DNF.

I read for one night and then put it down and forgot to go back. I guess it didn't keep my attention. I attempted again, and whatever magic I had the first time, didn't repeat itself.

This story was ok. It took me awhile to get into it and when I got invested in the characters I thought they were dragging everything out unnecessarily. I cried a few times with the characters during their times of heartbreak, then they would easily forgive each other. The story seemed very unrealistic and the characters quick to give in.

A sweet mess was just that, sweet. Landon and Aubrey meet through a one night stand. Landon ends up unknowingly visiting Aubrey's bakery where he gets a dessert not intended for him and leaves a negative review online as a result. I mean don't gummy worms and peanut butter sound like a delicious combination? He feels bad about his critique, but has a strict policy against writing a second review and so has to think of another way to make it right. I mean she is much more than just a one night fling. To fix her reputation he offers her a part on a cooking show. This comes at a cost of them being bunkmates while they plan and film. Their sexual tension is off the charts.

What I liked was this was a fast easy read. It felt a lot like a familiar Hallmark love story. I liked the chemistry between the characters, but especially the secondary ones. The story got heated in their desire, but never graphic. I appreciated the author's descriptions of the food. I could imagine and nearly taste what they were creating.

What I didn't like was the timing. The first three-quarters of the book were slower paced but didn't read slow. Then it felt rushed to wrap up in the last quarter. The story felt really choppy where it would skip large irrelevant periods of time, but it was like everything (and a lot of everything) had to happen quickly.

Overall if you want a quick steamy (but not graphic steamy. There is nothing graphic about this which is nice!) then I highly suggest, A Sweet Mess.

This book was a lot of fun. I tend to enjoy stories with bakers/chefs in them and this didn't disappoint, especially because the food descriptions made me hungry. While there were a few formatting problems with switching voices, I expect they'll be cleaned up before publishing as I read an advance copy. It was a sweet romance and a very satisfying HEA. I'm very glad I read this book; it was just the escape I needed.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

This title basically says it all! IT. SAYS. IT. ALL!

At first when you read the first few chapters, it dragged, but towards the middle my heart started to skip some beats! I have never read a book by Jaci Lee before and I am glad this was my first one since I have not been disappointed with the outcome. Aubrey and Landon have this way about them that had me wanting so much more! And lets not forget to admire this cover, because this cover says it all for sure as well.

What a great story. The plot and characters were very well developed. The story kept me so engaged that it was hard to put down. Good romance.

A Sweet Mess
Rating: 4 stars

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC given through NetGalley for review.

A Sweet Mess was a delicious read! Landon and Aubrey have a one night stand. She later realizes that it was Landon who wrote a horrible review about her bakery, which caused her to lose money. He learns that what he ate was not meant to be sold to the public, but was for a little girl who had designed a very special cake for her birthday. When Landon realizes that the review he wrote for was for the woman he slept with he feels bad but is firm about writing a retraction since he has never done it with other restaurants.
Landon then figures out how to help out Aubrey with her bakery. He offers her to be part of a reality cook show. She accepts because it will bring in good money to help her financially with her new shop. What kind of drove me crazy was up to this point he doesn't apologize to her for mistakenly writing the bad review based on that special order cake. She even expects him to do so, but he doesn't. Aubrey still decides to be part of the show.

As they are assigned to live together in a villa where they are going to film the show their sexual tension is off the charts. For most of the story they are fighting their feelings for each other. Feelings that are going beyond their sexual attraction for each other. Aubrey and Landon are cute together. The parts where they are cooking and baking was so hot and delicious. By delicious I mean the food they were making. The author did an awesome job of giving a very good description of their food. Let me just say don't read this book on an empty stomach.
After having to deal with some issues, issues that they both had because of things that had happened to them in the past, they finally found their HEA. The last chapters were so full of angst and emotional. I just loved how Landon redeemed himself to Aubrey. Good groveling happens!

Great story!!

The title kind of captures my feelings on this one. I was all in on the premise of a woman working to rebuild her reputation by going on a cooking competition show. However, the guy who gave her the bad reputation to begin with just never did anything for me. Part of it was that I found his "snarky" review of her bakery so cringeworthy in its writing style that I could never get over onto his side. Also, I like romances that have chapters of the two main characters really being together, but it irked me with this book. I think it's because it felt like filler, keeping us from getting to the competition show until so late. So the pacing was just off. Then the end of this book just flew off the rails with a plot development that felt very old school. I hoped this was a book for me, but it wasn't, alas.

I have not read this author before but I really enjoyed this book. It is the story of Aubrey and Landon . How they met and do they end up together. You will need to read this and see. Very entertaining. A GOOD READ.

I went back and forth on this one, because there was a lot that I loved, but there were also little things that poked at me. There were some big things that happened off screen and then felt sudden when they were mentioned.

But I loved Landon and Aubrey and how great they were together and how they came together even before they knew who the other was. I loved their mutual love of food and cooking. I loved how Landon wanted to make amends and how they worked together on the cooking show. I loved what a great team they made.

The whole ending just destroyed me. I think my heart was legitimately breaking on me. But I loved the way things ended for the two of them and this was definitely a great romcom, I loved how the relationship developed and everything about their banter and everything.

DNF at 16%

The writing style isn't for me. The arc I read could seriously benefit from more developmental and line edits.

Unrelated to the content, but worth bitching about: the cover is terrible. The publisher should be ashamed of themselves for whitewashing the Korean MCs in the ugliest cover I've seen all year. Do better for your authors of colors because this cover is a disgrace.

I was very excited to receive this ARC solely based on the synopsis of this book. Baking and a diverse lead couple; oh the potential.

However, I have to admit that it took me quite a bit to get into this story. The main characters simply were too one dimensional and I really disliked the hero for the first half of this book. Aubrey and Landon lacked chemistry in my opinion, but they mostly redeemed themselves in the second half of the book and I did like the ending, I’m a sucker for HEA.

Overall, an okay read and I will definitely give this author another try. (less)

I really enjoyed A Sweet Mess! Jayci Lee created so much exciting tension between Landon and Aubrey that it kept me turning pages way too late into the night! I loved how well she showed the importance of food in their work and relationships and the redemption between the characters and their friends and family was so sweet. I will be passing this on to fun rom com loving friends all summer!

This is the cutest book ever! There are a ton of twists and turns. It is a definite must read!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

What an adorable novel! I tend to avoid rom-coms because I tend to dislike their main female characters, most of the time. I felt the total opposite about Aubrey, the main character of A Sweet Mess. Why? Because she is not a damsel in distress. She is quite the opposite. Her despicable father turned her to be a young, independent, fun, young entrepreneur who is not looking for love. She just want to be happy and she puts her heart and soul into The Comfort Zone, her bakery, which is thriving in her little town of Waldon, CA. Until she meets this guy.. a one-night stands who happens to pick up a pastry at her bakery, who gets served the wrong pastry, who happens to be a professional food critic, whose boss happens to need an article to meet a deadline and consequently is forced to review the mom-and-pop shop he happened to visit while he was getting his vehicle fixed. Needless to say, Aubrey and Landon (the one-night stand) were meant to meet.

The book is about their encounter and how things evolve --or not-- between those two (yeah, sorry, I don't want to spoil it for anyone). I thoroughly enjoyed the pace of the story, the writing, the character build-up, the cooking, the atmosphere (especially that villa), so this book gets a 5-star from me. I am totally going to pick up another Jayci Lee book soon, and I recommend this book to any reader enjoying contemporary rom-coms, books about cooking and/or baking, stories set up in California, characters of Korean descent, strong female characters, and happy endings.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for this e-ARC in return of a honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the early copy.

5/5 stars

I read this book at the perfect time. I've been starting and setting aside books, pushing through books I don't like, and just not wanting to read. I picked this one up last night and read to 63% in one sitting and finished it in a second sitting.

Landon and Aubrey meet by chance. He's a famous food critic and she's a pastry chef. They meet each other at a bar after both having terrible days and expect it to be a one night stand. Then Landon returns to work and has to write a hasty review for the magazine he works for. Little does he know he writes a horrible review for Aubrey's bakery after an order mix up. Her business starts to suffer from his bad review and he decides to try to make it right.

Landon and Aubrey were both realistic characters with their own flaws. And just like in real life the same problems keep coming up. A lot of people will probably say its repetitive, but it is in real life. (I don't know how many times my husband and I have the same little arguments.) This was a really cute and fun book, and I'll likely read more from the author.

A Sweet Mess by Jayci Lee, published by St. Martins Press tells Aubrey and Landon's story.
A Sweet Mess is a witty and fun rom/com, a lol read if I ever read one.
JL is a new to me author and I'm glad I gave her book a try.
The story is a well written, lol kind of story that gave me all the feels.
I liked the storyline and connected easily with the characters.
4 beautiful stars.

A whole lot of build up between the characters, and then a whole lot of nothing. Each had their own past conflict that was glossed over quite quickly and these back stories were supposed to be the reason behind the main conflict, but there just wasn't enough development.

A SWEET MESS is a truly sweet love story! Oh, I loved every minute of this book. The characters are complex and wonderfully written. And the love story between Landon and Aubrey was realistic and beautiful. I was so sad when I reached the end of this book because I just adored these two and their HEA.

The food described in this book is enough to make you drool on the pages and there is even a Korean recipe at the end which I fully intend to make for my family.

I finished this book last night and went back today to reread some of the deliciously swoon-worthy moments. That's how great this story is.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I was hooked from the get go by the premise of the book - Aubrey, is making her way in the world away from her Korean parent's shadow, by running her own successful bakery. All is going along great, until a cake mix up and a harsh review from a food critic/one-night stand threaten everything. Aubrey and the food critic - the gorgeous Landon - try to clean up the mess while also trying to keep their hands to off of one another.

This is an adorable romantic comedy premise. I loved getting more diverse characters. The plot moved along quickly, even if it was a bit predictable. For me, the book fell short with it's pacing. Many of the parts seemed rushed and the timeline sometimes jumped further than I was expecting. I wish I could have gotten better developed scenes and more of them, I think I would have created more three dimensional characters. Overall, I enjoyed the book but was left wishing it delivered more.