SYNOPSIS

Football player and cupcake owner Donovan is worried about his sales for the business he owns with his teammates and best friends. He overhears a customer say the shop was stale like his cupcakes and gives them free cupcakes to prove his are the best in town. They have a back and forth that gets them both riled up.

The customer is Jada. She was recently on a popular reality tv show where she rejected the proposal of the bachelor who’s heart she was competing for. She said she couldn’t forget about someone she had back home. People bashed her on social media for it. She recluses, moving back home, dodging a producers pleas to do interviews, and is staying off of social media. She is lost on what her next moves should be. Her grandma tasks her with holding down a job for six months in exchange for getting her trust fund money early.

Meanwhile, Donovan is looking for a way to boost sales and decides to speak with the owner of the football team he is in negotiations with. She gives him some advice and asks for a favor- to hire her granddaughter to work at the shop for a few months. The granddaughter shows up shortly after. Jada and Donovan are both surprised to run into each other again! What can possibly happen?

MY RECAP AND REVIEW

This book is written in two perspectives of Jada and Donovan. This book includes an annoyance to lovers and fake relationship trope. It’s driven by the characters.

The story is pretty straightforward and I’m not mad at it. Jada and Donovan are opposites, one being spontaneous and the other being orderly. They balance each other out, encouraging growth in the other. Donovan relaxes a bit and releases a little control. Jada learns where her strengths lie and figures out her career path.

There is a third act breakup. What’s a romance book without a third act break up though? Reading it, I was waiting for it to happen, thinking it would at different points before it happened. The reasoning for the breakup was somewhat understandable and definitely on brand for who the characters are.

The book read like a Hallmark movie, though there were times I was pleasantly surprised that the obvious didn’t happen. The banter between Jada and Donovan is fun to read. There is one sex scene detailed.

OVERALL

Overall, I give this a 3 out of 5 stars. It’s a black romance book that’s not centered around black trauma, which is a plus. It was cute and written nicely.