No Whisk No Reward

Donner Bakery, Book 3

By: Smartypants Romance, Ellie Kay

Narrated by: Marnye Young

Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

How do you know if a risk is worth taking? If you knew, there wouldn’t be any risk.

Following a disastrous appearance on a televised baking show, Sophie Copeland is certain things can’t get any worse. Several calamities later, Sophie finds herself in Green Valley, Tennessee, with no plan, no place to stay, and no prospects.

But, at least, she has a temporary seasonal arrangement with the famed Donner Bakery. And that's something, right? It's not permanent, and it's not a home, but it's still something.

Enter Joel Barnes, a Green Valley mystery wrapped in rumors and a whispered connection to the local notorious biker gang. Joel’s got a name for being bad news, but he also has an apartment for rent.

Intrigued by the dichotomy of Joel’s reputation and sexy Southern pull, Sophie can’t help but be tempted, even though she knows - given her (bad) luck - she should stay far, far away. Yet, as everyone knows, without risk, there’s no reward.

No Whisk, No Reward is a full-length contemporary romantic comedy, that can be listened to as a stand-alone, and is book three in the Donner Bakery series, Green Valley World, Penny Reid Book Universe.

©2019, 2020 Smartypants Romance (P)2020 Smartypants Romance

so good

I've read and liked several of these books, but I was just so happy for the characters at the end of this book!

Nice!

This is a solid addition to my favorite universe of characters, with stronger tie-ins than many of the offshoots. I enjoyed it!

Love

Love this series and while I luuuv Marnye Young as a narrator, I think it would have been Perfect if Chris Brinkley (panty melting voice) or Jason Clarke had done the male's narration. That is the only reason it gets a 4 on performance.

MALE VOICE RUINED IT FOR ME

Loved the story. Marnye Young is a wonderful narrator...for the female parts. But her guy voice didn't work for me. Doesn't do justice to the male southern accent. Sounded more like a Hee Haw character. haha! If Smartypants wants to sell audiobooks, they really need to stick with Chris Brinkley. Or a male narrator with a believable sexy male voice for the male characters. I'm not buying any more smartypants audiobooks unless they use Chris Brinkley or similar. I'm very serious about this.

Good, except for some details

1. It's true; the narrator can't do a good southern male narration to save her life, but it doesn't ruin the listen.
2. Like too many contemporary novels, there are some instances of poor grammar that make me flinch (singulars/plurals, 'I' vs. 'me', mixed verb tenses, etc), but they're not so frequent or glaring that they can't be overlooked.
3. (This is probably the most disruptive element for me) The character of Tempest Cassidy looks nothing like the heroine in /Stud Muffin/. Her opinions, responses, and even her role in the bakery make it clear this book, which takes place after /Stud Muffin/, has know knowledge of the first story. They should have made a new character for the role of Tempest in this book.

Shallow

This is my least favorite so far in the Smartypants world. The story was simple, slow, filled with moments that seemed unnecessary. Just dull.

MEH

Let me just start by saying i adore all of the beard books by Penny Reid. When i saw that there were other books by other authors that took place in the same universe of Green Valley, I thought, oh how cool! Sooo reviews were mixed about this one. I should have listened. The story itself wasn't terrible and the narration wasn't awful but something about it was just...i don't know, boring, i guess. I don't know if it was the narrators voice or what but i found myself skipping through parts because i just didn't care. I didn't feel connected to any of the characters. I didn't feel like there was much chemistry. The whole thing was just kind of blah. The ending was satisfying, i'll give it that much BUT it was just not worth 10 hours of my life. Maybe 5...maybe....Honestly, if you're considering this one, don't waste your time.