Baked Fresh by Annabeth Albert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I received a free copy of this book to read and review for Wicked Reads.
Based on my experience with Served Hot, I expected Baked Fresh
to be another sweet M/M romance. While it did have its sweet moments, Ms. Albert served up a heck of a lot more heat this time around… no pun intended just because Vic is a baker. There were also more emotional time bombs in Baked Fresh that pushed it over the edge from a four-star read to a five-star read for me as it has made its way to my re-read shelf.Vic is a big bear of an Italian man who uses his commitment to New Year’s resolutions to affect major changes within his life – attending culinary school, losing over 100 pounds, stop smoking. This year he has decided to try dating. He’s tired of being alone and wants to find someone to fill that void in his life. Interestingly, while Vic does have someone he’s been crushing on, he doesn’t think he’s good enough for the guy and while Robin may have been the why behind the resolution, he’s not Vic’s goal – at least not consciously. But fate has a funny way of giving a guy the opportunity he needs because Robin’s boyfriend just dumped him and it gives Vic the opportunity he needs to become a part of Robin’s life away from the shelter.
What I liked about Vic’s situation is that he approaches much of what he does with Robin with a “hope for the best” mindset, while being happy with just having the opportunity to spend time with Robin. This allows their relationship to develop in a natural progression from friends to lovers to more. Because of the personal issues each man has – Vic’s body image issues and Robin’s sexual anxieties – theirs is a path fraught with plenty of speedbumps and detours. Even though I didn’t get quite to the point of crying, Vic and Robin’s journey certainly had its heartbreaking moments of loss and doubt, but those were well balanced with laughs, friendship, romance, sexy foreplay, seriously hot sex as Vic helped Robin work through his sexual issues, and acceptance. Yes, acceptance is a common theme in M/M romances; however, in Baked Fresh this was not the acceptance of one due to their homosexuality, but rather their acceptance of themselves for who they were and the acceptance by their partner for being the exact person the other needed – baggage and all. Baked Fresh was an excellent addition to the Portland Heat series and I am already anticipating what Ms. Albert serves up next in Delivered Fast.
Check out the Baked Fresh by Annabeth Albert Blog Tour post on Wicked Reads.
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was a well-written book that proved to be a rather interesting reading experience for me. While I enjoyed it quite a bit, I had to take breaks while reading it because of the main characters. I suppose you could say that they felt just a bit too real for my comfort level and I could only bear to spend time with them for a few chapters at a time. It’s unusual for me to read more than one book at a time, but I had two books of completely different genres whose storylines were such that I had no problem going back and forth between them. But that’s just how realistic and impressive Meredith and Damien were – I could jump right back into their tale with ease.
we are treated to Roni’s story. Because this is the third book and Roni is a bartender at Shadows and has been in the previous books, I knew what she was and what it meant for her to be a changer as we have met her preferred male and female forms before. But knowing that Roni is a changer doesn’t mean that Roni wasn’t a mystery because she has been a woman of few words despite her constant presence and we find out rather quickly, that there’s a lot about her that she hasn’t told her Shadows family about.
is to tell you that I got so caught up in the book that I devoured it in 3 hours AND, more importantly, forgot that it was the first book in a trilogy. The closer I got to 100% on my Kindle, the more I worried about how Ms. Large was going to wrap everything up. When I got to the end of the book, I was happy to be reminded that it was the first book in the trilogy. Why? Because that means I’ve got two more books in which I get to spend time with Dennis and Tucker. And I love, Love, LOVE these guys. 
finds us back on the DD ranch with the Campbell-Hayes family and another wedding. Both Riley and Jack are overseeing the expansion of each of their professional ventures. Of course the Campbell-Hayes clan does nothing by half-measure so the reader knows that while the ventures will be successful, they won’t be without drama. But this family is exactly that, FAMILY, and they will always do what they need to in order to insure they remain a strong family without stooping to the level of the previous patriarch of the Hayes family.
, Kain learns the lesson of karma – what goes around comes around. As the blurb says, Kain is a spoiled rich kid; actually all of the members of the Bad Boys Club seem to be. Whether it is due to his obscene wealth and the privileges it affords him or if he was just born that way, Kain seems to be very egocentric and doesn’t care about his sexual partners beyond the night. Granted, by all indications he is not so narcissistic that he leaves them hanging, but his insuring that they get their “O” is more a point of pride for his ability than any concern for their sexual satisfaction. 
takes place during the same night that Lust and Ice opens with, but it reveals the night’s events from the perspective of the brothers – Jordan and Allen. Just like their friend Kain, Jordan and Allen are among the elite VIPs at Night Moves and see each visit there as a chance to wager on who will capture their prey for the night first. While the brothers are definitely competitive (which plays out rather humorously later in the story), they have no problem sharing their man for the night and prefer to hunt tag-team style. And boy are their moves smooth and seductive! It’s no wonder so many men have fallen prey to them.
brings us the final bad boy’s tale of woe as he falls prey to a more powerful predator… or does it? While each of the novelettes in The Bad Boys Club series can be read as a standalone, I recommend reading them in order as you’ll benefit from a fuller telling of the tales because not only do the bad boys talk about one another in each book, the supernatural creatures they have attracted reveal info about one another as well. And I do believe that Ms. Church saved the best for last with Hugh’s story. No, Hugh is no more likeable or redeemable than his friends – Kain, Jordan, and Allen – and Tobis is no more formidable of a supernatural than Asmodeus or Chaus. The reason I think I enjoyed Haunting the Night more than the others is that Hugh seems to be more self-aware of his deep, dark desires. This is not to say that he submits to Tobis without a fight, because he certainly does try to fight the werewolf’s claim on him. But because Hugh is not satisfied with the life his father has chosen for him and how he must deny his wants in order to maintain the image his father demands, Hugh is quicker to realize the freedom Tobis’s claim offers him. Once he does, he readily accepts his place as Tobis’s mate and it was hot! Gotta love a mating knot. I also enjoyed that the Epilogue was not just for Haunting the Night but also for the entire series, so we got to catch up with all of the boys to see how their new “lives” were. The Bad Boys Club has been an enjoyable series with Haunting the Night being my favorite installment.
poses quite the reviewer dilemma for me because there were parts of the book I enjoyed immensely and then parts that irked me. Fortunately the parts I enjoyed were really good and balanced out the parts I didn’t. I found the romantic suspense element to be the best part of the book and it’s actually what saved the read for me. As gruesome as the perpetrated crimes were, it heightened the action in the book as well as the intrigue once they were linked to Kelly’s past. The criminal investigation and the stakeout were great and I loved how that part of the storyline played out. While I found Jim’s Dom-mode to be on just this side of bullyish, I liked that Ms. Blake tempered his personality with concern and caring for Kelly and showed him comfortable with what can only be described as sweet moments of affection. For the most part (the non-bratty part), I liked Kelly and loved that her antics often forced Jim to actively refrain from laughing (thankfully as the reader I didn’t have to hold my laughter).
was going to be about, but it wasn’t this. And I really, Really, REALLY wasn’t expecting to have the bejeezus scared out of me…again, by Ms. Henry. While this is the first book I’ve read of M. Caspian’s, I have read two books by Ms. Henry before and one of them left me with a similar level of fear from just how real such a story could be. Fallout is one of those books in which, as the story unfolds, you stop expecting or even hoping for a happily ever after and start wondering if maybe death would be the happy ending because there really are some things people shouldn’t have to live through.
. I absolutely adored Kat. She’s mouthy, sassy, and independent almost to a fault – she is the classic hot-tempered redhead without being clichéd. At the same time, her inexperience with the opposite sex magnifies her insecurities, especially when faced with an attractive man outside of work and it’s even worse when she is faced with Caleb. Once Caleb enters the scene, it becomes abundantly clear why Kat’s insecurities rear their ugly head – the man is a seriously sexy alpha male whose voice alone can make her shiver.
and I can only hope that with as snarky as the author made Augustin that that was her intent because that’s what made it a 5-star read for me.
. I really wasn’t sure how Ms. Knight was going to successfully integrate a Domestic Discipline relationship into a futuristic setting and make it believable. Truth be told, the first time that Hayden spanks Olivia had me rolling my eyes due to its timing. However, because the author got right into the action within the first few pages of the book, I was already hooked by the sci-fi romance portion of the storyline so I continued on without hesitation. I thought that at the very least, I would find my enjoyment in that portion of the story and just deal with the spanking scenes as they occurred. However, the farther into the relationship that Ms. Knight took the reader, the more natural and more believable the spanking became to me. 
proved to be just as enjoyable of a read. I found the way in which the author began the book by alternating chapters in the present with those from the past worked well to set the stage for the conflict that would play out later in the book. We were afforded a view of Lulu today and how she compared to the Lulu of six years ago and how her personal life came to be what it is. This not only helped me to connect with her character, but gave me a perspective into her mindset as she was torn between whether or not she could allow herself to fall in love with Luc. 
. The pleasant surprise I discovered when I began reading the book is that it takes place after Bring Me Home rather than during the same time period. Chloe has returned to Dead End, Texas to spend a few days with her best friend Miya and hopefully get a fresh perspective for the magazine she works for. While there, she and Nick agree upon a no-strings attached weekend – each of their personal preference for “relationships” – and all goes well until Nick decides that once might not be enough. Chloe might be used to a man getting more attached than agreed upon, but what she isn’t used to is wanting more herself and realizing that she might be feeling more for Nick than sexual attraction sends her back to New York lickety-split. But Nick isn’t going to let a couple thousand miles come between him and the first woman who has ever made him want more than a night or two, so when the opportunity to face Chloe on her home turf arises, he’s on his way to New York to show her just how good cowboy lovin’ can be. 
was a quick and sexy read as Carolyn finds out that her two best friends may want more than just friendship. When Carolyn gets dumped by her current boyfriend via text [insert nasty derogatory thought about boyfriend], she calls in Grady and Ben to accompany her to an important social outing so that she doesn’t have to face her ex alone. Because of the conversations between Grady and Ben that the reader is privy to, it was not a surprise that they did so nor that they were more than happy to play mind games with her ex when he acts like a jerk during the party. And while the public make-out session was hot, Carolyn fled the party to go home alone because she couldn’t bear finding out whether or not the guys meant it – and she wasn’t sure which answer she really wanted.
was one heck of a ride. The prologue is explosive and starts the book off with a bang…literally. Despite already looking forward to reading this book, Ms. Snow managed to hook me in even further and I was quickly immersed in Declan’s story as he finds himself in the Witness Protection Program – the only surviving member after his rock band was targeted by a mobster. I liked that the author included a note at the end of the book stating that she took procedural liberties regarding WITSEC within the story, but for me it was unnecessary as I had no problem going with the flow as Declan was transferred from the custody of the US Marshalls to the FBI for his protection. The believability factor was upped after Declan and Law’s conversation about the homophobic agents Declan was forced to deal with and that Law just so happened to have access to property in Snowcroft, New Mexico.