He's written a lot of five-star reviews. But when it comes to his mate, there aren't enough stars in the universe.

Max has been living his life in the shadows. With a lion shifter mom and an absent dad, he's gotten the worst of both worlds—a broken family, no shifter animal, and no mate. He doesn't even have any powers to speak of, beyond an ability to make people forget they've been talking to him… which, he has to admit, is nice when you're not exactly extroverted.

The end result? A life spent drifting from town to town, writing secret reviews as the mysterious restaurant critic Aubrey Z. And now he's returned to Girdwood Springs, looking to revisit the bakery and spend some quality introvert time in the mountains.

Good thing he has his B&B all to himself, without any distractingly beautiful women waltzing into the kitchen…

Okay, so Poppy's found herself unemployed after the CEO stole the company's money and ran for the hills. Not ideal. But a quick beach holiday will at least dull the pain before she has to return to cold, harsh reality.

Or it would, if not for the fact that a booking bungle has stranded her in the middle of nowhere. No car. No roof over her head. And oh, yeah – it's also the middle of winter.

Poppy could really use a guardian angel right about now. She's not feeling particularly fussy about who it is, but if he just happened to be kind, and gorgeous, and maybe just a tiny bit of a bookworm, well, she wouldn't exactly complain…

Return to the cute, quirky town of Girdwood Springs with Manticores and Macarons, a sweet, low-spice shifter romance and the eighth in the Shifters and Sweets series. It's got warmth, humor, fated mates, delicious cake—and a guaranteed HEA!