Kiss My Cupcake

Helena Hunting

Kiss My Cupcake is a cute enemies-to-friends-to-lovers rom-com. Blaire Calloway is opening her cupcake bar, Buttercream and Booze, where she pairs cupcakes to specialty drinks, on a cute trendy street in Seattle, Washington. Her parents are famous restaurant chefs and Blaire has broken away from that life after a bad relationship with a chef. After this happens, Blaire jets off to Paris to study pastries and baking and comes back more in love with baking then ever. So she starts her dream. Working for three years to get the perfect idea, perfect place, and perfect timing, she’s finally ready to open. With just a couple weeks before her big launch, Blaire meets her neighbor and owner of the old school sports bar, now equipped with axe throwing, Ronan Knight. 

Ronan Knight’s dream is to open his own brewery and make his own beers. After his parents died, Ronan went to live with his grandpa and grandma. They own the little run-down bar The Knight Cap. Ronan has stepped up to save the bar from being closed, and after it’s saved, his grandpa will help with the costs of starting the brewery. His grandpa and grandma met at the bar so it holds a lot of memories for the family. 

Since this is an enemies to lovers novel, we need an incident to start the rivalry. When Ronan is doing his construction on his axe throwing wall, he knocks off one of Blaire’s very fancy and very expensive unicorn martini glasses from the shelf on their shared wall. Blaire stomps her way over to the bar in 1950s style dress and demands he replace the glass or move his wall. Of course, he does neither. This sets off her annoyance with Ronan. Then to make things worse, Ronan hijacks Blaire’s grand opening by scheduling his on the same night, just later. Rude. So they set up a system. Problem solved. Then to add another layer of stress, Tori Taylor, a popular and influential YouTuber, sets about finding the Best Bar in the Pacific Northwest. The two go head to head to win the title. Forming an alliance along the way when the big chain bar and arcade company, Dick & Bobby’s (not to be confused with Dave & Buster’s), moves in across the street. Will this alliance push the two closer together? Or closer to the edge? You’ll have to read to find out…

There were a lot of things I liked about Kiss My Cupcake and some things I didn’t love. I wish their “enemy” part of enemies-to-lovers was more intense. There wasn’t a lot of heat behind their rivalry. They kind of just existed in my opinion. The ending was a little awkward for me. Everything just felt very vague and rushed. And while there was no giant misunderstanding to keep the couple apart for a great amount of time, which is always refreshing, the ultimate ending felt a little too fake and forced. 

No tears were shed during this one, but that’s okay. It’s okay to have a tear jerker and a light fluffy read. This was definitely a fluff read. Great for sitting at the beach or by the pool. Still enjoyed it overall.