry between them reignites their teenage infatuation, challenging them to embrace the risk of chasing their dreams.

This book is fast-paced and fun. The writing, voice, and conflict are strong. Sloane and August are well-developed and cute together.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the eARC and Spotify Audiobooks for the ALC.

I remember meeting August in the first book and wanting his story. A quiet, socially awkward guy who seems like a grump but is really a marshmallow? Sold. In fact, if you look at my last review, I said AND I QUOTE “I need August’s book STAT.” I rest my case.

But to my surprise, I did not expect a brother’s best friend trope, with mutual pining over a decade. Talk about a tortured and angsty slow burn. Sloan was a little difficult to like at times; it felt like she was so hyper focused on getting this new job that she completely disregarded personal boundaries and lacked empathy.

While I enjoyed their friendship reblossoming, I wasn’t a huge fan of the back and forth. Both Sloan and August were guilty of this—it took forever for them to actually communicate and discuss their feelings.

One thing I cannot move past is the sexual harassment August receives when he first becomes “Sugar Bae.” Women are literally patting his ass and touching him without his consent…and no one cares? Sloan even uses social media to entice those women into the bakery, by using August as a dangling carrot. It was just…gross and I am disgusted that it was treated more like a jokey rom com moment rather than educating.

Despite my dislike of certain moments, I still enjoyed this in audiobook format. Jaime Lincoln Smith and Nia Serge do fantastic and really bring these characters to life.

such a cute read!! i’m all for a football romance, but football players who also own a cupcake shop? even better. a great continuation of the first book and the journey sloane and august went on was amazing to watch. highly recommend!!

This hit the spot for me. Pro football players owning a cupcake shop? Yes, please. One of those football players going viral for a feminist speech? Double yes please.

I also really liked how the second chance romance trope was used here. This is SLOW BURN so if you are not into those kinds of romance novels, this might not work for you.

Thank you @netgalley, @stmartinspress, and @jamiewesleywrites for approving me for such a cute book. I’m loving this series! It checked off my fav tropes and kept me smiling.

I loved Fake It Till You Bake It and was excited to get approved for both the eARC and ALC from @netgalley! I enjoyed book 2 of the Sugar Blitz series. A Legend In The Baking picks up with Sloane Dell (social media manager at Organic Chemistry and Donovan’s little sister) and August Hodges (Pro football player and co-owner of Sugar Blitz Cupcakes). This second chance romance was cute and watching them rekindle their friendship then leading to them finally being together had such a realistic feel. It took August years to realize that Sloane was the one for him. I don’t blame him for thinking the girl he was with back in college would be the one for him. A lot of people go through that. I’m glad they found their way back to each other in the end. The pacing between the characters dragged. I would’ve preferred for them to kindle a relationship mid way through the book. But the spice was basically towards the end and felt rushed. Overall, I’ve enjoyed the series. It’s different and I liked it a lot. I recommend this series to all romance lovers and anyone looking for a cozy romance.

A LEGEND IN THE BAKING – Jamie Wesley
Sugar Blitz, Book 2
St. Martin’s Griffin
ISBN: 978-1250801876
November 19, 2024
Romantic Comedy

San Diego, California – Present Day

Pro football player August Hodges is a silent partner in a cupcake bakery business with two fellow players—until a rant about how female bakers are the backbone of the bakery business is filmed and goes viral on social media. Now the bakery is inundated with women curious to meet the man behind the counter. One of his partners, Donovan Dell, has a sister that August has known for years. Sloane Dell is a social media expert, but recently lost her job. She decided to help the bakery get the word out and has dubbed August “SugarBae” in an attempt to have them go viral.

Sloane has a job interview as a social media manager, which she hopes she will get. But she is competing with an old foe. Then the lady doing the job interview sets a condition for one of them to get the job. They need to make social posts go viral and the one who does the best job gets hired. Sloane goes to her brother and asks for a temporary job with the bakery using it as part of her job requirement. The three men agree, and Sloane is soon off and running to make Sugar Blitz the most talked about bakery in San Diego. Of course, August, who now has a following, will be the one she uses as the face of the business.

Sloane and August have a history that goes back years and in A LEGEND IN THE BAKING they finally are working closely together. She has had a crush on him, but he never reciprocated. He was even married for a few years but is divorced. Sloane can live with that, though she wishes he would notice her. As part of the plan, August goes out on a date. The bakery is in the process of expanding and ran into a bit of a roadblock when local residents objected to their plan. The woman August takes out (with Sloane along to take pictures) is the daughter of the woman who is leading the objections. Alas, things don’t go well. Will August end up finishing the date with Sloane?

There is plenty of laughter and fun in A LEGEND IN THE BAKING. August’s father is a legendary chef but there is little closeness between them. August hasn’t told his father about the bakery. Getting to know the Dell family was a blessing and he was good to Sloane while she was a teenager. She never let on that she was crushing on him, even though she tried to put herself out there to try and get his attention. Now that they are working together, there is a tilt in their relationship. It soon goes from friends…to lovers. Their passion for each other burns the pages of this tale. No telling how Donovan will react upon learning his best friend is having sex with his little sister. Will Sloane win the job she wants? Is there a future for our sweet couple?

A LEGEND IN THE BAKING is the second book in the Sugar Blitz series but can easily be read as a standalone. Sloane and August are a likable pair and readers will hope that her dream of having August see her as a desirable woman leads to more than a couple of romps in bed. Readers will enjoy the fun scenes in the bakery as the women want their SugarBae, as well as seeing masculine men prove they can bake beautiful cupcakes. Enjoy the fun by grabbing a copy of A LEGEND IN THE BAKING.

Patti Fischer
Romance Reviews Today

I am really enjoying this series. First we had Donovan's story. Now we have August's story, which also involves Donovan's little sister, Sloane. There is a past history between them that hangs between them. Watching them rekindle their friendship and seeing how they interact throughout the story is so much fun. The chemistry is hot as well. Highly recommend this and can't wait to read Nicholas's story.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for advanced copy, and I give my review freely.

While this was cute it was also kinda tired. But I did enjoy Sloane’s personality and the spice was a good flavoring!

More. More, more, more, more, more. We need more books like this. We need more authors like this. We need more stories like this to be told. We specifically need this author to write more and more and more. Because this was a great one! I’m typically not a fan of second chance romance but this one was done so incredibly well. I really the characters, they were dynamic and wonderfully human. The spice was well written - the whole story generally was. My biggest issue was the pacing. The back and forth between the main characters dragged on for a bit too long and then when they finally got together it felt like a spicy sprint to the end. It just didn’t feel well balanced and it felt like the spice was being crammed in just to have it, not because it furthered the relationship or story. But otherwise, super pleased with this one!

I was nervous when I realized it was part of a series and I hadn’t read the first book, but you can read this just fine as a standalone. I fell in love with the bones of this book from the start: football player x baking?! Maybe because it reminds me of my fiancé who played football all his life and through college, and he also loves to cook and bake… this was such a beautiful story of speaking out against toxic masculinity and standing up for women, especially in the Black community. If you enjoy romance tropes of childhood friends to lovers or brother’s best friend, this is the book for you. My issues with this book revolved around the writing style, mainly in the dialogue. I just felt like the characters were speaking like how you’d type up an essay rather than being more casual. I also felt like this was such a slow burn, with nothing spicy happening until over 70% through the book, so the ending felt a bit rushed. Despite this, I really did enjoy this story and all the topics it touched on in a truly poetic way!

A fun second chance romance with lots of crazy social media shenanigans.

August Hodges works mostly behind the scenes at Sugar Blitz Cupcakes. But he ends up accidentally going viral when his impromptu feminist rant is shared online. With a second location in the work, he and his partners decide to capitalize on the publicity. Sloane, his best friend's younger sister, agrees to help as a way to get her a chance at her dream job. However, Sloane has been haunted by August since they were teenagers, and leaving their past in the past turns out to be harder than either of them expected.

I've really enjoyed this series and the setting of a cupcake shop owned by 3 football players. The first book in the series, with Donovan as the leading man of the trio of owners, was fun and this one was as well. The friend group and how much they all support one another is great.

I did have a bit of a hard time getting into this book. Mainly Sloane and August are both very closed off, so it takes a bit to really get to know them and get excited about supporting them. It did get better as the story went on, but it did also impact the pacing a bit.

Overall, if you enjoy foodie romances, sibling's best friend romances, or second chance romances, I definitely recommend giving this book a read. It's perfect for a beach read or for cozying up with a cup of tea.

This is the second book in what I hope will be a trilogy about three professional football players in San Diego and the cupcake bakery that they started in the first book. This book is about August, who is a fullback, and likes to work behind the scenes. Sloane has had a crush on August since he and her brother Donovan became college roommates and teammates their freshman year of college 12 years ago. This is quick read about the power of believing in yourself and the love others feel for you.

Unfortunately I really wanted to like this book, but it just wasn’t for me. It did have cute banter and a golden retriever mmc and a strong, badass fmc, but the plot just wasn’t very strong. The fmc made a contradictory decision towards the end of the book that made me go, so what was the point of this story then if you’re just gonna go back on what you said? The romance was there but it was also kind of boring and can we discuss how weird it was that the mmc was being harassed in his workplace and all of his friends were making jokes about it as if it’s not a big deal? There were just elements that I found icky and I probably should have just DNF’d it.

This was such a sweet romance book. I really enjoyed this book. It was the first I have read by this author. I will be looking for more! I would definitely recommend this book.

As a self-professed brother's best friend's fan, I absolutely loved this book!! Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy. A Legend in the Baking is out November 19!

Meh.

I didn't not like this one, but I didn't love it. There were a lot of aspects I did like: second chance romance, baking, strong FMC, cinnamon roll MMC. But I just had a hard time connecting with the plot and it felt like everything was shoved in at the end. There was drama in the plot for the sake of drama and not to move the story along.

It may have helped if I had read the first one in this series before, but I didn't and it is what it is now. I think this series is a set of interconnected stand-alones so I don't really think I missed too much reading this one first.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital ARC. My review is honest and voluntary.

“A Legend in the Baking” by Jamie Wesley is the second in the “Fake It Till You Bake It” series. This book can easily be read as a stand-alone. This book follows August, a football player and co-owner of a cupcake business, and Sloane, his co-owner’s little sister and former - well, someone special. In other words, August and Sloane have history. This book starts off with a bang - Sloane getting fed up and quitting her job. Realizing that she needs to pay the bills, she goes job hunting - only to take a job were there’s a ‘contest’ between herself and the other interviewee to see who can raise the most marketing awareness for a brand. Sloane decides to accept her brother’s offer of helping the bakery - especially after August goes viral for a darn great speech he made one day. I really liked the first book in this series, so I was so pleased to be able to read this one. This book had its moments, but it didn’t make me fall in love with the characters and their situations. August is great - little to say, but when he says something, he means it. There’s history between the two characters, so there’s a slow burn … a very very slow burn at times.

🧁 I did not like this book and I’m so sad because how cute is this picture?! Anyway, thanks to @stmartinspress for giving me a sneak peek. This is out the 19th!

🧁 Sooo, not only did I not love this book but it may be a bit… problematic? Two reasons:
- these two start talking when she’s in high school and he’s in college (with a long term girlfriend) and she attends parties and even bases her own college decision on him— she feels to young to be in these situations
- the male MC goes viral for a feminist rant caught on video and women proceed to flood his work place— touching him, catcalling him, etc — felt icky to me

🧁 Beyond that, I just struggled with the plot. Her workplace conflict/challenge felt wildly unrealistic. His conflict both with his divorce and his dad were barely touched on then quickly resolved. None of it worked for me. I should have DNF’d but I didn’t and here we are. 🤣

🧁 This is part of a series so maybe if I’d read the first one and had more backstory on these two I may feel different. If you read and loved the first book you should definitely still give this a try. Again, it’s out November 19th.

This is the second book in a series of interconnected standalones about a trio of pro football buddies who own a cupcake shop. This was a cute romance with the right amount of spice!

Okay - let's jump straight into it! First and foremost, thank you to Jamie Wesley for writing this book, and thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC of the book.

Secondly, I am giving this book a 4.5 out 5. I loved the first book (Fake It til You Bake it), and I was sooooo excited to get my hands on the second book! I really enjoyed getting to know August and Sloane. August Hodges is a pro-football player who loves staying in the background, however, after a very feminist rant that goes viral, he is thrown into social media fame. While Sloane is Donovan Bell's younger sister, trying desperately to stay out her older brother's shadow and make a name for herself. And then after several years of avoiding each other, their worlds collide and force them into close proximity with one another.

What I loved the most was the building up of their chemistry from tentative people with history to like the sweetest slow burn love that one could MUSTER! I was screaming by time they finally both jumped into the deep in together. This book is much more straight forward in comparison to the first, but in a good way. This book covers a sweet, slow burn romance, gentrification, toxic masculinity, found family, healing from past hurt, second chance romance, and a super cute HEA.

0.5 subtracted because I just wanted even more from August and Sloane. I just wanted to be able to experience a little more of their relationship. I just wanted to hang out with them a little more... otherwise, I enjoyed it thoroughly and would recommend this book for folks who love standalone books that are set in the same universe as others, slow burn and second chance romance, super-hot pro football player who's quiet, but kinda a yapper around his girl.