Cake by J. Bengtsson

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Title: Cake
Author: J. Bengtsson
Series: Cake #1
Published by: Indie
Release Date: December 1, 2016
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Andi Arndt, Joe Arden
Length: 12 hours and 42 minutes
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Potential Triggers: View Spoiler »rape flashbacks, physical/sexual assault « Hide Spoiler
Source: Audible
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2020 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2020 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER With Friends
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ iTunes
My rating:

Blurb:

Joe Arden and Narrator Hall of Fame inductee Andi Arndt deliver a perfectly layered performance in Cake, a romance about finding love and redemption in unexpected places.

Quiet and aloof rock star Jake McKallister and outspoken, vivacious college student Casey Caldwell are polar opposites: Casey is bubbly and talkative; Jake is reclusive. Casey enjoyed a picturesque childhood; Jake's childhood could only be described as a well-publicized nightmare. Jake's life revolves around music, and Casey can't carry a tune.

Music saved Jake, yet he lacks the outgoing personality expected of a famous performer. After surviving an unspeakable crime as a young teen, he becomes a guarded workaholic who desperately attempts to forget the past. Career success comes easily for Jake, but he struggles to make personal connections.

Despite their differences, Casey's light harmonizes with Jake's darkness, a balance embodied in the unexpectedly warm and humorous dual performance. Can the sweetness of true love overcome Jake's tragic past?

This is the first book in the Cake series, a collection of contemporary romance novels focusing on the lives of a famous family.

My Review:

4.5 stars — OK, so this was one of those books that for the most part was 10++++++ stars, but then had a few niggly spots that bugged me, so I averaged out to 4.5 stars.  Don’t question me, there’s no logic to make this make sense.

I honestly spent so much of the time listening to this book with the biggest goddamn smile on my face, it was honestly ridiculous.  There were so many amazing things working for this story — fabulous narrators, truly likable (if flawed) characters, amazing dialogue, so much emotion, so many laughs…it really was my happy spot.

I honestly don’t have much to say about the narrators except that they were exceptional.  Great pacing, great consistent voices, fantastic emotion…just nailed their performances.

I will admit that I wasn’t sucked in in the first chapter necessarily…the way Casey is introduced, and her initial internal thoughts felt very random.  But once Jake arrives on the scene, everything just blows up into awesomeness.  I loved their awkward as hell meet cute, I loved the way they connected almost immediately after Casey broke the ice…  I didn’t even mind that Jake had a little pushback blunder at the wedding.  It was just fun, and made my tummy tingle, and I was just legitimately in love with both of them.

Casey is feisty, forthright, hilarious, snarky, and while her feelings went from 0 to OMG in no time, I was still excited with her.  I loved that she pushed back against Jake, and that while she was in awe of him, I also genuinely felt that she also fell in love with the real him.  It was a nice balance for a celebrity romance.  Sometimes I worried about the way she would push back against him, but it seemed to work for them.

Jake was equally hilarious, strangely humble, but SOOOOO broken in other ways.  I both loved him, and wanted more for him in this book.  This would be one of the niggly spots — I wanted him to have gotten some outside help at some point in their journey…he NEEDS it.  I noticed they get another book later in the series, so maybe there?  But I definitely felt like that was a failing.  Especially given the level of trauma he experienced.

Their relationship made my romantic heart so happy, even if at times I was like “WOAH!” with their decisions and the speed with which their relationship developed.  But in the end it worked for them somehow, and they kept me rooting for them until the end.

SO many fabulous secondary characters, particularly both families.  Even though we only got glimpses of some of them, they still made an impact.  They were all very unique too.  Definitely makes me excited for future books.  I also really loved the bits we saw of Jake’s road crew…particularly Lassen.

My other niggle comes with the ending.  I’ve seen the style before, and it’s honestly NOT my favourite.  In fact, I actually really don’t like it.  It was abrupt, and unnecessary, and I guess I would have preferred it played out differently.  View Spoiler »The author chooses to have a very abrupt unresolved ending with things up in the air, and then move on to an epilogue in the future, keeping things secret until a reveal and then an explanation of what we missed in the interim. Like I said, it’s not a stylistic choice I appreciate, and I was bummed. « Hide Spoiler

Despite the ending being a bit of a let down, the rest of the book was so motherfucking good I just can’t even.  I will definitely be checking out more from this author in the future.