Review: Bundled Up by Annabeth Albert

15 April of 2016 by ButtonsMom2003

Reviewer's Rating: 5

5.0Overall score

I love this series!

Bundled Up By Annabeth Albert

Contemporary Romance / GLBTQ / MM

Released January 19, 2016

Lyrical Shine

Series: Portland Heat, Book 1-2-3

Synopsis

In Portland, Oregon, the only thing hotter than the coffee shops, restaurants, and bakeries are the hard-working men who serve it up—hot, fresh, and ready to go—with no reservations.

All three of The Portland Heat Novellas together for the first time!

Review

Reviewed by ButtonsMom2003

I love this series!

Bundled Up contains the first 3 novellas in the Portland Heat series: Served Hot, Baked Fresh, and Delivered Fast. If you want to purchase them individually each one can be read as a standalone and there are no cliffhangers. Characters from previous books make brief appearances so I liked reading them in order and the bundle saved me money.

This is a great series and each one was a 5-star read for me but I must admit that Baked Fresh was my favorite. I’ve reviewed each of the books in this bundle separately.

Served Hot – Robby and David, first person POV by Robby
Robby is a self-employed barista with a coffee cart. Every day around 11:50 AM David comes to Robby’s cart and orders a vanilla latte. Robby doesn’t know if David is gay or not but he’s got a huge crush on him.

David hasn’t lived in Portland too long. He moved there after his long-time lover died. David hasn’t been out of the closet very long because his lover insisted that their relationship be kept a secret.

This story was fun to read and I loved how Annabeth Albert broke the book into sections based on what Robby was able to get David to order. June: Vanilla Latte; August: Turtle Mocha; February: Mexican Mocha and April: Coconut Frappe. Their relationship develops slowly but once things get going – hot, hot hot!!

Baked Fresh – Vic and Robin first person POV by Vic.
Vic does New Year’s Resolutions and he does them well. Last year he resolved to lose 100 pounds and he did. This year he resolves to start dating. He’s been crushing on Robin for a long time but last time Robin was single Vic hesitated too long and another guy swooped in and claimed Robin. Now Robin is single again and Vic resolves to be his rebound guy.

Vic and Robin both volunteer at a local homeless shelter that tries to help people in recovery – from drugs, alcohol, etc. Robin has been in recovery for nearly 3 years and spends a lot of time at the shelter. He has a lot of hang-ups left over from his days as an addict but Vic wants to help him with those problems.

This book was full of feels; I laughed and I cried while reading it – my favorite kind of story.

Delivered Fast – Lance and Chris, first person POV by Chris
Chris co-owns a restaurant, The People’s Cup, with his ex. Lance works for the bakery that supplies the restaurant and just took over the delivery route that includes Chris’s restaurant. When they meet Chris is attracted to Lance but knows that Lance is too young for him.

Lance is interested in Chris and flirts outrageously with him. When he finds Chris on the floor of his restaurant with a plumbing emergency he gets his plumber dad to come help out. While they wait for his dad to arrive Lance continues to flirt with Chris and Chris continues to resist – for a while. They finally agree to a no-strings fling for the summer – until Lance has to go back to school.

Chris and Lance have a bit of a rough time getting to their HEA but it’s a great, sexy, hot story and I enjoyed it a lot.

Look for my review of the 4th book in this series, Knit Tight, linked below.