📖 Book Description

A Sugar Gap Romance
Brick storefronts, a white gazebo on the square and the scent of cinnamon drifting from Sweet Blessings Bakery.
Mariah Dyersburg used to live above that bakery.
Twelve years ago she ran from it, leaving her family, and first love, behind.Now she’s an award-winning chef in Seattle. A new name. A designer wardrobe. The freckled bakery girl is long gone.
Then her grandmother’s lawyer calls.
The terms of the will are simple. Mariah and her two estranged sisters must return to Sugar Gap and complete fifteen seasonal tasks set by their grandmother. A scavenger hunt that sends them chasing memories all over the town they grew up in.
There’s just one problem. The handsome county sheriff roped into helping is Sam Jenkins. The boy she was supposed to marry and whose heart she broke when she left all those years ago.
Fifteen tasks. Two sisters who haven’t forgiven her. One stubborn sheriff who never stopped loving her. And her grandmother’s chocolate bourbon pie . . . Suddenly Mariah finds Sugar Gap may be a lot harder to leave.
Grab a spiced latte, order the pie and stay a while. Sugar Gap has been waiting for you.
This cosy romantic mystery is perfect for readers who adore a charming English village, a swoony slow-burn romance and a twist they’ll never see coming.
🍁 Small-town
🍁 Emotional
🍁 Dual POV
🍁 Second chance
🍁 Bakery vibes
🍁 First love
🍁 Matchmaking

📚Publication Details
AUTHOR: Michele Dunaway
BOOK TITLE: The Secrets of Sweet Blessings Bakery
SERIES: Sugar Gap Romances – book 1
PUBLISHER: Choc Lit 🔗 website 🔗 instagram 🔗 facebook 🔗 tiktok 🔗 youtube
PUBLICATION DATE: 18 August 2026
EDITION REVIEWED: Digital Edition
ISBN: 9781807880705
PAGES: 314
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🌟 Book Tour

I’m delighted to be taking part in the Virtual Book Tour for The Secrets of Sweet Blessings Bakery, hosted by Zooloo’s Book Tours.
My sincere thanks to Zooloo’s Book Tours for the opportunity to read and review this book, and to Choc Lit and NetGalley for providing a review copy.
Zooloo’s Book Tours 🔗 Website • Facebook • Instagram • TikTok



✍️ About the Author
Michele Dunaway
Michele Dunaway is a best selling contemporary romance author who writes happily ever afters set in small towns with unique quirk where life is “Hometown Sweet with Hints of Spice.”
Describing herself as a woman who does way too much and never wants to stop, Michele writes about finding forever love and second chances.
She’s a proud mother of two grown daughters. As an avid pet lover, Michele shares her home with far too many rescued cats, who of course completely rule the roost.
🔗 Connect with the Author

👩🏻💻 My Review
A Cosy Romance That Was Exactly What I Hoped For
The Secrets of Sweet Blessings Bakery was exactly the kind of book I hoped it would be, and that is precisely what made it such a pleasure to read.
I absolutely loved being in Sugar Gap. With its small-town charm, beautiful setting, bakery atmosphere and the scent of something delicious seemingly never far away, it was the kind of place I could happily have moved into. The story brings together everything I enjoy in this kind of cosy romance, blending past and present relationships, family ties, emotional reckonings and a fair share of romantic tension, all woven through with enough developments in the characters’ lives to keep the narrative engaging and moving forward.
At the heart of the story are three sisters who have grown apart over the years and are brought back together following their grandmother’s death. Her unusual final wishes mean they have to remain in Sugar Gap and work through a series of tasks together, giving them the opportunity to rediscover their shared history while confronting some of the things that have kept them apart.
I particularly enjoyed the dual POV. Seeing situations from both perspectives added another dimension to the second-chance romance, especially when memories and interpretations of the past weren’t always quite the same. Their relationship had a real sense of history to it, and I enjoyed watching two people who had once been so important to each other slowly rediscover what they had lost.
Mariah carries a lot of baggage from her past, and there were moments when I found her, and some of the other characters’ decisions, a little frustrating. But as the story unfolded, it became easier to understand where their behaviour came from, and those little niggles never stopped me enjoying the journey.
And then there was the bakery. The bakery vibes in this book were absolutely amazing.
Watching Mariah reconnect with the bakery after being away for so long felt naturally healing for her, as did rediscovering just how much she enjoyed baking. Cooking had been her safe place, but working in a restaurant kitchen meant she rarely had the opportunity to bake anymore. Back in Sweet Blessings, she was able to reconnect with something she had learned alongside her grandmother, and I loved seeing the comfort she found in it. As her baking began to bring people back through the bakery doors, it also became a lovely way for Mariah to reconnect with Sugar Gap.
What I really appreciated was the chance to simply relax into the story. I’ve spent a lot of my recent reading time in the world of mysteries and thrillers, where I’m constantly looking for clues, questioning characters and trying to work out what is going to happen next. This was a completely different reading experience. I didn’t need to overthink it or search for hidden meanings — I could simply settle into Sugar Gap, follow the story and enjoy the journey.
Warm, emotional and full of small-town charm, romance and wonderful bakery treats, The Secrets of Sweet Blessings Bakery was a lovely book to settle down with. If you’re looking for a feel-good second-chance romance where family, first love and finding your way home are just as important as the romance itself, Sugar Gap is definitely worth a visit.
As always, my review is based solely on my own reading experience and reflects my honest opinion.
#TheSecretsOfSweetBlessingsBakery #MicheleDunaway #SugarGapRomances
#ChocLit #NetGalley #ZooloosBookTours
MoMoBookDiary Index
- Author
- Michele Dunaway
- Title
- The Secrets of Sweet Blessings Bakery
- Series
- Sugar Gap Romances – book 1
- Publisher
- Choc Lit (imprint of Joffe Books)
- Genre
- Romance
- Setting
- Tennessee, USA
- Source
- Blog Tour – Zooloo’s Book Tours
- Publisher via NetGalley
- Date Read
- 13 August 2026
- Review Shared
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