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Sweet & Stocky #2.5
Bears & Bakeries: Pie Holes
Locky Owens had lots of plans during the COVID-19 lockdown. Feeding a sourdough starter until it was even thicker than him. Getting some spicy snuggles with his beefy husbear, Benedict. Panic chewing pillows while worrying whether his bakery would go bankrupt.
But going mega viral on social media?
That wasn’t part of the plan.
But when one of his creations, the pie hole, becomes the hottest thing since the cronut, his whole life changes. Now, millions of strangers want his sweet and sticky balls in their mouths. And Locky has a chance to rewrite the recipe of his life.
Will he rise like a majestic chiffon cake?
Or shrink like a deflated soufflé?
(Bears & Bakeries: Pie Holes is a sweet & spicy mini sequel to Bears & Bakeries.)
But going mega viral on social media?
That wasn’t part of the plan.
But when one of his creations, the pie hole, becomes the hottest thing since the cronut, his whole life changes. Now, millions of strangers want his sweet and sticky balls in their mouths. And Locky has a chance to rewrite the recipe of his life.
Will he rise like a majestic chiffon cake?
Or shrink like a deflated soufflé?
(Bears & Bakeries: Pie Holes is a sweet & spicy mini sequel to Bears & Bakeries.)
86 pages, ebook
Published December 6, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
December 8, 2025
Loved getting to revisit Locky and Benedict again! It was nice to see how far they’ve come in their relationship and especially to see them still working on themselves. I also really liked how this dealt with the pandemic and how everybody felt so frazzled but how you can get through it with a good support system. And just like always, the spice was really hot and really well written!
July 15, 2026
So cute! Gave me a few ideas in regards to mockups of the business. I've been in a graphic designer mood for a while now and this just made it worse. For the better though. I loved this short novella.
December 18, 2025
I really like Dylan's books. This one in particular is very short but very spicy! I thank him because ir was gifted to his subscribers ar thw pixie post.
Honestly I'd hope Winter Rangers and Pie Holes have more content, as In I want to keep reading about these chatacters, how's their day to day, stories about certain adventures and seasons and such.
Expand a bit more into how they relate with others not just in the spicy deparment but in the family, friendship side of things, I trully like Dylan's chatacters, I just want to know them more
Honestly I'd hope Winter Rangers and Pie Holes have more content, as In I want to keep reading about these chatacters, how's their day to day, stories about certain adventures and seasons and such.
Expand a bit more into how they relate with others not just in the spicy deparment but in the family, friendship side of things, I trully like Dylan's chatacters, I just want to know them more
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 22, 2026
One of the things I've found most enjoyable about both novellas in Dylan Drakes' Sweet & Stocky series is that they seem more interested in challenging the expectations, and pushing the boundaries of their respective main characters, rather than reevaluating or interrogating their relationships.
If Cubs & Campfires: Winter Rangers asks readers to consider, "what happens when the future you imagined for yourself collides with the life you've actually built?", then Bears & Bakeries: Pie Holes asks a related question: "what happens when the life you've built collides with forces completely outside your control?"
In my review of Bears & Bakeries, I commented on the tonal shift between it and Cubs & Campfires. The prose was more restrained, the setting more contemporary, and the story itself felt heavier and more grounded in the realities of modern life. Pie Holes continues that trajectory by placing Locky and Benedict's relationship against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, a setting that embodies those realities more completely would have been possible at any other point in history.
What I appreciated most was that Drakes avoids reducing the pandemic to a convenient plot device. Instead, he explores the strange contradictions of those times. The novel acknowledges the absurdity of internet virality and social media culture, but it also recognises that digital spaces became vital lifelines during a period of unprecedented isolation. While Luca and Artair in Cubs & Campfires were physically and emotionally isolated within the wilderness of Washington State, Locky and Benedict experience a very different kind of isolation. They are physically separated from their wider communities while remaining more connected to them than previously possible.
Anyone old enough to be reading this novella contemporaneously will likely remember the surreal unreality of those first months of the pandemic: the uncertainty, the fear, and the strange intimacy of trying to maintain relationships entirely through screens. As someone who spent thousands of hours in video meetings while working remotely, I found Drakes' depiction of Zoom calls being derailed by technologically and socially inept participants painfully authentic in the best possible way.
The spice remains one of this series' greatest strengths. As with every entry so far, Drakes writes queer intimacy with remarkable confidence. Pie Holes pushes the kink elements further than previous instalments, incorporating more intense verbal degradation alongside physical restraint and the dynamics already explored in Bears & Bakeries. As a fellow Australian, I did find myself wondering whether the repeated use of the c-word in one scene in particular carried heavier weight for international readers than it did for me, given how casually and frequently it appears in everyday Australian vernacular.
Like Winter Rangers before it, Pie Holes functions as an extended epilogue to its parent novel. Of the two novella sequels currently released, I found this the stronger of the pair. It not only continues Locky and Benedict's story, but meaningfully challenges the future they had begun constructing together. It provides a more complete sense of closure while reinforcing one of the central ideas running throughout the Sweet & Stocky series: that strong, supportive relationships, romantic or otherwise, are key when attempting to adapt and grow in response to the inevitable changes life throws at us.
If Cubs & Campfires: Winter Rangers asks readers to consider, "what happens when the future you imagined for yourself collides with the life you've actually built?", then Bears & Bakeries: Pie Holes asks a related question: "what happens when the life you've built collides with forces completely outside your control?"
In my review of Bears & Bakeries, I commented on the tonal shift between it and Cubs & Campfires. The prose was more restrained, the setting more contemporary, and the story itself felt heavier and more grounded in the realities of modern life. Pie Holes continues that trajectory by placing Locky and Benedict's relationship against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, a setting that embodies those realities more completely would have been possible at any other point in history.
What I appreciated most was that Drakes avoids reducing the pandemic to a convenient plot device. Instead, he explores the strange contradictions of those times. The novel acknowledges the absurdity of internet virality and social media culture, but it also recognises that digital spaces became vital lifelines during a period of unprecedented isolation. While Luca and Artair in Cubs & Campfires were physically and emotionally isolated within the wilderness of Washington State, Locky and Benedict experience a very different kind of isolation. They are physically separated from their wider communities while remaining more connected to them than previously possible.
Anyone old enough to be reading this novella contemporaneously will likely remember the surreal unreality of those first months of the pandemic: the uncertainty, the fear, and the strange intimacy of trying to maintain relationships entirely through screens. As someone who spent thousands of hours in video meetings while working remotely, I found Drakes' depiction of Zoom calls being derailed by technologically and socially inept participants painfully authentic in the best possible way.
The spice remains one of this series' greatest strengths. As with every entry so far, Drakes writes queer intimacy with remarkable confidence. Pie Holes pushes the kink elements further than previous instalments, incorporating more intense verbal degradation alongside physical restraint and the dynamics already explored in Bears & Bakeries. As a fellow Australian, I did find myself wondering whether the repeated use of the c-word in one scene in particular carried heavier weight for international readers than it did for me, given how casually and frequently it appears in everyday Australian vernacular.
Like Winter Rangers before it, Pie Holes functions as an extended epilogue to its parent novel. Of the two novella sequels currently released, I found this the stronger of the pair. It not only continues Locky and Benedict's story, but meaningfully challenges the future they had begun constructing together. It provides a more complete sense of closure while reinforcing one of the central ideas running throughout the Sweet & Stocky series: that strong, supportive relationships, romantic or otherwise, are key when attempting to adapt and grow in response to the inevitable changes life throws at us.
December 7, 2025
Dylan has an amazing ability to combine absolutely filthy sex and heart melting sweet love into one small* package. These characters are so real and vulnerable and wonderful. It was a delight to revisit them and see those dark pandemic days reframed as an opportunity and good times.
*NOT an indication of the characters' package sizes.
The mention of Sven in the dedication made me tear up. Pups definitely are special 💜
*NOT an indication of the characters' package sizes.
The mention of Sven in the dedication made me tear up. Pups definitely are special 💜
December 14, 2025
Again, an okay story. Set in Covid lockdown, which may be triggering for some. The premise was okay, but I felt like it at times focused overly much on the sex life of the characters rather than what I thought was going to be the focus of the story (the baking and adapting to lockdown and how that’s affected affected the character who we already knew didn’t like social media before everything went online during the pandemic).
December 9, 2025
I’m loving these novellas that Dylan Drakes is doing! As much as I love Cubs & Campfires, I think Bears & Bakeries got the better follow-up. This was a very fun read and just keeps me even more excited for book three!
May 25, 2026
As sweet and sexy as the original book but coming in at a tight 77 pages, this is a delightful hour spent in the happy marriage of the lovers from Bears & Bakeries as they navigate success in the early days of the pandemic, with two hot sex scenes and so much winning romantic support.
July 4, 2026
3.5 / 5 ⭐️
4 / 5 🌶️
Method: KU 👩🏼💻
It’s been a few years since the events of B&B and our guys now have to deal with the changing world that the Covid pandemic brings.
How will they cope with the bakery being closed?
With the love and support Locky & Benedict have for each other, it won’t be too much of an issue ☺️
4 / 5 🌶️
Method: KU 👩🏼💻
It’s been a few years since the events of B&B and our guys now have to deal with the changing world that the Covid pandemic brings.
How will they cope with the bakery being closed?
With the love and support Locky & Benedict have for each other, it won’t be too much of an issue ☺️
December 7, 2025
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Enjoyment: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Enjoyment: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
December 12, 2025
This precious pixie is a happy reader. This was the follow up we didn't know we needed. The author knows how to write them and I'm on a happy reader high. 🥰
January 2, 2026
Always the perfect balance of sweetness and spice!
June 28, 2026
Thoroughly enjoyable
January 4, 2026
Diese Geschichte wirft uns direkt zurück in die Zeit des Lockdowns. Keine schöne Zeit, aber zum Glück machen Locky und Benedict das beste draus. Es ist genau das, was wir von Dylan Drakes kennen und was wir an seinen Büchern lieben. Es ist süss, ist es ist spicy und zeigt, wie Consens funktioniert. Ausserdem ist es schön, mal eine Romance zu lesen, in welcher beide Charaktere schon älter sind (aber noch immer spicy).
Es war wundervoll, die Beiden wieder anzutreffen und zu sehen, was aus ihnen geworden ist. Natürlich läuft das ganze Social Media-Zeugs von Null auf Hundert, was dem Buch einen Stern gekostet hat. Das ging mir dann doch ein wenig zu einfach.
Aber ich freue mich auf mehr Geschichten aus diesem Universum.
Es war wundervoll, die Beiden wieder anzutreffen und zu sehen, was aus ihnen geworden ist. Natürlich läuft das ganze Social Media-Zeugs von Null auf Hundert, was dem Buch einen Stern gekostet hat. Das ging mir dann doch ein wenig zu einfach.
Aber ich freue mich auf mehr Geschichten aus diesem Universum.
May 15, 2026
The shortest one of the series, less than seventy pages long, and yet, the most disappointing.
It pains me to admit that Dyland Drakes didn’t deliver again.
Half of the novella was spent on sex scenes. Not ideal, considering its length. Benedict and Locky are doing okay, then they have lots of sex, and then they end up okay. That’s it. There’s no real conflict. Correction: There’s no conflict at all. There is an attempt, but it doesn’t work out. No stakes, no nothing.
This might be my shortest review. I can’t really describe anything else here.
It pains me to admit that Dyland Drakes didn’t deliver again.
Half of the novella was spent on sex scenes. Not ideal, considering its length. Benedict and Locky are doing okay, then they have lots of sex, and then they end up okay. That’s it. There’s no real conflict. Correction: There’s no conflict at all. There is an attempt, but it doesn’t work out. No stakes, no nothing.
This might be my shortest review. I can’t really describe anything else here.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews