Format: ebook
Source: provided for review
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Date read: June 1, 2025
Aurora Bakery
1. Frosting and Flames - Paperback | Kindle
2. Pastries and Pints
3. Sugar and Secrets
Allie Winters
| Website | Amazon |
Synopsis (Goodreads):
Rachel is no stranger to responsibility—or heartbreak. As the eldest of three sisters, she’s the glue holding their small-town bakery together, juggling taxes, recipes, and endless layers of frosting while quietly nursing the sting of her boyfriend’s betrayal earlier this year. Love? Not on the menu.Thoughts on Frosting and Flames: No lie, this book hit the sweet spot in more ways than one. To start, Rachel's running the family bakery and I ALWAYS appreciate talk of cinnamon rolls and cupcakes. Throw in romance in a small town (and all the small town drama that goes with that), an ex who is just a complete waste of oxygen, sisters who squabble, but have one another's backs when things go south, and a BFF who is a little terrifying and YESSSS. Sweet, sweet, sweet.
Her best friend, Jae, has other ideas, especially when it comes to the hunky local firefighter, Nick. Too bad Jae doesn’t know about the incident from their teenage years—the one where Nick burned down the bakery.
Nick’s spent years thinking Rachel despises him, and honestly, he wouldn’t blame her. But when Jae signs Rachel up to help with the fire station's fundraiser, he and Rachel are forced into close quarters. As sparks fly that have nothing to do with fire safety, Nick starts to wonder if there’s a chance to rebuild what they lost—and maybe even something more.
Rachel can’t ignore the heat between them, but trusting Nick means letting go of the past. Can she take the risk, or will the flames of their shared history consume them both?
But first! Rachel and Nick. She's a heart-shy mess thanks to aforementioned ex who betrayed her trust and got another woman pregnant. She wasn't necessarily in love with the ex, but she doesn't trust her own judgement now since she didn't see any of his drama coming. Which brings us to Nick. He's a complete sweetheart. He's still mentally atoning for the events that led to him burning down Rachel's family's bakery. Let's say he's definitely learned his lesson and has dedicated himself to giving back to the community in spades. He's a sweetheart through and through and he's had a thing for Rachel since before the bakery-burning incident, but doesn't think he has a chance because of their past.
The thing is that Rachel is clueless about his attraction. Heck, she's even clueless about how attracted she is to him. She gets tense and butterfly-y around him and doesn't realize it's because she LIKES him. Like, like-likes him. It takes the combined might of her sisters and her BFF to finally get it through her head that all that tension is because there's something there that's worth exploring. (To be fair, Rachel is also hesitant because of the aforementioned betrayal by the ex and doesn't want to put herself out there again. Fortunately, her BFF pushes her through that hesitation and gets her to see that taking a chance is worth it.)
A small town with a big personality, family dynamics of multiple varieties, an ex who is just as slimy as you might think, some seriously steamy kisses, a firefighter with a heart of gold and plenty of patience, and a lady who has a little baggage to work through, but who knows a good thing when she sees him. *thumbs up*
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