Thank you @netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book. A Sweet Mess comes out July 2020.
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If you love quirky, relatable characters, a handsome irresistible man, and a delightful love story, then this book is for you.
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Aubrey Choi is an amazing baker in a small town in California. Her world gets turned upside down when a steamy one night stand leads her to almost losing her bakery, her dreams into finding lasting friendships and love.
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Aubrey Choi and Landon Kim, both of Korean backgrounds, have had to deal with challenging relationships with their parents. This sets the tone for their relationships and their outlook on love and life. They each had to get past their insecurities, their perceptions in order to be honest with themselves before they could open their hearts to the possibility of love.
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As much as I enjoyed this book, I struggled with getting through some parts of the story. At times they're so conflicted with their internal dialogue that it causes mistrust in their relationship. This leads to them being unable to communicate with each other.
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I loved Aubrey's passion for baking and creating delicious recipes in the kitchen. I'm not at all creative in the kitchen. I'm one of those people that needs a recipe to follow. 😂

It was really nice reading about the beauty of California. 🚙 We took a trip up the coast a couple of years ago from LA to San Francisco. Going up highway 1 was just spectacular. There are so many wonderful places to visit along the coast. Have you been? What was your favorite place to visit?

This was a sweet story about two foodies who find love. I really enjoyed the writing style of this author. The characters seemed realistic and even when their decisions infuriated me, I understood them.

I thought that the actual food show and public fallout would play a bigger part in the story line, so that was a surprise, but the direction the story went in worked.

The descriptions of food were so vivid and it sounded delicious!

I absolutely love novels where one of the main characters is a chef, so this sweet romance was right up my alley. I immediately liked both Aubrey and Landon and was rooting for them to finally get together! Although I got right into the novel (and generally found it hard to put down, staying up far too late to finish it!), I found the middle flagged a little bit - the plot seemed to artificially drag out the reasons they couldn't be together, particularly when we saw from both characters' perspective how much they wanted each other. The ending for me fell a little bit flat with how it tied everything up neatly with a bow, but I still really enjoyed this and would recommend it for a light read when you just want to be happy :)

*This book does not yet appear on Goodreads, but when it is added, I will be reposting my review there.*

Ugh! I hope the final version of the book is better than the ARC.

Very predictable romance novel. Aubrey is a very likeable character, but Landon is a good-looking prick. Where is the chemistry between them? Why the "I just can't be with you" plot device?

The book is hopefully edited again before publishing. The point of view changes within chapters were strange. Also, the dumping of information (background, past) that was "kind of relevant" but didn't come up again for several chapters was strange.

I LOVED this book! Aubrey and Landon were a fabulous match. I loved how they connected and the steamy looks when they couldn’t quite have each other. I am excited that they were not the too often seen white bread characters either! Please bring on more beautiful Korean people or any person of color in mainstream fiction!! I could so easily picture them both in a hot K-drama. My one detractor was the completely random and off the wall camping scene. It had absolutely no point in the story whatsoever and was so bizarre that I could not go to 5 stars.

I was provided with an ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It’s a quick read with some humor thrown in which got me laughing out loud. Here’s the negative part book felt there were parts that dragged. I would rate this book a 3.5. The theme is baking with a dash of miscommunication, throughout the book. You get to see how one person can destroy another person‘s reputation within a matter of minutes. ***** I received an ARC in return for my honest review****

“A Sweet Mess” by Jayci Lee takes us into the foodie world with bakery owner, Aubrey Choi, and food critic, Landon Kim.

I really wanted to like this book since this is Ms. Lee’s debut rom-com. Unfortunately, when I started reading, I felt like I was in the middle of the story instead of the beginning. I felt like I was missing something between Aubrey and her friendship with Tara, and even between Landon and his boss, Craig. There was so much familiarity between each of them, I felt like I stepped into the middle of their conversations.
Then, having the hero and heroine have a sexual encounter before chapter two? Definitely not my favorite way for an author to start a book. I prefer there to be more sexual tension between the characters that will make me wonder when they will give in to their attraction.

I’ve heard that not every book an author writes will resonate favorably with every reader and “A Sweet Mess” is one of those books for me.

An enjoyable romance with wonderful descriptions of food and sweets. The romance was interesting although it had several tropes I’m not a fan of. I like the characters and setting.

Perfect Rom Com! Thank you Netgalley for this arc. I devoured this book! The characters, the towns they visited, the food, was so well written and descriptive. I could feel and taste right along with the characters. I’m hoping for more books by Jayci Lee. I’d love to follow these characters through more of their stories!

I got this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

In this book we learn about Aubrey Choi and her struggle to live an independent life running her bakery, her friendship, work ethic and a new love interest - the other main character in this book.

As a person with very progressive views I was delighted to read about characters with different backgrounds than usual - Korean - Americans. That is the coolest part of this book.

I think the author has had a good idea for story telling but somehow it wasn't very convincing. I couldn't get aboard for the love story aspect of this book at all! I couldn't feel the chemistry, I couldn't picture the main characters in love at all. Usually, when reading similar books I have a clear vision of them but the descriptions weren't really that good. The writing didn't get me hooked up to the story.

I liked the aspect of a cooking show, of a food critic but everything else e.g. the premise where the show was held, the villa where Aubrey lived during the show etc. weren't described as something believable.

I liked the food descriptions, I liked the details that went into that part of the book but everything else didn't fell deep at all, didn't feel like I can connect to the characters even though I truly wanted to.

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Stayed up all night to finish thus because I couldn’t put it down! I laughed, I cried, I hungered for yummies; I loved this book. Just enough angst and drama, but good conclusions. Also, Bree was strong and Tara is an amazing bestie. I can’t wait for the next book and I’m sure hoping I’m not wrong on who the couple will be!

3.5 stars = I liked it. A mix-up between the special of the day and a special order for a kid's birthday, garner's Aubrey an unfavorable review that puts the future of her bakery in peril. Even though food critic Landon discovers that his hasty conclusion about Aubrey's baking - and an erroneous one, as he discovers when he tries one of her other creations -has put her on the brink of closing, he refuses to do another review or a retraction in order to preserve his own reputation. He does however, with the aid of a friend with a cooking show ,come up with a plan to get Aubrey some positive publicity to make up for his mistake.

The plan to keep things professional while salvaging Aubrey's reputation and her dream is complicated by a one night stand between the pair, that happened before the review snafu - and the attraction that still sizzles between Aubrey and Landon. The smexy times are closed door even though there is a lot of lustful longing on page. I liked both of the characters, and with dual POVs we get insights into why neither Aubrey or Landon have had real relationships before. I also liked the teeny food related glimpses into their Korean heritages. Where I had nits with the story is the way the stumbling block to their HEAs are handled - there is a fair amount of hurt to overcome and the restoration of a broken trust comes way too easily, and I would have been happier without the plot bungee cord that would have pulled them back into each other's sphere at some point anyway. What I really liked was all the food, and cooking and food descriptions.

So overall I enjoyed A Sweet Mess, I like cooking/baking related rom coms and I thought this was cute.

This is an unpaid review - ARC via NetGalley - release date 14 July 2020

Such a cute and funny book!
I loved the main character's love interest and their chemistry was EVERYTHING!
Highly recommend!

What is this book about?
Aubrey Choi is a baker and owns her own bakery. Landon Kim is a famous food critic that has a blog and writes restaurant reviews for a famous magazine. Landon and Aubrey meet a bar and have a passionate one night stand but not before he randomly arrives at her bakery after being stranded with car trouble. He mistakenly buys a chocolate bundt cake for a 6 year old girl’s birthday. The problem is the little girl requested the cake be filled with peanut butter and gummy worms. Not knowing Aubrey is the owner of the bakery he write a negative review. Even after finding out how he came to eat the cake, Landon refuses to write a second review to correct his mistake. Instead, he comes up with a plan to save Aubrey’s bakery. It just involves spending 3 weeks in wine country with one another. Spending time with the man who had a hand in dismantling her business (and having a one night stand with) doesn’t sound like the best idea but it’s the only option she has. What is the plan to save her business and will it work? Can Landon and Aubrey work together or will their lust for one another get in the way?


What did I think?
I thought this was a quick and fast read. I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it either. I enjoyed that it had strong female characters and that these characters were business owners and Korean American. I feel like we need more representation like this in books. I loved the talk about food and cakes. I can tell that the author really knows her stuff about food. There were parts that I found really funny and I felt like this mostly played out like a chick flick movie in my head. I didn’t love the transitions in this book. Certain parts jumped ahead a month or two leaving the reader wondering if they missed something. The author also switches between POV but there wasn’t any way for the reader to know it was happening. It would switch from Aubrey’s character to Landon in the next paragraph. I am hoping that when this book comes to a full print later this year that there will be some way to identify that this is happening. I didn’t love the plot twist and ending but it did end how must romantic novels do. Overall this is a pretty cute read. I look forward to more books by this author.

Will be going live on ramblinhamlin.com, instargram, twitter and Facebook by the end of the week (Feb 7th).

This was my first Jayci Lee title. I loved reading about Korean American characters. I loved reading about both lead characters' complicated relationships with their families. I didn't love the dialogue, the plot, or the resolution.

It might've been better to spend more time establishing Aubrey as a great baker with deep relationships with her regulars so that when the bad review threatens it, the stakes feel more convincing. I also would've liked the aforementioned family relationships to be explored earlier, as opposed to only raised after Aubrey and her love interest started to have problems. We're told that they're impossibly attracted to each other from the very first few pages. Their reason not to act on it seems sort of contrived, especially given how quickly they're able to resolve it in the end. They go from "we can't do this because of our credibility" to "never mind credibility; let's just have this baby and I'll open the restaurant I've been too afraid to open for more than ten years." Much is made about the reality baking show thing but we don't find out much of anything about what comes of the actual show?

This couple also could've done without the baby. It would've been enough just to have them convincingly bond and decide to be a public couple.

Aubrey is a self taught baker in a little California town, Landon is a food critic with a huge following. They have a one night stand when he's accidentally in town & he ends up giving her bakery a bad review due to a mix up. When they discover all this it's already too late - they are not only in love but now have to find a way to fix their problem without damaging either of their careers. The story has potential but it's a bit too sappy & there are definite holes in the plot. It was just OK for me but I did love the food references! Maybe just a bit more editing would smooth things out.

A cute romance for those who like cooking/romance books. Funny at the start, but the witty one-liners petered off the further we got into the story. I would have loved to have had more written about Aubrey's experience in developing the recipes and/or preparing for the cooking show, rather than a lot of time spent on Aria's aria. (Maybe this would come in handy in her own sequel but Aria singing opera just weighed the story down in my opinion). The ending seemed a little too rushed, and if I am being honest, a pregnancy doesn't seem like a great addition to the story, even though we could see Landon's affections for Aubrey during his own inner monologues. That being said, I did enjoy the book and would read another by the author... given that a second book could be about Seth and Tara was hinted at during the last few pages/chapter of the book.

There was little to no chemistry between the two. I wasn't invested in the characters at all and I think the love interest was a huge asshole. There was nothing really interesting or mindblowing going on here. This whole book was really predictable and there's a lot I'd rather read.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from St. Martin's Griffin through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.*

I was given this book as an ARC from St. Martins press for a honest review. With that being said, I can honestly say when I started reading this book I got caught up in it pretty quick. However, somewhere in the middle, it lost its draw. Fortunately, towards the end, the story picks back up and gives you the happy ending you love to get in a romcom.
A sweet Mess is about a small town baker, Aubrey Choi and a hot food critic Landon Kim. Through a series of misunderstandings, Landon writes a bad review of Aubrey’s bakery. Once realizing his mistake Landon comes up with a plan to save her business.
If you love romcoms, or you need a break from suspense/mysteries you may want to check it out.
Thank you St. Martin’s Press, Netgalley, and Jayci Lee for the ARC.

This book was too cute!! Full disclosure, I would love to start my own bakery one day, so I was just way too into the concept here, for starters. 🙂 Aubrey is an absolutely incredible baker living in the small town of Weldon and running her bakery, Comfort Zone. Business is booming, and she’s planning to expand into a new location. At the same time, food critic Landon ends up stranded in the town of Weldon, and writes a devastating review of Comfort Zone…because he was given a six-year-old’s birthday cake by mistake (honestly, he was SO HARSH. Wouldn’t you ask why your perfectly normal cake had gummy worms in it before putting someone nearly out of business???).

Meanwhile, Aubrey and Landon – not knowing who the other is – spend an incredible night together. As you might’ve guessed, things get pretty complicated from there… Landon is desperate to undo his mistake without ruining his reputation as a food critic, and ends up getting Aubrey a spot on a cooking show that pays enough to get her back on track. But this also means being in close quarters for three whole weeks.

I just thought this book was flipping adorable. Jayci Lee writes her characters really well, and has a great handle on their inner monologues that really sell the story to you. The plot was just a joy to read, I could hardly put it down despite having a mountain of college homework to work through. 🙂 Once the plot gets real dramatic I just could not stop myself, haha.

I loved the relationships between Aubrey and her family and friends, which were evidently really strong bonds that added to the warm feeling of the book. I didn’t find the main characters to contain the level of depth I particularly associate with the best-of-the-best, but I still really enjoyed this one. It was just a happy, feel-good read. Easy-peasy.

I highly recommend picking up a copy of A Sweet Mess when you can!