Sweet Trouble

Love her books. Can not wait to see what turns up next in each book.

Jesse Keyes has always been the sister to get in to trouble. It's not always her fault, but no one sees it that way. When Jesse finds out that she's pregnant, her sister Nicole assumes the worst, her boyfriend does to. Matt shoves her out of his life cruelly and her sister hates her, so Jesse decides to make a fresh start somewhere else. It's a struggle, but she manages. Five years later, Jesse and her four-year old son Gabriel, come back to Seattle because Gabe wants to meet his daddy. Matt wants nothing to do with Jesse, until he sees a way to make her pay for breaking his heart. He wasn't expecting to feel something other than hatred for her though. All Jesse wants is to reconcile with her sister and start over with Matt. What she ends up with, is a lot of heartache. I read the Bakery Sisters novels one after the other. By the time I got to Sweet Trouble I was dying to read Jesse's story! I have to admit, Jesse was not my favorite person at that point, but after reading Sweet Trouble I wanted to throw my arms around her. Susan Mallery had her work cut out for her. I was hard pressed to accept Jesse's point of view. She did it though. Sweet Trouble is a heartfelt and emotional story. Matt and Jesse's feelings are vividly depicted and tangible. You can feel their inner turmoil. Their story is angst-filled, romantic, sensual, and intense. Claire is the innocent and shy sister. Nicole is the strong, capable one, and Jesse is the troublemaker. The tension and drama built more with every book until Sweet Trouble's dramatic conclusion. Sweet Trouble is wonderful, as is each book in the Bakery Sister's series. I highly recommend reading them in order. It makes them that much better! Nannette Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

What a good book to finish the series! Jesse has returned to Seattle after 5 years to get her life in order. She left town after making life so complicated and miserable for herself she just had to leave and make a life for herself and the new life she was going to have! She's pregnant with Matt's child but he doesn't believe that it's his child. We met Jesse in SWEET TALK, first of the Bakery Sister trilogy. Jesse is the youngest of the girls. She was born after Claire, the younger twin, was sent to NYC to be a child prodigy pianist. She is the one who called Claire to come to Seattle. Nicole the oldest ends up raising Jesse and having the bakery too but she's only a child herself. Nicole's book was SWEET SPOT. Jesse and Nicole have a troubled relationship and Jesse was running from Nicole at the time she left. Jesse and Claire have emailed over the years and Claire isn't surprised when Jesse shows up but Nicole and Matt are. Neither are nice to her either! Jesse came so her 4 y.o. son, Gabe, could get to know his father but she also has to admit to herself she wants to see his father too. Matt seems to be a hard nosed and ruthless man so maybe Jesse does have some fear of him but she doesn't even realize how fearful he can be. He decides to payback Jesse for the heartache he has gone through! He's going to take Gabe away from her! This is their story of love and all the up and downs it creates. What a wonderful story Ms Mallery has written for us. Jesse, Nicole and Claire have all 3 shown their warts and all to us and we're still crazy about them. Of course the men they have chosen maybe some of the reason too, even with those men-warts Matt, Hawk & Wyatt are special guys too LOL To mention of few of the secondary characters, Matt's mother Paula and Jesse's boss and friend Bill with their wonderful little stories adding to the book we have a complete story of all 3 sisters and the men they love and the children they have! What a great series!

Jesse Keyes is the ne'er do well sister who left town pregnant under a cloud of suspicion after failing to get her family and boyfriend to believe her when she was suspected of sleeping with her brother in law. It's five years later and little Gabe has been asking about his father, so she decides it's time to return to Seattle to heal old wounds with her sister and with Matt. Only Matt is just as excited now as he was five years ago and suspects Jesse's true motivation is his vast fortune. But one look at Gabe and he sees the resemblance. Rather than blaming himself for not believing her, he instead decides to destroy her, by making her fall for him all over and then getting full custody of Gabe. But when his feelings start to change, he is not sure if he wants his heart ruled by passion or revenge. Her attempts at reconciling with older sister Nicole are met with trepidation at first, particularly when Nicole discovers that Jesse is so grounded - enough so that she wants back into the bakery to prove herself. Armed with a recipe of to die for brownies, she tries to revamp the bakery, despite Nicole's misgivings. Mallery's final installment in the Bakery sisters trilogy is an interesting story, and would easily be my favorite if it weren't for one thing - the constant flashbacks. I would have preferred a prologue that contained all this material then the jump five years later. All it does it confuse the flow of the story. The character of Matt is kind of a jerk. Jesse really should have made him squirm a bit more. And Nicole, who was so nasty in the first two books has grown and is finally a mother, but still is somewhat bitter, making her still a character you wouldn't want as a friend. But Mallery ends the series on a high note - despite the flaws, it is a sweet and uplifting story, and little Gabe will steal readers hearts. © Tracy Vest, September 2008

I normally love Susan Mallerys series and don't worry the new "Sweet" series is another favourite of mine. Book 3 in the series is called "Sweet Trouble" and is about Jesse finally coming back after she left Seatlle pregnant 5 years ago because of trouble with her sister Nicole and her boyfriend Matt. But she's not coming home alone, with her is her adorable little boy Gabe who's actually the reason for her return because he wants to meet his father Matt. Ok, Jesse was kind of a bad girl in the first two books, "Sweet talk" and "Sweet spot", but even more was she a young woman not too sure about herself and her surroundings and on the search to find her place. Ok, she made some stupid mistakes but when reading the book you understand why she did them. Actually Jesse is my favourite sister because she is so human and managed to make the best out of her situation. She is a great mother to Gabe, way more self-confident than she was 5 years ago and finally ready to be a full member of the bakery. Matt is still bitter because he thinks Jesse cheated on him and he manages to stay bitter through nearly the whole book (dumb, but hey he's a man, what do you expect). He nearly destroys his chance of a Happy Ending with Jesse and Matt but thankfully he comes to his senses before its too late. At the end it's up to Jesse to decide if she trusts the new/old Matt and especially herself to take a another chance with him. All in all I loved this book and can recommend the "Sweet" series to anyone who loves romances and a little sister interaction. Next up is the "Lone Star Series" and I'm sure Susan Mallery produced another hit with this. Enjoy. S.M.

Some say you can't ever go home again. That might be true but bad girl turned single mom Jesse Keyes is going to test that theory. Jesse Keyes left Seattle years ago with her tail tucked between her legs. The sister she lived with hated her and the man she was in love with, Matthew Fenner, didn't want anything to do with her. He didn't even care that she was pregnant with his baby. Of course, at the time he didn't actually believe that the baby was his, despite Jesse's protestations to the contrary. Now, years later, Jesse has come back home to the town in which she grew up in order to put to rest some ghosts of her past and possibly make new memories. Jesse has spent the last five years of her life working to overcome her reputation and be a mom to Gabriel. Gabe has been asking questions about his father and because of this, Jesse decides to return to Seattle so that her son might know his father. She knows that her return will be tough but she doesn't count on the animosity she encounters. Her sister still hasn't forgiven her for sleeping with her now ex-brother-in-law which is funny since Jesse didn't sleep with him. Meeting Matt after so long takes a toll on Jesse's psyche as well, he is livid she has kept his son from him and with his anger comes action. The plan? Matt intends to make Jesse pay dearly for not telling him about his son. I anticipated SWEET TROUBLE like no other after having read SWEET SPOT. Since Susan Mallery wrote SWEET TROUBLE, I knew I would be in for an emotional roller coaster ride. There is a thin line between love and hate because more than once I found myself hating Matt Fenner. I became angry at him for being unrealistic and hateful to Jesse, notwithstanding the fact that she did not tell him that he had a son. Then, he would do something so sweet for Jesse that I would love him again. Jesse's character was so realistically written she could be anyone who ever made mistakes and tried to pick up the pieces of their life and succeed. The romance and sexual tension between Matt and Jesse was oftentimes heady and explosive. I wanted so much for Matt to love Jesse like she deserved and while he did, finally, I got teary-eyed more than once at the emotion turmoil both characters faced. Susan Mallery never fails to deliver a highly poignant and ultimately satisfying read. Immersing myself in SWEET TROUBLE for an entire afternoon, I hated to see Matt and Jesse's story come to an end. As with every book she has ever written, Susan Mallery's SWEET TROUBLE is definitely a keeper! ***Natalie S. for Wild on Books***