Self-Isolation Read - Baked Fresh

• Title And Author: Baked Fresh by Annabeth Albert
• Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: eBook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted
• Length: 131 Pages

So, history time! Back in March 2020, when Corona was making everyone very scared (as UK Government was giving us little/no information), a bunch of book bloggers/vloggers/instgrammers started doing threads on Twitter going “Share your Amazon Wishlist and buy something for a stranger if you can afford it”. Now, this is lovely idea and I bought a few people one/two things from their lists and, probably against my better judgement, put mine public and shared it. 

So imagine my surprise when Kate (aka @Mummy2aRockStar on Twitter) kindly messaged me and went “Can I buy you this?” and we spend a good half an hour trying to figure out how to gift something onto my kindle. It’s so strange! 

So, Baked Fresh is the second novella in the Portland Heat series and we follow baker on the rise, Vic Degrassi, who is a rare ability to make and keep New Year’s resolution. Whether it’s quitting smoking, graduating culinary school or losing weight, he keeps them. This year, he wants to meet someone and have a relationship. Not a fling. 

So, when he discovers that a sweet-hearted Robin who volunteers at the local homeless shelter has been unceremoniously dumped, Vic is more than happy to be his shoulder to cry on. Vic has been harbouring a crush on Robin, so he’s delighted when they going a date and their flirting turns to a steamy night together. But Robin isn’t ready for a relationship and with both having issues to deal with, can they just be friends with benefits or something more?

eBook review - Wrapped Together

Because it's Christmas, I been feeling the past few days/weeks that I should read more Christmasy reads. Normally, I don't. You might have noticed over the past few years if you have followed my blog for quite a while, I usually just continue to read what the mood takes me. Whether that be crime, fantasy, sci-fi...

but this year, I wanted to read stories set round Christmas-time. That and get my ARCs and eARCs in some sort of order from this month till February-ish time (but I will let you guys probably do some voting on my Twitter when that happens so you have some input!).

So, one evening, while skimming NetGalley, Wrapped Together caught my eyes. A romance LGBT story set round Christmas time. And it's a novella to boot. And it's a grown-up read so is outside my comfort zone. Requested before I could stop myself (I have no self-control, have I?)

The fifth (or 4.5) in the Portland Heat series, Christmas is meant to be great business for retail. And it is, expect store owner Hollis. Christmas reminds him of a tragedy that happened three years ago. But fellow store owner (and twin brother to Hollis's brother-in-law), Sawyer, has decided to make it his mission to make Hollis enjoy the holiday. And the more time they spend together, the more it looks like it could be working. Hollis is slowly coming out of his shell and enjoying the season - and Sawyer's company.

But Hollis's heart is fragile and with him being scared of it getting broken, could he take a leap of faith when it comes to his and Sawyer blossoming relationship?

I must state something here: whenever I pick LGBT books on NetGalley, it usually a very bad decision. It's one reason or another: it's badly written, it goes into S&M/BDSM literature (something I don't like reading. You have your no-goes in reading, I have mine.), it feels fake or out of place. So, requesting then reading this was a bit of a risk.

This is a sweet, fluffy, holiday romance. I accept this, and I enjoyed it. I didn't love it the way I hoped (more on that later), but I did blitz through this quite quickly - about three days (at the beginning of the month. Because of how I schedule last week's reviews, I only just posting this now). It is very fluffy and Christmasy. And it does scream Christmas TV movie, with it being a bit painted-by-numbers - you know where the plot is going and you know that, when you get the end, you will get your Happily Ever After.

I didn't mind this. It's kinda why I signed up for. I don't read many romanic stories.

This wasn't perfect, though. I didn't really see the point of the epilogue. It could have been removed and it wouldn't have made any real difference to the story.

I have one big flaw with this story. Like you have probably guessed, this is very much aimed towards an adult audience - I suspected that - but why, OH WHY, is it when I read an adult LGBT romanic is there BDSM? I get that this isn't a big taboo anymore (Fifty Shades of Grey), but it feels like every times I try and read a grown-up LGBT story, there is bondage and one of the people entering this relationship is a newbie and has their eyes open to this world. Really? Does this happen in every adult LGBT book or am I picking up the wrong ones to read? I don't mind stories with a bit of kink in it, but having this within this story, for some reason, I found a little jarring.

Barring this, I found this a fast, fun read. I might read more from this series in the future. Maybe... Not sure... But this was a nice fluffy Xmas read. Just the kinky moments might not be for everyone...