Baking Me Crazy (Donner Bakery #1) by Karla Sorensen
I'm Levi Buchanan, and until five years ago, I thought the legend of my family's curse was a load of crazy, Southern nonsense. No curse can make you fall in love at first sight. No curse can force a true, deep, passionate, all-consuming love that will haunt you all the days of your life. Then I met Jocelyn Abernathy and I realized how completely wrong I was. The problem is, Jocelyn guards her feelings like well-armed soldier. She's the most beautiful, stubborn, infuriating woman I've ever met. Every time she talks, I want to kiss the living daylights out of her. But I can't. Because when we met, she didn't need true love. She needed a best friend. And that's what I've been to her... for five years. But when Jocelyn meets a handsome stranger her first day working at Donner Bakery and she lets him buy her a dill pickle cupcake, I realize with ominous regret that I may have missed my window with my best friend. If I can't get her to see past our friendship, my new curse may be to watch the love of my life move on with someone else.
A story of a "frelationship" where one person is finally ready to change the rules. 
🔥🔥 out of 5 steam level
Ah! My first book in the Penny-verse! Don't know what I mean? Well, Penny Reid (who you've read me ranting and raving about with her Knitting in the City series and her Winston Brothers series) has agreed to let other authors write books based in the world she created! This is the first of the books to come out (I think they're all classified as Smartypants Romances) and I was so excited to get my hands on it!It was so fun to get little glimpses of characters I love - but the overlap was pretty minimal. Nonetheless even the mention of places I have in my head from the other book is still exciting to me.Levi, our main hero, also had chapters from his perspective and I loved those! He was really likable and made you root for him. Seriously, I was team Levi from the first chapter I read from him.Let's talk about how romance books are the most inclusive books ever. Want to find a genre that you can see yourself in? Well, look no further than romance! In this case our heroine, Jocelyn, is in a wheelchair. I don't think I've ever read a book where the entire book the main character is in a wheelchair. Three cheers for inclusivity!There were some characters mentioned that I can't wait to see again, or find out what their stories are! I read this book within a week and enjoyed my time with it. If you're a fan of the Penny-verse you will enjoy this book!
I had a hard time bonding with the heroine in this book. Everyone seemed to love her but she was prickly and not prickly lovable to me. Maybe more on the side of drama and bitchy. I know that's a strong word but it's the word that came to mind multiple times while reading the chapters from Jocelyn's perspective.I mentioned loving the chapters from Levi's perspective. And I did! But it should be noted...the way that he wooed her I thought could've been even better. I didn't have a moment while reading where I thought, "I wish I could be wooed this way!"I would've loved to have even more baking scenes in this book, especially based off of the title. It seemed like Levi's mom (a side character) might have been the biggest baker in the book!Again, I think that Penny fans will really enjoy this book, but I didn't laugh out loud, or swoon greatly so it won't make any must-read lists for me.
Do: Bake breadGo: try a new flavor of cupcake at a local bakery (maybe not pickle though)Listen to: My Best Friend by Tim Mcgraw