He’s a master baker with a big…cannoli.They call me the sugar whisperer.Anything your tongue desires, I can bake it. Scones? Child’s play. Cupcakes? I’ll frost them so good you won’t know what hit you. Donuts? Please.You’re talking to a master baker.But there’s one egg I’ve never been able to crack.My best friend.Correction: My former best friend.She’s the apple in my pie. The whip in my cream. … former best friend.
She’s the apple in my pie. The whip in my cream. The lemon in my meringue. The wish in my bone.
She’s the one who got away.
After ten years in the military, she’s back. She’s bruised and battered by life, but she’s back.
Except she’s not my second chance. She’s gone to the dark side.
Running a rival bakery in a town not big enough for two.
So now I have to decide—which do I want more?
My bakery?
Or the woman I never should’ve let go of in the first place?
Master Baker is a deliciously fun friends-to-enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy featuring a smooth-talking baker, the one who got away, and a goat with more matchmaking tendencies than a nosy old grandpa. It stands alone with no cheating or cliffhangers.
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Master Baker by Pippa Grant is a contemporary, friends-to-enemies-to-lovers, second chance, romantic comedy told in first person, dual POV.
Former best friends Grady Rock and Annika Williams haven’t seen each other for ten years. Not since the night of high school graduation when he declared his love and she rejected him before leaving for the army. When Grady hears that Annika has returned, he’s a little hurt that she didn’t come see him but he’s happy that she’s back. That is until he finds out that she opened a bakery not even ten miles from his own. Grady refuses to let her put him out of business. He’s not going down without a fight. And Annika better watch out because this means war!
Why did Annika open her bakery so close to Grady’s? Is she really trying to put him out of business? What will happen when the towns get involved in the feud? Is there room for both bakeries to succeed? And can Grady and Annika find their way back to each other after so much time apart?
I really enjoyed this story and wish I could visit Sarcasm and Shipwreck. Grady and Annika were both very likeable characters. Their history together was sweet and endearing. It was fun to watch them fight with each other and then for each other. Quirky, romantic, heart-warming, and funny. I recommend this delightful book.
*** I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC. ***
Master Baker is a second chance, best friends to enemies to lovers rom-com, and it is equal parts hysterical and cringe-inducing. How could it not be with towns called Shipwreck and Sarcasm? I think I would get a kick out of living in either of these towns. Both towns have a warped sense of humor that I find wonderfully entertaining! However, I do feel that their long-held grudge and hatred of one another has become more of a force of habit than anything else. These two towns are more alike than they realize.
Master Baker is the story of Grady Rock and Annika Williams. Born and raised in rival towns, they met in high school and became the very best of friends. After 10 years of being away in the Army, Annika, knowing nothing about baking, returns home to Sarcasm to help her mom and sister run their new bakery. Grady, being a Master Baker, and owning a bakery in the neighboring town of Shipwreck, sees this as a betrayal of their former friendship. The area may or may not be large enough for two bakeries. The result? A bakery war fueled by hurt feelings and a long-standing rivalry between the towns.
This book, like all Pippa Grant books, made me laugh out loud, but it also touched my heart. Grady is a good man – personable, charming, funny, well-liked. To him, Annika is the one that got away, so when she returns home to run a rival bakery, his broken heart causes him to act childishly . While he does find ways to make up for this behavior, his hero complex when it comes to Annika almost causes him to lose it all. Annika is strong-willed, witty and funny, with a deep sense of familial duty. She is also lost and unsure of herself, and she tends to allow fear and uncertainty to guide her actions.
I loved the fire between these two. Their chemistry is explosive, and this is only heightened by their witty, sarcastic banter! I do, however, wish they would have been more honest with each other throughout the book. And though I thoroughly enjoyed the snide remarks thrown out by the supporting characters, after a while, I found myself getting frustrated by their meanness and how quick they were to judge.
While Master Baker does bring back some of our favorite Pippa characters, it can be read and enjoyed as a stand-alone. It also introduces us to some new friends, and I hope we get to meet them all again real soon.
If you enjoy crude talking parrots, matchmaking goats, dirty talking bakers (I will never look at a pastry the same way again), deliciously deviant (see what I did there?) teenagers, and laugh out loud funny rom-coms, then I encourage you to give Master Baker a try!
And she knocks it out of the park AGAIN! I can’t say enough about the warm sugary gooey goodness that is this book! Ms. Grant has found the formula for the perfect book, each one keeps getting better. I LOVED Grady and Annika, they were like a modern day Romeo and Juliette, supposed to be enemies and fierce competitors but behind closed doors they got along JUST right. As with every Pippa Grant book, the laughs were loud and plentiful, there were some scorching hot bits, and animal hi-jinx abound. To get serious for a moment, Annika’s strength and honesty about not knowing what to do with herself is what made this book a must read for me. Its a recurring theme in Ms. Grant’s books, strong women, women to admire, and I truly enjoyed this journey with Grady and Annika
Welcome back to the wonderful world of Pippa Grant! If you haven’t read any of her other books, this is a good place to start. You won’t be lost, but you will get sucked in! This book is amazing in that it is a part of the Pippa-verse, but can be enjoyed as a stand alone very easily.
Former best friends turned enemies, with a second chance at love in a bakery battle! That is only the tip of the plot line, and there are a ton of twists and turns and crazy pirate antics along the way. This is baking, I mean, writing…both, at it’s best!
Grady Rock, aka the Master Baker, is hilarious! The way he whispers sweet nothings to his baked goods! Ya’ll, this reader may have snorted while laughing then had a few post-baby bladder malfunctions while reading such funny stuff! And Sue the goat contributed to a lot of it as well. And the parrot. Back to Grady, who is not only a great baker, but attempting to get over an old flame. Old Flame, aka, Annika. Who can’t bake, but can show a spreadsheet who is boss. I loved their interactions, and how they had to reconcile the past with the time they spent apart, and who they are now.
Despite the years apart, there’s feelings and history. Things that not even a goat and foul mouthed parrot can stop. With more panache (or would that be ganache?) than their high school selves had, these two heat up the counters and sheets.
This book took a bit to suck me in, but I was a bit leery as I didn’t love Flirting with the Frenemy, and Master Baker takes us back to Sarcasm and Shipwreck. (I’m more a fan of the hockey romance by Ms. Grant.) But once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down. The characters sense of loyalty and quirks resonated with me and make the book binge worthy. There were just enough glimpses of friends from the Pippa-verse in all the right places as well!
This book is amazing. I am so glad I read it and I can’t wait for more! Cooper deserves a story of his own for sure.
Star Ratings:
Plot = 5/5 Characters = 5/5 Heat = 5/5 Writing Style = 5/5 Overall Rating = 5/5
Master Baker by Pippa Grant is the story of Grady Rock and Annika Williams.
Grady and Annika where best of friends back in High School but Annika left to join the military leaving Grady behind. Now almost 10 years later with no word between the two in those hears has caused mixed feelings. Then Grady learns that Annika has opened a bakery not to far from his so no they are ‘enemies’. Annika is back but isn’t the same women that left in addition her mom has health issue that has added to Annika not acting the carefree girl she once was. Can these two find there was back to each other?
This was a fun easy read…enjoyed it.
Pippa Grant is a blind go-to author for me. I didn’t even read the blurb before I read this book! I laughed and cried and fell in love! Master Baker is everything you know and love from Pippa Grant – fresh, flirty, fun, and FIVE STARS!
I’ve read every single one of Pippa Grant’s books. The first several ones, loosely centering around the same group of friends/family, were delightful. I loved America’s Geekheart. But lately, I noticed I am finding her books exhausting. It’s almost like the previous books were so organically funny, that the author is trying to keep up and outdo the previous book in humor each time, except that there is too much of a good thing. It’s more slapstick and cartoonish.
BUT that isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy this book. Quite the opposite, actually. Grady and Annika are incredible together. Annika’s relationships with her mother and sister are heartwarming. I adore how the three of them are there for each other. The support their towns show each of them is the best part of small town life. However, all of that can still be brought to life without a zany-animal-for-a-pet gimmick and over-the-top supporting characters. I mean, I get a small town rivalry. I can easily see residents of each town goading the other with their trash talk, but then all getting a beer together after work on Friday. But these people hate each other simply because they live 10 miles away! And as wonderful of a mother as Maria is, and big sister that Annika is, why doesn’t either one stop and tell the 13 year old that it actually *isn’t* okay to hate someone just because they live in another town?
There are some incredibly touching moments in the book, too. Every time Annika and Bailey celebrated one of their mother’s accomplishments. Amy coming to interview and why she was there. But my heart broke for Annika during the competition when she saw the cameraman.
Overall, this is a great book like the previous books Ms Grant has written. Don’t miss a fantastic love story because too much comedy fell into the batter.
Master Baker is another home run from Pippa. It’s funny, yet sweet, and all the characters are incredible. Except for when they’re being buttheads to each other, of course. But that makes forgiving them all the sweeter.
And speaking of sweet- so many baking innuendos! Pippa is the best at turning even the most benign words into something dirty. And mostly hits it out of the park. (Except “cookies.” WTF was that?)
The best part of this book, in my opinion, was all the dirty talk. It was hot and hilarious all at once. Grady definitely takes that crown from Manning. And I have a sudden urge to bake. I’m just a little bit worried that I won’t be able to look the ingredients in the eyes anymore…
Once I started reading Master Baker I couldn’t put it down. It’s a fun and endearing romance that definitely satisfied my sweet tooth.
Grady and Annika were best friends, but after graduation she left town to join the military, and now 10 years later she is back because her family needs her. Problem being she is going to run the bakery her mom bought, which is in the next town to Grady’s bakery. Bring into the mix a baker who dirty talks his baked goods during the process, a talking parrot, and a male goat named Sue, as well as a bakery war, and this is a hilarious read from the very beginning. Can Grady and Annika move on from friends / enemies / lovers? This is a story which just has to be read, you will not be disappointed. This is a well written flawless story which is fun, emotional, humorous, and an entertaining read. In my opinion, this is this talented authors’ best work to date, and I highly recommend for all readers.
Whenever I open up a book by this author I know to expect a growly hero, a strong minded heroine, and either some crazy animal that I will fall in love with or some crazy stunt that will make me wish that I could be a part of it. Not having any of that wouldn’t make her books as awesome as they are. Master Baker fits right in. Grady is the dirty talker I wish I could listen to on a daily basis. I’d watch him bake just to hear him dirty talk his pastries. Add in the fact that he adopted a goat? A goat he named Sue?? That’s awesome! Annika stole my heart. She was so committed to everyone that she loves that she put herself on the back burner. I just wanted to hug her and demand that she do something for herself. I loved these two and I’m so glad they got their heads out of their a****. They deserved this second chance. Though I think it was hilarious that everyone THOUGHT they could keep these two apart! If you’re looking for a great laugh, a crazy love story that will melt you, and a crazy animal to fall in love with then definitely pick up this book! *I voluntarily read an advanced copy of this book for my honest and unbiased review.*
If you are looking for a funny entertaining read that will have you laughing out loud as well as giggling to yourself look no further than this book. This is my first visit to Shipwreck but it won’t be my last I need to get to know more about the quirky residents of this town and their local neighbours from the town of Sarcasm. Grady and Annika used to be friends but Annika broke Grady’s heart and now a few years on it seems she is home and trying to break his business. Annika is home for her family and try’s her best to avoid the rivalry that seems to follow her and Grady around but is there enough business to support two bakeries in the towns of Shipwreck and Sarcasm…….
This book is hilarious, it has some crazy animals ,some busy body family members who really mean well and plenty of witty banter that flows so naturally amongst the characters. I really looking forward to playing catch up with the previous books in this series of stand-alones. Loved Loved Loved this book and it’s will certainly be going on my best reads of 2019.
Handsome baker and Military gal reunite after 10 years apart. This story includes town rivalries, bakery wars, a teenage girl and sweet moments. Lots of cameos from prior Pippa characters. This is a fun second chance romance.
Grady Rock, has been in love with, Annika, since he was 14.
She was his best friend, but everything changed when they graduated high school.
He went to culinary school, and then came back to Shipwreck and bought the bakery, The Crows Nest.
Annika, came from a single parent family.
Her mother had her when she was a teenager and her father was also a teenager and couldn’t handle the responsibility.
Her mother, also had an affair at work that produced her sister and had to quit her job.
Her mother gave up everything for her daughter’s, but never felt like she lacked for anything.
Annika, knew from a young age, that she didn’t want to go down the same path as her mother and so she set goals of staying away from dating and going to college to make something of herself.
After highschool she’s went into the army and after ten years she came home too help her mother make her dreams come true by buying the Dough-Nuts bakery.
Only one problem with that, her mother has recently gone blind and now, Annika, is operating a bakery, but she can’t bake.
Her sister, Bailey, who’s fourteen is a natural. She is really really good, but she also will be going back to school, so she needs to come up with a plan and soon.
There has been a town rivalry for as long as the town’s have existed.
Now that rivalry has encompassed the two bakeries and now the best friends, have become mortal enemies.
As they go to war, with the town’s backing them, they find it’s pretty hard to just forget their friendship and the feelings they both had in highschool.
Grady, sees that, “Her happiness made me happy.”
So, he wants to prove to her that she is worth the wait and he’ll do whatever it takes to won her over.
This is a laugh out loud rom-com, that even has a pet goat , named Sue, and a foul mouthed parrot .
I love this series and am looking forward to seeing what happens next in Shipwreck.
Welcome back to Shipwreck.
Master Baker is the first in a new spin-off from the on-going series of standalones by Pippa Grant. Each story is individual, told in the quirky hilarious style of this fabulous author, who only started writing in late 2017. I’ve read every single one of her books nd each just gets better.
This is Grady Rock and Annika Williams story.
Grady and Annika were best friends all through high school even though their separate towns were rivals and basically hated each other. These two saw the real person inside. But, on graduation night Grady knew he had to tell the truth about his feelings for Annika. He’d been in love with her for years. Annika denied him… and herself and kept her promise to herself. To leave town, join the Army and make a better life for herself.
Ten years later, Grady’s got his own business as a master baker, and Annika is a staff sergeant. But, when her mom suddenly needs her to come home, she is there in a flash.
Annika has a lot to deal with. Not just her mom’s mysterious illness, but they had only just opened their own baker in Sarcasm. Annika can’t bake. She can’t even boil water. Her mom’s gone blind and her thirteen-year-old sister is too young to run the bakery even though she could do it with her hands tied behind her back.
Grady on the other hand, lives to bake. It’s what he loves most… well apart from one thing.
Annika.
Now, the rivalry between the two towns gathers pace and Grady is made to feel the heat as everyone in Sarcasm sees him as the enemy.
Grady amd Annika battle their renewed feeling for each other while trying to do the best they can with the twist that fate has flung at them. The chemistry was clear and present from the outset with these two, but it was a fairly slow burning story. Lots of fun moments between softball games, tv spotlights, camping and a goat that thinks it’s a dog. Meet Sue. He’s one hilarious herbivore. Throw in some crazy secondary characters. A quick visit with the Berger twins and Chase Jett and meeting with some of the previous characters from Flirting With The Frenemy.
Another adorable, quirky story to love and read, over and over again.
Five stars for the hot cover and clever title!
The story gets four and a half stars for hilarity and romance and sweet baked goods, as well as possibly being the only simultaneous friends-to-lovers *and* enemies-to-lovers romance I’ve ever read. (Somehow, it works.) And, of course, for intuitive goats, randy senior citizens, vulgar parrots, hockey twin cameos, softball shenanigans, and battling bakeries. Took a fraction of a star off because the ending felt a bit rushed. Not a lot, just a smidgen.
Another fantastic steamy rom-com from Pippa Grant. Highly recommended!
Pippa never disappoints. Like Romeo & Juliet….without the murders & suicides, but with the sneaky sneaky, warring houses, and intense love! Annika is fantabulous! And Grady….le sigh. Flove, flove, flove them!! That Pippa Grant feeling you get at the end….the middle…the beginning…..through the whole book, full of the happy!! I can’t stop smiling. And you will fall in love with a goat named Sue. And need to bleach your brain because of certain geriatric sexual exploits. We meet the characters of Sarcasm to add to all those characters of Shipwreck…and by characters, I mean oddballs. I wish everyone would read Pippa, they’d be too busy laughing to fight. Thank you for more Pippaverse. And Grady…everyone needs more Grady. I received a review copy. I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
Town rivals, bakery wars, softball shenanigans, Sue! Grady and Annika haven’t seen or talked to each other in ten years and have some unresolved issues to deal with; however, family emergencies, making a profit, and the towns’ themselves are making it hilariously difficult. Aside from confectionery obstacles and interfering foul mouthed pets, we get a visit from our favorite characters and lots of ideas for pastry items, yum! This was a fun ride and had all the usual suspects in a Pippa book.
Master Baker is the rom-com version of a Food Network show and I am completely in LOVE with this story, with Grady and Annika, Sue and the towns of Shipwreck and Sarcasm.
Grady owns a bakery in Shipwreck and is the master baker. When he finds out the bakery in Shipwreck’s rival town is opening he is angry and storms over there. What he doesn’t expect? To see Annika Williams, the only girl he has ever cared for, the girl he compares everyone else to, the girl who left him 10 years ago.
They have loved each other for years, but when Annika comes back they are enemies. They are business rivals. Annika has no idea what she is doing and she is having to go against a master baker and someone who once was her best friend.
This story was adorable, hilarious, sweet, steamy and completely delicious. I loved the banter between Grady and Annika. Grady’s sweet talking to the food (seriously gives a whole new meaning to food porn), Annika’s lack of skills, Sue, Pops, every single resident in Shipwreck and Sarcasm, and Cooper Rock.
Grab yourself a sweet treat, put on do not disturb because this one book you will not won’t to put down.
Packed full of sugary goodness, Master Baker is delicious! This book will have you laughing and falling in love from the very first chapter, not to mention my sweet tooth has been craving confections for days. The fantastic sweets that Pippa has whipped up while Grady Rock sweet talks them into life has left me salivating for both sugary treats and a sweet-talking baker. The town of Shipwreck is one of my favorite places to visit when I pick up a Pippa Grant book.
Master Baker is a best-friends/enemy-lover romcom. It involves a filthy talking parrot and a male goat named Sue. Okay, the parrot and the goat aren’t the main characters, but they are both hilarious and both probably think they should get top billing. But seriously, the story is really about Grady Rock and Annika Williams. They were best friends back in high school. Annika left right after graduation, joined the army and they haven’t seen one another for ten years.
Now Annika is back and she isn’t exactly back to rekindle her friendship with Grady, she’s back because her family desperately needs her help. Her mom recently bought the bakery in Sarcasm, which resides in the town right next to Shipwreck where Grady owns his own bakery. Right before the grand opening of Duh-Nuts her mom gets ill and then goes blind. That does not bode well for running a bakery or making the confections that are needed to sell in the shop. Annika doesn’t know the first thing about running a business or baking, she can burn water in a pan, but she is determined to help no matter what, even if it means upsetting her former best friend and potentially destroying his bakery business in the next town over.
“We’d be better off with me buying all the snack cakes the grocery store has in stock and sticking unicorn horns in all of them to make them ‘unique’ than with letting me take over the baking.” -Annika
When Grady hears that Annika is back he is elated, even though he is a little hurt that she never came to see him. That elation doesn’t last long when he hears that she opened a bakery ten miles down the road from his own. She doesn’t appear to be the same girl that left ten years ago, all traces of his best friend have disappeared. If her intention was to always go after what he loved, he declares a bakery war if he has any chance of saving his own, he won’t go down without a fight. Thankfully the people of Shipwreck seem to love a good war as much as he does since his sales are up, but when Grady discovers the real reason why Annika returned all hard feelings vanish and his focus turns to helping the woman who stole his heart over a decade ago.
“Now she’s trying to kill my bakery. Which means I have a choice. Fight back against the one woman who’s still under my skin ten years later, or let her win and watch my bakery go down the drain.” -Grady
Secretly Annika and Grady work together to save their bakeries, but how long can relationship last on a lie when everyone around them is routing for the others demise? Every outcome for a happily ever after seems impossible. How did they think they could reunite two towns who have been feuding for centuries with a little sugar and some magic?
Master Baker is fun, delicious (I’m Annika, but this book should include magical recipes for me to destroy), and once again this may have topped my list of favorite Pippa books.