Beef Cake

An Unrequited Romance: Donner Bakery, Book 4

By: Smartypants Romance, Jiffy Kate

Narrated by: Chris Brinkley, Natalie Duke

Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

If opposites do actually attract, then Gunnar Erickson and Frankie Reeves take the cake.

Frankie Reeves is complicated, even though she won’t admit it. She fills her days working as an ER nurse, taking care of her mom, and searching for the father she never knew. Anything else has no place in her perfectly compartmentalized, purposefully simple life. Attachments? No thank you. She has no time for that.

Gunnar Erickson recently moved to Green Valley to train at Viking MMA with his brother Cage. Being the youngest of the Erickson clan, he’s always felt like he has something to prove, and now that he’s finished with college, it’s his time to shine. But before he can step into the ring, a freak accident sends him to the ER and into the care of one Frankie Reeves.

While he’s immediately smitten, she pretends to be unfazed by this six-foot-three, 230-pound beef cake. Gunnar sets out to prove to Frankie that not only does she like him more than she wants to admit, but he’s not the uneducated, brute she assumes he is. To Frankie, he’s the worst kind of complication, but that doesn’t make it easy to stay away.

Beef Cake is a full-length contemporary romance, can be heard as a stand-alone, and is book four in the Donner Bakery series, Green Valley World, Penny Reid Book Universe.

©2020 Smartypants Romance (P)2020 Smartypants Romance

Another good one!

Love this series. Another good one can’t wait for the next book. Witty and smart

Great story

Too many F words! I loved the story, but wish for les or not any F words!

Good story!

I liked how it pulled things together in the story line, very good!!!! Chris Brinkley is the best❤️❤️❤️

Loved Narration!!

Oh gosh... Frankie so badly needs to KNOW who all of her siblings are!!! STAT!

Plot potential, unfortunate delivery.

I wanted to like this book, the plot and characters seemed interesting. However, like it’s predecessor the second book in the Donner bakery series written by Jiffy Kate it just felt rushed and underdeveloped. I love all of the OG Green Valley books. Additionally, I am no stranger to violence and the depiction of real world traumas. However, the way those topics were delivered and used in this book was sloppy and I’ll be honest, pretty gross. A vast difference in this depiction versus the original series and my biggest complaint with this installment.
**SPOILERS**
Though there are some stark similarities with this characters trauma and some of the original books the way those traumas are handled are incredibly different. It felt like this characters depiction of trauma relied heavily on the visceral recoil to drive home a point. It also felt piled on and unnecessarily detailed.

Outside of that the characters interactions felt one dimensional and previous characters felt like they didn’t hold on to their own development.

The idea was solid and I was looking forward to it but I found myself wishing I’d skipped this one.

So disappointed.

This story had so much promise! I was really excited to read it, but as the story continued, I grew to dislike Frankie more and more. I did finish it, but the way she treated Gunnar towards the end was grating. It's lovely to find a male protagonist who is loving and kind, however it was disappointing to have the female character treat him like garbage. I would have actually have loved for him to find another romantic interest other than Frankie.