About the Book
A small-town baker learns to raise her expectations for love with some help from a handsome local teacher in this sunny romantic comedy.
Layla Dupree has given up on love. She’s waded through all the fish in the sea, each one more disappointing than the last. Apparently, owning the bakery at Inglewild’s most romantic destination does not help one’s love life—despite Layla’s best efforts. All she wants is a partner who gives her butterflies, not someone who ghosts her at dinner and leaves her with the check.
Good thing Caleb Alvarez has the perfect solution. After saving Layla from another date gone bad, he has a simple proposition: one month of no-strings dating. He’ll do his best to renew her faith in men while she rates his romantic game. It’s a win-win situation. All the benefits of dating without the added pressure of feelings and unmet expectations.
But there’s one ingredient they haven’t considered. The chemistry between them is red-hot, and the urge to take things to the next level is more tempting than Layla’s mocha fudge brownies.
My Review
I’ve only read one other book in the Lovelight series and it was the second one, In the Weeds, which I found super cute and easy to read. When Mixed Signals came across my review pile it was a quick yes for me. This time we are following Layla, a baker owner on a string of bad luck dates. While getting ghosted at a restaurant, she runs into Caleb – also from the tiny Inglewild town and someone Layla has been aware of but…not like this. She is suddenly seeing him in a different light and when Caleb offers her a one month trial of no-strings dating so they both can attempt to figure out why all their dates go so sideways, she agrees. But when their chemistry proves too hot to keep pretending, they have to decide to face their fears and give real dating a shot, or protect themselves from getting hurt yet again.
I thought it was interesting to show a love situation where the characters are well aware of each other but never had a spark until the moment they both needed it. Layla and Caleb were easy to follow along and root for, both genuinely good people who care about those around them. All the baking talk from Layla’s POV didn’t hurt either. I actually think I liked this just a smidge more than the second book, and it makes me look forward to the next installment in the series.
4 stars
