I really loved how Nora & Henrik went from enemies to lovers. The family connection and dual time-line were fun. I felt for Tuula and her children throughout the past flashbacks.

3.75⭐️ (rounded down to 3)

I want to thank NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Time to Rise follows Nora as she does everything she can to try and save her family’s patisserie, even if it means working with Henrik and his tv show to do so.

I loved the setting for this book. I don’t know much about Sweden to be honest, but the idea of this little family bakery in a small town was just really cute. The Christmas traditions shown were interesting too, as I don’t know a lot about Christmas in Sweden. I liked the chemistry between Nora and Henrik, how they had an ‘enemies-to-lovers’ thing going on. The romance did feel like it was rushed towards the end of the book, but I still enjoyed it.

My main gripe with this book is the completely separate story that’s included throughout that isn’t mentioned at all in the description. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed those parts (more than the main romance actually), but at first I was really confused by them because I hadn’t been expecting it at all. These chapters also appeared after something dramatic happened in the main storyline, which really pulled away from those moments and their impact. The ending of this side story was sad, but it did make for a satisfying ending for the book altogether.

The formatting of the book needs to be sorted before publication, as it starts with texts being italicised and then that stops, but there’s also a section entirely italicised when it shouldn’t be.

I have mixed feelings about this book. The history of Nora's great-grandmother was the most interesting part of the book, even though its ending was known for the beginning. Additionally, I liked how being part of a celebrity family business affected Henrik and his relationship with different family members.
However, the main plot was way too chaotic. I was lost in what exactly was happening in the show's production. Moreover, the ending felt rushed and it wasn't entirely convincing.

I really enjoyed “Time to Rise” there was family drama, romance, Baking and a strong female lead. Hedrick is a celebrity her who goes in and helps struggling bakeries and Nora’s shop is definitely one struggling. It’s been in her family for years and just can’t compete with the more trendy coffee shops around town. But when her shop is chosen for their winter special she is not happy. There also is the interesting story of their grandparents love and why they. Didn’t end up together. I admit, lots of drama but good story and wonderful character developments it is translated from Swedish so some of the sayings or way they talk to each other gets lost on me but easy enough to follow along.

A super sweet romance. I am absolutely weak for novels set during reality shows. The main romance between Nora, a bakery owner, and Henrik, a celebrity baker, grew from hate at first sight to one of mutual respect and love. Both were struggling with how to honor their family businesses while trying to succeed as individuals.

There was also a really touching secondary romance that was shown as flashbacks.

I enjoyed the book overall but there was just so much happening in it and there were a lot of other characters that kind of took the focus away from the two romances and the personal journeys of the main characters. I read this as an ARC.

Time to rise was a delightful book set in a small bakery that is thrust into the spotlight by the owners best friend applying to a tv show on her behalf.

It is funny and heartbreaking in places and a true delight to read. I was unable to put it down and having the 1940’s backstory look backs were fantastic.

I was pretty sure I knew what I had signed up for: an enemy-to-lover trope, an easy romance to enjoy. I liked that the trope was even mentioned, that some of the characters were aware that it was exactly what they intended to mimic.

There were two things though, that I found a bit problematic. The first one is the double timeline. One understands pretty early the link there must be between the two but it just kept interrupting and it lessened my enjoyment of each story in the end. The second one is the tempo of the enemy-to-lover trope. It felt a bit rushed to me. I cannot stand you, but you are so gorgeous I cannot resist you? That did not feel right to me.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC so that I could give my honest review!

Huge thank you to netgalley for giving me an arc of this book.
This book has a lot of different troupes like:
- Enemies to Lovers
- Highlights friendship
- Brothers having one another backs

The only main thing I didn't really love as much was that the book character DON was very sexist especially about how women should look and it was very disgusting to read and it annoyed me to the point where I was like do I wanna carry on and finish reading this book, I managed to finish reading this book until the end, another thing was the constant unwanted emojis and the unhappy ending but apart from that the book was good.

Time to Rise was so much fun! It follows Nora, a small-town baker trying to save her struggling bakery and Henrik, a reality-tv celebrity baker who both meet while filming a segment for Henrik's show "Let's Get Baking".

It's an enemies-to-lovers story and I really enjoyed the multiple perspectives. It also has chapters that are set during 1945 in post-war Sweden that show the history of the family sourdough recipe and how the bakery came to be. This was a great light-hearted read and I always love reading about the food industry. The descriptions of baked goods and bread were delightful.

Thank you NetGalley for the e-ARC!

This was a gorgeous read, the love story romance was superb, the story keeps you wanting more as the chapters go on, the characters are fab, honestly a very very good book

I thought that I would read this book about a love brought about trying to influence people into believing that people making a TV show about baking could be in love. However, Nora used a show called "Let's Get Baking" to pull her bakery out of debt. She was introduced to Henrik Eklund as the shows host and immediately thought that he was an arrogant man. Through many scenario's he finally becomes in love with her as they tell him to belittle her. He finally tells them he doesn't want to do that with her any more and they believe him and change the program to his new view. This is what Helene has made the books view to be and it is meaningful to say the least. I recommend this book to anyone who likes love at its best.

Great book, an easy & light read. I've never been the hugest fan of dual timeline books, but I did think it fit well here and I kept waiting with baited breath to figure out how it all tied together.

this was quite literally a treat to read!
Nora and Henrik's chemistry was palpable to me right away, even after they clash quite significantly.

these characters are both facing their own issues, Nora struggling with keeping her bakery alive, Henrik with his imposing family sabotaging his every step. what I really enjoyed was that there wasn't much miscommunication between the two! I enjoy the trope every now and again, but I liked how Nora and Henrik's relationship troubles didn't entirely rely on that.

the only thing I personally didn't enjoy as much was the secondary romance in the book that I didn't expect and quite frankly, wasn't as invested in. I didn't really need the way those two stories were connected, but it didn't influence my opinion in how fun a read this was.

thank you netgalley and AmazonCrossing for the arc!!

As someone who loved baking shows and sweet romances, this was a great read for me. I loved the banter between the characters! They had great chemistry. I actually really enjoyed the reality tv aspect of the book which can be a hit or miss with me. I think this will be a great addition to romance readers TBR

4 ⭐

I received this as an ARC via NetGalley! This is a RomCom set in Sweden, following a famous TV baker and a baker from a small town who is struggling to keep the generational family business alive. This story was so unique, because there's also a dual narrative set in 1945 that weaves the background of the sourdough starter that plays an important role in both the character's lives. The book is translated from Swedish, so there are a few grammatical discrepancies, but the integrity of the book remains the same.

Firstly a big thank you for NetGalley for providing me an eArc to read!!

Overall I definitely liked the storyline. It was interesting, uplifting, not over dramatic and had enemies to lovers. I loved all the mentions of winter and the Christmas traditions with the focus on food and baking which reminded me of my own ones.

I’m not the biggest fan of dual timeline books tough because I think it always takes away the spotlight of the main couple and it wasn’t any different here. I often enjoyed the flashback scenes more and felt a deeper connection to them than the actual present romance story between Nora and Henrik. Their relationship was very fast paced and unbelievable especially towards the end and also the sex scene felt very rushed. Also I didn’t feel connection to any of the side characters. Furthermore I didn’t like the storyline with the dysfunctional father of Henrik at all. I just wasn’t the biggest fan of some of the writing in general.

But I still enjoyed the book. It was a fun, uplifting romance book I’m just not sure I’m a fan of the writing.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC of Time to Rise by Heléne Holmström; translated by Marlaine Delargy in exchange for my true thoughts.

This book gave everything that I enjoy about a romance story. It gave reality tv, forced proximity, enemies to lovers, and flashbacks with a purpose! I was surprised by the dual timeframe, but it fit perfectly within the story and characters. Although, I did enjoy the characters of the flashback more than the present day characters. I loved that both women in the story had great friendships and support systems, I enjoyed the scenes that involved Nora's friends. She seemed more herself with those women than she did in other scenes.

This book left me wanting more from the present day characters, Nora and Eklund. Some things felt off for these two characters (bookstore scene). I wish we just got a little bit more before that scene occurred to make it more "in character" for them. It left me wondering if it would have been easier to avoid the enemies to lovers trope and use the fake dating trope instead, it felt like that was set up, but wasn't followed through on.

Overall I would recommend this book if you enjoy the cooking channel, books set in reality tv, and bread! If you're looking for an easy read and hungry for some cinnamon rolls.

Time to Rise is two stories in one. In present day, struggling bakery owner Nora Jansson participates in a reality TV show hosted by gruff celebrity pastry chef Henrik Eklund in an effort to save her family business. In 1945, we follow Tuula, a Finnish widow and her two kids struggling to fit in after taking refuge in Sweden.

I also really enjoyed reading something set in Sweden, which I don't get much opportunity much. This was a compelling story featuring four interesting characters that had me turning the page. I really felt sad seeing Tuuli struggle with anti-Finnish xenophobia and Nils being under the thumb of his controlling father.

However, I did have issues with plot development. The reality show machinations felt a bit half baked. Given Nora and Henrik clashed, I didn't buy that the producer would want them to pretend they're dating without actually manipulating it for the cameras. It just didn't make sense. I also had whiplash between Henrik's attraction to Nora, while then reverting back to gruffiness. I think if the reality show was thought through more, this could've been stronger.

Overall this was the perfect sort of escapist fiction I was craving for. I hope that we can see more Swedish romance authors translated into the English, I certainly would love to read more from Heléne Holmström.

Thanks to Amazon Crossing and NetGalley for the ARC.

I was originally drawn to this due to the setting (Sweden) and the MFC’s struggling family business (bakery/patisserie). Add in the sourdough starter and Christmas time. Combine with enemies to lovers, and toss in a past timeline, and I was really looking forward to this.

I did enjoy this, and really loved the focus on Christmas traditions and food.



Thank you to Amazon Crossing and NetGalley for the DRC

Thanks to the publisher for an eARC provided through NetGalley. The following is my honest and personal review of the book.

Time to Rise is a fun romcom set in Sweden that follows two storylines.

The first is set in the modern day, about a TV show host who helps bakers improve their business and products, and a small town bakery owner whose friend entered into the show. Both of these people come from a long line of bakers, him on his paternal side, and her on her maternal side, and so they are very passionate about what they do.

To complicate things, his TV show persona is mean and condescending, while she refuses to be made to look stupid when she is confident that she is a better baker than him. And neither of them can back out of the show.

In parallel, we follow a storyline from 1945, where a Finnish widow who is passionate about baking migrates with her two children to Sweden and takes a job working as a packer in a family-owned up-and-coming bakery, run by the family’s single son.

And the two storylines eventually collide in the cutest way.

I enjoyed reading the book, the story flows easily, and it is a warm and fluffy romcom.

Both Nora and Henrik have their motives for the show to go on, which got me invested in it as much as they were. And they both are skilled bakers, which makes their quarrels and disagreements plausible.

Tuula and Nils’ storyline was so tender, and it left me with a little heartbreak.

The parallels between the two storylines are pretty clear, and it was easy to draw conclusions and make predictions, but it was in line with what I would expect of a romance story, and I was glad to be reading a book where a happy ending is pretty much guaranteed.

I also loved how the storylines diverged from each other, particularly, how Henrik and Nils handled their relationship with their fathers. I also appreciate the way that both Nora and Tuula contributed to those decisions.

The side characters were interesting and diverse, and I liked to see female friendships throughout the story. And I enjoyed the glimpse into Swedish Christmas traditions!

However, in Nora and Henrik’s storyline, there was more telling and not as much showing as I would have liked, especially regarding their quarrels and their romance. I usually love reading banter, and I felt there was room for more. I also felt the ending was a bit abrupt since the issue of sourdough starter, which is the core of the whole book, did not feel resolved until the epilogue.