Review: Beef Cake by Jiffy Kate

Beef Cake by Jiffy Kate
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC in exchange for an honest review.  This book comes out tomorrow, March 17, 2020 and is the first of the Smartypants Spring 2020 releases.  There will be a new book each Tuesday for the next several weeks.

If you've read Stud Muffin, you will remember Cage mentioning he had a younger brother who was also training to be an MMA fighter. Well, Cage finally has his own gym up and running and his younger brother, Gunnar has moved to Green Valley to train and teach some classes to the locals. Gunnar is used to being pushed hard by his three older brothers, and he's willing to put in the work to be the best. When a random accident at the gym sends him to the ER for stitches, he finds himself drawn to the beautiful yet complicated Frankie. Frankie is an ER nurse who has a complicated past and ties to the Iron Wraiths. She is trying to uncover things she can't remember from her childhood, and the last thing she wants is some meathead MMA fighter flirting with her. When Gunnar lays on the charm, she finds that there is more to him than she gave him credit for.

I really enjoyed this. Both of the characters were complex and I liked that their romance developed at a nice pace. I love that this covers difficult topics such as domestic abuse, drug use, mental health, and more in such a relatable way. Frankie has been through a lot in her life, and while she's surviving, she's not really living. It isn't until she meets Gunnar that she starts to let her defenses down and starts to really experience life. With those experiences come traumatic memories from the past that she has to face with to move forward. I also really appreciated the way that Gunnar never gave up on her, he gave her the space and permission she needed to deal with things the way she needed to in every situation.

I do wish this had more interaction at the actual bakery. I really just loved those characters and the baking aspect, but they only talk about they bakery in passing as neither of the characters work there. That's OK, we do get mention of it and Tempest is still creating her crazy muffins. This offering is fairly independent of the the original Pennyverse. That in no way is a deterrent from reading the story, it is actually nice to see the authors take the original beloved world of Green Valley and make something wholly unique.

This book is a complete standalone. You do not need to have read the previous books in The Donner Bakery Series to follow along. You should read them because they are also great!

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