A Sweet Mess by Jayci Lee

Welcome Back, Booklovers!

Finished two books this week and I'm on to the next one. I love a light-hearted contemporary romance and I've never read one with Korean-American leads so that intrigued me. I received an arc from St. Martin's Press and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. And one of the main characters being a baker made me hope for lots of descriptions of sweet desserts I can't eat.

Aubrey runs a bakery in a small town called Weldon. She's coming off a rough day which included rushing to re-bake a specialty cake because her teen worker accidentally sold it as the special. She meets a sexy stranger at her friend's brewpub and has a one-night stand. Fastfoward to her finding out that one-night stand was food critic Landon Kim and he was also the customer who ate the specialty cake. And because the specialty cake had unusual fillings and texture in it he writes and snarky and scathing review.  The review negatively impacts her business to the point where she fears she must close her doors.

Landon cares more about himself and how it would negatively impact his career and go against his rule about giving places a second chance. Feeling guilty after hearing the full story and trying one of her amazing desserts he approaches her with a business proposal. He and his friend who is a famed chef are working on a cooking show and participating would be a great way for her to earn money and recognition for her bakery.

The descriptions of sweets I can't eat were definitely satisfying. Cookies, cakes, sweet buns, bread puddings, pies and macerated strawberries!  And then Landon being both a food critic and a trained chef could appreciate a meal. I could go for some pad thai and tamarind shrimp right about now. 

In the begging it was really good. The story balanced just the right amount of sexual tension as they fought the urge to be together amid forced proximity at a villa in wine country. 

I didn't like the way the narrative would abruptly switch from Aubrey to  Landon mid page. It was jarring almost every time it happened.

Landon and Aubrey are both broken people working through past family trauma. I felt like we got to explore Aubrey's a little more throughout the book though while Landon's was touched upon quickly towards the end. 

Also the tv cooking show aspect could've been better used. It never expanded outside of a reason to keep these two up under each other and could've provided the opportunity for some fun scenes. I didn't even understand how to competition worked. 

And then Aubrey got a little more emotional during the last 3rd of the book and it was seriously getting on my nerves. I understood why she felt the way she felt but the  story really dialed up the drama in a way that was unneeded and left the book ending on an overly-angtsy note.