Member Reviews
Despite everyone's doubts, Claire Sommers is navigating the world by herself. Claire has worked hard to establish herself in Nashville and achieve mediocre success at her new position at Piece of Cake, a venerable Southern bridal magazine, following a huge error that led to her being shunned and humiliated from Dallas's upper society. However, Claire feels personally assaulted when a stranger from New York almost steals her plan to salvage the print magazine. Dominic Gravino, the "Bridesman'," is a talkative native of New York who has achieved success in the bridal market and serves as an influencer, sharing knowledge and guidance. Although she grudgingly accepts that it's preferable to go with the flow rather than fight it, Claire has absolutely no faith in him. What comes next is an enjoyable trip through extravagant Southern weddings and some emotional highs and lows.
I enjoyed the book's obvious southern charm. The author vividly described the wedding atmosphere in Nashville. I wanted to know more about Dom since he was an intriguing character. Claire was not, regrettably. She wasn't really likeable, and her situation didn't improve much during the book.
This book had a great premise but unfortunately... like a bad cake... fell flat.
It started off strong but towards the middle it became a battle to continue reading it and I wasn't particularly invested in either of the characters. It's a shame because I was really excited to read this one but was thankful once it was over.
I didn't really connect with the characters and the writing was hard to get into. I think if I read it as an audiobook I might be able to finish it.
I did not connect with the characters & I felt the writing was just average.
Thank you Net Galley & to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Claire Sommers was a Dallas society girl, forced to flee town after the fallout of a very poor decision that left her with a marred reputation and a frozen trust fund. She tanked her career in wedding planning, but she is starting over in another niche of the wedding industry, the wedding magazine. And when her boss likes her idea for a docu-series on the outlandish Southern weddings they cover, she brings in wedding social media influencer Dominic to be her unwanted partner on the project. And as they cover some extravagant nuptials, they discover that maybe they make a good team after all. And Claire realizes she has to deal with her past to be able to live in the present
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Claire and Dominic have such great chemistry and banter. And even though Claire is a hard to like character at times, her growth throughout this book have you rooting for her to become a person that you will like. And Dominic is perfection in a male lead. He is definite book boyfriend goals. The focus in this book is not the romance, but Claire's career and personal growth, and I enjoy that the plot left space for that.
Thanks to Libro.fm, Harper Audio, and Harper Muse Books for the gifted book. All opinions are my own.
Piece of Cake would've probably not held my interest if it wasn't for the male romantic lead Dominic. I really liked him and I though he was too good for Claire honestly. Claire wasn't likable at all and I was hoping to see more character growth from her. She was the definition of privileged and lacked self-awareness. That being said, there were sweet moments in the book and I did like the wedding docu-series angle.
The female main character was super unlikable and I couldn’t relate to her personality at all. The slow burn was too slow. I didnt enjoy this one.
A fun, light read with clean romance. While attending many weddings for a marketing pitch, they encounter a lot of family drama and comedic situations. But in the midst of it all, Claire needs to come to terms with her past so she can move on to a better life.
Claire was running away from her past and ended up in Nashville with a job at Piece of Cake, a wedding magazine. When the magazine is on the verge of closing, Claire has an idea that might help them stay afloat. She wants to do a docuseries covering big, southern weddings. The only problem is that her company called Dom, The Wedding Man, in to help her. He’s both charming and irritating. As Claire & Dom begin to work together more, the attraction grows. But can Claire outrun her past, or will she have to face it head on before she can consider getting together with Dom? Claire has some growing to do as she wrestles with her past and decides if she can forgive herself enough to move forward.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.
Thank you Net Galley for allowing me to receive this book for an honest review.
If your looking for a fun read, give this one a try.
I recently visited Nashville so I was able to connect with references made.
It made it more of a fun read.
I suggest giving this book a try if your looking for a light, summer read.
I understand what the authors were going for with this one, I'm just not sure the execution was pulled off as well as it could have been. The main character Claire clearly goes on a journey of self-discovery and accountability throughout the book, but it felt a bit too little too late. She wasn't a particularly likable protagonist. In fact, there were some moments that left me pretty turned off. When she learns that her little sister is engaged, her first thoughts are all jealous and insecure. That gave me the ick. And, I really do get it. Claire isn't supposed to be the best person and we do get to see her journey throughout the book. The problems arose for me with the context and timing of that journey. Claire spends the majority of the book closed off and stuck, only utilizing her own agency and seeking therapy very late in the game. Additionally, these steps were only taken after she receives multiple vouches of support from the people in her life. Her healing journey doesn't start intrinsically, but is kickstarted by the support system around her. While this is lovely and touching (who doesn't love a good support system), I think Claire really needed to be the one to pick herself up. We saw more of Claire perpetuating her maladaptive behaviors than we did of her making change.
I had high hopes for this book, and they just weren't met. While the premise and actual events of the story were cute, I never really liked the protagonist. She's pretty unrelatable and and judgmental, and I had troubles looking past that. I wouldn't really recommend this book.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Claire has a plan to save the wedding magazine she works at - a video series about the weddings they cover. Her boss loves it so much, she brings in social media star “The Bride’s Man” Dominic to help.
This was fine. I didn’t love it, I didn’t hate it. It was fine. Meh… I loved the book I read right before this, so that may be the reason for the blah feelings I have about it.
first i wanna say tanhks to Net Galley and Author for provinding me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
So the descrition of thr book really got my attention, because , of rom-com, romance kinda slow, i', totally in guys but in the first 36% the book was fine great fnny even. But than the girl was saying some things that was, idk, kinda weird. And from then on the book started to get a bit boring.
For me maybe was cause i was expecting something and than, boom. But i really thnik you guys should try read this one, cause c'mon wwe are talkinh a TV show how cool is this!!!!
Thank you to Net-Galley and the publisher for an ARC of this book, in exchange for honest feedback.
This book was cute. I loved the fact that the main characters career crossed us in to the wedding scene. I don’t think I have read another book where we get to dive in to wedding season, so I did think that was a cute idea.
I was at times not a fan of Claire (the main character). The book had us following her trying to find herself and comparing herself to her sisters, and wallowing about her lack of success… I wanted to like her character more than I did. However, the romantic side of this book was very light. This was a very easy read.
I would recommend to anyone who loves weddings and is looking for a quick romance book to read.
*Side note to the publisher, but the kindle copy had the publishers name in huge writing on every page. It made it slightly annoying, as it was hard to relax and read, I had to click much more than normal to flip pages! Just a helpful review!
Great book, would absolutely love to read more by this author in the future! The characters were cute and the premise was original.
Claire grew up in Dallas to a wealthy family, destined to have it all. She made a few bad decisions that lead her to leaving everything she knew and moving to Nashville and starting new and working at a wedding magazine. Piece of Cake is the premier magazine covering Southern weddings, but it is having trouble keeping afloat and is on the verge of folding. Claire has been pitching a reality show featuring the weddings they cover for a while and she is finally given the green light as a latch ditch effort to save the magazine. Only problem is she is not the only one in charge. Dominic is a content creator from the East Coast, tasked with helping Claire make the show, but Claire views him as a threat and is not willing to let him show her up. As they get to know each other their dynamic starts to shift, but the mistakes Claire made back home may come back to disrupt the new life she has built for herself.
I flew through this one in a day, the audiobook narrator was great and I enjoyed myself for the most part. I could not get past how annoying and threatened Claire was for half the novel. She refused to admit that she had a great idea but she did not have the full skill set to do it on her own. Dominic was so warm and sweet from the beginning and never gave her a reason to doubt him. She said she had learned from her past mistakes but she was still just as competitive and it showed. The character growth felt so forced, and all the side characters felt so flat.
It hurt to give this three stars. I follow Mary Huddleston on instagram where she is a blogger and I love her content. She is from Nashville, in the wedding industry and a mom. I am literally her target demographic!
I am not familiar with the other author, but I will say I can tell that there were two different writers in this book! It did not feel like cohesive writing.
The main character was a poor little rich girl "slumming it" in East Nashville, she was broke but drove a Range Rover, and was always drinking on the job??? Also the company is going broke but the characters go to Blackberry Farm ($$$$$$$$) on the bride's dime?? And I can't with the ending. I think this needed refining in many ways before it was released.
I did like that Mary added interesting tidbits about the wedding industry behind the scenes. That added the fun flair I needed to get through the rest of the book.
Thank you Netgalley and Harper Muse for a free copy of this ebook in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Piece of cake by Mary Hollis Huddleston and Asher Fogle Paul was fantastic. The humor really made it the perfect Rom-Com for anyone to read. If you are in a slump and need something to get you out of it. I recommend trying this book!
A cute and delightful read. I wasn’t wild about Claire but the plot was good and I enjoyed it.
Many thanks to Harper Muse and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.