Book Blurb:
Emily whips up Christmas magic like a festive fairy: cinnamon rolls, gingerbread cookies, peppermint mochas with Mariah Carey on full blast. When a blizzard hits, her bakery’s kitchen is headquarters for holiday deliveries to save the town. The only problem? Cole, the hot, infuriating firefighter she loves to hate. Can she survive them working side by side?
Emily’s the hot-tempered blonde who pushes every one of Cole’sbuttons. But with Maple Falls snowed in, he needs her help… and her orange-and-cinnamon scented kitchen. Soon it’s command central for Operation Sugar and Spice, with simmering pots, stacked pies, and elf-hatted volunteers loading snowmobiles. Emily’s attitude won’t let up… can they last until Christmas without strangling each other—or worse, falling for each other?
As sparks fly hotter than the kitchen’s wood-fired stove and the truth behind their family feud surfaces, will Emily and Cole give in to what’s always been burning between them… or stay on each other’s naughty list forever?
Tropes:
*Netgalley ALC *Holiday Romance *Hallmark Vibes *Spice *Small town Romance
*Forced Proximity *mystery *Blizzard *Fire Fighter MMC *Baker FMC *enemies --> more
Thoughts:
Even though this is book 6 in the series it can be read as a stand alone. I requested this ALC from Netgalley because of the description sometimes you just want something light, fluffy and cozy and this book delivered all that with sugar on top.
Emily took over the bakery from her grandmother in the sweet small town of Maple Falls she's working late one evening and doesn't realize that the storm (blizzard) has gotten so bad... next thing she knows she's snowed in with her cat... and Cole (MMC) who has newly returned to town after years away is on a rescue mission... only he now is snowed in with her (forced proximity! yes please).
The fire chief and the baker have to warm up somehow after the power goes out... if you know you know... only afterwards there are sparks in a different way since Emily is still stuck on a family feud from 17 years ago (when they were 10 years old, they used to be best friends)... her grandmother's cookies that were made for the town baking competition were stolen... and everyone knows that Cole's grandfather stole them, it's time he owned up to it! ... Cole is set on sticking to his story that his grandfather says he didn't do it and that's that!
Cole and Emily after getting out of the bakery team up with other townspeople to bring food and comfort items to the townspeople that are unable to travel, power is out all over town and it's going to be awhile before roads are passable again.
There is also a bit of a mystery when our couple decide the only way to put the situation behind them is to solve the mystery and find the true culprit... but who stole the cookies?
This was a low stakes, cozy romance with a mystery, it was like hall mark meets spice and it was over the top cutesy and I knew it was going to be like that so I enjoyed it, I do plan to check out the rest of the series at some point.
Cole was Green flag book boyfriend material, helping everyone in town, dealing with Emily's nonsense... the man is a saint!
Loved the animal side kicks so cute
The narrator did a good job with the characters as a single narration but the voice used for the FMC was just grating to me, too shrill maybe (?)
Negatives for me:
Emily was being pretty immature about the whole situation... they were 10 at the time, girl! just let it go already this man is hot and you have sizzling chemistry with him go for it!!
I struggled with Emily throughout the story because of her stubborn behavior. I get that she felt like she was in the right but because she was over the top about not letting this whole situation go it led to her needing to go on an apology tour on more than one occasion.
Because the reason for the feud was pretty ridiculous I had
a harder time with the whole Enemies à
more trope… there is a deeper reason for her being so upset but doesn’t mean
you should take it out on poor Cole or his grandpa.
I'll leave it at that if you read/listen to the book you'll see what I mean about our FMC.
Have you read this one? What did you think?
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