It’s really quite unfair, honestly, that Alexis Hall can write two books that are THIS good. I read Boyfriend Material last month and now, Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake. Both books are fantastically funny and rep the LGBTQ+ community, but each is unique and riveting in their own ways. Here are my thoughts on Rosaline Palmer:

Let’s start with the concept: a baking competition. I don’t know about y’all but I spent a good part of quarantine last year binging the Great British Bake Off, so the fact that this book somewhat mimicked the format and hinted towards what might happen behind the scenes drew me in immediately. I loved the characters and pined as my favorites were sent home. Underneath all of this lay the plot and romance of the novel. I loved watching as Rosaline’s confidence in herself grew and her love interest’s vulnerability made my stomach knot. I can’t wait for the next book in this series- a new season of the show, I’m hoping?

Last note: I howled at the Book Club Discussion questions but also loved how they highlighted intentional points of the novel that I was wondering about. Read them but read them after the book ‘cuz, you know, spoilers.

Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake is a book I was really looking forward to. I was glad I was able to dive into it and while I enjoyed it quite a bit, there were parts of it that fell a bit flat for me probably because I was expecting more romance than women's fiction. That's not to say it wasn't well written, it was, I just had different exceptions going into it.

Rosaline is a 27 year-old single mother who works in a store and lives pay check to paycheck, but who loves to bake. She's never felt like she has been able to please her parents and in general she is a people pleaser. Her daughter, Amelie, is as adorable and precocious as she can be. She was such a delight!

Rosaline has the opportunity to join the case of Bake Expectations. She's joining ten other contestants vying for the crown of best baker. While at the show tapings, she meets both Alain and Harry. Alain is a suave, landscape architect who her parents like immediately and Harry is a shy, electrician who doesn't speak as eloquently as some would like. Rosaline makes an initial choice between the two which turns out to be the wrong one. Will she be able to see what the other man has been trying to tell her from the start just by being her friend?

I enjoyed the concept of this book a lot. I also enjoyed the secondary characters, who brought a lot of laughs and heart to the story along with the main characters. Knowing that there is more to come in this series, I'm very interested to see what Ms. Hall offers up next!

**I voluntarily read an early copy of this title courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review**

Im not quite sure what was missing the mark for me on this one. I adored Hall's previous book but I just struggled to enjoy this one.

I did really enjoy Rosaline's tenacious personality but I just couldn't connect with this one.

I did complete this read. I was given an advanced readers copy from Forever Publishing.

"I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?" -- 10 Things I Hate About You


Well I found a book I feel very whelmed about and that book is Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake. I had high hopes going into this one and maybe that was the problem. I think my expectations of what I would get out of it were different than the actual book.

Rosaline Palmer is a contestant on a baking show similar to GBBO called Bake Expectations. Every section follows a weekly format with titled with the challenge for the show, similar to GBBO. I loved the baking scenes and expected a lot of those with a small love triangle, but that wasn't what I got. Yes the baking scenes are there but there was more of the mediocre love triangle than I was expecting. I had a hard time connecting with Rosaline so it made me care less about things outside of the baking competition. Don't even get me started on Alain, ugh!! I did really enjoy some of the secondary characters in the book, including Rosaline's daughter, and they kept me reading more than Rosaline herself. I found the drama in an episode of GBBO more compelling than that created within this book.

If you like GBBO and closed-door romances give this a shot. Thank you to Forever and Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for my honest review.

I love Alexis Hall so so so much. Alexis Hall is now on my auto-buy list. The writing is witty and smart, The Characters are so endearing. I read Boyfriend Material and knew I needed to check this one out. Her Characters are so real. Highly recommend.

Food, fun, and flirting- what's not to like? This was an entertaining story full of great characters. Can't wait to read the next one in the series!

After devouring Boyfriend Material in one sitting, I was antsy to get my hands on Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake. Judging from the premise, this sounded completely up my alley: bisexual protagonist who’s a single mother, a competitive British baking show, and the friends-to-lovers trope? This checked all of my boxes for a good romcom time. But quite like most baking recipes I try out, I wasn’t super happy with the end result.

I have extremely mixed feelings on Rosaline. On the one hand, I loved her as a protagonist. She was so relatable to me and she made such good points about what it’s like to be a single mother who struggles to find the balance between her kid’s life and following her own dreams after having put them on pause once her daughter was born. She doesn’t take shit from teachers who don’t want her daughter to use the dreaded b-word “bisexual” in their classroom and stands up for herself when someone tries to come for her life. There is a lot of underlying resentment in her, despite having gone against her parents’ wishes, she still very much craves their approval. In a lot of ways, this reminded me of Lorelai Gilmore from Gilmore Girls, just a more woke version and I loved that aspect of her character.

On the other hand, there were times where I was actually mentally exhausted by reading Rosaline’s thoughts. Rosaline often turns the simplest of comments into a teaching moment—either internally or outright to the person she’s speaking to. The worst thing is that Rosaline makes absolutely excellent points, like when Harry calls her “love” without ever having talked to her, she stands up for herself and tells him that he wouldn’t call the other contestants that. When someone makes assumptions about her being “coerced” to keep her daughter when she got pregnant instead of her deciding to raise her on her own, she addresses the stereotyping of single mothers. There are a lot of instances where she faces prejudice, that’s true. And while I completely agree with all of Rosaline’s commentary on society and double standards, it got a bit tedious to read at times because there is almost no interaction that does not lead into a long discussion of some toxic trait or other. Essentially, this book tried to make so many different—and valid!—points that in the end, I felt overwhelmed with what to take away from the story and felt more agitated than comforted.

I also definitely went into this book with the wrong expectations. This is marketed as a romance but really, it’s more a women’s fiction story that explores Rosaline finding her way in life. Some of the best moments in this story are the ones where we get a glimpse of who Rosaline is, what she wants out of life and where she still struggles—we see her slowly coming to terms with her parents’ and finding a way through that very difficult relationship and we get to see her work out how she is going to follow her dreams while still being responsible for another human being—as someone who was raised by a single mum, these moments were definitely the highlight for me.

The romance aspect was difficult for me as well. Rosaline’s love interest for most of the book is a man I cannot stand at all. This has its reasons as we uncover Alain’s darker motives for pursuing Rosaline later on, and while it makes for great storytelling, it was hard to stay invested in the story when I just could not understand what Rosaline saw in Alain. What I loved, though, was that with the whole Alain/Rosaline conundrum, we really got to see how much Rosaline was still vying for her parents’ approval and how she was blinded to Alain’s motives because she—just like most of us—wants to love and be loved, which just ties into my commentary about going into this with the wrong expectations. The “real” love interest came in very late in the game and had almost no page time—despite being so interesting and really cute!—and their romance thus just fell flat for me.

That being said, I loved the glimpses we got at the baking show and the competition overall and the secondary characters that were introduced really stole my heart. Rosaline’s daughter Amelie is an absolute delight and whenever she popped up, I knew I was in for a smile and a good time. Similarly, Rosaline’s ex Lauren was incredibly fleshed-out and a fascinating character to study. The other contestants also held my attention and I’m excited to see who will make a return in further instalments. While this might have missed the mark for me, I can’t wait to get to read the next instalment in this universe.

With loads of wit and baking-related banter, Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake explores a bisexual single mother’s journey to finding herself, perfect for fans of the Great British Bake Off and Hall’s trademark humour.

Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake was not the book for me. I have decided to stop torturing myself and given up mid pudding week. I don’t quite know how to review this book. It was an intensely unpleasant experience for me, but different readers will enjoy it.

Though it is very well written and has moments of laugh out loud humor, I struggled with Rosaline and her relationship with Alain. First, she tells him a lie that the reader and Rosaline know will be quickly revealed. Secondhand embarrassment levels set to 11. She lies to him because she’s trying to impress him and doesn’t think he will approve of her as she is, and he doesn’t. I realized about 40% in that Alain reads to me as having narcissistic personality disorder. Having had more than one relationship with people with narcissistic personality disorder, every interaction between Rosaline and Alain was a parade of triggers. I am much too familiar with the early stages of a relationship with a narcissist – you feel both special and unworthy and will contort yourself trying to please them, but failure is inevitable. Reading Rosaline go through this was painful and frustrating, especially when Harry (who should be her love interest) was right there.

My frustration was intensified because all the parts without Alain were fantastic. Rosaline’s daughter, Amalie, is a well written child. Rosaline’s time with her friend Lauren is wonderful. I loved the parts of the book about the baking competition. If someone would like to make me a version of this book with all the traumatic parts with Alain excised, I would read the hell out of it.

I’m giving this 3 stars because the parts I liked, I liked a lot.

I guess my content warning is character with narcissistic personality disorder.

I received this as an advance reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Um, LOVE!!! This book gave me all the good book squeals. Rosaline Palmer is a young single mother who's set on winning a competitive British baking show to turn her lackluster career around. When she misses her train to the first weekend of filming and has to find her way to the set with another lost contestant -- who happens to be a handsome, eligible landscape architect -- it seems like she might be on track to turning her love life around, too. But as the show goes on and Rosaline realizes there's a disconnect between what she *thinks* she wants and what she *really* wants, she has a decision to make: Is it possible to live the life that makes her happy, even if it's not the one she always thought she'd have?

This book delighted me from beginning to end. The TV show is unapologetically like The Great British Bake-Off, with all of its colorful contestants and ridiculous baking challenges and a (hopefully fictional) hilariously foul-mouthed producer behind the scenes. But the real winner is the fully-developed cast of characters, including Rosaline's precociously charming daughter, Rosaline's supportive, tough-loving ex-girlfriend, the Bake-Off contestants, and Rosaline herself. While the story tackles tough subjects like sexuality, parenting, class, and mental health issues, they're all part of characters' identities and are handled deftly and sensitively by this gifted author. I loved this book and cannot wait to read it again.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Attention everyone! I am happy to announce that Alexis Hall has officially made their way to my list of auto-buy authors.

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for a chance to read and review this highly anticipated read of mine: Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake! (Yes, I absolutely did scream when I got the approval notice).

This book was so funny! I literally laughed out loud throughout the majority of the book. The humor was A+! Which, I am not surprised by since I adored Boyfriend Material and laughed just as hard during that one.

I loved the premise of this one following a baking show. It’s clear that Hall is a huge fan of these shows because their knowledge of all things cooking and desserts is fantastic.

The characters were great, aside from Alain (he was a real prick, mate). I loved the relationships that Rosaline had with her daughter, her ex, and her new friends from the show. She truly grew as the show went on and learned to stand up for herself and go for what she wants. And her relationship with Harry and Anvita was serious friendship goals!

The representation present in this book was also excellent!

Overall, a fun and delicious read that will have you laughing and swooning, while also craving some serious sweets.

“And that was the thing about journeys, wasn’t it? They weren’t about where you started or where you ended. They were about who came with you.”

This was a a funny and entertaining book set around a British baking tv show. I went into this think it was a romance novel and love story did play a big part but I think I’d characterize this more as women’s fiction.

There was great LGBTQ representation in the book but the physical descriptions were lacking so I have no clue what other diversity there was. I couldn’t really picture any of the characters.

This book definitely tackled some tough subjects like how to talk to women, classism, homophobia, exploration of bisexuality, and teen pregnancy. Overtime, I thought that all of the lessons got a bit preachy and repetitive which took away from the over all messages.

Rosalind was an interesting main character who was witty and showed tremendous growth. I did think some of her choices throughout the book were highly questionable and immature which made it difficult to get behind her as character. I mean, she lied right off the bat about her entire life to hide her daughter which was really disappointing. She also made some questionable romantic choices which made the romance parts of the book cringeworthy. I wanted to like her but she was difficult to root for.

The premise of a baking competition was really fun and written in a way that made you feel like you were there. All of the side characters were fun but again, lacked any physical description.

Overall this was a cute premise set around a really fun tv competition. There was great diversity and exploration of tough topics but the topics were approached in a repetitive, preachy way that got annoying after awhile. I also wanted to like Rosalind but found her a bit difficult to root for because of her immature decisions.

Thank you NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the ARC.

3.5-4/5 ⭐️
I read and loved Boyfriend Material so I couldn’t wait to dive into his next book. I was excited (and honestly shocked) when NetGalley approved my request.

By ‘eck this was a hilarious read. I was laughing out loud from the first chapter. This book was cute, funny, and delicious, especially the ending! The story was well written, the characters were interesting, and the baking was drool worthy.

🍞 Slow-burn romance
🥧 Delicious Desserts
🥮 Relatable family struggles
🍰 Swoon worthy cinnamon roll hero

My only “negative” comment would be that I found myself struggling just a pinch. I felt slightly buried by the British dialogue. To add to it, I am one of the odd few left that has not watch any of The Great British Baking Show. While this isn’t a major issue per say, I found myself google phrases to make sure I was understanding the lingo. Nonetheless I am intrigued to see where the series goes and would recommend adding this one to your TBR!

Pub: May 18, 2021

Thank you @NetGalley and @readforeverpub for the #gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

#RosalinePalmerTakesTheCake #AlexisHall #NetGalley #arc #queerromcom #goodreads #flippin_and_sippin_mn

Guys, I was sold on this book long before I knew what words lay on the page. Estelle teased months ago an upcoming book by Alexis Hall, the same author that brought us the adorable and charming Boyfriend Material, with the promise of love and drama set within the filming of a Great British Bake Off - style cooking show and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. LGBTQ characters, GBBO and baking, British charm. I was here for every last bit of it.

Reader, Hall puts you right in the tent... er, ballroom. For my fellow GBBO-obsessed, this is the closest I’ve been able to get behind the curtain. Hall channels Mary Berry, Sue and Mel, Pru, and a little bit of Paul Hollywood, too. Hall also gets the tone of the show just right and brings his characters to life inside that ballroom. I would want to watch Harry whisk, Alain and his stupidly foraged mint, and Anvita ogle all the good-looking men. (She is excellent and sexy, and yes I can say that here! Shut it, Colin.)

I was approved for an arc from netgalley - thank you Forever - and squeed with delight, and let me tell you Rosaline’s story did not disappoint. Moreover, the real show-stealer is Amelie. Kids say the darnedest things. She’s perfect, and I would love to learn more about Anglerfish from her. Pick up this book when it comes out on May 18th and get ready for Hall to mix things up.

Loved love loved this. It was so cute and fun. I absolutely love baking and cooking shows, so I knew that I would be very into Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake. This was romantic and sweet!
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC ebook!

Having really enjoyed Boyfriend Material, I was greatly looking forward to this. What I do appreciate about it is how much it actually tracks the baking competition. I've read a number of romances clearly inspired by GBBO, and they don't very often go into the detail those of us who enjoy reading lots of food descriptions might want. Often the competition is really compressed to the end of the book, but here we get the real week-by-week of it. And the book has recipes at the end, which is very charming!

Where the book let me down is in my assumption it was a romance. Without spoiling things, I don't think this truly has enough of a central relationship that ends optimistically to properly be called a romance. It's more of a comic novel with romantic elements. Which wasn't what I thought I was in for.

I think the other thing that was tricky for me is a matter of taste, and I will acknowledge I'm very much in the minority. Alexis Hall can write very funny dialog, and sometimes the effect for me is that it flattens the characters, because there isn't one witty one, they're all witty. And sometimes there's too much banter, and it feels a little wheel-spinny for me. Again, I fully acknowledge there are plenty of readers who don't think there's such a thing as too much banter, so here's the book for them.

I'm so disappointed. This book was just not for me. It felt very preachy for a lot of different topics and not in a way that felt organic. I also felt there was too much baking. Like a lot more than I personally would have liked. I did love Rosaline's daughter a lot and Auntie Lauren, but all in all just not the right fit for me.

This book has so much potential, but ultimately tried to do too much.

Rosaline Palmer, a bisexual single mother, is a contestant on a thinly-veiled version of The Great British Baking Show. However, on the way to the first weekend of filming, she gets stranded with another--very handsome--contestant, Alain, and the two soon begin a fling. Alain is exactly the guy her elitist parents would approve of: well-educated, steady job, polished. But is he the right person for Rosaline...?

MINOR SPOILERS BELOW

As I hinted above, our initial Prince Charming may turn out to not be the one for Rosaline, but man does he stick around for too long before he becomes a frog. I wish she had ditched them sooner and given more time for her second relationship of the book to develop. I ended up really liking who she ended up with, but we didn't get to see enough of them.

My favorite parts of this book were related to the baking competition. The dialogue from the hosts and judges, the gratuitously cussing producer, the description of the bakes, the adventures the contestants got up to in their free time... I loved all of it. It looks like this book may be the first in a series "Winner Bakes All" and I'm hoping that means we get more seasons of the fictional Bake Expectations (aka The Great British Baking Show).

This book is also extremely clever and quippy. Hall brings the humor, with off-the-charts banter and some laugh-out-loud moments (Big Ben made out bread, anyone?).

However. However, as mentioned above, this book tries to go too much. In the first 20%, Rosaline takes on confronting biphobia, homophobia, misogamy, and fatphobia. And that's just the start of the "teachable" moments. Only a few of these instances are relevant to the plot, and the rest come across as preachy (and makes Rosaline seem a little patronizing at times). I think these moments could have been cut in half, and the same character development would have been the same. I have high hopes for the next book in the series given the rest of the things I loved about Hall's writing, but this definitely made me enjoy the book less--felt less like a romance and more of a "Here's How Not to Be A Horrible Person" guide with a dash of romance and baking.

TW/CW: biphobia, homophobia, misogamy, fatphobia, sexual assault

Thank you so much to Forever for my review copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

4 stars - 6/10

I was really excited for this book as I absolutely adored Boyfriend Material and enjoy the Great British Bake Off. So thought that an author I loved writing a book based on a show I love that it would be a match made in heaven. However, a friend of mine just read this and after hearing her thoughts I am 1000% sure that this book is not for me. Thanks for granting me the ability to read Rosaline Palmer but I think that I'll pass and hope that Hall's next book will be more my style.

3.5 stars....I wanted to like this so much. I really really did. So here’s what I thought.

The good
- Alexis Hall’s trademark humor. Laugh out loud funny dialogue and narration. I snort laughed at times and may have woken up my husband whilst reading in bed
- The scenery and baking descriptions were spot on. If you’ve watched GBBO you’ll love it. The producer and crew and judges and all those personalities were hysterical. Definitely a highlight.
- The mother/daughter dynamic is so sweet. Amelie is precocious and hilarious. Every second grade teachers dream/nightmare.
- Rosaline’s development. I loved seeing her own her own desires and growing into what she wanted.

The bad
- It’s long. At times it really felt like a slog to push through.
- The love triangle. My least favorite trope for a reason. Others who enjoy this trope could add it to the “good” list and easily increase the rating by a star.
- Some of the stereotypes felt overplayed

Think of this more as women’s fiction (even though that term stinks, it’s a better characterization of this than romance). Enjoyable but not my favorite. I’ll absolutely still read anything Alexis Hall writes for that amazing humor.

Content warning: sexual assault on page; biphobia

Thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing (Forever) for the early copy. Opinions are my own.

Shaky start but nice finish.

Rosaline Palmer is one of the contestants on the next season of a baking competition tv show. Along the way she meets new friends, a new man, and some pretty awful people but she ultimately finds her inner strength and vision for her life that will make her happy and make her daughter proud.

I wanted to love this one so much but I spent three fourths of the book frustrated with the love triangle (this is one of my least favorite tropes in a romance and it’s my own fault that I wasn’t prepared because I didn’t read the blurb first, I just dove right in) and Rosaline’s rather narrow mind. But in the end I was rooting for Rosaline in more ways than one and absolutely loved her final choice and that it was validated by his enlightenment and caring of and for her and her pleasure.

I appreciated the exploration of bisexuality and biphobia as well as the look at British classicism. The discussion of sexual assault in a same sex situation was also well done and balanced with the discussion of what constitutes sex and pleasure for both partners.

My absolute favorite parts of the story were Amalie and Lauren’s relationship and Anvita and her stone cold hotties!

I received a complimentary review copy of this book but all opinions are my own.