Customer Reviews

Sweet Spot

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nicole is bummed that she's in the middle of a divorce, not speaking to her youngest sister, and everyone around her (including a stray dog) seems to be pregnant. One morning a teen comes into her bakery and attempts to steal donuts. She calls the cops but instead sexy football coach Eric "Hawk" Hawkins shows up. Brash Nicole wants nothing to do with the smooth charmer, but agrees to let Raoul work off the donuts at her store. Raoul soon proves to be an invaluable asset and she gives him a full time job, and soon he moves in with her when she discovers his foster family has kicked him out. Meanwhile everyone seems to be taking pity on her single status, so she opts to make a bargain with Hawk to pretend to be her lover in exchange for, well the fringe benefits of being a lover. Widowed Hawk never even considers that he might actually fall for the often prickly baker. And then there is his impetuous princess of a daughter...

Mallery's second installment in the Bakery sisters trilogy is a bit disappointing. Nicole is absolutely obnoxious throughout 95% of the first novel, and pretty much half of this one, so I had a hard time actually liking or caring what happened to her character. I did like that Raoul brought out the softer side of her, but disliked the way that she treated just about everyone else around her. And what about her supposed BFF, Wyatt - he was completely MIA in this novel.

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT: I really hate the trite plot device that some authors resort to in order to get a couple together - the dreaded unexpected pregnancy. Really, can't they find a better way to bring a couple together? Use a little creativity. This novel could have been so much better had Mallery not resorted to impregnating all three of the Keyes sisters in order to get their respective men (well, don't know for sure about baby sis Jesse since she is in the next book, but my money's on it). She has realistic dialog, pretty good secondary characters, and a heroine who (finally) grows. It could have been a pretty good story; instead, it's just pretty average.

© Tracy Vest, September 2008

After being so disappointed with sweet talk I wasn't sure I could stand another book with the whining sisters but I'm such a fan of Susan Mallery's I had to do it and so glad I did this one does not disappoint can't wait for sweet trouble.

I'd really rate this a 4.5, but I couldn't give it a full 5 stars. This was my favorite book out of this series.

Nicole in the first book was really evil and bitter, although still funny and sarcastic at the same time. In this book, she's not so mean. She's reluctant to enter a relationship after catching her loser husband in bed with her younger sister, but when she meets retired NFL pro Hawk she doesn't stand a chance. They have a fun chemistry throughout the book. There's humor, drama, and love.

If you're wanting to get an update on Claire and Wyatt in this book, you'll be sadly searching for nothing much than tiny bits of barely anything. But since the 3rd book about Jesse takes place 5 years later you get a little update on all the sisters then.

Mallery must have this think with always needing a perfect character. In the first book Claire was too close to perfect for being human. And in this book the high school star quarterback, Raoul, whom Nicole takes in her home to take care of, comes across as a little too perfect. I really liked his character but he just seemed a little too mature for an 18 year old.

And the other slightly annoying part was that all the Keyes sister became pregnant at the same time out of wedlock ( which then push the realization of love faster for the guy they love who doesn't want kids). That tactic was a little over used.

But all in all, the book was funny and cute, and I really liked Nicole and Hawk together. It was fun to watch their relationship from the very first chapter and on.

I don't know if it is a trend to make the women in the current romances, and even suspense novels so unlikeable but I have almost decided to quit reading some of my favorite writers. I enjoy reading about strong women but Nicole has been cruel to her family and I have not found any reason to care what happens to her. For her sisters and lover to be loyal is a real mystery to me. She seemed selfish and if she truely cared about others she would listen to them. I did find myself concerned about Jesse but according to the reviews Nicole continues to treat her badly in the next book.

I love Sweet Spot!

Susan Mallery has Nicole endearing herself to the reader after her witchey ways in Sweet Talk.

Nicole is the older fraternal twin by 2 minutes so she has always been the bossy one! After their mother's death while she was with Claire Nicole has had most of her mother's responsibilities--house to run, the bakery to work at and her little sister to raise so she feels she was cheated out of her teenage years and has blamed Claire for this and as we learned in Sweet Talk Claire didn't have any more to say about things than Nicole did--maybe their parents hadn't acted in THEIR children's best interests after all.

Nicole meets Hawk, former NFL player Eric Hawkins, after his star quarterback tries to grab and run but not pay for the boxes with the 5 dozen donuts that he has ordered. Hawk gets the call from the police about the incident and goes to try and talk the owner out of filing charges. The owner, Nicole, isn't so sure and isn't "sweet talked" into forgetting but is willing to give the boy, Raoul, a job. Raoul and Coach Hawkins, the hero, become very important to Nicole as the book progresses and Nicole becomes the focal point of Hawk's thoughts and Raoul's friendship.

Nicole is a great heroine that I liked but thought she was so hard on Claire in Sweet Talk but in Sweet Spot she becomes loveable <G> Hawk's a widower who coaches the high school football team. He has a 17 y.o. daughter, Brittany, who also has a big part in Hawk's world too, is it too big?

Nicole is in the process of getting a divorce from Drew, her BIL's stepbrother who she hadn't loved when she married him but this divorce is so hard. Of course she had found Drew in bed with someone so important to her it really hurt!

Such a group of characters to create this wonderful world of the Keyes is great fun to read. Nicole has grown up and has her HEA, Claire married and pregnant has her HEA and next we'll meet Jesse in Sweet Trouble in September. I'm sure Susan Mallery will give us a great story again.

This is the 2nd book in the trilogy of the Keyes sisters. It was also my absolute favorite of all three. The sexual tension between Nicole & Hawk jumped right off the pages!

Yes, Nicole was sarcastic and had a comeback for everyone. I loved that about her. She had a tough girl image, but a heart gold which Hawk saw right away. Their romance was sweet, but also had it's troubles.

Definitely do not miss this one!

In Seattle, Nicole Keyes still recuperates from her gall bladder surgery and the reappearance of her estranged fraternal twin sister Claire in her life. Complicating her emotional state is that Claire and her best friend Wyatt are a loving entry with her sis pregnant three months while her other estranged sister Jesse slept with Nicole's ex husband Drew and may also be carrying a baby.

At the bakery, a Pacific High School teen starts to walk out with a box of donuts without paying. She has her employee Maggie call the cops while the kid just stands still. Pacific High School coach Eric Hawkins arrives instead of the police. Nicole is nasty to the hunk while Raoul the star quarterback apologizes. A widower Hawk returns to the bakery as he is intrigued with the woman who sacked him earlier. As he and Nicole fall in love, a feeling she hates, his teenage daughter Brittany does not want a new mom in her life, but is sure of having Raoul in her life.

The battling Keyes sisters remain somewhat dysfunctional although Nicole and Claire have reconciled while an ashamed Jesse has vanished. This time the war is between the two women in Eric's life but Nicole knows she cannot win that fight. Once again the relationships beyond just that of the lead pair makes for a tense character driven contemporary tale.

Harriet Klausner

As the second book in the Bakery Sister series, I started out not being one of Nicole's biggest fans (based on book one). In book one, Sweet Talk, Nicole comes across as cold, abrasive, and unforgiving. Yet, in this book, you see the very sensitive core of who she is trying to protect. After feeling abandoned by both parents, a twin who went off to travel the world as a famous pianist, and a husband that she caught in bed with the younger sister she had been forced to raise, you start to see why Nicole acts the way she does. Into this mix, walks Hawkins, a former NFL player who gave up his career to raise his daughter after his wife died of cancer. He's big, brawny, and a dedicated father. What's not to love?

While Nicole has a tough exterior, she comes off to Hawk as a hard sell. Used to getting his way, Hawk finds that he has to win over Nicole and get to know her. Along the way, they hurt each other horribly (adding to the tension of the novel), poking at old injuries, and forcing one another to wake up to the stupid things they've been blind to in their lives.

I really liked this Mallery novel. I realize that I usually only write reviews when I really like something, and I suppose that in this case, this fits the bill. I needed a good escape read, to really feel a part of a story, and once again Mallery delivered. I have read many of her other books, and loved several others, but this story was really engaging and made me care a great deal about all characters involved. What more could you want out of a good romance?

I'll be honest, my experience with Mallery's books is that they are hit or miss. But this one is a DEFINITE HIT! Great characters (excellent hero!), interesting plot, hot love scenes. But the best is that it's unpredictable--the characters are like "real" people with flaws who make mistakes, etc. For example, the hero does something that would normally be considered really romantic--but it totally backfires. I'm an avid romance reader and I highly recommend this book.

I tried to like this book. I didn't enjoy Sweet Talk because of Nicole and hoped that I would like her more in this book dedicated to her, but I didn't.

She still comes across as nasty and judgmental. However, I did like the relationship she had with Raoul was sweet, I never understood why Hawk was with her.

I was also put off by Hawk's relationship with Brittany that the author decided to deal with in the last five chapters or so of the book. For two hundred and some odd pages, Brittany never seemed to have a problem with Nicole or behaved in a way that was spoiled or selfish and then, suddenly, she starts yelling at Nicole and acting like a princess. It didn't fit.

The dialogue was witty but at times there was too much of it. The characters did a lot of talking. And I never saw Nicole really change. She was still selfish, controlling and bossy.

I am looking forward to Jesse's story because I always kind of liked her. We'll see.