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jaayraad_reads's review against another edition
5.0
Oh my sweet cinnamon buns this was fun! In The Case of Heartbreak is a book that combines two of my favourite things, cute guys and baking!
Ben runs a little bakery in a mountainside town, and has the opportunity of a lifetime to take his family’s famous cinnamon buns nation-wide through a TV baking contest. There’s just one problem. His estranged father.
Adam runs the mechanic down the street from Ben’s bakery. He also plays guitar and is an all round incredible guy who has held a flame for Ben for years. Not that Ben has picked up on that. Nor had Adam picked up on Bens flame either… that is until Bens G-ma throws a 2 week celebration for her 80th birthday.
While trying to keep the drama surrounding the TV show a secret from his family, and dealing with the trauma of being lost in the woods as a child, Ben is thrown into the deep end when Adam shows up at the celebrations to play in the band. Adding to that Bens family meddling in their lives to bring the two together, there are shenanigans aplenty!
I honestly loved the way @court_kae wrote these two characters. Their insecurities, their traumas, their dreams, and the way that they build each other up and make each other stronger by being together. Oh and the baking scene where Ben is trying out new recipes, especially the frosting and the couch…I mean
Ben runs a little bakery in a mountainside town, and has the opportunity of a lifetime to take his family’s famous cinnamon buns nation-wide through a TV baking contest. There’s just one problem. His estranged father.
Adam runs the mechanic down the street from Ben’s bakery. He also plays guitar and is an all round incredible guy who has held a flame for Ben for years. Not that Ben has picked up on that. Nor had Adam picked up on Bens flame either… that is until Bens G-ma throws a 2 week celebration for her 80th birthday.
While trying to keep the drama surrounding the TV show a secret from his family, and dealing with the trauma of being lost in the woods as a child, Ben is thrown into the deep end when Adam shows up at the celebrations to play in the band. Adding to that Bens family meddling in their lives to bring the two together, there are shenanigans aplenty!
I honestly loved the way @court_kae wrote these two characters. Their insecurities, their traumas, their dreams, and the way that they build each other up and make each other stronger by being together. Oh and the baking scene where Ben is trying out new recipes, especially the frosting and the couch…I mean
indiekay's review against another edition
Thank you Net Galley for the opportunity to read this ARC
I am unfortunetly going to DNF is 25% in. The beginning has a LOT of info dumping that had me struggling through the first 5% and wondering if I actually wanted to read this or not, and my eyes kept getting stuck on names of things. Peak Perk Café and Delish Dollars Studios -- is there a term for the opposite of "rolls off the tongue" because these are that. Every time I read them I thought "why would you use alliteration for the first two words but not the third?" and it put my brain into editing mode instead of reading for enjoyment mode.
And look, sometimes a character has anxiety in a completely different way than I have anxiety, and it rubs me up the wrong way and makes me really irritated, and I think Ben is one of those characters. He internalises every obstacle that comes his way as being HIS fault, and he's some huge failure with a failing business -- even though the book so far has gone out of its way to say his business is doing so well and he's got all these people travelling to his town just to get his cinnamon buns to post about on Instagram, and he has online orders, and he has a lot of regulars that support him, and he's on this baking competition show*, AND he's got a filthy rich grandmother that can bail him out even IF his business was failing! Like my guy, you've been going to weekly therapy sessions since you were a kid and you're still dealing with this much self-sabotaging and impostor syndrome???
(*Also this baking competition makes no sense to me. One of my pet peeves is reality TV books that obviously have no idea how the behind-the-scenes of a reality TV show works. You're telling me they're doing a live broadcast of visiting his home town - why would THAT be live streamed?? And with only 1 camera, 1 sound person, and 1 producer? That is SO unlikely! I've worked on student films with more crew members than that! And doing a livestream while moving around a small town - they have NO control over the sound (just a boom? They didn't even put a microphone on Ben?) - but also have no idea if the livestream is going to cut out because of lost signal or something)
Anyway. I think what pushed me over the edge in deciding to DNF this is the actual romance. I can just TELL this is going to be 99% miscommunication and I just can't deal with that when the miscommunication in the first 25% of the book is already SO blown out of proportion.
I am unfortunetly going to DNF is 25% in. The beginning has a LOT of info dumping that had me struggling through the first 5% and wondering if I actually wanted to read this or not, and my eyes kept getting stuck on names of things. Peak Perk Café and Delish Dollars Studios -- is there a term for the opposite of "rolls off the tongue" because these are that. Every time I read them I thought "why would you use alliteration for the first two words but not the third?" and it put my brain into editing mode instead of reading for enjoyment mode.
And look, sometimes a character has anxiety in a completely different way than I have anxiety, and it rubs me up the wrong way and makes me really irritated, and I think Ben is one of those characters. He internalises every obstacle that comes his way as being HIS fault, and he's some huge failure with a failing business -- even though the book so far has gone out of its way to say his business is doing so well and he's got all these people travelling to his town just to get his cinnamon buns to post about on Instagram, and he has online orders, and he has a lot of regulars that support him, and he's on this baking competition show*, AND he's got a filthy rich grandmother that can bail him out even IF his business was failing! Like my guy, you've been going to weekly therapy sessions since you were a kid and you're still dealing with this much self-sabotaging and impostor syndrome???
(*Also this baking competition makes no sense to me. One of my pet peeves is reality TV books that obviously have no idea how the behind-the-scenes of a reality TV show works. You're telling me they're doing a live broadcast of visiting his home town - why would THAT be live streamed?? And with only 1 camera, 1 sound person, and 1 producer? That is SO unlikely! I've worked on student films with more crew members than that! And doing a livestream while moving around a small town - they have NO control over the sound (just a boom? They didn't even put a microphone on Ben?) - but also have no idea if the livestream is going to cut out because of lost signal or something)
Anyway. I think what pushed me over the edge in deciding to DNF this is the actual romance. I can just TELL this is going to be 99% miscommunication and I just can't deal with that when the miscommunication in the first 25% of the book is already SO blown out of proportion.
agmaynard's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
It's a little much-- the melodrama, therapy speak (therapy shown on page itself excellent, always important to show), the overstuffed plotting. Bored with all the costuming. Sweetness of the childhood friends to lovers was welcome. And Bi4Bi rep is important to have on page as well.
catsteaandabook's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
antkluts's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
slinkmalink's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Was this a literary masterpiece? No. Did I enjoy reading it? Sometimes.
The whole thing was just a bit convoluted with the show and then him running off for no real reason (also I don't get how the show works, they film 10 mins at his cafe -which if they're going to sue him for breach of contract they may as well do when he runs off leaving them with no footage of him - then he goes on holiday and then there's a final which they might bake at I guess but it's decided by public vote and no one's tasted the food presumably so it's just a popularity contest?), then the cease and desist and the Instagram and the threatening to be sued and then his grandma's finances (which made the lot of them less sympathetic, like you're holding entire balls in your massive mansion every other week, I don't really care if you can't do that any more) and then blackmailing him about the music thing, there was just too much going on to care about it all.
Some of it was cute it was just overall not that gripping.
Loved the OUAT reference tho
The whole thing was just a bit convoluted with the show and then him running off for no real reason (also I don't get how the show works, they film 10 mins at his cafe -which if they're going to sue him for breach of contract they may as well do when he runs off leaving them with no footage of him - then he goes on holiday and then there's a final which they might bake at I guess but it's decided by public vote and no one's tasted the food presumably so it's just a popularity contest?), then the cease and desist and the Instagram and the threatening to be sued and then his grandma's finances (which made the lot of them less sympathetic, like you're holding entire balls in your massive mansion every other week, I don't really care if you can't do that any more) and then blackmailing him about the music thing, there was just too much going on to care about it all.
Some of it was cute it was just overall not that gripping.
Loved the OUAT reference tho
nomomstayandread's review against another edition
4.0
Getting a one-two punch of contact with his absent/neglectful/narcissistic father and being told on live TV that his lifelong crush is only interested in friendship within an hour was a lot for Ben to manage and away we went with this book.
I just loved Ben so much in In the Event of Love. He was clearly the Ethan Embry character to Morgan's Reese Witherspoon in their Sweet Home Alabama moments in Book 1. The eternal helpful character who doesn't seem to take anything for himself. In this book we see exactly why that is and ouch.
I will love Adam forever for being so stable and loving with his feelings after we got through the initial awkwardness in this book. Once he realized he had permission to court Ben, it was ON. I am still unwell from "my feelings from you are not fragile."
His father though, I loathe entirely. I even messaged the author and asked if she can arrange to have him murdered or imprisoned in any future books. TBD, friends. I tried though.
Thank you to Courtney Kae for a copy in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.
I just loved Ben so much in In the Event of Love. He was clearly the Ethan Embry character to Morgan's Reese Witherspoon in their Sweet Home Alabama moments in Book 1. The eternal helpful character who doesn't seem to take anything for himself. In this book we see exactly why that is and ouch.
I will love Adam forever for being so stable and loving with his feelings after we got through the initial awkwardness in this book. Once he realized he had permission to court Ben, it was ON. I am still unwell from "my feelings from you are not fragile."
His father though, I loathe entirely. I even messaged the author and asked if she can arrange to have him murdered or imprisoned in any future books. TBD, friends. I tried though.
Thank you to Courtney Kae for a copy in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.