Zoey Indiana, $0.99, ISBN 978-1005210748
Fantasy Romance, 2021

Rory can turn into a gingerbread cookie, but don’t worry, people, it’s a curse. He’s going to turn into a sexy thing once the curse is lifted—honest!

Of course, he just has to take over heroine Blaze’s bakery, and she’s understandably not too pleased about it. It is a no-no to take over a heroine’s failing business, don’t you know, because that is a sin. Still, his buddy needs tons of cookies—don’t ask—and now he has to persuade Blaze to bake him some.

You know, I should be commended for restraining myself from making the predictable cracks about sugars and cherries, but hey, Zoey Indiana’s Totally Frosted has a screwball premise that is begging for such a treatment.

This is part of the author’s long-running series Fated Mates, so it is perhaps not too surprising that it starts off with the assumption that the reader already knows everyone and their existing relationships with everyone else.

My issue with this one, however, is this: the author has an unusual hero and a wacky premise for this story, but she wastes what little space she has in this story for… the two characters yammering and, er, “exploring” their mate bond.

Really? This is like setting a story in space and then making the characters spend all their time indoors eating Big Macs. What’s the point? Did the author run out of ideas after the first page or so and went into auto-“time to write another mate-mate-mate thing” mode?

Yes, the narrative is fine, the conversations are bouncy, and under other circumstances, this one would be a perfectly fine romantic comedy. However, this one remains a grossly squandered opportunity. The author should be arrested, I tell you, for raising my hopes so much only to dash them to pieces like a demented Captain Ahab.

At least put in some naughty scenes involving baking appliances, hmmph!