by Lauren Boyd
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Source: Author
Purchase*: Amazon *affiliate
Three years ago, Kate Sullivan fell in love with her best friend, Eric Wagner. Before she could tell him, he abruptly ended their friendship. Now Eric has walked into Kate’s bakery and back into her life—but why? Is he here to confess his love for her? No. He’s here to order his groom’s cake. He’s getting married…to another woman.
What happens when you fall in love with your best friend and before you can tell him, he ends your friendship? You get over it, suck it up and move on. What if he shows up at your bakery years later to order his wedding cake? Baking Love shares the tale, and despite a few issues, I rather enjoyed this sweet romance. Three word review: sweet, predictable and clean.
Kate Sullivan has inherited her grandmother’s bakery and bakes with a passion. Things are going well, and she a prominent new client coming in to order her wedding cake and it has her excited. When Eric walks in, the man she fell in love with and never confessed her feelings to she is shocked to learn that he is the groom. She is dreading making his wedding cake, especially when she would rather be kissing him. His fiance is all wrong for him. As they reconnect their friendship, Kate does the right thing and wishes him happy. Spending the weekend at a resort in the mountains and seeing him say, “I, do” might just kill her, but if Eric wants one of her famous cakes, she will make it perfect for him. The tale that unfolds is deliciously sweet, as I prayed Kate would find her happily ever after.
Kate is sweet, likable and honorable. Sometimes though, I wanted her to take a risk especially when opportunity presented itself. She has a successful business and takes pride in her work, and has surrounded herself with good friends. Eric, ooh I struggled with Eric, in part because I never got to know him. For being the love interest, we learn only small details about the man. He was wishy-washy. The type of man who lets woman order him about. As the two reconnect he shares why he ended their friendship, and dude I wanted to slap him. While, he does redeem himself, it took me a while to buy into the relationship. His fiancé, took on the cliché of mean, two-faced girlfriend. She treated Kate like a bug stuck to her shoe and was all sweet when Eric was present. Kate’s friend and co-worker at the bakery added to the tale and was all sunshine.
Baking Love follows the friends to lovers’ trope which is one of my favorite story-lines. While I enjoyed the story, I did struggle with a few things. There is a lot of telling in this tale and the characters particularly Eric are simply not fleshed out enough. Kate’s emotions are all delivered in italics following her actions. At first it was enlightening and even humorous as it allowed me to be privy to her inner most thoughts. However, I do think it was overdone, and would have been more effective if it wasn’t utilized as much. We get very little description of the bakery and the characters. I love details and feel this would have added more depth. There was nothing new here, no clever twists or heart racing moments. I will say that I loved the romantic rain scene, but even that was downplayed. So you are probably wondering why this still earned a three from me? I wanted Kate get her HEA and I got caught up in the tale! Despite the issues I mentioned it was well paced tale with some fun moments and a few tender ones. I easily consumed it. Sometimes predictable is a good thing and to me this was a perfect Sunday afternoon escape.
If you are looking for a light, fast, clean romance you might try Baking Love. Predictable and sweet it offers an afternoon escape. While this one didn’t wow me, I will certainly try this author again.
Three cups of coffee out of five
About Kimberly
Kimberly is a coffee loving book addict who reads and listens to fictional stories in all genres. Whovian, Ravenclaw, Howler and proud Nonna. She owns and manages Caffeinated PR. The coffee is always on and she is ready to chat. BlueSky | Facebook | Instagram
Sara
I’ll try it just to test your opinion 🙂
kimbacaffeinate
Yay, it’s a solid read and I hope you love it!
Lauren
I do like a light sweet escape every now and then, though I think the same issues would bug me. Glad to know you could still enjoy it in spite of them. Great review!
kimbacaffeinate
They probably will, but it is a good read, and once you accept it, the tale flies.
Erin
Sounds good and the cover is too adorable!
kimbacaffeinate
I love foodie books and yes the cover is cute 🙂
emaginette
I like a nice light read once in a while. 🙂
kimbacaffeinate
Agreed, especially between heavier reads 🙂
Sharon - Obsession with Books
This sounds quite cute and I love the friends to lovers’ trope even when a majority of the story-lines tend to be predictable, I’m please you enjoyed this one Kimba despite a few issues.
A wonderful review! 🙂
kimbacaffeinate
thanks Sharon and sometimes predictable is perfect 🙂
glass
This looks like a sweet book.
Great review.
Glass @ Way Too Hot Books
kimbacaffeinate
It was a fun little read Glass 🙂
Berls
Ok, so not earth shattering, but it sounds enjoyable. Sometimes you need a book that will just be a quick, fun read and give you everything you expect. I wish the love interest were better, but I think this will make it to my TBR shelf for when I need something just relaxing and fun. Great review!
kimbacaffeinate
Exactly 🙂
Lark of the Bookwyrm's Hoard
It always irks me when the hero (or heroine) isn’t — well, I was going to say, isn’t well fleshed-out, but that might be open to misinterpretation. 😉 What I mean is when one of the MCs isn’t as real, as three-dimensional as the other — when one is more of a cipher, or a cardboard cutout. It sounds as though there’s a bit of that here?
kimbacaffeinate
I needed more info on him to process my feelings and to make him more appealing but like I said I enjoyed it none the less
aurian
Nice review, and it sounds like a sweet story, but I do love twists and surprises in my books, so not for me.
kimbacaffeinate
Me too Aurian but then I am a twisted sister..LOL
Melissa (Books and Things)
I don’t know if I would like this guy. I mean he sounds like a jerk and would have to do a lot for me to really get behind him… especially since he choose a mean girl. Hm… not sure if this one is for me, but it still sounds like a nice story.
kimbacaffeinate
Yeah, we don’t know enough about him, but I got the impression from comments that he is control ed by stronger woman..eew 🙁
Dani
Sounds sweet and cute!! Great review!
kimbacaffeinate
It was Dani! A fast, cute, fun, read 🙂
Candace
It’s bad Eric wasn’t more fleshed out, that would be a big downside for me.
kimbacaffeinate
Yeah, I wanted, needed to root for him or at least feel what Kate felt..and it wasn’t there till almost the end and by then I was happy for her and not really them..do you know what I mean?
Maja (The Nocturnal Library)
This sounds a bit too predictable for my taste and it all seems to be about this huge love triangle, made even worse by the fac that the fiance is such a huge cliche. I doubt I’d enjoy this but I do love the title and I’m pretty sure this type of book will have a lot of audience.
Great review.
kimbacaffeinate
Actual there really wasn’t a triangle, low, low angst in this one..and so agree this will find a home. I enjoyed it 🙂
Debbie Haupt
Thanks Kimba, sometimes what romance readers really want is a clean predictable romance, no drama-thons, no unnecessary angst, no Danielle Steel-ish hoops, just boy meets and gets girl. The end.
deb
kimbacaffeinate
Exactly Debbie, and for all I didn’t like I quite enjoyed the simple, predictable romance of it all..LOL
Braine Talk Supe
I love having restaurants, diners, bakeries, etc. as backdrops for the setting. I love food porn and I always get a kick over the yummy dishes or treats mentioned in books like this.
It sucks when characters aren’t well developed esp. in contemporary romance because the plot doesn’t have world building to fall back on. And even if I haven’t read this, I can imagine the italics overkill.
kimbacaffeinate
Ya know her thoughts were so funny in the beginning, but after awhile I wanted her to act and so they began to annoy me.
Andrea
I guess it says a lot about the story that you got so caught up in it, despite the issues. Now I reallly want some cake! lol
Nice review!
kimbacaffeinate
Yes, cake would be good and coffee! I really did enjoy it, and despite issues I am glad I read it.
Sarah
This book sounds cute! Although Eric sounds like an ass, I would like to know why he cut off their friendship. I usually go for books with stronger male characters, though.
kimbacaffeinate
He comes around Sarah, but yeah I am like you and lean towards stronger men and bad boys 🙂
Emily
i love a baking based romance, as in a romance with baking, or food, or cafes, or anything else similiar, so i will certainly be reading this! xx
kimbacaffeinate
I do too Emily, there is something so romantic about cooking and baking..LOL
Jenny
Friends to lovers is one of my very favorite tropes too Kim, I just never get tired of it! Eric sounds a bit frustrating though, I kind of want to slap him and I don’t even know the reason why he ended their friendship yet. I’m glad you felt he at least redeemed himself though, but I’m having a hard time at the moment seeing him as worthy of Kate. Obviously, I should read and that might help, I just like the sound of Kate so much and want good things for her:)
kimbacaffeinate
I really did enjoy it despite the issues I personally had, and it was a fun afternoon read.
Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf
This sounds like it might be a little too textbook for me…and I hate wishy washy men!
kimbacaffeinate
Yeah, they are worse than stupid men! LOL
brandileigh2003
Kate sounds like a sweet character that would be easy to connect with
kimbacaffeinate
thanks Brandi she was quite likeable!
kindlemom1
I am a little sad Eric’s character wasn’t developed more but it sounds like Kate’s character more than made up for it.
Great review!
kimbacaffeinate
Me too..because I might have connected with him more.
Jennifer Bielman
It does sound predictable but it also sounds cute. Though Eric doesn’t seem like that great of a guys. I would hate not liking the love interest.
kimbacaffeinate
Yeah, my reasons for not liking him at first were ones I think you’d share, but he does come around.
Tanja
Ouch, I can only imagine how Kate felt. I have never heard of this book but while it doesn’t sound like something for me I can say that I’m really curious. I’m glad you enjoyed it overall. Great review 🙂
kimbacaffeinate
thanks Tanja! Happy Weekend 🙂
blodeuedd
For light sweet fun yes
kimbacaffeinate
Agreed, it was a quick afternoon read 🙂