Score: 3/5 Bookmarks

Thank you to Dreamscape Media for gifting me an audiobook review copy of Sweethand by N.G. Peltier.

This is the first in the Island Bites series, and I’m here for all these delicious descriptions of food, although they certainly made me hungry…and I probably snacked more than I should while listening to this one.

After a particularly messy (and public) breakup with her ex, Cherisse is done dating anyone in the music industry. Plus, who has time to date when you’re busy building your pastry chef empire!

Unfortunately, her family didn’t seem to get the memo and are trying to play matchmaker at every opportunity. To top it off, the most annoying man on the planet is in town for Cherisse’s sister’s wedding. She’s forced to spend time with Keiran King because he’s the best man, and there are just so many wedding festivities to participate in. But is all this hostility actually masking something else?

I will say, that while I enjoyed the story, I found myself frustrated with the main character a lot of the time. She was just getting in her own way so often!

I really enjoyed the audiobook narration, which was performed by Chrystal Bethell. It came in at just over ten and a half hours long, and it was a pleasure to listen to. You can download the audiobook via the button below, or get a physical copy here.

After a public meltdown over her breakup from her cheating musician boyfriend, Cherisse swore off guys in the music industry, and dating in general for a while, preferring to focus on growing her pastry chef business.

When Cherisse’s younger sister reveals she’s getting married in a few months, Cherisse hopes that will distract her mother enough to quit harassing her about finding a guy, settling down and having kids. But her mother’s matchmaking keeps intensifying.

Cherisse tries to humour her mother, hoping if she feigns interest in the eligible bachelors she keeps tossing her way, she’ll be off the hook, but things don’t quite go as planned. Turns out for the first time in ages, she and Keiran King, the most annoying man ever, are on the island at the same time. Avoiding him is impossible, especially when Keiran’s close friend is the one marrying her sister, and he’s the best man to her maid of honour.

Keiran doesn’t know what to make of Cherisse now. They’ve always butted heads. To him she’s always been a stuck-up brat who seeks attention, even while he secretly harbored a crush on her. Now with Cherisse’s sister marrying one of his good friends he can’t escape her as the wedding activities keep throwing them together.

When things turn heated after a rainy night of bedroom fun, they both have to figure out if they can survive the countdown to wedding day, without this turning into a recipe for disaster.