Sugar is a short and sweet romance that is centered around Charlie Garret, the pastry chef at an upscale restaurant in NYC. She loves her work but is craving a bit more in her life. Charlie’s best friend, Manda, lives in Seattle, and it is here where life tempts Charlie, but there’s a catch! The new life in Seattle comes with a new restaurant and staff, and it’s all part of a new reality series.

A funny, cute story that made me want to read more by this author. I don’t usually read contemporary romance, but I enjoyed this.

The gorgeous cover caught my attention immediately. The short title fits the story perfectly.

I really liked the set-up of the story, I'm always a big fan of books that star cooks or bakers. The recipes mentioned in the book will leave your mouth watering, because they sound so tasty. Charlie is a talented chef, who wants more in her life.. And then her ex-boyfriend Avery comes back into her life. So far so good.

But somehow, I just couldn't get into the story.. There was nothing inherently wrong about it, the writing was fine, but something about Charlie's character just rubbed me the wrong way. What annoyed me the most, was how she spent a lot of time judging her friend and her friend's children. It wasn't just one unfriendly remark, but many throughout the story whenever her friend plus kid(s) showed up.

The romance developed very fast as well, almost instantly. And even though I expected a lot of cooking, at times it felt like a recipe book.

The book is a quick read for an afternoon in the sun, but unfortunately it wasn't for me, mostly due to Charlie's characterisation.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Charlie is a pastry chef waiting for her dream job, she offers to help her ex with his new project. She meets Kai and they soon connect but will her ex disrupt it all.

This was a pleasant read with fun and romance. Great little read!

If you like those reality tv shows about food prep and cooking, this will be one fun, and romantic, read! I'd guess it would be a good summer read myself. I found it a little lite for my winter reading, but it was enjoyable with fun characters in an interesting setting!

incredible book and i thoroughly enjoyed the characters and the whole story over all. thank you for the opportunity

A deliciously sweet story of love, friendship, determination, sprinkled with humour.

Kimberly Stuart has created a plot that flowed with ease set against the demanding, high pressure commercial kitchens of New York and Seattle with colourful characters which makes for quite the indulgent read.

Would recommend to fans who enjoy contemporary romance.

**Arc provided courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

Boy this book sure made me hungry! Learning about the life of being a chef was described very well and I enjoyed reading about it and how dramatic it actually is and I think it would be a great read for foodies but saying that I did not connect with the heroine at all she was a control freak and of course she is beautiful. She was very artificial and also bragging all of the time I found her saying a lot of things I didn't care about and I found it annoying. There was insta love and the pacing in the romance was very off. I hated the possessive hero of the story and there were no friendships! 1 star.

A delightful quirky romance that is sweet and not over the top. It's a clean read and refreshingly fun. It's great for a quick summer romantic read if you are in the mood for a little love, a little humor, a little meddling family and friends and a lot of reality. The desserts seem amazing and I only wish we could have recipes!

Quick light read that's topical (for foodies) and romantic- but also funny. Stuart is not a writer I've read before (thanks Edelweiss for the ARC) but she's someone I'm going to look for again. Charlie is a fun character but I wish she'd fleshed out some of the others as well. Recommend this for something a little different in the genre.

This totally was a case of me judging a book by it's (delicious looking) cover. I fell in love with Charlie right from the start, and especially loved the scenes that were set in the restaurant. The were fast-paced, frenzied and most of all, felt real. I found the romance between Charlie and Kai a little fast-paced, but it wasn't so fast that it was unbelievable. I highly recommend reading this with some coffee/ tea and some pastries because the dessert descriptions were amazing and had me craving sugar every time I read.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the dialog between Charlie and Kai, and how he appreciated her idiocyncracies. I really loved the character of Manda - she was such a great friend and a hilarious mother. I look forward to reading more from Kimberly Stuart.

I had a difficult time getting into this story. I’d heard people raving about this book, but after reading the opening chapter or so I couldn’t relate with their opinions.

I liked the idea of a story framed around a heroine chef. I enjoy cooking shows and the occasional Hallmark movie centered around chefs. So I was looking forward for a lighthearted read about a chef's journey, even a bit of romance.

The story was not at all what I expected, both in content and in genre. Unfortunately, I assumed this was a CBA book, but what I found was bleak, violent, and crude. Because of this, after about 2 percent into the story, I decided to move on to the next book in my TBR list.

I wish the author well.

I enjoyed this story of a pastry chef who "accidentally" finds herself as a star of a reality TV show. It was definitely predictable, but it was cute and sweet. I think it's perfect for a beach read!

Kimberly wrote an amazing book about love. Sweet, like the title, and well developed characters. Great read for anyone looking for a light and funny romantic comedy.

4.5 Stars!

Sugar initially drew my interest because of the delicious looking dessert on the cover and ended up being a charming story about a woman who questions what she wants in life and sets about getting it.

Charlie Garrett works as an assistant pastry chef at a high-profile restaurant in New York. After realizing the people she works for will never appreciate her, she moves across the country to Seattle to become head pastry chef at her ex-boyfriend's restaurant. After she starts though, she finds out she's been roped into being part of a reality TV show at the restaurant. And soon after her arrival in Seattle, she meets Kai Malloy who is everything she's ever wanted in life outside of her job. Sugar follows Charlie getting everything she's always thought she wanted and having to decide if reality lives up to her dreams.

The story in Sugar drew me in right away. I loved all of the high energy scenes in the restaurant. The author did an amazing job showing how frenzied and and stressful life in a restaurant kitchen could be. I also like how she showed just how much it can impact a person's life outside of the kitchen. Plus, all of the dessert descriptions were divine and left me seriously craving something sweet.

Charlie was a great character and I liked her right from the start. She's incredibly dedicated to her profession and knows what her worth is and what kind of job she deserves. She's fine with taking risks to achieve her dreams and does everything she can to get there. Her love of what she did came across so well and I loved how focused she was on the fine-tuning of her recipes. I myself am a baker, so I understand the feeling you get when you get something just right and the entire dish comes together. Her excitement about what she did came across so clearly whenever she talked to anyone about what she did.

Kai was incredibly sweet and I loved him right away. The banter between these two at the start is excellent and I enjoyed them together immediately. The romance was a bit fast-paced due to the lack of time Charlie and Kai were able to spend together, but when they were actually able to see each other it was wonderful. I liked that the problems they faced did actually impact their relationship and they had to actually work through them. The epilogue was incredibly sweet and I really enjoyed getting one last look into how things worked out.

Overall, I think Sugar was an excellent contemporary romance and recommend it to fans of the genre.

This is a lovely little book about a chef trying to find the balance between her dream job and her home life. It’s a light enjoyable chick-lit read – and one that will continually make you hungry with all the talk of food. It’s a pretty short read at only 240 pages, and it’s sweet – both in the desserts and in the romance kind of way (see what I did there!)

I found the plot really enjoyable, Charlie takes the leap of moving from New York to Seattle, but her job isn’t all that it seems, and of course there’s her new relationship to contend with the demanding job. The one thing that let me down about this book were the characters. I would have loved a much deeper analysis into them. So much happens in those two hundred odd pages, I felt like I barely got to know them and it was finished. I also didn’t get particularly attached to the characters – don’t get me wrong they’re written well, I just didn’t connect with them in any real way.

Despite that it’s still a really enticing story, and one that I really enjoyed. I read a large chunk of it in one sitting during a train journey, and really loved the depictions of working in a crazy hectic kitchen. The depictions of the food are really fabulous and well researched and there’s also a dash of humour tied in to make a really enjoyable mix. If you’re looking for something light and fun, this will definitely be up your alley.

Sugar is a fun read, full of food, friendship, romance and so much more. I loved reading about the life of a Charlie, a creative and passionate Pastry chef and the behind the scenes look at the fast pace work of restaurants and relationships formed. Add to the mix competitve work environments, fast pace and the hours...oh my...I could not keep up with that frenetic pace of a keeping a 5 star restaurant going. I was in awe of the energy and passion Charlie put into her cooking. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys foodie books with a splash of romance and a fun read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Skyhorse Publishing for providing an e-galley for review.

This book would probably be great for foodies or those who love watching shows like Masterchef, Chef's Table or GBBO. It gives a great behind the scenes look at how kitchen work and just how intense and crazy the life can get - not to mention the exhausting hours the people in the kitchen work to create some amazing food.

However, despite the great kitchen scenes, I just could not get into this book. I just really did not connect with the main character Charlie Garrett. She is played off as being a bit of a clean and organisational freak but obviously insanely talented with sugar and, of course, beautiful but I found her to be pretty obnoxious most of the time and really, really stuck up. I did not like her..at all from start to finish. She made some weird comments throughout the book that I found annoying and unnecessary that also made me raise my eyebrows a bit from needing to describe every bot of her exercise routine at the start of the book (did we really need to know she completed 100 sit ups?) to commenting on how her friend's body was back to almost normal after being "distorted" by three pregnancies. There's also a lot of commentry around her friend and her kids - the kids are always dirty and screaming and there's definitely disdain there in Charlie's voice. Not to mention this friend never appears in the story without her kids which was a bit annoying as well. It's like she didn't serve a purpose than being the messy mom/shoulder to cry on while also holding an infant. The kids were also written in all the ways I hate kids being written - whiny, too cutesy and not talking properly. Gah.

I also didn't like the relationship.I found it weird and too fast considering they never saw each other. After one date, they were doing double dates and after two dates, they were going on road trips to meet his entire family on which she was questioned about her plans on marriage and kids (like who does that?). There was also a 'cute old man' they met that her boyfriend Kai knew who made a comment about all the women he normally meets are "tomboys" who don't shave or wash properly and it was nice to see a city girl who knew what a shower was show up. Yeah, I didn't know how to take that comment. I hated Kai's weird possessiveness over Charlie, especially considering they were hardly daring or seeing each other. He went into the relationship knowing what she was and her dreams yet he punished her for staying late in her job and made a big deal out of everything. Back. Off. Man.

Most of this book just had me rolling my eyes and i just kept hoping for it to get better and it didn't. I feel like Charlie completely folded and gave up on her dreams by the end and I just didn't really care for the happy ever after at the farmer's market she seemed content with. Okay then.

​To set myself in the mood reading mood, I made a 1.5 jug of hot lemon tea and switched on my Amazon music playlist to play a “lazy morning in bed” playlist. That's heaven right there!

Sugar fit the bill so perfectly. Although initially, I thought it was such a soppy name for a romance novel. That was just my cynicism rearing its head as I am averse to romance novels.

This is not your usual romance novel with no modicum of reality. This actually depicts real life situations many women face.

The struggle between having a healthy relationship and an intense career. The career in this novel was the pastry chef career. Not so glam but lots of hardworking and gruelling hours.

I am not going to give any spoilers but if you are looking for a humorous and not too cliche, this book is for you. A little dose of romance and reality never hurt anyone on a lazy Saturday.