Review: "Baked Fresh" by Annabeth Albert (Portland Heat #2)
Vic Degrassi gave up his career in the mortgage industry to go to culinary school and now he's enjoying baking and creating cakes and pastries for his boss and friend Cliff's bakery and sees himself buying it off him once Cliff retires. Vic has also taken control of his health, with the deaths of his father, uncle, and cousin scaring him to do something about his weight and eating habits. He's lost a lot of weight and goes to the gym regularly, but he doesn't consider himself much of a catch and definitely not worthy of someone like Robin Dawson, the guy he thinks is too young and too perfect for him and the one he's had a crush on.
Robin Dawson is a freelance graphic designer who loves volunteering for the homeless shelter that helped him get his own life back on track a few years ago. After being unceremoniously dumped by his boyfriend, Robin doesn't want to become too emotionally involved with anyone else, believing that getting his heart broken is enough evidence that true love doesn't exist. He's glad that baker and fellow volunteer Vic Degrassi is there to be a friend and the occasional flirting doesn't hurt. Then they spend a night together, but will Vic be able to live with being merely Robin's rebound fling when he believes they could be more?
Baked Fresh is the second book in the Portland Heat series by Annabeth Albert and is about Vic Degrassi, a baker who makes a New Year's resolution to start dating in order to hopefully find that one person that can truly be his and his alone. Fate may be on his side when he finds out that the guy he's had a crush on for a good long while, Robin Dawson, is no longer in a relationship. Unfortunately, Robin makes it clear that he's holding off on entering into another relationship or even dating in general. Vic decides to simply be there as Robin's friend and the two hang out together, spending more and more time together at and away from the shelter they both volunteer at. Even when they decide to take their friendship into a more physical relationship, the friendship remains, as does the understanding that Robin wasn't ready for anything more and Vic certainly wasn't the type to pressure him into it, no matter how much he wanted to.
I liked Vic and Robin together and how their relationship wasn't based on lust or romance but on an actual friendship the two had quietly fostered while spending time together at the homeless shelter as volunteers. No matter how much he denied it, Vic really was an honest-to-goodness nice guy and so was Robin, actually, and they both deserved to have their own happily-ever-after, especially after having undergone changes in their lives just years prior. There's this dynamic between them that's easy to relate to and if there weren't all the hurdles in the beginning, they would have realized just how perfect they're getting together was. For all intents and purposes, they were already in a relationship and simply hadn't acknowledged it to themselves. The story is about having the courage to make changes in order to be the best versions of ourselves and the rest, even love, will fall into place. I'm giving Baked Fresh 4.5 stars. ♥
Date Read: 17 May 2015
Learn more about Annabeth Albert here.
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