The Secrets of Sweet Blessings Bakery
The cozy, emotional, small-town romance of forgiveness and second chances
Welcome to Sugar Gap, Tennessee. Population: complicated.
Brick storefronts, a white gazebo on the square and the scent of cinnamon drifting from Sweet Blessings Bakery.
Mariah Dyersburg used to live above that bakery. Twelve years ago she ran from it, leaving her family, and first love, behind.
Now she’s an award-winning chef in Seattle. A new name. A designer wardrobe. The freckled bakery girl is long gone.
Then her grandmother’s lawyer calls.
The terms of the will are simple. Mariah and her two estranged sisters must return to Sugar Gap and complete fifteen seasonal tasks set by their grandmother. A scavenger hunt that sends them chasing memories all over the town they grew up in.
There’s just one problem. The handsome county sheriff roped into helping is Sam Jenkins. The boy she was supposed to marry and whose heart she broke when she left all those years ago.
Fifteen tasks. Two sisters who haven’t forgiven her. One stubborn sheriff who never stopped loving her. And her grandmother’s chocolate bourbon pie . . . Suddenly Mariah finds Sugar Gap may be a lot harder to leave.
Grab a spiced latte, order the pie and stay a while. Sugar Gap has been waiting for you.
Buy Now!
The great reviews are rolling in:
From Barbara: This was a long story which gradually unfolded into an interesting mystery. The story of 3 sisters, their current life and their back stories, was well described throughout the story and was an integral part of it. I loved how their grandmother’s will and story was the basis of the story. The interlocking of the characters was very believable and I felt I knew them all and that I was a member of their family. The romance was deliciously slow burn and to nearly the end I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be! Sit down with a drink by your side and enjoy this great book.
From Phil: A clever story line with great characters.
From Melanie: The Secrets of Sweet Blessings Bakery looks like a cozy fall romance on the surface, but there is more family hurt underneath than I expected. Mariah comes back to Sugar Gap after twelve years away, and the fifteen tasks in her grandmother’s will force her to deal with the sisters she left behind, the town she ran from, and Sam, the first love she never really resolved things with. The small-town setting is charming, but the emotional mess is what gives the story its weight.
I have a soft spot for second-chance stories when the reunion is not treated like an automatic fix, and that is what worked best for me here. Mariah had real reasons for leaving, even if she hurt people in the process, and I appreciated that coming home did not instantly erase everything that had happened. The scavenger-hunt tasks were fun, but I was more interested in watching the three sisters slowly start talking honestly again.
Sam and Mariah’s history gives the romance plenty of tension, though I liked that the book is just as interested in Mariah deciding what she wants now as it is in getting them back together. Add in Sweet Blessings Bakery, the chocolate bourbon pie, and a town full of people who remember everything, and this ended up being a warmer, more emotional story than the cover initially suggested.
