This was a quick on read that I enjoyed and was able to finish within a day. I really liked the plot and found the characters relatable.

The concept had promise but fell short. Way too much unnecessary drama in this story. Did not finish.

I do not watch reality shows, well except for the occasional Survivor episode, and usually do not read or listen to reality show books but this one captivated me. Savannah is a pastry chef and her sister enrolls her in a contest and since the pennies are tight and she wants to send her sister to college she participates. What she finds when she shows up at the house is her night school rival and her ex-boyfriend who is a real douche. This was a quirky story where they end up doing crazy antics and still end up making me crave sweets. This was a clean romance wrapped up in this one and it was lovely.

The Baking Games is The Great British Bake Off meets Big Brother, as bakers take part in a baking competition that involves spending weeks living together in the same house and being filmed 24/7… it’s a unique concept and one that I was really intrigued by, hence why I requested a copy of this audiobook in exchange for a review.

I wouldn’t really call this Enemies to Lovers, more like 2 people who didn’t particularly get on while at chef school, but haven’t had anything to do with each other since… but I still enjoyed their relationship.

Were parts of this story really contrived? Of course. It was a niche setting like nothing I’ve really read before. But it was fun and cute and was a nice easy listen.

I did find that the POVs switched a little suddenly and at times were hard to follow while only having a female narrator, but I just about managed to keep up.

If you like sweets treats, an easy listen and a sprinkle of reality TV drama, then I think you’d enjoy this book.

The Baking Games is for my reality tv fans and fellow snackers. It’s a behind the scenes look at a reality tv baking competition mixed with a little fake dating trope. It was a cute easy binge listen but my only complaint is the dual povs switched fast and suddenly at times

Thank you NetGalley, Dreamscape Select, and Rachel Hanna for the early access copy of The Baking Games.

The Baking Games is a dual-point-of-view story told by Savannah and Rhett. Savannah is an aspiring baker with dreams of opening her own shops, but with financial responsibilities that prevent her from doing so. That is until her sister presents her with the opportunity to apply for a baking reality T.V show where contestants need to live in the same house and compete in baking competitions until a winner is crowned. With $200, 000 on the line Savannah applies. When she gets into the competition, she realizes that she is not only there with her slimy ex-boyfriend Connor, but her baking school archnemesis Rhett. .

Baking games is an enemies-to-lovers, reality TV, he-falls-first, sweet romance that is hard to not fall in love with. The narrator for the audiobook does a fantastic job at engaging the reading.

The Baking Games - Rachel Hanna

A baking competition.. All the contenders are put into the same house for 6 weeks and must complete baking tasks… Each round knocks a baker out until they are left with the winner, cash prize and the chance to bake a wedding cake for the hottest celeb couple.. What could go wrong… Well you could walk through the front door and find not only your ex boyfriend but your arch nemesis staring at you.

This book was loaded with cuteness. I love the idea of a reality baking competition where you can watch the contestants 24 hours a day.

Savannah is the sunshine and rainbows baker who lost her mother when she was a teen and took custody of her sister… She has put her life on hold for her. Her rival from school, Rhett, the classic grumpy guy who finds it hard to connect with people. It was magical watching the two of them go from enemies to friends to lovers.

I found the whole book charming and the narrators were awesome.

4 stars

I loved The Baking Games! Savannah enters a baking competition to win money to help her and her sister live the life they want. She’s shocked when she arrives to this baking competition reality show and realizes she will be living with her ex-boyfriend, Connor, and her pastry school rival, Rhett, amongst other casts of characters. I really enjoyed the baking scenes, as I am a fan of those shows. The banter and slow burn relationship of Savannah and Rhett was really sweet. Grump/sunshine troupe for the win. Lastly, I appreciated how we got enough of Connor to understand he was a jerk but not enough for it to be really annoying. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a light romance, fun rom-com who enjoys baking and sunshine/grump troupe.

This was pretty cute and fun!

I love baking and I love books about competitions, so this book was right up my alley.
The story was entertaining and the main characters had good chemistry.
I’d recommend the book.

[I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.]

Upon entering a new competition reality TV show called The Baking Games, Savannah finds out that two of the other contestants are Rhett, the one person she hated when she was studying in pastry chef school, and Connor, her ex-boyfriend. All three of them (and a bunch of other candidates) have now to spend 5 weeks in a mansion and take up several challenges to determine who's the best baker. But the thing with reality TV is that popularity is always more important than talent. For that reason, Rhett comes up with a great idea to boost his and Savannah's popularity and guarantee the audience's votes and places in the final.

Okay, I'll be honest : was this a good book ? God no. Was it entertaining ? Yes.

When I think about The Baking Games, there are at least a dozen negative comments about the writing that instantly come to my mind, and I'll talk about some of them further down this review. What I want to talk about first is why liked it : give me my favourite trope (enemies to lovers ... Ok, people who dislike each other to lovers), give me food (not literally, just write about it), give me an interesting setting (competition reality TV), give it to me in audiobook format and I'll probably enjoy the novel (but still be triggered by it).

Now, the writing was the exact type of writing that I hate : One dimentional characters, nothing shown - literally everything said, constant amateur psychoanalyses, plot conveniences, and so on ... These points justify my rating, but I'll also address additional points, that bothered me when I was listening to this audiobook :

1. Are we, in 2024, still insisting on the fact that a woman is only considered beautiful because she's 100% "natural" ? The way Rhett kept praising Savannah for not wearing any make up made me feel uncomfortable 🤣 Aaaand he way that other contestant (or bimbo apparently ?) was described by the two main characters was just disgusting and immature.
2. As mentioned earlier, I'm very partial to novels that mention food, HOWEVER ... Ok I'll say it, (fine) pastry and Americans don't go well together 🤷🏻‍♀️ For contestants that are supposed to be passionate about pastry, they clearly lack imagination ... And knowledge ... And culture. Here's a cringe quote for you : "Red bean? He made a dessert with red beans in the final competition?" Yes dear. Red beans are a commonly used ingredient in Asian desserts. The author probably knows it, but the way the MC and the judges reacted to one contestant using red beans was very ignorant (... and ethnically centered) I get that many people won't see any anything wrong in this, but it did bother me as non-white person who happens to know a lot about pastry.
3. This one may seem stupid -and it is- but I can't say how irritated I got each time they mentioned the pastry chef school Savannah and Rhett went to, because each time, (25 that felt like 250) they literally called it "pAsTrY ChEf sChOol" : WHY DOESN’T THIS SCHOOL HAVE A NAME ? 😭

🎧 Audiobook : 4/5 The narrator is alright.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Select for giving me access to this audiobook for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

The Baking Games by Rachel Hanna was very cute. Listened to this one in just a couple of days.

Savannah Greene has a tougher than average life. She has been raising her sister since she was barely an adult. While taking care of her sister, she went to night school to earn her culinary degree. She works for a miserable hag at a local grocery bakery, creating cakes from a kit. She is trudging through this mundane life for her sister. Savannah wants to make sure Sadie has a better life and would love to be able to send Sadie to college.

Enter The Baking Games. Savannah signs up for this reality TV show with hopes of winning a $200,000 prize. Her hope is to send her sister to school and maybe start up her own bakery.

After arriving on set, Savannah discovers that not only is her ex-boyfriend, Connor, on the show, but her nemeses from culinary school, Rhett, is also on the show. What are the odds?

Rhett tries to convince Savannah to play up a fake relationship troupe in order to ensure her time on the baking show (because it increases viewer ratings and surely the judges love the ratings).

It's a super cute listen with a lot of feeling and the usual misunderstandings.

Anne-Michael Smith does an excellent job narrating the book. Great job!

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Select for the advance audio copy in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

4 stars..... recommend for a fun read!

What a book! This book is perfect for anyone who likes reality TV and contest shows.

This book follows Savannah who enters a life changing competition to possibly pursue her passion for baking. When she gets to the competition house things are far from what she expects. First her culinary school rival is there as well as her ex boyfriend. When the challenges start heating up and her confidence is rattled she finds herself agreeing to participate in things she normally never would.

What I will say is this story took a little bit to get going for me but I did really root for our female main character Savannah from the beginning. Savannah is a likable character ands she forms genuine bonds with some of the other contestants and I really enjoyed it.

I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a reality show fake dating story. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this snotty!

I LOVE baking shows and romcoms. This should have been perfect for me, but I ended up DNFing after several efforts to get through it. Unfortunately, I found the FMC to be whiny and flat. This book had all of the tropes, and I just didn't care about any of the characters. I wanted so much more from it.

Thanks for the chance to review! I'm obviously in the minority, and I am so glad that it works for some people! I do think a print book might have been a bit more readable for me as the narration fell a little flat, so that could have been part of the problem.

Do you love reality television shows? Then this is the book for you! This story is about Savannah who enters a baking contest and has to live in a house for up to 6 weeks with all the other contestants. This is a fun story from the contestants point of view living in a house cut off from the outside world not getting along with others in the house, and of course some romance. I love a good romcom story and this one doesn't disappoint. This is a fun clean romance story(all they mention is kissing) that makes you think of shows like the bachelor but better(in my opinion) with the addition of a baking contest like the Great British Bake Off. I highly recommend this story for a light fun read and might inspire you to bake something.
I was given this audio book to listen in exchange for my feedback on NetGalley.

This was a fun, dual POV, enemies to lovers, reality TV baking competition romance that has two former rivals competing to win a baking competition and fake dating to win viewer popularity votes. I enjoyed this romcom by a new to me author quite a bit but thought the POV switches were quite sudden and abrupt - perhaps a better print than audio read but still worth picking up! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

I eat up those reality baking shows like they're sugar cookies, so I JUMPED at the chance to listen to the audio version of Rachel Hanna's The Baking Games.

I have no trouble giving Hanna five huge stars because they truly capture the essence of these shows. Between all the wackadoodle characters, and living in a communal house, and having mics and cameras literally everywhere! This story is just perfection.

There's a fun romance here, along with plenty of the behind the scenes hijinks I'm sure goes on (which we never get to see). Rachel Hanna delivers the right blend between the social aspects and the baking competion drama.

The audio version of The Baking Games is nicely performed by Anne-Michael Smith.

2.5 stars. I like baking shows and I like romance novels, but I did not care for this book. Almost DNF'd a few times but stubbornly stuck it out in hopes that it would get better. It did, but only marginally. The romance was super cheesy, and packed with almost too many romance tropes (forced proximity, grumpy and sunshine, enemies to lovers, fake relationship). The split POV bounced back and forth too frequently, and with both characters having almost identical thoughts on how things were going, it was hard to keep track of whose POV was in play at any given point.

The Baking Games by Rachel Hanna is a sweet, cozy escape that totally warmed my heart. Savannah, a pastry chef doing everything she can to take care of her younger sister, gets thrown into a high-stakes baking reality show—and the drama only heats up when her old rival and ex-boyfriend show up too! The romance was light and charming, and the reality show twists added some fun tension, and left me with a hankering to bake! I’d definitely recommend it for anyone in the mood for a fluffy, clean, feel-good story.

Have you ever wanted to go behind the scenes of a baking show? If so, this is the book for you! Rachel Hanna delivers a sweet, clean romance in The Baking Games. The main characters, Savannah and Conor, have a friends-to-enemies vibe, along with some childhood connection, although it’s not fully explored. The narrator was great, but since this is a dual POV story, it would have benefited from two narrators. Unfortunately, the female narrator didn’t even attempt a male voice, making it difficult to distinguish when different characters were speaking. Thank you NetGalley for this opportunity to listen and review this book.

This was such a cute book! Think Big Brother meets The Great British Bake Off! What a cozy, enemies-to-lovers, baking show rom-com! The main characters were so cute and some great and fun side characters helped the story.

The only thing I think that could add to the story is if we had even more backstory with the main FFC and MMC. Yes, we are told about their school rivalry but I would like to hear more.

The narrator was great but it is a dual POV and only a female narrator. She didn't even attempt a male voice when any male was speaking. Even normal narrators attempt a male voice to distinguish the difference when more than one person, but this narrator didn't do that so it was hard to distinguish when different people are talking. This audiobook could have been so much better if there were 2 narrators.

Overall I did enjoy this book!

I received an arc from Netgalley and the publisher.