This marriage of convenience is about to get sticky. Getting hitched for the health insurance is not Jocelyn Asher’s idea of romance.But the hospital quote has really frosted her cookies, and suddenly, “I’m rich. We should just get married,” sounds a whole lot more swoony.Especially when the man proposing is this gorgeous. And takes her to parties featuring champagne and petit fours. She’s a … champagne and petit fours. She’s a sucker for anything with bubbles or icing. And just like that she finds herself married to a near stranger.
Grant Lorre is usually allergic to spontaneity.
So why did he ask the beautiful small-town baker he had a one-night stand with to marry him? Somehow watching her lick batter off a whisk–not a euphemism–made a wedding and a little fraud seem like a sweet idea.
They’ll just play house and make some whoopie–pies, of course–for a few months and then move on with their separate lives. Until then, bring on the cream filling. And that is a euphemism.
But as things heat up even outside of the kitchen, they quickly realize there’s no recipe to follow when it comes to love.
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I absolutely love a marriage of convenience story and Erin Nicholas nails it with Making Whoopie. A sexy hero who brings lots of heat in the kitchen (and elsewhere) will have you turning up the a/c!
If you are a little behind due to the great hibernation of 2020, wake up. There is a series, written by our Erin Nicholas, called Hot Cakes. It takes five friends (millionaires, of course) who help save a town. And in the middle of this altruistic effort, they find what they didn’t know they were looking for…..
Making Whoopie is the story of the buttoned-up, stiff shirt Grant and his downfall, Josie, the queen of all things sweet and dirty. A few hot run-ins, and they are steaming up any surface used for baking. Grant spends his days keeping his best friends in the company from making rash, life-altering decisions. He also does seminars helping women learn to be independent, financially, so they can do without depending on a man to take care of them. But Josie definitely needs him to take care of her, doesn’t she? I mean, she doesn’t need him but she needs his insurance for hospital bills. So he really isn’t making her dependent on him, just his insurance, right? Naturally a fake marriage is the answer. And why stick with just a fake marriage…why not get some benefits for both of them?
Ms. Nicholas always gives us the funny, the steamy, the practical/not so practical, the heroes we love and the strong women who love them. This series is no different. Can’t wait to read the next one….
Run, don’t walk, to grab this latest book by Erin Nicholas. It has all the components of a great Erin Nicholas book–humor, heat, characters you want to be best friends with…oh, and all the dessert you can eat!
Gah!!! Every book in this series makes me fall in love with this town and these characters even more!! Erin Nicholas really has a talent for creating small towns that you wish you could live in.
I never would have thought that the hopeless romantic would have had to get married for health insurance. Josie and Grant couldn’t have had more opposite feelings about romance if they tried. The spark was instant but what grew out of practicality kept me sucked into this story.
I can’t wait to visit Appleby again!
This book made my heart happy. I give it all the stars! Grant and Josie are made for each other. With a marriage of convenience for health insurance, the two find love. I have to give the opposite attract two big thumbs up. I can not wait to go back to Appleby.
I received a free ARC copy of this book from the author prior to release and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This is book three in the series and I enjoyed the first two books but this one made me fall in LOVE with this series. I loved Grant and I loved Josie. They were both awesome characters but I also adored how they were with each other as well. This story uses a grumpy businessman trop but also a fake marriage turning real and it worked really well.
Josie is a hometown girl and she works at the bakery. This one is more centered on the bakery than on the cake factory and I really liked that about it. She works hard and she has a major crush on Grant but he is grumpy and serious and he doesn’t see how she is crushing on him. I loved how Josie just straight up tells him that. They have a fling I guess you can say, until it becomes necessary to marry, and I am not spoiling the why.
Thats when the magic happens. We see how Grant lets Josie in and she lets him in as well. I adored this couple and one reason was how they let each other in to their hearts and minds. They do not have secrets from each other and they really have a very trusting relationship.
I cannot wait for the net story in this series, Cam and Whitney. We get a sneak peak at their relationship and story and it looks fabulous
LOL Funny, Dirty & Hot! This story has changed my whole baking perspective for the rest of my life. Erin Nicholas brings it, in this hilariously funny, down and dirty, fun and flirty, marriage of convenience. I laughed so hard I cried, and my sides hurt. I couldn’t stop reading even if I wanted to, it was just so…Hot and Fan-Freaking-Tastic!!
Josie (Jocelyn) Asher has never had a one night stand, she was a true romantic. But it had been a long time since anyone tasted her cupcakes and Grant Lorre has been making her icing melt for sometime now. So when he started acting possessive, while also claiming he hadn’t wanted to ask her out because it would have made him want to stay in Appleby, she thought that even though he was fighting the feelings he was having, at least he was having them and wasn’t that so dang romantic.
Great Lorre didn’t want to be smitten, or in love, or obsessed and he was sure she was just too sweet for anyone to lust after her. But lust he could handle, but after one night, he was a goner. And when she got sick in his presence, before he even knew what he was doing, he was feeling responsible, protective and possessive. Next thing he knew he was asking her to marry him for his health insurance. What? You got that right he was a goner. And so will you be a goner when you read this hilariously romantic, funny, down and dirty, hot story!
Received a early copy in exchange for a honest review.
Making Whoopie is a small town, opposites attract marriage of convenience based in the Hot Cakes world which is told from the third-person point of view and can either be read as a standalone or as part of the series.
Grant is the serious one that everyone turns to for help. He is never known to do anything spontaneously. When a small-town baker causes him to act uncharacteristically like himself he figures one night will get her out of his system and he can return home to Chicago. Jocelyn, aka Josie, loves baking and her simple life so when hot and bossy Grant causes her to start swooning over him she needs to put distance between them. When Josie gets sick and can not pay her bills, Grant convinces her to marry him for his insurance. The recipe should be simple to follow. Get married, have her surgery, pay the bills and then go their separate ways but the one ingredient they did not expect in this was love.
Erin Nicholas knows how to put a smile on your face and keep it there through the whole book. Each one of the Hot Cakes books keeps getting better and this is my favourite book of the series so far. I totally want to move to Appleby and I want my own Grant. It was so fun to see Grant and Josie out of their elements. They are so opposite of each other but complement each other perfectly. He is bossy and quiet and she is bubbly and outgoing. Their connection is hot, steamy and romantic. I can not wait for Semi-Sweet on You, Oh Fudge and Gimme S’more. Cam and Ollie’s stories are going to be really fun. This is a MUST READ SERIES!!!!
*ARC was generously provided in exchange for my honest review*
Making Whoopie is sweet, swoon worthy and the perfect combination of great writing, memorable characters and a fun storyline that kept me smiling from beginning to end!
It was so easy to fall in love with both of these characters and for me they have moved up to the top spot in this series.
Grant is a bit bossy, with a slice of romance and covered with protectiveness.
Josie is sugary sweet, filled with a side of naughtiness and topped with sass!
Love can happen when you least expect it and in many unexpected ways! For Grant and Josie, what started out as a fake marriage ends up becoming more real than either of them imagined because neither of them could fight the chemistry and that special something that kept them pulling towards each other.
This has seriously become one of my favorite series! I love how each book just makes me fall in love more than the last.
Grant & Josie….whew! I loved how their relationship was supposed to be fake, but from the start it felt so real. They both perfectly complemented each other. I loved how Josie was able to bring some fun into Grant’s life, and how he was able to give her the support she needed. This book gave me so many butterflies and I feel like I had a smile on my face the entire time!
I can’t wait for the next one!
Grant Lorre has been there to catch Jocelyn on more than one occasion…so one could say she is literally “falling” for him, right? LOL.
In Erin Nicholas’s 3rd book in the Hot Cakes Series, Making Whoopie will have you laughing out loud with all of the innuendos, banter, and humor, have you swooning with Grant’s marriage of convenience reasoning, and will have you fanning yourself from all of the heat and talk! And the baking…you know the saying: if you can’t handle the heat…
They both have some history, hesitations, family drama, stubbornness, and heart…
“You don’t rip chapter one out of a book when you get to chapter two,” she said, picking up the salad bowl. “You just turn those pages and keep going. Those pages are as much a part of the story as the next ones.”
This series is so freaking wonderful, will make you smile, laugh and feel so darn good! Grant and Josie’s story is amazing! I loved it so VERY much! 5 Whoopie Pies from me!
OMG this book is the cutest! All the feels, but also super steamy! Josie is adorable, and Grant…. Mmmmm Grant….. I have to say, of all the guys from the Hot Cakes series I’ve met so far, Grant is absolutely my #1 choice. He’s hot, obviously, and tears it up between the sheets – mmm, but he’s also a feminist. He wants to empower women – and he’s not all talk – his financial seminars helping single moms and other women who have never learned about finances made me swoon! He doesn’t just talk about empowering women – he actually DOES something to promote women! I LOVE him. Plus he’s sensible, and responsible – and while the other Hot Cakes guys are awesome and SO much fun – Mister Sensible definitely does it for me!
Josie is adorable. She’s not a little airhead, but neither is she the wholesome little girl the people of Appleby, Iowa think they know. She’s actually a smart, confident young woman – with a very naughty side. I loved how, after Grant freaked out a little and took off shortly after they first did the dirty on her kitchen counter, she didn’t worry about it. She knew exactly why he left, and it wasn’t because he was done with her. It was because he was afraid he WASN’T done with her – and that scared him. And she LOVED that. I love that kind of confidence in heroines. She knows enough to know that not everything a guy does is about HER – more often than not when they do stupid things, it’s related to their own hangups.
Grant and Josie each realize they have something to learn from the other. Grant teaches Josie to be more independent, and to take the spotlight and embrace her talents without staying in the background all the time. And, of course, how to use a spreadsheet. (Strip-spreadsheet lessons help with that). And Josie teaches Grant that romance doesn’t necessarily mean either partner is weak. That it’s okay to need each other – for things like support and encouragement and love. Spreadsheets don’t give you hugs after a crap day at work.
I adored Making Whoopie. Both sweet and naughty – kind of like Josie. A fun summer escape to indulge in!
It’s hard to say how much I love this series. With every new story, I love it more. Each book can be read as a standalone but you will want to read each after reading just one of them. Grant and Josie are wonderful characters. It’s amazing how their relationship begins and where it goes is even better. This is a wonderfully written, sweet romance with some steamy scenes as well. You will love this series!!!
When I read a story, I check for a couple of things. Is the story entrenching and does it keep me involved? Do the characters entertain and keep me smiling? And if it is an author I have been following I always want to see if I can spot that author’s growth. Many can attest to reading different books by an author and thinking they are all the same.
Erin Nicholas and Making Whoopie (Hot Cakes Book Three) have me pleased with positive answers for all those questions!
As I said this is book 3 and as such our characters have been around for a while. A key to Erin’s writing in this series has been the development of our friends. They may be characters in a book, but you will feel them as your neighbors, friends, heck even your children, because they grow that well into your core
Grant Lorre is analytical. A big-city nerd and a self guided intelligent man, he is one that demands attention in his actions and his suggestions. He is caring and he is independent and maybe even self-centered. Yet for all the positives, he has been hurt in the past and that pain is as much a driving factor in his daily actions as the strength it takes to get up each morning. Even with his passion for motivating others, sometimes he cannot see the forest for the trees. But even mountains can be turned to mole hills with the proper persuasions put into play.
Josie Asher is strong, smart and caring. A small town girl that became a small town belle she is loved by all. But then when you have a constant way to a person’s heart(thru their stomach) you will always hold that standing. To say she is a busy woman is an understatement yet all her tasks are for the happiness of others. One thing for sure, some might think her soft, but when she shows her might, the understanding is clear. Even when things are at their worst for her, resolutions are just a turn of a corner, or touch of a dial away. But there are times when worry can cause her to doubt herself. In those vulnerable moments we really understand what makes Joselyn tick.
Grant and Josie can be called opposites that meet under unique circumstances but Making Whoopie is so much more than that. It is a story of self discovery for them both. It is a testament to the strength we all have within each other. And it is a great message about faith, not only in ourselves but in love and being loved. It is about making sure people remember to laugh at themselves sometimes and recognize their own net worth.
Erin Nicholas, this story had me laughing at one moment, shaking my head the next and ready to shake people. But the people were in the book, so they were safe. This is a great continuation of the series and deserving of much more than five (5) stars. So while on paper it says 5-stars know that it is more like 50-stars.
I LOVED this book! I absolutely love this series and ALL of the characters! This is such a fun, feel good read that keeps you hooked from start to finish. Grant and Josie have such serious chemistry and I was so excited to get their story.
This series is one that you are able to read as a standalone, but I promise, you will want to read the other books so that you get the full picture of what is going on with everyone.
Grant is so serious and he is normally the one to keep everyone else in line and practical. However, there is something about Josie that has him throwing everything he ever thought out the window.
Once you get started you will not want to put this book down! A must read book and series for sure!
By Alisa
Nothing says hot like an alpha male who makes it his life mission to empower women so they can be independent and self sufficient yet still knows how to dominate in the the bedroom. Grant Lorre is seriously perfection. The chemistry between Josie and Grant is insane and although Grant doesn’t want to be someone a woman leans on he wants to take care of Josie. When Josie has an emergency Grant comes up with a marriage of convenience.
I really love this series. I love all the characters and the stories keep getting better. The only issue is I end up craving sweets for a few days after I finish reading them!
**I was generously provided with an advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for my fair and honest review**
So much fun. Grant is the voice of reason out of the business partners and friends. It never seems like he gets ruffled but he finds himself captivated by Josie who he has saved a few times at the bakery. Josie believes Grant doesn’t like her. He rescued her but then never talks to her when he comes in for his morning bakery order. When Grant finds out Josie needs surgery but doesn’t have insurance, the protector in him awakes and suddenly he is doing some crazy things to solve the problem. Josie doesn’t want charity so when Grant proposes marriage to get her health insurance, she figures why not. They did share one hot and steamy night together, maybe she will get a few more out of the deal. There are several surprises along the way as Josie and Grant get to know each other. A wonderful addition to the Hot Cakes series. I voluntarily read an ARC of this book and this is my honest review.
Such a cute book! Oh man. So I knew it was going to be a fake marriage trope for insurance but the way that the couple went about it was adorable. Grant’s mission is to help women be self-sufficient but he wanted to do more than that with Josie. He wanted to help and protect her but Josie didn’t need that until she needed insurance. Then and only then did she agree to the help. What neither of them expected was actually falling in love and in true romance fashion that realization didn’t come until the end. But honestly, it was so cute and I definitely can’t wait for the next ones.
*I received an ARC for an honest review*
5 delicious stars
Nothing is better than salty and sweet together and Erin Nicholas serves it up just right in Making Whoopie! This is the third story in a series I didn’t know existed but am quickly catching up on! Each book is a standalone but trust me, you’ll want to read them all! How I missed the first couple books I’ll never know but this one was practically edible and I need more!!
Grant and Josie shouldn’t go together. He’s a practical, “all parts must equal the sum” money man and she’s a small town baker who brings to life the old nursery rhyme of sugar, spice and all things nice. He lives to teach women they don’t need to depend on anyone, especially men, while Josie lives paycheck to paycheck hiding her true talent from her best friend/bakery owner. These two have danced around each other for awhile, each secretly attracted to the other but Grant wisely knows one taste of the sweet baker and he’ll be addicted. When these two finally give in to their blazing attraction, we are reminded how sweet and savory work so well together! **fans face**
Erin Nicholas does it all in this book, funny, sweet, serious and also holy cupcakes, grab a fan cause it’s getting hot in the kitchen! Josie and Grant’s chemistry was explosive and that scene in her kitchen…FIRE!!! I loved how committed Grant was to helping, not just Josie, but women in general. I also really liked how content Josie was with her life and how fiercely she protected her life in Appleby. The rest of the friend group was so well written and compelling, they’re like Lay’s “bet you can’t read just one”! Fantastic read!
AnnMarie – Alphas Do It Better Book Blog
I am so enjoying my time in Appleby, Iowa. This Hot Cakes Series by Erin Nicholas just gets better and better! This series has been an absolute treat to read so far and Making Whoopie is no exception. There are some of the best characters in this charming little town.
Josie and Grant’s love story was a delight. It was the perfect blend of sweet romance, humorous moments, and a whole lot of sexy with a side helping of difficult real life issues. This was one sexy couple and I was so rooting for them to turn their marriage of convenience in a real one.
Erin Nicholas has created a truly magical series with Hot Cakes. A quirky small town, heartfelt and true friendships and wonderfully fun and extremely likeable characters makes this series a must read. I am excited to read what happens next for Hot Cakes and rest of the town.