In all honesty this was more a 4.5 for me. I savored every page of this romance. I loved the rivals-to-lovers in this. I loved the dry, sarcastic humor and the witty banter.

This was fun from beginning to end. I was invested in these characters and their stories.

If you're looking for a romcom with sarcastic humor, rivals-to-lovers, sexual tension, and wonderful supporting characters then you should definitely order a copy of this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon books for this free early copy!

Many thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Well my fellow fluffy rom-com friends, here's another delightful novel from Lucy Parker. She's witty and snarky, her characters are likeable, the plot does contain many familiar situations but there are some twisty-turny parts as well, and the love story is heartwarming and entertaining.

Some profanity and graphic sex.

Can't wait for "Palace Insiders #2... could it be about Pet and the PPO???

The best way to describe this book is overwhelming amounts of stuff going on outside of the romance parts. So much so that I was actually a little confused on who was who and what was what and had to read the first 5 chapters twice to understand what was going on. The baking contest sounded awesome enough on its own so it was a big much to throw in the royal wedding cake thing. And because there was much going on in this book, it was hard to really get to know or like the main characters or really be invested in what happened to them or if they even got together or not by the end. I found myself skimming through this after Chapter 10.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and I am happy to give my honest review.

Lucy Parker is a genius. I love this author's writing and this book did not disappoint. Coming off of Alexis Hall's Rosalie Palmer book, I am 100% here for bake off competition shows. Sylvie and Dom being judges for the show make this so much fun.

Sylvie is a former contestant on a British baking show who gets kicked off spectacularly. She's brought back a few seasons later to be a judge, countering the stuffy, serious judge Dominic. Sylvie has her own pastry shop now which is coincidentally across the street from Dom's shop. She specializes in fantasy and whim while Dom is serious and sophisticated. It's enemies at first glance until they get picked to work on a high profile royal wedding together.

Their shenanigans had me grinning. Their banter was hilarious. Their emotional vulnerability made this realistic and I couldn't stop reading. I love this author and loved this book. I can't wait to read more in the series.

Battle Royale
Lucy Parker

This book feels like The Great British Bake Off meets You’ve Got Mail. You have the intrigue and comfort of a televised backing show as well as the “enemies to lovers” of rival bake shop owners. I would certainly consider this book to be enemies to lovers lite, our main characters are usually at odds in the beginning but it doesn't take long for the reader to realize that its quickly transforming from aversion to interest on both parts.

THe first chapter was a little hard for me to push through. I am not sure why, but the “voice” of the storyteller took me longer to grasp than usual. Once I was truly introduced to the characters it was easy to like them and root for them all. I think the author did an excellent job of making these two characters lives seem full and rich with secondary characters and locations. I loved picturing both of their bakeries and understanding their relationships. I was surprised to find myself teary eyed a few times and that is always a sign that I am truly engrossed in a book.

All in all I thought this was a sweet and charming romance. I tend to like my romance with a bit more steam, but this one was off the charts in charm.

This book was endlessly entertaining and everything I want in a romance novel. I loved everything about this book, from the setting to the characters and plot. It used all my favorite romance tropes (sunshine girl and grouchy boy and enemies/rivals to lovers), plus it was all about baking, which I love to read about. The baking related shenanigans in this story had me laughing out loud and rooting for this unlikely romance.

Battle Royal by Lucy Parker is a wonderful romance novel. I felt the love, passion, care, and character development in Battle Royal. The characters were written well, and the prose was great!

A frankly perfect romance novel from start to finish. Written with all of the sparkle of one of Sylvie's creations and all of the depth of one of Dominic's chocolates. Excited for the follow-up story with Pet, too.

I was just watching The Great British Baking Show and thinking I needed a book with a little of that magic in it. Little did I know that I already had it sitting on my Kindle. I absolutely adored Battle Royal. It is one of those books that reminds me why I love reading. Grumpty/Sunshine and the whole 9 yards. The story, the characters, and everything was just perfect. I hope we get more books from this world. Do yourself a favor and read it. It’s magical.


I voluntarily read an early copy.

Very fun! Fans of the Great British Baking Show/Bake-Off, royal watchers, and British chick lit lovers will enjoy this title immensely. Do not read without dessert in the house. Hard to put down.

Woof, Lucy Parker was coming for my wig: GBBO type baking competition + grump/sunshine + rivals to lovers? So much trope candy for me! I absolutely LOVE the way Lucy Parker does character development... we slowly get to see the layers under the archetypes that she presents in the opening pages, and there's always tons of light, comedic moments that leave me smiling throughout. I did feel this one took a long time to ramp up (which is kind of odd considering how much plot is packed into this) and I'm not 100% sold on the transition from disliking each other to love. The royal storyline also hits different after everything with Harry& Megs has been coming out. But still, I always have fun in these books and this was no different

This is the epitome of grumpy/sunshine, I don’t know if I’ve ever read anything that could encapsulate this trope more. Every book I read by Lucy Parker I think okay, *this* is my favorite, she can’t top it…and then I love the next one more? I don’t know how she does it.

Let me just list all the reasons you should read this book!

The Baking Show – Operation Cake is a competition reality show that first Sylvia is a competitor on, and then, fast forward a few years, voila, she is successful enough to become a judge on the show. I loved this aspect of the book because it bakes in fun side characters that we get to see throughout the book, along with dramatic challenges that keep us wondering if they’ll be able to pull off.
Royal Challenge – a second challenge unexpectedly arises when a Princess Rose is getting married. Like, a literal Princess! Dominic and Sylvia end up being the last two in the running for this and the amount of emotion Lucy Parker is able to pack in the *smallest* detail is amazing to me.
The Royal pair challenge the two to come up with a design they will both love, this essentially leads them on a scavenger hunt that brings them closer and closer together. The vulnerability Dominic reveals slowly through the cracks of his armor is just at this achingly perfect pace throughout the book. With Dom and Sylvia doing both the reality show and the wedding cake together there is a very delicate balance to achieve and Lucy Parker masters it.
One note about the royalty part is that this is *not* the main plot of the book and I know that people have extremely strong opinions about royalty. But since this was a background subplot I was able to handwave it away that there was no dealing with colonialism or racism. This royal family is not meant to be a stand-in for the current one. YMMV on this.
The baking! Holy crap, for the most part I don’t care about food in books but wow did l love the baking here. I have a hard time visualizing things in books a lot of times but I watch a ton of baking shows. So I loved the idea of the contrast between the styles Dominic and Sylvia. Dom has the very staid, elegant white look and Sylvia loves color and glitter and FUN. I swear I have seen these two compete before. The descriptions that were included were amazing and I wish the book came with an insert so I could actually see these creations.
Sylvia’s store was so fun and I wanted to SEE everything. I also was imagining sort of a GBBO-esque drawing by everything. But not only did was the baking fun, it really added a lot to the story. The two connected over it and in researching for the wedding design and looking for secret ingredients – I love how it was integrated into the plot and moved things along. This book got all of the details so exactly right and I wish that I could visualize things better!
The side characters. They are just so wonderful. Pet, Dominic’s younger sister just tore at my heart. Lucy has that romance author knack of writing side characters that linger in reader’s minds. Reading about Pet immediately made me think of another younger sister she wrote a few years ago I *still* would love a book about lol! Pet just wants a relationship with Dominic and he doesn’t really get why, not because he doesn’t, but because he feels that he failed her in the past. Their dynamic was so touching throughout and the development of their story was probably my favorite thing after the romance.
The royal couple had their own arc that was romantic. There’s a friendship/workplace arc with Sylvia and her BFF. All of those are fully developed just humming along underneath the main plot.
The emphasis on found family. I love that this is a theme throughout the book and that it’s returned to again and again. And with the emphasis it’s also reiterated that being related is not the everything of being family. This is key to many of the relationships and it’s underlined and italicized in multiple ways.
And that right there is what I love about Lucy Parker’s writing – all of those threads were carefully interwoven and I never felt like any of them were lacking in any way. She has a knack for balancing everything and wrapping everything up in such a satisfying way. I was emotional throughout the book – as both Sylvia and Dominic are dealing with some grief and emotional trauma from their past. There is an emotional weight to the book, even while it’s a joyful book. I just loved everything about this book.

Content Notes: grief, past deaths, childhood abandonment

Grade: A +

I thought this was going to be a typical rom-com about a baking show. Instead it was a complicated interweaving of various personalities and backgrounds into a story celebrating love of all kinds. The baking show was really just a background explaining the meeting of Dominic and Sylvie and pushes their entanglement along, but it really is a minor part of this story. The story really evolves about another love story that involves the royal family (actually two stories one in the past and one in the present), which is actually more satisfying. What i really enjoyed about this book was the subtle touches of humor that is sprinkled throughout a very touching story--such as Sylvie and Dominic's experience with Midnight Elixir. A fun read about love.

i am obsessed with lucy parker. she creates such meet cute books that are quick and easy to ready and make you feel good. she’s up there for me with R.S grey in terms of quick romance books that just make you feel warm inside.

without spoilers— i loved the premise. i love a good and cute rivalry, and sylvie and dominic were just top tier energy and chemistry from the get go. loved this so much!

I love enemies to lovers and the grumpy & sunshine trope, so it's no surprise that Battle Royal hit the spot. The slow burn between Sylvie and Dominic worked wonderfully and I appreciated that their relationship was given time to evolve and develop. The baking competition, the location of their businesses, and the royal wedding cake contract all worked so well for the forced proximity trope. It was refreshing to see characters who were a little older and more established in their lives and that there wasn't some push for marriage and children to enter the mix.

This is my first book by Lucy Parker and I really enjoyed the humor and writing style. It did take me a bit to get used to it though, and there were a lot of characters and subplots to keep track of. I loved how Dominic and Pet's strained sibling relationship was addressed and how the importance of found families versus biological was presented in the book. The secondary characters were a hoot and I really loved Mabel and Pet. I could have done without all the drama involving Jay, Penny, and Helena though. I felt that parts of those storylines added a lot of unnecessary drama and bogged down the main story. Overall, this was a wonderful read and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series featuring a certain personal protection officer and hopefully Pet!

CW: parental infidelity and abandonment, death of loved ones, grief, stutter, physical assault (knife related), discussions of mental illness

*I voluntarily read an advance review copy of this book*

OMG I absolutely loved loved this story - it seriously had Great British Bake Off vibes featuring a much younger, taller and dapper Paul Hollywood !

I am not surprised I like this one as much as I did because I've actually loved all the other Lucy Parker books I've read but this might just be my favorite. This story was just filled with so much emotion and fun and sweetness... literal and figurative.

I'm definitely already planning a reread!

thank you for the opportunity to read early!

I really liked this book. It was well written and each character was layered and kept me rooting for their happiness. I wish there was just a little more competition between Sylvie and Dominic when it came to the wedding cake contract, but it was still a great story! I highly recommend this book, I can't wait for the next one in the series. If you love anything to do with shows similar to The Great British Baking Show, steamy romance, and captivating competition then you will adore this book!

I enjoyed all of the relationships from the main romantic one, to siblings, coworkers, and friendships. All of it was well written, believable, and sincere. A very cute romance with a few low/medium steam scenes.

Not being a big fan or promoter of romance books, I was honestly surprised to recieve this ARC and also by the fact that I absolutely adored this book. If someone had told me earlier that romance books were this heartfelt, sweet, and adorable I would’ve become a diehard romance fan a longggg time ago. Seriously, I had so many misconceptions about the genre and I feel as if this book has proved a majority of them wrong and it’s left me as someone who will inevitably seek out more books like this (I’m already giddy to get my hands on the sequel).

I legitimately had to tear myself away from this book at times to go and actually be a functioning human. I cried, I squealed in a way that I can only describe as the , I screamed, this book is a freaking rollercoaster ride, and it is one that you will not want to leave and that you will take over and over again.

Okay about the book itself, the word I would use is simply enchanting. This book oozes charm and the characters feel like genuine real people who you’d want to be friends with.

Sylvie has so much energy and she seems like one of the sweetest people you would know (both in a baking sense and in a person sense), but she also has a sharper side when it comes to the people she loves being in danger. She’s gone through a lot and I adore the portrayal of a protagonist who has taken all of the terrible things she’s gone through and then used it to become a better person, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it doesn’t come back to her sometimes as you can’t truly lose your past, but you can embrace it.

Dominic is one of those characters that seems to start off as the sarcastic, harsh, jaded male stereotype but as you learn about him, you discover such vulnerability and genuine care for everyone around him. Like Sylvie, he’s gone through a lot and I’d say his journey is more compelling than hers as throughout the book he’s the one who learns how to embrace his past and to be truly vulnerable, and she helps him in that journey

Am I absolutely soft for this grumpy sunshine romance? Yes. The chemistry that these two have is undeniable as well. There are so many tender touches, small gestures of care, and adorable kisses from these two, but they also provide so much steam, with very hot scenes and some er private scenes. (They pull off both being adorable but also a hot couple very well.)

Besides them, there are so many incredible side characters with subplots that I adored. This book has so much plot it’s almost ridiculous, like there’s so many components that you’ll grow to love, but it does a great job of balancing and resolving these conflicts. I’d say my favorites were probably the Pet subplot and the baking show subplot. The Royal one takes up the most space but it’s probably no by the least intriguing one, and I’m still a little confused on some aspects

Still, this book is absolutely adorable and incredible. It’s honestly the perfect beach read as it’s light but still a little tender and emotional, with so many heartfelt storybeats. Go read it even though it may raise your standards for fictional men yet again. (Even though Sylvie and Dom are perfect together, I’d date both of them. Threesome? 👀)
~
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper-collins for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review

Who doesn’t want a romance set between two rival chefs? Especially two with such an intriguing backstory involving unicorn cake? Sylvie and Dom are irresistible. Grumpy-sunshine romances are such a treat and watching these two fall for each other despite themselves and their rivalry for a royal cake while co-judging a baking show was a delight. Also, you’re probably going crave cake. Best to be prepared.
There is a LOT more happening in this book than the blurb lets on. They’re falling in love, there’s their relationships with their found families, the royal subplot as they work to find the information to build just the right cake. It’s woven together well, and mixes the bitter with the sweet in regards to love and relationships with family and friends. Once again, Parker writes a deeply satisfying romance that offers all the feels.