Baking it Merry by Samantha Chase

Baking it Merry
A Small Town, Enemies to Lovers, Holiday Romance
by Samantha Chase
Release: November 19, 2024

Holiday romance, enemies-to-lovers, grumpy x sunshine, workplace, fake dating, all the misunderstandings

Everyone in the building loved the bake shop a lot.
Except for the guy on the top floor, who most certainly did not.
If it were up to him, there wouldn’t be a hint of Christmas in the building.

For two months out of the year, Daphne Noelle got to live her dream of owning a bakery. Her little pop-up bake shop—one that looked just like a gingerbread house—brought joy to every customer who stopped by to enjoy her sweet treats. She loved meeting people and making them smile, and being in such a festive setting every day was just the icing on the cake! For the last three years, everything had gone smoothly, but this year, there was one guy who was determined to ruin it all.

One of the things Tristan appreciated most about the office complex where his architecture firm was located is how upscale and elegant it was. Unfortunately, every year for eight long weeks, a holiday shop set up in the lobby, turning it into the equivalent of a traveling circus, and the bake shop booth was the worst offender. The giant gingerbread house was an eyesore and the woman running it was too cheery for his liking. This year, he was determined to do everything he could to have her and her booth removed.

When Tristan finds himself in the middle of a delicate family situation, only Daphne can help him. Now, he’ll have to beg and plead and promise to be on his best behavior while dealing with her exuberant holiday joy. But the more time he spends with her—and the more awkward situations she saves him from—he begins to realize there’s more to her than over-the-top holiday cheer. And maybe, when you’re with the right person, Christmas can mean a little bit more.

 

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🎧Audible: https://geni.us/BakingItMerry-Audible
Narrated by Melanie Mendez

A little music fun with BAKING IT MERRY

Baking It Merry by Samantha Chase
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

🎧📖AUDIO & EBOOK REVIEW📖🎧

This enemies to lovers, fake relationship between architect Tristan Knight and baker Daphne Noelle had the cutest premise! An uptight business man and a carefree baker, what could possibly go wrong? *heart eyes*

Sometimes, Samantha Chase’s stories just hit the spot so perfectly that I just want to hug them! She writes stories from the heart with very low sexual content and very high romantic content. I absolutely adore them, especially when they’re set in a smalltown, and secondary characters add just the right quirkiness to the story!

🎀 I absolutely love how they “landed” into a fake relationship

🎀Tristan’s “control” problem and Daphne’s “conscious” were both very endearing

🎀I loved how their acquaintance status morphed into a friendship and of course a HEA

😒But I didn’t like … (view spoiler)[There’s one thing I did not love/like and that’s the big “misunderstanding” folded into the story at almost the very end. WHY? The fact that neither of them even thought of the idiot he fired is beyond me. THEN we have an entire scene with Tristan and his father where he finally tells him how he feels about the whole “building of things” which completely boggles my mind because Tristan just had a blow-out with Daphne and made sure to tell her his father was on his case about the whole “building of things” all day just a few days prior. *sigh* I really hate last minute conflicts that make no sense :(

I also wish that the “transformation” Tristan did on the pop-up store would have been fleshed out and not rushed. It’s the grovel moment! And then we jump to ILY like nothing … UGH, everything was going really well until it wasn’t and everything that brought the story down was thrown in at the last minute and so was the grovel! WHY? *cries* (hide spoiler)]

This story is a solid 3.5 stars for me but because it was such a great story until it wasn’t I’m rounding to 4 because half stars are not actually a thing. :)

🎧About narration … Thanks to Dreamscape Media, I got to listen to this ALC way before the ARC so even though the story made me twitchy at the end, I went ahead and did both formats. I mean it wasn’t even twitchy until like 88% so … Anywho, Melanie Mendez was wonderful and I enjoyed her performance very much!!

View all my reviews

 

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Samantha Chase is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller of contemporary romance that’s hotter than sweet, sweeter than hot.

She released her debut novel in 2011 and currently has more than eighty titles under her belt – including THE CHRISTMAS COTTAGE which was a Hallmark Christmas movie in 2017 and THE WEDDING SEASON which was a Hallmark wedding movie in 2023!  She’s a Disney enthusiast who still happily listens to 80’s rock. When she’s not working on a new story, she spends her time reading romances, playing way too many games of Solitaire when she should be writing, wearing a tiara while playing with her sassy pug Maylene…oh, and spending time with her husband of 32 years and their two sons in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

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