Review: Shortcake by Lucy Watson

Posted April 13, 2020 by Kate

Review: Shortcake by Lucy WatsonCheck out on Goodreads | Buy on Amazon
Genres: Adult, Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Source: Kindle Unlimited

Things Emelia Anderson would rather do than share a house with Benjamin Crawford:
1) Get strapped to a chair in a restaurant full of loud-chewers.
2) Parachute into the Australian Outback armed with only a blowdart.
3) Live her best life as an ice road trucker in the Alaskan Tundra.
Benjamin Crawford thinks Emelia conned his dying grandmother into leaving her half of an estate worth millions, so let's just say he's not her biggest fan either. Not even close.
Now they have to live together for the next thirty days while renovating the family home. Or the estate will transfer to the one person Ben hates more than Emelia, and she'll have to move back to the one place she wants to forget more than Ben. Did I mention Ben look likes man-candy and smells like testosterone? Not that Emelia notices. She spends a lot of time not noticing things about Ben.

Shortcake by Lucy Watson was soooo much fun!! I was introduced to this book from Sumedha @ The Wordy Habitat, and it was just as fun as she promised it was going to be. 

The book opens with Emelia, who is the live-in caretaker for an old lady named Rose – and they’d become fast best friends. When Emelia is named in the Will as an equal beneficiary with Rose’s grandson, Ben. However, Ben and his whole family think she’s some kind of greedy gold-digger. But in order for either Ben or Emmy to get access to their inheritance from Rose, they have to become roommates, live in Rose’s house, and fix up the house together – no contractors allowed – for three months. 

This is a hate-to-love romance, and it’s not a weak one. Ben genuinely despises Emmy, to the point where I was wondering how the heck the romance was going to turn out. They butt heads all the time but are gentle to each other when the situation calls – when Emmy has an anxiety attack when Ben becomes ill – only to go back to manning their individual metaphorical battle-heads. When they take things too far in one of their attacking sessions… they somehow fake themselves out and get embroiled in a fake betrothal when an audience takes their words at face value ?

For three months, Ben and Emmy are stuck in a forced proximity hatred of each other… and somehow, eventually, that hatred starts to slowly drop away. I love love love love love (!!!) slow burn romances! It allowed for real, actual relationship growth as the characters got to know each other and I loved actually watching it all happen ? The slow-burn was absolutely perfect ✨


“Have you any diarrhea or abdominal cramping?” He exhales, meeting my eyes
“No, but I got a five-foot pain in my ass that won’t shut up.”
“I’m five one and a half, thank you very much.”


There was lots of hilarious arguing, fighting, and antics from the beginning (and I’m going to firmly blame Ben because my girl Emmy is a sweetheart and would have dropped all facades to be his friend if he gave even a clue, but she was not to be outdone in the fighting arena since he decided to hate her). Emmy is the perfect rom-com heroine: dorky, awkward, and often gets wild-hairs that make her do some… interesting… things :) This led to many great scenes, and she had me absolutely laughing my butt off. She was definitely the star of the show, because she felt like such a real person, especially in her reaction to Ben through all the hurt, disconnect, anger, and arguing. I love how her anxiety and PTSD were handled in this one, too. It was a wonderful surprise to see that done so well. 

Ben … was an ass. But while he was clearly a jerk, you could see the gentle care and teasing through some of his words, you just had to read between the lines and see his actions for a while there in the beginning. He’s a sweet guy, but he had walls up and Emmy had to beat aside a lot of thorns to get to his heart, even she didn’t know that she’d done it.

Unrequited love and pining ran rampant through this one, and I read this in one sitting because I had to know how it turned out. Which led to me staying up until 4 am – good thing I didn’t have anywhere to be… I think the ending was wrapped up a bit quicker than I would have liked, as I would have appreciated some more time with them as *a couple,* but honestly, the journey was so much fun and interactive that it hardly colored my view of the book. (Get on Kindle Unlimited

Other Kindle Unlimited Reads you may enjoy…

Cover to Cover Book Blog Kat Snark covertocoverlit Book Blogger Book blog reader reading The Hardest Fall Kindle Unlimited by Ella Maise College neighbors roomies friends to lovers   Cover to Cover Book Blog Kat Snark covertocoverlit Book Blogger Book blog reader reading Smut Karina Halle romance enemies-to-lovers hate-to-love kindle unlimited   Cover to Cover Book Blog Kat Snark covertocoverlit Book Blogger Book blog reader reading Top Secret Kindle Unlimited Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy MM Frat College Stripper Rich boy poor boy Cinderella story neighbors roomies

  • The Hardest Fall by Ella Maise – New Adult college romance, roommates, friends-to-lovers, second-chance romance (My Review)
  • Smut by Karina Halle – New Adult romance, co-workers (writing a romance novel together), enemies-to-friends-to-lovers (My Review)
  • Top Secret by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy – New Adult college MM romance, hate-to-love in real life, epistolary romance friends-to-lovers anonymously online, neighbors (My Review)

What are you currently reading right now? Do you have any rom-coms to recommend? (I’m always looking for recommendations!!) Let me know in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you


3 responses to “Review: Shortcake by Lucy Watson

    • Yessss I basically agreed with you on most things lol so it delivered just right. He was a jerk for longer than anticipated but I didn’t care bc of their promising connection, and the ending felt cut short but the rest of the book was so good I wasn’t too mad :) thanks for the rec!

      • totally agree with you on the ending. Honestly the slow burn was too good that I didn’t even care about anything else ? no problem!

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