A Sweet Mess
A Novel
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Jayci Lee delivers “a perfect balance of impeccable wit, laugh out loud hilarity, and off the charts chemistry. A Sweet Mess is a sinfully decadent romantic comedy.”—New York Times bestselling author Helena Hunting
Aubrey Choi has been content running her highly successful bakery Comfort Zone and with its first expansion taking up all of her time, dating has been the least of her priorities. Then a one-night-stand with gorgeous Korean hunk Landon Kim makes her want things she didn’t think she had time for. Too bad it turns out he’s a celebrity food critic whose scathing review of Comfort Zone goes viral and nearly destroys Aubrey’s business—and her fond memory of their night together.
Landon tries to clean up the mess he made by offering Aubrey a spot on the new celebrity cooking show he’s producing. She agrees to use this as a way to save her bakery and her reputation—no thanks to him—but vows to guard her heart. Now Aubrey and Landon find themselves sharing a villa in California wine country, which is a guaranteed recipe for disaster. For the next three weeks, baker and critic will tempt each other as they struggle to resist admitting that they have all the necessary ingredients for love.
“A rich, vibrant romance that’s a feast for all the senses.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Lauren Blakely
Includes Delicious Dessert Recipes!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lee (Temporary Wife Temptation) whips up a sweet but uneven rom-com that plays out on the set of a cooking show. Baker Aubrey Choi has a one-night stand with Landon Kim without knowing he's a food critic, and Landon pans Aubrey's bakery without knowing she's the owner after a mix-up leads him to choke on a gummy worm in a Bundt cake. To apologize for his hasty judgment and possibly business-ending review, Landon gets Aubrey a spot as a guest star on a cooking show. Landon and Aubrey must share a villa during filming, and despite their efforts to stay friends, neither can forget their one-night stand. Lee grounds this classic will-they-or-won't-they in cultural specificity, but the facile use of common ethnic stereotypes ("When she smiled, her almond-shaped gray eyes tilted up in the corners, adding to her ethereal beauty," she writes of Aubrey) will disappoint readers hoping for fresher characterization from #OwnVoices fare. Though the lavish descriptions of gourmet desserts are mouthwatering, the overwrought writing slows the pace and lessens the impact of key emotional moments. Foodies and rom-com readers not particular about their prose will gobble this down, but others may find it tough to swallow.
Customer Reviews
Sweet and Tart
I received an ARC of this book to read through NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. A Sweet Mess by Jayci Lee is a funny, sweet lovers to friends to lovers story. A flat tire and a missing cake create a perfect storm. Food critic Landon Kim is inadvertently sold a six-year-old’s special order birthday cake and nearly chokes on a gummy worm, incensed he writes a scathing review of the bakery, not knowing that the lovely woman he met and went back to his hotel with is the baker. Aubrey Choi was set to expand her bakery when the review hit and cost her almost all of her out of town and online orders and is devastated that the hot guy and the nasty reviewer are the same person. Unable to write a new review or retraction because of their relationship Landon offers to make things right by having her guest on a television cooking show he produces, however spending three weeks together in a villa in California’s wine country is going test their ability to keep it professional only, because the intense chemistry that brought them together that first night has not died down one iota. I enjoyed this story very much and do recommend it. Steam Level: Closed Door. Publishing Date: July 14, 2020. #ASweetMess #JayciLee #NetGalley #contemporaryromance #bookstagram #HotInTheKitchen #StMartinsPress #StMartinsGriffin