Book Review: Cake (Cake #1) by J. Bengtsson

Rating: ☆☆☆
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 611 pages
Author: J. Bengtsson
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: May 14th, 2016
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Casey

I’ve met the perfect guy. Handsome, talented, and sarcastic as hell, Jake McKallister is everything I’ve ever dreamed of in a man.

There’s just one problem: Jake is everyone’s dream man.

But he sees me—an everyday college girl—and introduces me to a whole new world of music and tour buses and adoring fans. The more I fall for him, the more I realize that Jake might not be all he pretends to be.

I’ve finally found a man worth fighting for…but will he let me win?

Jake

Casey thinks she knows. She doesn’t know. No one knows—but me.
And I’m not talking. Ever.

HMM.

I feel mixed by this story.

There was a lot of trauma and exploration of working through those past issues (see trigger warnings for further explanation). There was a love story. Yet the two didn’t mix that well.

Love story wise, it was charming overall. I did like Jake and Casey together. Sweet meet-cute. Fun traveling, going through some tough times and coming out the other side. The rockstar and normal girl romance was something I hadn’t read recently so it was a nice switch-up.

I didn’t connect with the writing style. The jokes didn’t land well, and some commentary wasn’t appealing. I thought the characters seemed very surface level and trying too hard to be more than that.

I’m finding it hard to write out all the things I thought while reading this. I know it’s well loved, it just didn’t hit that place for me.

Overall audience notes:

Contemporary romance
Language: strong throughout
Romance: kisses to open door scenes
Trigger/Content Warnings: child kidnapping, sexual assault and rape (mentions from the past); torture, PTSD, suicide ideation; near death embolism, a loved one in a coma