Cake has a great premise. Jake's background adds an interesting twist to the "different worlds" trope, and Casey is a truly great heroine. She has a backbone, is strong-willed, determined and funny. She's also gentle and intuitive. The overall plot is entertaining enough and the romance is pleasant enough to read about.
The book comes apart for me in three places. The first is that the book is told from dual perspectives. Jake necessarily withdraws into himself, which leaves Casey in the dark as to his feelings and motivations. Entering his perspective offers an insight into his mind, but the two experiences don't match up. Jake's chapters show that he is smitten and determined to try and make things work. Casey's paint him as withdrawn and difficult enough to read that she doubts their relationship. The two depictions of Jake just don't ever seem to mesh.
My second issue with this book is the dialogue. It is often forced and unrealistic, as if the characters are reading from a script. There is often too much exposition and the flow of the story really suffers for it. This is an example of a book that could benefit from more show and less tell.
Perhaps the most rage-inducing issue that I took with Cake is the direction that Casey takes in the end of the book. She begins as a funny, independent, likable woman. She remains so throughout the story. But in the end, appears to be willing to change her life goals to suit Jake. While this is convenient in the context of the story, it seems such a waste to develop such a great character only to have her life's goals seemingly fulfilled in a man and not her own accomplishments.
Overall, Cake is a perfectly adequate romance that, with some tweaks, could have been better.
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