feminist cupcake baker and pro football player falls for social media maven strong independent girl boss?

um yes please.

august made this book for me because he was just too cute and sweet but grumpy and i ate it up.
i will say that this was a ~slow~ burn and at times it was a lil too slow for me - especially in the middle section.
there are also some flashbacks and a lot of emphasis on their past history which i enjoyed because it showed how well they knew each other and made it feel like a deeper connection and not just a physical attraction. the only thing i didn't like was sloane and that silly job she's trying to get - like girl you could literally work for a cupcake bakery with a hot football player and you want to compete for a job that sounds boring as hell? why.
but this was cute and sweet even when i wanted to tell them to make out and a great palate cleanser if you want something easy and light.

Awww man I really wanted to like this book but it was just a slow burn that was really tooo slow for me. I also kept mixing up characthers as well, I ended up DNFing. I love the concept though but wanted more .

absolutely cute and amazing story ! I loved the character build up and the ending of the story had me crying. thank you netball for the opportunity to read!!

Super cute, incredibly easy to read. Very real and relatable characters! I really enjoyed this one and will be reading from this author again!

title: A Legend in the Baking

author: Jamie Wesley

publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

publication date: November 19, 2024

pages: 336

peppers: 3 (on this scale)

warnings: none

summary: Sloane Dell impulsively quits her marketing job after not getting the promotion she deserves. To prove herself for another job, she runs the social media accounts for her brother and his two friends' cupcake bakery as they plan to open their second store in a new location. This "interview" process would be great if she didn't have to work side-by-side with August Hodges, the man she's had a crush on for a dozen years, since he rejected and humiliated her when she was a teenager.

tropes:

second chance romance (even if first was a fail)
brother's friend
pining
pro-athletes
feminist men
baking up love

what I liked:

dual timeline revealed over time what happened in the past
obstacles in path for romance and for the new bakery
food descriptions
family relationships

what I didn’t like:

They spend too much time not quite talking about their past event and current feelings; then, all of a sudden, they're both open, honest communicators.

overall rating: 4 (of 5 stars)

this book was so adorable! august and sloane has such a good dynamic 🥹 i always love a good brother bestfriend, enemies to lovers, second chance type of read and this book delivered. it was a feel good, up beat, easy read that i’ll easily recommend!

Cute quick romance novel. Enjoyed the chemistry between August and Sloan but felt some parts were drawn out. Didn't enjoy the back-in-time chapters, felt they were unnecessary to the story.
I did enjoy the banter between both main characters, however, the ending seemed abrupt and so much happened in the last 1/4 of the book.
3 stars as it is good just not my favourite and I won't read again. To people who love quick romance novels this is for you
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC this is my honest review.

This review is my opinion and my opinion only. The rating is really 3.5 stars! This is the second book in Jamie Wesley’s Sugar Blitz series. In this book, it is about Sloane, Donovan’s younger sister, and August a co-owner of Sugar Blitz with Donovan and Nicholas. Sugar Blitz is a bakery that specializes in cupcakes.
August and Donovan met in college on the football team with Nicholas. All three went pro together. August and Sloane got to know each other over the phone. Sloane has been in love with August since she was 17, he was with someone else. August in now divorced.
There were some rowdy teens in the bakery making comments about baking is beneath men and just for mom’s to do. As August was talking to the teens on how that way of thinking is wrong, someone was recording everything and posted it online. It went viral and August got tagged as SugarBae. Women were flocking into the bakery. Sloane who is a social media manager agreed to help Sugar Blitz social media pages.
So now the shy August has to learn to deal with all the attention while trying to open a second Sugar Blitz.
I did enjoy this story. It flowed really well and kept my attention. I will definitely read the third book.

You get five stars you get five stars yoou get five stars. round of a freaking applause. so so good.

DNF 70%
I really liked the premise, but unfortunately the book didn't quite work for me. It's a slow burn, that's a little too slow for me. Even though the MCs do spend time together, it isn't in a meaningful way. Instead the plot (and the romance?) is mainly moved forward by external factors, which makes the whole thing drag. Also, I really don't think small businesses aren't run this way. It's pity that this book doesn't deliver because it's got so much potential.

Brother's best friend mixed with second chance is just not the book for me I guess. I just kind of got the ick in the flashback where he was kind of into her while she was still in high school, it just felt weird.

A Legend In The Baking is the second book in the Fake It Till You Bake It Series. It follows Sloane Dell and her brother’s best friend/co-owner of Sugar Blitz Bakery, August Hodges. Sloane quit her job and in order to be considered for a new higher level position, she took on the role of social media manager for the bakery. She also helps August to break out of his shy/timid shell and become more outgoing. In this book we learn that Sloane and August had a thing for each other over a decade ago. However, something led to a rift in their relationship and they are secretly pining after each other and hiding their true feelings. This book was a slow burn and although I enjoyed the premise, it fell short for me. The constant miscommunication between the two main characters took away from the story and I felt myself getting frustrated with their antics. A simple conversation could’ve literally solved all of their problems. However, there were some very cute moments that I enjoyed. Overall, I would still recommend this story and look forward to reading more work from this author.

Thanks to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for this eARC

Being thrown into the spotlight was the last thing August Hodges expected or wanted. But when his feminist speech goes viral he, along with his best friend and co-owner's sister, Sloane, do what must be done to promote the second location of their cupcake bakery. The only issue is that August and Sloane are both attracted to each other but will do whatever to not admit that fact to the other and to themselves.
This is a contemporary romance and it definitely had some spicy moments, though if slow burn is more your speed this will the book for you. I enjoyed the conversation of dismantling toxic masculinity, though I wish we would have explored it a bit more with August. We got this major feminist moment that catapults him into the spotlight and then we sort of glossed over the topic every so often. Men, specifically African American men are viewed as cold and incapable of being in love, so having August and his friends be the complete opposite made for this to be a refreshing and captivating read.
One major critique that kept me from rating this book higher was the dialogue and the storyline. Overall, things just seemed redundant. So many scenarios occurred with the same output of information. Same story, different day. The dialogue had the same effect. The characters came across as one dimensional sometimes due to them just restating what the other person said. Conversations weren't in-depth, but rather monotonous and stagnant causing the characters, themselves, to be the same. Though, looking past this, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and loved delving into August's and Sloane's minds and watching them combat their internal battles.

I really enjoyed a lot about this book - the characters were so sweet (pun only slightly intended) and the plot was mostly enjoyable. My main complaint that kicked it from 4 stars to 3 is some clunky writing. Occasionally, the writing style feels a bit amateur - not for the entirety of the book, but enough times that it took me out of the story. For example, there was one part that said something along the lines of, "He thought he might feel bad about it. He felt bad about it." These brief moments removed me from my enjoyment of the characters because other parts of the writing felt much more flowing and natural. This also slowed down the pace such that I wasn't as hooked and captured as I could have been by these stories and characters. Otherwise, worth a read, but could use a bit more editing.

I absolutely loved this book. The romance was so cute and I really enjoyed the baking part of the story. I would highly recommend this book!

i had a decent time, pretty slow, and found myself not fully invested in the romance, was a bit insta lovely for me. i didn’t read the first one so that also may have been my issue. i also love this cover so much. thank you netgalley for the arc!

This was such a cute story. Thank you Netgalley for the gifted copy. A football baker is the cutest 😀 and the ending was amazing.
I recommend this book!

This was a cute read. I did feel like the past conflict seemed a bit irrelevant or confusing. I expecting it to be a bigger deal than it was and when nothing really can of it. It was kinda a disappointment. It felt like slow-burn and insta-love at the same time?

I really enjoyed this fun romance between August & Sloane, the found family vibes and the growth of their relationship into something more. Though I enjoyed this book, the slow burn was *real slow* and got me disconnected from the story in the middle. Overall, a great light read, great character growth and no major third act break up.

What can I say?! This was such a cute story! I’m a baker so of course reading about successful football players running a cupcake shop was a must for me!

August and Sloane had good chemistry with each other and I loved that August was a big ole Teddy Bear. Personally, I felt it took awhile for the plot to start moving and would have loved to have seen them get together sooner. Overall, it was a fun read and I am looking forward to Nicholas’s story in book 3.

Read if you like:
Brother’s best friends
Slow burn
Second Chance

Thank you St. Martens Press and Netgalley for the ARC.