*4.25 stars*

( )

Enjoyable, with characters to loathe and to root for. ( )

I spent a day and a half absolutely devouring the audiobook of ROSALINE PALMER TAKES THE CAKE by Alexis Hall. He’s one of my new favorite authors that I discovered last year - he wrote two of my favorite books of the year, and that was a large pool to be competing in. Still, I haven’t loved *every* book I’ve read by him, so I was really happy that this one was one that absolutely grabbed me.

It’s a romance set amongst the contestants of Bake Expectations, a reality show that is clearly meant to be The Great British Bake Off, right down to the host that swears on camera to keep footage of contestants crying from being usable (something that Mel & Sue reportedly used to do), and the judge whose opinion can be swayed by sufficiently boozy bakes.

There are so many good things about this book. There is baking (with a few recipes included!). There is a ton of funny banter. There is coming to terms with what you want out of life and relationships. There are class issues and parental expectations, all navigated very deftly. There is bisexual representation, handled similarly thoughtfully. There is some very creative swearing. There is a kid (Rosaline’s a single mom) who is amusingly precocious without tipping over into obnoxiously so. There are book club discussion questions that the author was forced to include that are actively hilarious in and of themselves. There is a bad guy who gets his just desserts (ha! sorry.) There is the assorted cast of (mostly) loveable side characters, just like you would expect on GBBO. There is a very sweet romance with an appealing love interest that builds naturally (no insta-love), and includes just a bit of on-screen spice. There is emotional heft to the story without sacrificing the humor.

In short, I enjoyed the heck out of it, and I think most folks who like GBBO probably would too.

CW: There is one scene with an attempted assault and a lot of gaslighting. It’s not especially graphic / violent, and it doesn’t go very far before she extricates herself, but it was uncomfortable to read. ( )

I love Bake Off so I definitely wanted to read this one. That said, I thought I was getting a rom-com centered on a f/f romance. This is definitely not that. All love interests for this lovely bisexual, single mom are men. That in itself doesn't bother me at all. One of the men is lovely and I fell in love with him a little myself. I just wish I hadn't going into it thinking something else was waiting for me.

The humor is great, the characters are fun, but it seemed overly long to me with the initial relationship going on much longer than maybe it should have. But the fun of the bake off bits made it worth it for me. ( )

Genre, pairing, doesn’t matter, as far as I can tell, Alexis Hall can do no wrong. Nearly perfect. ( )