For romcom fans and loyal viewers of British baking shows, this is absolutely a perfect, light read. Be prepared to read detailed descriptions of all the baked goods in this book. Rosaline, Alain and Harry are participating in the baking show to be televised soon. Having watched these shows intensely for some time, it was a revelatory experience as it outlines how the scenes are shot and how the contestants need to speak things.

Will Rosaline end up with posh Alain or sensitive Harry? The supporting characters were also very memorable and had an impact on the plot. It showed the British class system that is prevalent to this day in an interesting way as I haven't seen it in current british rom coms. Without a doubt, the way gender is handled is spot on!

There are some really wonderful things about Rosaline and her baking adventure.

Her journey as a single mom, struggling to make ends meet and fulfill her dream is easy to get behind. As always, Hall writes his supporting characters so well it's easy to fall in love with every single character in the book. (Obviously, not Alain because ew. What a creep.) But everyone else from Rosaline's ex-girlfriend, her amazingly clever and insightful daughter and the other contestants on the show are just incredible.)

The writing is solid and it really brought me right into the bake show. I mean, I could smell the food. It felt like I was watching the Great British Bake Off. I loved the contestants and the scenery. The show really brought an extra layer of urgency to the show. Yes, I want Rosaline to find her happily ever after, but OMG I want her to win too! Can she have both?

That said, I had some minor issues with the story. Rosaline is a bit too prickly/preachy for me, always eager to correct people's behavior but then herself behaving in some not nice ways. I was talking about it with a friend and I think she just reminds me of some other women I know so it might have less to do with her and more to do with my own personal experiences. Alain is the main love interest for a lot of the book and then we have Harry. And we're already kinda invested in Alain (until he turns out to be a terrible human being) and then we're pretty much smacked in the face with Harry. There's nothing wrong with changing love interests obviously, especially when one of them turns out to be truly horrible, but I wish I had been more invested in Harry when the switch happened. I felt like it was too abrupt and didn't really get that slow romantic build I wanted.

Overall though I think Rosaline Palmer is a solid woman's fiction about a young single mom trying to find her way and win a baking competition. It has humor and lots of heart

Hilarious, fascinating, and inspiring. Those are the words that came to mind after finishing this book. I was impressed how the characters and storyline represented the value of simplicity and living life without caring what people say or think. Rosaline transitioned from being indecisive and overly concerned about other opinions into this person who knows her value and wants. I do love that. There were so many laughed-out-loud moments, and the story was very engaging! I highly recommend it!

It’s no secret that Boyfriend Material was a top five book for me last year ... so to say I was excited for this book is an big understatement!! And Hall did NOT disappoint me. I was cracking up from the very first page!

This book combines two of my top favorite things - romance AND BRITISH BAKING SHOWS!!! O. M. G. Be still my swooning heart. ♥️ Here’s a few things I really enjoyed about this single parent, love triangle romcom:

🎂The frank and open narrative about sexuality. Refreshingly done to absolute perfection.
🎂Bake Expectations - clearly a play on my fave show and I loved every second of the baking and behind the scenes drama.
🎂A super cute kid. Seriously this child was hilarious.
🎂Harry. What. A. Guy. That is all. ♥️♥️♥️
🎂The book club questions at the end of the book. HILARIOUS and thoughtful at the same time. Don’t miss it.

There’s definitely a heavy women’s fiction feel here and a little light on the actual romance, but I didn’t mind! I hated Alain, which I realize was the point, but wish less time would have been spent on him.

The best news of all is that we are going to get more baking next year from Hall!! Thank you to @readforeverpub for the #gifted copy in exchange for my honest review!!

4.5 stars

Thanks to Forever Publishing for my arc of this book.

One sentence review: Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall is a must read for anyone who loves witty banter or the Great British Baking Show.

I absolutely adored everything about this book. The book follows Rosaline Palmer, a single mother, as she competes in Bake Expectations, a British baking show. The basic structure of the book is that it follows Rosaline from week to week in the competition with some scenes related to the competition itself and other scenes occurring during the week when she is back at home.

My thoughts:

- Alexis Hall is an absolute master at witty banter. He has some of the best dialogue out there.
- This book has some great characters. At the beginning of the competition it gets a little confusing because there are so many contestants but as you progress through the book you can't help but fall in love with some of these characters.
- I love the Great British Baking Show and there is no doubting the tongue in cheek references to TV show. I thought it was really cleverly done and will delight anyone waiting for a new season to load on Netflix.
- Rosaline is bisexual and I really appreciated how the book explores her bisexuality and how she is treated by others because of her sexuality.
- If I have a criticism it is that the book is a bit long. I felt like some of the "real life" scenes between show takes took more time than they probably needed to.

TW: The book includes a non-graphic depiction of an attempted sexual assault. Feel free to DM for more information.

In summary, if you are looking for a light, funny read with great dialogue between characters, this book would be the perfect choice.

Not real sure what to say about this one. Parts of it I loved, parts were too cliche, but one thing I really did like was the subject-a reality baking show.

I liked the fierce female lead- I loved her take on work and life and how she stood for what she believed in. Harry and the other contestants were good too but there was just so,etching off for me.

What could be sweeter than a romance that takes place during a baking competition? Single mom, Rosaline's life needs a story arc every bit as much as a reality show baking competition does. She looking for some prize money & a push in a new direction, but finds far more.

The first chapter made me nervous that this would be a book where all the conflict rose out of unnecessary miscommunication, but it's absolutely not. The relationships both romantic and otherwise grow so beautifully throughout the novel. It's a wonderful read.

I really enjoyed Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall. This book is marketed as a romance book, however and I do not think that is appropriate. It is much more of women’s fiction than romance in my opinion. Rosaline and her hero do not get together until the literal last chapter of the book. That being said, Hall’s writing is funny and authentic. Rosaline is such a relatable main character and Hall incorporates important issues including discrimination against bisexuals, classism, life as a single mom, and emotionally abusive parents. In addition, the cooking/baking described in this book is absolutely mouth-watering! This is a fun book, but I think readers should be aware it is not super romance oriented. If I knew that going in I think I would have liked it more!

Thanks to Forever for my gifted copy of Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake, by Alexis Hall! This fun, light-hearted romance novel is out on May 18th (next week!).

Seemingly inspired by the Great British Baking Show, Rosaline Palmer is a woman with a young daughter who is just scraping by, when she lands a spot on a beloved national baking championship show. However, in addition to a few challenging recipes, there are a few romantic obstacles in her way as well.

Honestly y’all, this book wasn’t my favorite (unpopular opinion alert). While I love all of the baking show references (and the mouth-watering treats!), the plot moved along very slowly, and I was never motivated to pick it up and read it. On the plus side, this book definitely had a lot of funny parts in it. Alexis Hall definitely has a gift with humor!

I love love loved this book. Rosaline, a British single mother competing on Bake Expectations! In my head as I read, I pictured watching British Bake Off, and several of the hosts and judges from that, along with contestants over the years. It felt so real to watching one of those shows. I loved Rosaline as a character, I loved her friends and family and hope that my kiddo is as smart as hers when she is 8! I enjoyed the romance angles and the plot twists and turns there (somewhat was able to predict some of these but it was fun to read them as they played out, in slightly different ways than I had expected!) -- I finished this book in 1 day, because it was so delightful I just needed to keep reading, and I'm looking forward to finding more from Alexis Hall to enjoy! So glad I got a free ARC to read!

Amusing, spirited, and entertaining!

Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake is a playful, heartfelt, captivating tale that takes you into the life of the kindhearted, sweet Rosaline Palmer as she juggles motherhood, parental expectations, an unfulfilling job, a handsome new boyfriend, a fellow contestant with a heart of gold, and a cooking competition that could ultimately change her life.

The writing is witty and crisp. The characters are supportive, dependable, and eccentric. And the plot is a lighthearted, sassy blend of life, love, family, friendship, self-reflection, happiness, romance, baking, tricky mishaps, and awkward situations.

Overall, Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake is a humorous, uplifting, charming tale by Hall that I was lucky enough to be able to both read and listen to, and I can tell you they are both a delight. In fact, Fiona Hardingham does such a fantastic job of bringing all the quirky characters in this book to life, especially the precocious Amelie, who definitely steals the show, that I think, even though this typically isn’t the case, I might have even preferred the audio.

Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake is the first book I’ve read from Alexis Hall. This contemporary romance novel explores expectations vs. desires, confidence, strained familial relationships, and cut-throat baking competition. I was initially drawn to this book because Estelle from Read Forever Pub has the best contemporary romance book recommendations and I adore food competition settings in romcoms. All the characters were well-developed and it was great to see how some of them changed for the better (or for the worse) throughout the story. As for the writing style, I really enjoyed the hilarious moments and also the way that the author was able to discuss sensitive subjects as well. I also loved that the author not only had romance in here, but he also weaved in personal growth. Overall, I’d highly recommend picking this one up if you’re a romance reader! I can’t wait for the book book in the series.

⭐️⭐️⭐️½

This was a fun and entertaining book that featured food porn, a love triangle, and a great set of supporting characters. The dialogue and witty banter between these characters in this book was great!

Amelie, Rosaline's daughter, was one of my favorite characters of the book. She is a precocious child who has been raised by a mother who encouraged open discussions about most things. The things she said had me cracking up!

It was clear from the beginning of the book that Rosaline is a fierce defender of her life choices and sexuality. She is a feminist at heart and she is assertive in calling people out on heteronormative/patriarchal thinking. I found her lack of confidence in herself and her self-consciousness of being a single mother a little puzzling at times. I know that people and characters are complicated with layers, but there was something about this incongruity in her personality that I kept questioning.

At about 450 pages, it was a bit too long but I think it was long because there was a lot that Hall was trying to cover in terms of messages/themes, all against a backdrop of a baking competition.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and the important messages in this book. If you enjoy baking and/or baking competition show, you'll enjoy this one!

Steam level: 🔥🔥½-🔥🔥🔥
⚠️: anxiety, classism, sexual assault

Thank you Forever Pub and Netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Rosaline is a 20 something single mom with an amazing young daughter. She's working in a shop, but loves to bake so she applies and is accepted to be on Baked Expectations. She's struggling but sees the show as a way out.

For a romantic comedy/book about baking, Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake had so much depth. Rosaline is bisexual and her sexuality often comes up. She shouldn't have to defend herself or her sexuality, but it seems like she did often throughout the book. I loved the serious conversations she was able to have with her fellow contestant Harry. She was able to tell him she didn't appreciate/want to be called love and he took her seriously and changed his behavior. She started out not being a fan of him, but they developed such a sweet friendship that blossomed into much more.

I loved Rosaline's best friend Lauren and her daughter, Amelie. For me they were high points of the book. I was so proud of Amelie to standing up for herself with her parents and with Alain. The parts with Alain were hard to read at times. At his best, it felt like Rosaline was trying to force herself to like him because her parents would approve of him. At worst, he tricked her and set her up to sexually assaulted by his ex-girlfriend. I didn't like him at all, but he helped her to get to Harry. I loved that Rosaline won the show and beat Alain.

I can't wait for the second book in this series.

I will update with the link when I share to my bookstagram account.

I'm so happy that this is the start of a new series by this author! I loved Boyfriend Material and was so excited to see a new release pop up on my radar!
This whole premise made my Great British Baking Show -loving heart so happy. This story follows single mom Rosaline Palmer who feels like she hasn’t lived up to her parents goals & isn’t providing the life she wants for her daughter. She decides to sign up for a baking reality tv show because she loves to bake,
It didn't feel traditionally romance-y in that Rosaline spends more of the book with the obviously wrong choice, but the hero was very delightful. And Rosaline is great! It did include a bit of a fake dating trope but this story felt more about Rosaline than the romance aspect which I ended up really enjoying even though I did go into it expecting mostly romance. I loved all the self-growth that took place and I really loved Rosaline's relationship with her daughter, Amelie.
Thank you so much to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book!

So, first thing’s first, the summary and cover of this book really present it as a rom-com and it definitely isn’t. Yes, it’s hilarious at times. Yes, there is some romance. But it’s definitely not a rom-com.

Rosaline is a single mom, struggling to pay the bills so she decides to audition for a British Bake Off type show to see about getting some extra cash. Throughout the competition she finds herself in a bit of a love triangle with architect, Alain, and electrician, Harry.

So, this book. I really hated the plot with Alain. In general, I’m not a fan of love triangles, but Alain as a character was just awful. Without giving too much away, he’s just a downright predatory character who tries to pass himself off as charming but is instead manipulative and narcissistic.

Also, just going to say, there should have been a content warning for sexual assault.

Harry was the redeeming factor of this book. At first I questioned him as a love interest, but he’s really so sweet and honestly just the kindest character.

All in all, I loved the baking parts. Baking competition shows are my absolute favourite so I could basically see the entire competition in my head which was very fun. The love triangle romance was not my favourite.

This book has a super cute premise! It was definitely a lot longer than it needed to be, though— the first quarter or so could have been cut way down. I also struggled with the characters a bit because they all felt a bit two-dimensional. The plot itself was adorable, though!

I really liked how the chapters were divided up by days/weeks of the competition! I felt like the baking competition aspect of the book was really well developed, and I liked that we got to “hear” the judges’ critiques and the winners/losers for each round.
Also, tThe producers for the baking competition were hilarious characters and often had me laughing with their dialogue!

I'd like to start by saying I am biased because Alexis Hall is my favorite author, so while I can objectively see things in this novel that I would liked to have seen go differently (more on that in a bit), I still loved it because I know to expect some unconventional writing choices and that's what I love about Alexis Hall.

What I adored about this book was Rosaline's personal growth arc, which is just as much a focus (if not more) than the romance. She started the novel lacking confidence, and still very much guided by the opinions of others. She's a bisexual feminist and a single parent, and her true self shines through as soon as the novel starts when she has to confront her daughter's school teacher over her homophobia. I like how we are able to glimpse this confident side, but then clearly see how she gets bogged down by her insecurities and her questioning her motives.

I also loved the theme of finding happiness with what you have, and how it's okay to want a "simple" life over notoriety and extravagance. This dovetails with a theme of how outward appearances (namely based on classism) can be deceiving.

This also made me want to re-watch The Great British Bake Off, I had no problem conjuring the idyllic British countryside while reading this novel.

Amelie (Rosaline's daughter) was a wonderful addition to the novel, as well as all the side characters. One thing Hall excels at is painting a beautiful picture of found family in many of his novels.

There was humor, my husband kept looking at me funny when I would randomly burst out laughing when he was trying to watch TV.

Okay, so if I had not read Hall's other books, I might have been bothered by a few things such as [ so much time spent with Alain, who I realized was a jerk pretty quickly, and not enough time with Harry. Although I love how the cliched romantic meet cute on the way to the competition turned out to not be the guy she ends up with. Well played. (hide spoiler)]

However, I've noticed this in Hall's writing and have grown to expect it. Such as (spoilers for Boyfriend Material) [ when I first read Boyfriend Material, which was my first Hall book, I didn't "get" it. I wanted more time with Luc and Oliver, and not as much time on Luc's personal growth and time at his job, etc. But then I read the Spires series and read Boyfriend Material again, and I saw all of the beauty present in Luc's story that I didn't see before. (hide spoiler)]

Another example would be How to Belong with A Billionaire, (view spoiler) Despite this, it is my favorite of the trilogy.

In many, if not all of his books, the main character has to learn for themselves whatever it is they need to learn for their growth arc, regardless of the love interest. These are people becoming whole, maybe because of another person but not reliant on that person if that makes sense.

I can always relate to some aspect of the main character's journey when I read his books, which is probably why they are my favorites. As for Rosaline, I have a precocious daughter myself so I could relate to her insecurities involving being a good parent, and having to stand up to people like the school teacher and her own parents when Amelie's best interests were at the forefront. I could also relate to not feeling like you haven't "lived up to your potential."

All that to say, if you like baking, character growth, awesome side characters and the friendships that come with them, and a hilariously cute eight year old, this might be the book for you.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Forever publishing and Net Galley for allowing me to read this book early! Based on the premise, I thought I would love this book! This is about a single mom named Rosaline who had wanted to go into medicine but then got pregnant and had to put her professional dreams on hold to raise her daughter. Now she works in a stationary store and gos on a cooking show to try to win some money to help out her family (think Great British Baking Show). On her way there she meets another one of the contestants when they miss the bus and have to spend overnight on a farmstead. It's a fun meet cute and he's exactly the type of guy she "should" be with, but maybe he's not all he cracked up to be. Electrician and contestant, Harry, doesn't fit the mold, but he's super sweet-- who will she pick and will the competition get in the way?! I liked Harry alot and thought he was a great cinnamon roll hero. My complaints about this book are that I really just felt disconnected. Alexis Hall definitely doesn't waste any time on description of setting and it made it hard to feel like you're there. While the meet cute with Alain was cute and Harry had a sweet heart, I didn't feel the connection between the characters and the 448 pages in this book felt like way too many. I haven't read any of his other work, but this one doesn't have me super excited to either.

3.5 stars. This book has a lot of strengths: the character development, the humor, the heartfelt moments. However, since it's a rom-com, I was hoping it would be a bit heavier on the romance. Mild spoilers ahead, since it's pretty easy to see who the actual love interest is just from the blurb - Rosaline spends almost three-quarters of the book with the guy she isn't going to end up with, and I just kept wanting to get past that.

A note for those of you who hate the "conflict-between-potential-romantic-interests-caused-by-one-or-both-lying-about-themselves" trope as much as I do, be warned that the first 20% or so of the book relies on that pretty heavily. I'm glad I stuck it out, because it does get resolved pretty early on, but that was nearly a dealbreaker for me.