A Sweet Mess: A Novel

Jayci Lee wrote a wonderful, laugh out loud, with off the charts chemistry romance featuring Aubrey and Landon in A Sweet Mess. We have successful baker Aubrey Choi, running ragged between her successful bakery, Comfort Zone, and with its expansion; she has no time to date. When she has a one-night-stand with gorgeous Landon Kim she finds herself wanting things she didn’t think she had time for. The problem, Landon turns out to be a celebrity food critic who wrote a scathing review of Comfort Zone which goes viral and nearly destroys Aubrey’s business; let alone ruin her memory of their amazing night together. Realizing the mess he created, Landon tries to fix the mess by offering Aubrey a spot on a new celebrity cooking show he’s producing. Aubrey agrees, but only to save her bakery and her reputation. The dilemma, Aubrey and Landon have off the chart sizzle and will be sharing a villa in California wine country. These two struggle to resist the magnetism between them, providing them with all the necessary ingredients for love. Ms. Lee wrote a wonderful, emotional and sizzling story that should not be missed. She provided a tale rich with magnetism, chemistry, and charming characters giving Aubrey and Landon a chance to find that happily ever after. I highly recommend A Sweet Mess to other readers. I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.

Aubrey is a dutiful daughter – successful and independent –but not yet married, and living her own life (happily) far enough away from her parents to feel confident, but close enough to check in. Her parents, while not “thrilled’ at her chosen career as a baker are happy that she’s successful, and if she could find a good Korean boy to marry – all the better. Landon is a well-known food critic and blogger with a solid following and a bit of a stick up his rear. He’s stubborn and inflexible: he won't revisit decisions, even when he could be wrong. He’s traveling around and planned to review Aubrey’s bakery-but a mix-up in which he got a child’s cake instead of what he ordered means that he’s unhappy and plans to make that clear in the review. A chance meet and one-night stand, both thinking about the other and plenty of drama, including a not so positive review, plenty of friend interference and a dash of ‘woe is me’ until he’s forgiven drama and we have it. Adorable and cute – Landon was one who needed a swift kick and was forgiven a bit too quickly, but he did tick all of Aubrey’s boxes and seemed truly contrite so there was some adjusting for me with the end of the story. Full of food, wine and some mouth-watering descriptions, this is another to add to the reading list for the summer when you want to get away from it all I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest” review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

Was it just me or did Landon and Audrey lack an actual connection? Sure the sexual attraction was high and you can easily cut the tension with a knife but that was it. I just couldn't picture this couple together and just about the majority of the lines were focused on their 'spark' which became more than exhausting after the first few chapters. Furthermore I had an issue with the dialogue, scene transitions, POV structure and the instant love feels with a side dish of unexpected pregnancy that I won't further elaborate on because everyone knows how much I hate those types of romances with a passion. It was an absolute mess. The POV was all over the place and the scenes and dialogue hopped back and forth so often that it got to the point that it took me a second to figure out whose POV I was reading, where the hell they were and what they were trying to convey. The characters didn't have a unique voice which caused them to all sound the same. It definitely wasn't smooth sailing but I have read worse. I just really hope prior to this release, the author does some fine-tuning and major editing to save this from being a complete disaster of a romance novel.