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I downloaded this book on my Kindle when it was free from BookBub.

Summary:

Two brothers. Two sisters. One sweet & sexy rivalry. 

Twin brothers and Air Force vets, Tanner and Garrett Mann, return from deployment to find their thriving business burned to the ground. Time for Plan B: Move back to their hometown of Beach Pointe to start over.

But that means running into Paige and Morgan Baxter – gorgeous, curvy, and owners of Two Sisters Cupcakes.

There’s an old diner for sale across town, Garrett’s a great cook, and Tanner has an idea. They’ll make savory cupcakes that men would like. We’re talking bacon and Cheez Whiz. Even better? They’ll call it Mann Cakes. Problem is, they end up attracting an unexpected crowd.

Paige is furious. Every man in her life has left her behind, including Tanner. She’s sacrificed everything for her shop. She won’t lose it over some egotistical ex-boyfriend, even if he does have an Air Force-chiseled body. Her younger sister, Morgan, isn’t helping matters. She’s been gaga over Garrett since high school.

To hell with that. If it’s a fight Tanner wants, it’s a fight he’ll get. But how much is Paige willing to risk to win a cupcake war?

My Review:

Now that I’ve read the book, the cover makes a little more sense to me. I understood the baking part and yes, I know the romance part, but I couldn’t get the point of showing just one of the guys wearing an apron and holding a whisk. Now it makes more sense to me, but still. The cover is just okay to me.

After reading the summary, I thought this book sounded like You’ve Got Mail or Coffee, Tea, or Me by Rich Amooi. I’m a fan of romantic comedies and this book was free on BookBub, so I decided to give it a try.

I felt this plot was all over the place. The summary is misleading to me. I thought I was going to get a light-hearted rom-com when, in fact, the book was way more romance than comedy. Honestly, I wouldn’t even classify this book as a comedy. BookBub told me it was a rom-com so I took it as such, but that was my own mistake. I should have known by reading the summary alone.

Still, there was very little baking going on in the book. Very little of the plot had to do with their cupcake shops. I definitely wanted more of the “cupcake war” that was mentioned in the summary. Instead, I got them falling in love with each other but pretending they weren’t in love with each other. There were many orgasm scenes which I skipped. I did not sign up for that when I decided to read this book. Then again, muscle-man is on the cover in nothing but an apron so, again, I guess I should have guessed.

There was also some mystery to it as well which was mentioned in the beginning and then there was a big blow-out at the end as the culprit was revealed. This wasn’t a mystery story though, so it was totally out of left field and made no sense.

Paige and Morgan are two sisters running a cupcake shop. Tanner and Garrett are twins who come back to their hometown and open a “savory” cupcake shop. I didn’t care about any of these characters and couldn’t relate to them at all. Paige had a rough life with “every man in her life [leaving] her behind” and also with an autistic 5-year-old. I think I was meant to sympathize with her due to that, but it didn’t work. Morgan gave up her art to help Paige, but there was barely any mention of her art and what she actually wanted to do in her life for me to care.

Same with Tanner and Garrett. They’re joined at the hip and complain about it. Yet they won’t leave each other’s side. They also went to war. Again, I think I was meant to sympathize with them for that fact, but it just didn’t work.

This book is written in the four POVs, which wasn’t needed. Especially since each character liked to explain everything to the reader. It was one reason I couldn’t sympathize with any of the characters. They explained everything to me so I didn’t need to feel the pain or happiness or whatever they were feeling. The dialogue was bland as well. It was almost as if they were trying to hold my hand to carry me through the story.

I changed the rating on this book three times while writing this review. I tried to come up with some positives about the book, but for me, there just aren’t any positives. The plot made no sense and was misleading from the summary, the characters were unlikeable, and the writing was bland. This could have had a lot of potential, but I just couldn’t get into it.

Mann Cakes (Beach Pointe 1) by Mysti Parker gets…
1 out of 5 cups

Favorite Quote:

“A pair of girls took a selfie with Garrett, whose smile was more Mona Lisa than Colgate commercial.” -Mysti Parker, Mann Cakes (Beach Pointe 1)

Buy the book:

Amazon

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