Baker and florist

a closeted and scared of parents/locals florist, works closely with a baker on thier friends wedding, though they've known each other for yrs an attraction develops ,and the florist discovers she can't live a lie anymore.
jae has such a warmth in her writing dealing with life's difficulties in a lovingly tender way, I love her character development, and you feel for them as friends. with great narration this is a must in genre

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Relatable and lovely

Nice story and good characters, with some interesting topics. Really tangible chemistry.
The narration was a little AI sounding in parts which was weird and Sacha’s voice didn’t quite fit for me, being the taller bigger women of the 2. Overall a great listen though.

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An emotional, yet beautiful love story, with an outstanding narrator!

I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook. Like all of Jae's books, this story tackles some intense & emotional moments yet ends with an adorable HEA that would fit in any Hallmark movie.

After listening to "Perfect Rhythm", I was looking forward to staying in Fair Oaks for a bit & I'm so glad I did. It was great to get to know Ashley & Sasha more & what became of Holly & Leo. I adored both leading ladies, in different ways & I really believed in their love story. Their personalities blended together like a perfect puzzle. Sasha is such a likeable character & her one liners will crack you up no end. However, I loved Ashley's character so much, I teared up on multiple occasions. I wasn't a big fan of Ashley in "Perfect Rhythm", but this book completely changed my perspective on her actions. She is such a complex character. Her thoughts & emotions are so relatable to some people's experience in the closet. Ashley's feelings of living up to people's expectations & the fear of being rejected, yet the desire to break free & just be who one truly is, was so relatable to me it took my breath away.

As one would come to expect from Jae, the characterisation wasn't the only thing that was exceptional. The descriptive imagery was, as I have come to expect, sublime. The description of the landscape, the description of Sasha & Ashley's emotions, & the hot description of the sex scenes were *chef's kiss*.

Angela Dawe, once again, is incredable & elevates this story to new heights. She is the best narrator I've ever listened to & would actually listen to her read a Chinese takeaway menu or something.

I highly recommend this audiobook. Its funny, emotional & sweet, & Angela Dawe is exceptional. My only piece of advice would be, don't listen to or read multiple Jae books one after the other in a short period of time. Don't get me wrong, I love Jae & all the books I've listened to have been great. However, this was my 5th "Jae" book I'd listened to in 3 & a half days. By the end of the book, I felt like I was getting Déjà Vu, & now, after I've finished the audiobook, I feel like all the stories have merged together. Especially as all of Jae's books follow the same kind of format (slow burn, not a huge twist, humour, diversity, etc). Plus, a lot of characters from Jae's other books appear in different books, which can also get confusing after a while. Regardless of all that, though, I would still recommend this book to anyone who is looking for funny, complex, relatable characters, & an emotional, yet sweet story with an adorable HEA.

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Loved the story

As always, I loved the story. Thank you Jae for writing another brilliant book.

Angela Dawe is my favourite narrator so I really hate to say it but I just couldn’t get used to Sacha’s voice, I couldn’t reconcile the tone of her voice with how her character is described. I have to give it to Ms Dawe she maintained the voice that she used for Sacha when she was a supporting character in the first Fairoaks book, which doesn’t always happen when a supporting character becomes a main character in a later book in the series.

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1 person found this helpful

not the marrying kind six star rating

really brilliant story line with a follow on from book one, really great characters also from book one and really brilliant narration with a happy ending as well great 👍👍

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JAE FAN

Loved the slow burn of this story and, the great if somewhat young characters ...
I found the only drawback to be the usually good narration of AD (whom I felt got the voices switched around) - would have given the 6ft woman the lower pitched voice rather than the petite one... just my POV

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A lot of tooing and froing!

Not one of my favourites, I wasn’t keen on Ash’s character but I didn’t really like her in the previous book either. I didn’t feel the voices matched the characters - Sasha’s voice doesn’t match my mental image some how. It was OK though.

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Loved it!!

Great story with great narration. Had me gripped from the start will definitely be one I’ll read again.

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Heartwarming and engaging

Loved the characters and the relationships between them. Powerful exploration of identity and living in conservative society.

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Cup cake kisses

When I selected this I had no idea it followed on from Perfect Rhythm and I’d recommend reading that before this - although not necessary it does give a little more context on the main characters, especially Ash, the closeted flower shop owner, who is living a half life. Added to which it’s always great knowing what comes next for some favoured characters from a previous read.
There were some strong emotions here and not just from the main characters, which Jae portrays well and which resonated with me (although as a side note I’m not a fan of the many contrived similes scattered throughout) ….but I am a sucker for a happy ending and as usual found myself smiling as I read.

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