I received this book via the publisher St. Martin's Griffin. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of this review.

Series: Sugar Blitz #2
Published by St. Martin's Griffin on 2024-11-19
Length: 334 pages
Reviewing eARC from the publisher St. Martin's Griffin
Rating:
Reading Challenges: #NGEW2024, 2024 COYER Unwind, 2024 Finishing the Series Reading Challenge





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.
I really enjoyed this one! A Legend in the Baking by Jamie Wesley is the second standalone romance in her series Sugar Blitz about a cupcake-baking football player and his best friend’s little sister. August Hodges is the silent partner/baker at Sugar Blitz Cupcakes until his impromptu rant about how women bakers are the backbone of the industry and baking cupcakes doesn’t diminish masculinity goes viral. With a new location soon to open, August and his partners decide to capitalize on his newfound fame. But the girl who haunts his dreams is the one they hire to help them do it.
Sloane Dell is the little sister of Donovan, one of the owners and the MMC in the first book. I was excited to see how she would fit with the football players. Sloane is a social media manager and, after being passed up for another promotion, just quit her job. So when Donovan offers her a position at the bakery, she begrudgingly takes it in the hopes that it will help her land her dream job. The only problem is it puts her in close proximity with August, the man who she’s been crushing on since she was a teenager and who broke her heart twelve years earlier.
August isn’t in much better of a position. Sloane was, at one time, his closest friend, yet he ruined that by not returning her feelings when he should have. Now he pines for her from afar, but he’s going to be working with her on the social media campaign, capitalizing on his status as SugarBae. He is all outside his comfort zone. Even as a professional football player, August is not the one the reporters want to talk to, fans don’t flock to him. So this is all new.
I was so excited to start this one. I devoured Fake It Til You Bake It, the first book of this series. I liked August in it, so was even more excited when I realized it would be his book and Sloane’s. This is a classic slow burn, second chance romance. I liked how Wesley integrated chapters from the past to set the scene for the present. It added tension to the story at the right moments and slowly revealed what had gone down between August and Sloane all those years earlier.
Overall, I really enjoyed A Legend in the Baking. It was easy to root for Sloane and August, maybe even attempt to knock some sense into them through the pages when they were being obstinate. If you are a fan of slow burn romance, I highly recommend it.
I’ve been watching the reviews of this series and think I would really enjoy them because food stuff.
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It’s a cute series. I like that it is told from both the FMC and MMC point of view. The bakery is a great addition as well.
I really want to read this series, they sound so good! Maybe some day I can fit them. into my schedule. Maybe as an audiobook. Great review!
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