Alexis Hall's Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake: An Unforgettable Dessert Adventure

Amazon Customer: The great british bake off has become a lot of people's comfort show over the years, and this romantic homage to it is charming. Amelie completely steals the show. I've seen reviews saying they don't like Rosaline, but to me she comes off as very human. She's flawed and strong at the same time and the more likeable for it. I like that she doesn't get things perfect, because it's a reminder that things don't have to be perfect to workout. And I really, really love the idea of a protagonist in a novel embracing the idea of dreaming small. Worlds do not need to change, mountains, do not need to move for a story to be compelling.

United States on Jul 14, 2023

JulesG: Does Hall know how to play with tropes? Yes! This novel features a love triangle, which is extremely well-executed; compared to all those cringy YA love triangles. Furthermore there's a sesquipedalian eight year old, witty banter and lots of cake since the love interests meet at a national baking competition.

Eventually this is a story about personal growth and standing up for yourself though.

Germany on Jun 13, 2023

Kylee Grimwood: I mean it's just a scrummy book! I was outwardly chuckling for like 80% of the book, I got a therapy session, and the leads are insanely hot. Wins all across the board.

Hall does a really excellent job with pacing, everything is whip smart and witty, especially our MC Rosaline. She's honestly a badass (I will never understand how people have the energy to do anything on top of being a parent, it's such involved and hard work) but she's also so genuine. She's balanced, both flawed and fleshed out enough to feel human, like I could pop down the street and she'd greet me with a cup of tea.
Harry, our burly cinnamon roll love interest, is a man of few words who really goes all out with acts of service for those he cares about. There are so many times in this book that I highlighted and my comment is just "😭😭" because he's such a gentle and kind man.
Also, Amelie is the love of my life, and I hope one day she becomes a marine biologist who focuses on deep sea exploration.

United States on May 07, 2023

Amanda Brooks: If you’ve ever watched The Great British Baking Show/The Great British Bake Off, you will get a kick out of this story. Rosaline is a sympathetic character. She comes from a family who have high expectations and who, because she chose to have her daughter instead of finishing her doctor education, constantly make her feel as if she is failing at life. This has caused her to lose confidence in herself, yet there are many places where we can see the confident woman she really is, as when she stands up for her daughter with her daughter’s teacher. She enters the baking competition hoping to if she wins it will help shift her life in more successful ways. The problem is, she’s still stuck believing in her parents’ definition of success. So when she meets Alain, she thinks he’s the right guy to go for and even though she sees the red flags, she can’t quite recognize them as red flags. And when she meets Harry, she’s at first blinded by the class bigotry she’s learned, and can’t see how great he is. All of the upheaval that happens in her life comes out in her bakes as she progresses through the show.

There aren’t a lot of surprises, but it’s satisfying to...

United States on Jun 24, 2022

Clare Vancouver: A hugely amusing not quite RomCom novel which follows contestants in a version on the Great British Bakeoff - who compete, flirt and negotiate with life and friendships.

You quickly work out who you are rooting for, and just wait for the titular character to work everything out. I thought it was going to have the massive miscommunication giving conflict trope (the Malawi bit) - but that is suprisingly dealt with speedily.

Laugh out loud moments (and lots of them, I actually found my eyes watering with mirth, such as the tractor/bull debacle) but Hall also deals (without sledgehammering) issues of consent, bi-phobia, mental illness, fetishism, classism & mysogny.

In a novel with a lot of detailed characters I really think my favourite was the young, marine obsessed Amelie, and I found the offensive Jennifer so unprofessional that it pushed credulity that she was still in her job at the end of the novel.

BTW: don't read the PDF until the end as the book club questions are massive spoilers (but I want to be in the book club that discusses this one!)

At the end there was a teaser for another Bake Expectations novel, which I will be buying as soon...

Canada on Aug 18, 2021

OLT: I wasn't exactly expecting this from Alexis Hall, the author of m/m books such as rom-com BOYFRIEND MATERIAL and the more serious Spires series. Although the heroine of this new rom-com by Hall is bisexual, the romance turns out to be of the m/f variety here and, in addition, I'd say the romance takes a back seat to Rosaline's journey to self awareness, self realization, and self actualization. Not only that, but, to a large extent, it's another kind of love story, that between single mom Rosaline and her young, precocious daughter Amelie.

I just recently finished reading another contemporary romance with a reality cooking competition backdrop: RECIPE FOR PERSUASION by Sonali Dev. Hall's similarly plotted novel here runs rings around that one. Hall's sense of humor is intelligent and delightful, his dialogue smart and sassy, his characters much better drawn than that of most other contemporary romance writers I've read.

If you read the book blurb, you'll know what the story's about. 27-year-old Rosaline, who had to drop out of medical school when she found herself pregnant at 18 or 19, is now working low-pay jobs but has an interest in and talent for baking. So she...

United States on Jul 03, 2021

mrs stone: I read loads of good reviews and decided to read this anticipating Harry to be a breakdown of Harriet seeing as MC is bisexual.
An upper class woman who left university after her first year due to an accidental pregnancy, she is crippled with doubt due to her parents negative thoughts of her ‘throwing her life away’ and not continuing her studies. Her daughter and ex support her and I have to admit I love her secondary characters more than Rosaline. She is crippled with worry that she isn’t good enough saying quite a lot of people accept this as a reality I find this a little demeaning.
Alain she meets before anyone else on the way to her first week and makes up a story instead of admitting to her home life due to his upper class personality matching her parents.
I love Anvita, Ricky and Harry such great characters and make Rosaline see that she’s worth more than she believes and about her parents and Alain.
I won’t say I enjoyed how she treated Harry to start with her snobbishness was too much.
Hope the next book is better

United Kingdom on May 28, 2021

BevS: 3.5 stars rounded up seems to be my norm for Alexis' rom-coms. This was a sort of 'rom-com' with a difference this time around inasmuch as the MC's were not gay men, but rather an unassuming bisexual woman and a couple of men, complete opposites, competing for her attention during a Bake Off competition.

I should say straight away that IMHO Alain was a rich, slimy, pretentious wannabe who would no doubt feel quite at home with those nouveau-riche actor types in London [and the less said about that, the better], but we're talking about ordinary, hardworking people like Harry in this story of course...and I was very annoyed at the way Harry was portrayed actually. He seemed to be completely dumbed down, couldn't string a proper sentence together, was frowned upon for his London accent but seemed like a really nice guy who could bake, was polite to the other competitors and grappled with anxiety and self-doubt.

I ask you Ladies and Gents...who would YOU want to get friendly with in front of the cameras...exhibit A who is far more likely to look down his nose at you, be condescending and rude, and snigger behind your back or exhibit B whom you COULD actually rely on to...

United Kingdom on May 27, 2021

Lisa Bagdan (@LisaBReads): First of all, content warnings. There are more here than I think a “quirky rom-com” should have but they include bi-phobia/fetishization, attempted date rape/sexual assault, classism, excessive swearing by one character, mental illness specifically anxiety and I’m sure I am missing some. There is mostly closed door sex discussed but one scene at the end is more explicit.

So, after reading all of that, this one was actually pretty funny. The banter was top notch and I loved the setting. Baking shows are my go to comfort watch so to have a romance set in one was my dream come true.

I did read this one hoping it was going to be fun and cute and lots of happy kissing between scenes, and it wasn’t all I hoped for. But I did love Rosaline. She is a chronic people pleaser with low confidence in herself and I loved watching her grow over the weeks of the show. It did cover some heavy topics but it was also laugh out loud funny at times and the British banter was some of the best ever. So, I think if you go in with a heads up that this one is more than just fluff, you’ll adore it. Much like his first novel, Alexis Hall excels at mixing real life and fun together to...

Canada on May 20, 2021