Audrey Lane Stirs the Pot
Series: Winner Bakes All #3Setting: England
Genres: Romantic Comedy
Published on December 9, 2025
Pages: 448
Format: eBook Source: Library
Audrey Lane is perfectly fine. Really. So what if she left her high-powered job as a Very Important Journalist—and her even higher-powered long-term girlfriend—to live a quiet life as a reporter for the second-biggest newspaper in Shropshire? And so what if she keeps hearing the voice of that same higher-powered long-term now-ex-girlfriend in her head night and day, constantly judging just how small Audrey's allowed her life to become?
She's fine. She's happy. She's perfectly within her groove. Do not-in-their-groove people get weekday drunk and impulsively apply for the UK's most beloved baking show?
All right, so maybe she's not completely fine, but being on Bake Expectations is opening her world again in ways she never anticipated. First through fellow contestant Doris, whose personal story of queer love during WW2 captures Audrey's heart, imagination, and journalistic interest like nothing has in ages. Then through Jennifer Hallet, the most foul-tempered (and fouler-mouthed) producer, woman, and menace Audrey has ever met. Jennifer should be off-limits, but her fire lights something unexpected inside of Audrey, making her want to burn back a million times brighter. A million times hotter. A million times more herself than she's been in a long, long time.
This is the third book in a romantic comedy series set on a reality show that looks a lot like The Great British Baking Show. You don’t have to have read the other books to pick up this one though.
This book really focuses on the behind-the-camera drama more than the cooking aspect.
Audrey finds out that Doris, the oldest contestant on the show, has a personal connection to the manor house where the series is filmed. She keeps trying to slowly draw her out to get more of the story. This brings her into conflict with the producer of the show who doesn’t want to her to write a story that may distract the public from the baking show itself. Audrey shares her theory about how all the contestants are an archetype and the show is rigged to make the best drama and not actually judged on the quality of the cooking. This endears her to the producer even less. (Now every time I watch I competition show, I can only think of this explanation.)
Of course that’s the start of a romance.
Audrey keeps coming back every weekend to investigate Doris’ connection to the house and ends up helping to keep the youngest contestant’s mental health intact.
The producer is mean and snarky and I can see how some people wouldn’t like her as a love interest because she never really softens much. I liked the banter in this book and the inclusion of the historical story that Audrey is investigating.
