Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: July 14, 2020
Source: Publisher
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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.
When celebrity food critic Landon Kim is accidentally given a “Frankencake” that was custom made for a child with eclectic tastes, his review of the bakery it came from is less than kind. In fact, it nearly ruins Aubrey Choi's business right when she’s posed to expand. Landon has a policy of never reviewing a place twice, but when he learns of the mix-up wants to make an exception… Except he can’t because before his review came out Aubrey was his one-night stand. It’s a messy situation, but Landon tries to help by having Aubrey featured on a cooking show he’s producing. The problem is, once they’re in wine country they learn they’re sharing a villa. Aubrey and Landon need to keep things professional in order to keep their credibility. But close quarters and a fierce attraction have a way of wreaking havoc with even the best of intentions…
A Sweet Mess is aptly-titled (and I mean that in a good way). It’s a sweet but sometimes messy romance with two likeable characters.
Aubrey is a delightful heroine. She’s fun, independent, and a seriously talented baker. I loved watching her creations come to life (the food in this book is guaranteed to make anyone salivate) and even more I loved her determination to succeed. She’s been hurt in the past by her family but has struck out on her own and built a successful business from scratch, which I admired. Landon once dreamed of being a chef, but in putting his family first he had to give up what he wanted to help his mother and brother. Both Landon and Aubrey have good hearts, but they aren’t perfect, which was nice. And though their romance is “forbidden” because giving into their attraction would risk both of their professional reputations, their slide into love is fairly inevitable when they’re in such close quarters.
Where A Sweet Mess fell apart for me was in the last quarter of the book. The story took a turn and became a bit melodramatic and then syrupy sweet. It didn’t feel organic to the story and though the characters’ reactions weren’t wholly out of character, everything felt rushed and stilted. It’s such a disappointment because up until that point A Sweet Mess was a truly fun, fluffy read. Still, I enjoyed the book overall and I hope author Jayci Lee returns to the town of Weldon because I’d love to see Tara, Aubrey’s best friend, get a book of her own.
FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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