Enjoyed this book a lot. I read another review that labeled the male lead as highly abusive and honestly...not seeing it. I do think that he was manipulative at times, but I think it was more out of a sense of insecurity than an innate need to be controlling.

I think it's a cute take on a typical Hallmark holiday movie and despite it being a relatively short book, the characters were interesting and more developed than the Hallmark movies usually are. The trope was fine...and the overall unfolding of the story wasn't surprising, but it was interesting and enjoyable to listen to.

I know that even romance novels require some sort of plot point that threatens to pull the main characters apart to add some drama, but I don't know why that HAS to be the formula. If you're going to do it because you supposedly HAVE to do it, at least the author here laid the foundation beforehand so you can see the signs with hindsight. I feel like authors should have the freedom to write people falling in love without the will they/won't they end up together trope and yet...here we are...once again. Not uninteresting, but also not surprising.

Baking It Merry is a cute holiday rom-com featuring a grumpy, bah humbug architect and a sunshiny, holiday loving baker.

Daphne loves the holidays. For the past 3 years she has been invited to set up a pop up shop in the lobby of a gorgeous, high end building in downtown. She is excited to be setting up for another year. And the workers in the building are excited to see her bake shop there again this year. Well, all except one. That grumpy man on the top floor.

Tristan has always loved the look of buildings. That is why he is an architect. The reason he chose the building his business is in is for the aesthetics it offers. Until those long eight weeks when the landlord allows for pop up shops to set up in the lobby. Especially that monstrosity of a gingerbread house.

Daphne and Tristan share barbs about her festiveness and his lack of holiday joy. Until he needs her to bail him out of a catering nightmare.

What Tristan does not tell Daphne is that his mother thinks they are a couple. So when she comes to finish up the final touches for his party at his house, she is taken aback by his need for her to stay at the party. Especially since she has already told him she has other plans that night.

Thus begins a fake relationship between two people who do not like each other.

For the next party at the office, Phoebe is prepared to stay and dresses more sedately. When his parents show up to the party, she is surprised to see them. After talking with his mom, she is mad. He lied to her. Is this their first fake relationship spat?

As the season progresses, the parties are moving forward, so are Tristan and Daphne. When the landlord decides to have the pop up shops year round, Phoebe is disappointed when she does not receive an invitation to be one of the vendors. Everyone is surprised considering how well she is liked, how well her business does and how festive her shop is.

But when she finds out why she was not invited, she will be heartbroken. How could a person lie to her like that? Will this break her Christmas spirit?

Melanie Mendez is a new to me narrator. I loved her cheerful, holiday, happiness voice. But her take on Tristan's grumpy, bah humbug nature was the best.

I was fortunate enough to be able to listen to this great story on audiobook, which was narrated by Melanie Mendez. This is a sweet enemies to lovers romance with a perfect Christmas setting adding to the enjoyment of the story. Lots of fun! I thank Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook.

This book was super cute and I really enjoyed it. I listened to it while wrapping gifts and it was easy to follow while doing other activities.

Thank you NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for a copy of this book to review.

I just found myself uninterested in the characters and the plot :( the mmc seemed like an ass and it was weird how for 50% of the book the fmc hated him but the moment they kissed she started giving him a chance. Just felt weird.

I really enjoyed this Christmas romance. It has the grumpy v. sunshine trope but with a Christmas spin on it, something I can relate to in my own family. I liked the growth of both MCs and how they came out as a stronger unit because of what they went through together. I highly recommend it!

Super cute holiday book! A spicy hallmark movie book! I truly enjoyed this book and it filled the itch I had for a good Christmas book. Daphne and Tristan were so cute!

This was cute, but I think it needed a little bit more. The MMC took a little too long to come around and was a little too grouchy for some of it. But, overall I think this was a fun, quick, holiday read.

Baking it Merry is a cute holiday romance. For two months out of the year, Daphne Noelle ran a little pop-up bake shop in the lobby of a highrise office building. She would love to own a bakery, but this was a small step toward that. Everyone loved her sweet treats except for one man, who owned an architecture firm. He tried to get her run out of the building, in fact he wanted them all gone. When he tried one of her blueberry muffins, he realized how delicious they were. He also saw how friendly she was and how happy everyone was after eating her treats. He decided to just stay out of her way, but when his mother asks her children to host the Christmas parties this year, he has no choice to work with Daphne to create lovely dessert parties. Spending all kinds of time together, they begin to care about each other, at least Tristan began to care. Will the Christmas festivities be enough to turn these enemies into more?

Tristan is a totally uptight business man who needs order at all costs. He almost alienates his whole office with his attitude. He has some baggage based on family relationships, but he really needed to take the stick out of his butt. Daphne was so cheery around others, but also had her own issues to deal with. I really liked her and also liked that she wouldn't take Tristan's nonsense. This was a fun, somewhat predictable Christmas romance, but it was fun getting to that point. Their banter was fun and I enjoyed seeing how Daphne made Tristan come out of his shell. This was an enjoyable story that was a quick listen. The audiobook was narrated by Melanie Mendez. She does a nice job with the voices, tone, pacing and expression. I enjoyed listening to this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the ARC

Adorable! This was such a cute Christmas novel with fake dating and a grumpy x sunshine pairing. I really enjoyed the book and the characters. It was funne and sweet and damn, all the good descriptions of pastry! Highly recommend for a cute holiday romance!

From frustrating to funny, Baking it Merry is a tasty treat. Daphne and Tristan are a perfect, portrait of heartache and humor. The chemistry is there, but the emotion of the journey sneaks up on you. Chase gives Hallmark some stiff competition this holiday season.

A cute, holiday romance that wraps you up like a cozy blanket. The banter was witty, characters authentic, and narrator engaging.

This was such a cute holiday romance book. The writing was very atmospheric and it make it feel just like Christmas.

Samantha Chase is all about sweet romance novels, or at least all that I have read of her is sweet romance. This book is a short one, and I maintain that it's hard to write a short romance. I like that we aren't in insta love in this book, but things do move along quite rapidly. We have a great grumpy sunshine motif that plays out well. Our sunshine is always sunshine and is ok expressing how she feels. Daphne, the FMC has a fantastic support system and is genuine, cheerful, artistic, and homey. Tristan, the MMC, is genuine in a different way, meticulous, detail-oriented, and minimalistic, these two are opposites in a way that works well. We have fake dating, miscommunication, and a happy ending. I wasn't in love with the narration in this one. We have one narrator with two POVs, and though she does great on Daphne she reads Tristan in the same tone and it doesn't really work for him. Other than that this is a sweet Christmas baking-themed read.

I love a grumpy/sunshine trope! Daphne wants nothing more than to own a bakery but right now she will settle for a two month install in a high-end office building along with other vendors. The tenants of the building love her sweets all except one who gives her a hard time and complains even though he loves her "treats." When Tristan needs a caterer at the last minute and he convinces Daphne to take on the job. This brings them close and they find out they have more in common than they could have imagined. Will they be able to find their way after the holidays or will the closing of her pop-up be the end.

Holiday loving baker meets grinchy businessman = CUTE!! Daphne and Tristin's enemies to lovers romance was so much cuter than what I'm used to with this trope, and I loved it! Daphne is the perfect sunshine to Tristin's grumpy grinch self.

This was an okay read - it wasn't so much either way. I enjoyed the banter. The narrators did a great job.

Grumpy Scrooge falls for holiday baker. Tristan’s office building holds the temporary holiday pop up’s. Daphne has the pop up bakery in a gingerbread house which he thinks is a total eyesore. Eventually, he has to have her bake for holiday parties and they become closer. I would have given this a higher star but Tristan was way too manipulative.

Baking it Merry was so good. I loved the banter between Daphne and Tristan. The romance was so good. I loved the story. It was such a great Christmas story. Daphne has a little baking booth on the first floor of the building that Tristan works in. He cannot stand all the Christmas booths. His admin decides that Daphne should cater a meeting in his office. After his mom hands over the Christmas party reigns, Tristan decides he should probably be nice to Daphne and ask her to cater his events. Will they be able to stop fighting enough to fall in love? Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the audio arc in exchange for my honest review.

I listened to the audiobook which had a great and engagine narrator! Tension, romance, hate-love, and chemistry abound. The characters weren't especially likeable, and the plot was fairly predictable, but I was still engaged. It was a cute, holiday, opposites attract romance is adorable.