A Legend in the Baking by Jamie Wesley: Review

Welcome to my review of A Legend in the Baking by Jamie Wesley! The title is so cute and fits perfectly with the book. This was on my BRBF TBR, so I’m glad I was able to get to it before the festival.

Title: A Legend in the Baking (Sugar Blitz, #2)
Author: Jamie Wesley
Genre: Romance
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Pub Date: 11/19/24

Description

In A Legend in the Baking, the new romance from Jamie Wesley, a cupcake-baking football player gets assistance from a social media maven—and his best friend’s little sister—to help promote his new bakery after accidentally going viral online.

August Hodges was supposed to be the silent partner in Sugar Blitz Cupcakes. Emphasis on silent. That is until his impromptu feminist rant about how women bakers are the backbone of the industry and baking cupcakes isn’t a threat to masculinity goes viral, making him the hottest bachelor in town. With a new location in the works, August and his partners decide to capitalize on this perfect opportunity to help cement their place in the community. But the hiring of his best friend’s younger sister, the woman who has haunted some of his best dreams for years, was as much of a shock as his new-found fame.

Social media manager Sloane Dell fell hard for her brother’s best friend the moment she met him more than a decade ago, but that teenage infatuation cost her dearly. Still, she accepts her brother’s request to revamp the bakery’s social media presence to take advantage of August’s newfound popularity, knowing it’s the big break her fledgling career needs. She’ll just ignore the fact that August is still August, i.e. sexier and sweeter than any man has a right to be. And that he drives her crazy with his resistance to all her ideas.

They vow to leave the past in the past. But when an explosive make-out session makes it clear their attraction burns hotter than ever, Sloane and August are forced to reconsider what it means to take a risk and chase your dreams.

As they’re both about to find out, all’s fair in love and cupcakes.

Review

A Legend in the Baking was so fun! I had no idea it was the second in a series, so I definitely want to go back and read about the origins of Donovan and Jada’s love story and get more background information on Sugar Blitz. The story works well as an interconnected standalone, though, because I never felt like I was missing information that was vital to me understanding Sloane or August.

I thoroughly enjoy books where the main character has to decide what’s most important to them, and Sloane’s eagerness for a job definitely conflicted with her romantic feelings. I wish I had a rich sibling because I would take all the handouts with no complaint unlike her. August’s unresolved feelings from his divorce also laid great groundwork for his romantic hesitancy and his desire to step in the spotlight. Sloane was very headstrong while August was the laidback, stay-to-himself type, so I enjoyed seeing how they clashed, but how they also were able to lean on each other because of their differing strengths and weaknesses.

The teasing of the past early on made me interested to keep reading to find out what really happened between them. The flashback chapters were well-balanced and gave just enough of August and Sloane’s history to help us understand how close they had been and where everything went wrong. I did wish they were slightly longer though. I love a good will they, won’t they, especially because Slone and August both thought they knew what the other was thinking when they absolutely didn’t, but some of their thoughts about the relationship got a bit repetitive at times. August also got sexually harassed by his fans a lot, and I wish that had been addressed because it’s just skated over and accepted.

Overall, I enjoyed this one, and I would read more by the author. I would recommend it for readers who love forced proximity and main characters trying to work through their issues.

Author

Photo credit: Kim Campbell

Jamie Wesley has been reading romance novels since she was about 12 when her mother left a romance novel, which a friend had given her, on the nightstand. Jamie read it instead, and the rest is history. Her books include Fake It Till You Bake It, the One-on-One series, and Camp Firefly Falls. When she’s not writing or reading romance, Jamie can be found watching TV, rooting for her favorite sports teams, and/or planning her next trip to Walt Disney World.