I was so disappointed with this book. I have liked other books by Alexis Hall and was so excited to read this book. I felt so good when I was chosen to receive an arc. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish the book. I made it about halfway before I decided to drop it.

I really did not like Paris. At first, I was understanding as I also have extreme anxiety. It manifests in a different way, but I could see where Paris was coming from. However, Paris is just a jerk and not a lovable character. We're supposed to give him a pass because of his anxiety disorder, but he said so many rude and inappropriate things. He treated Tariq horribly. I just did not find him redeemable. Maybe it would have been better if there was another point of view besides his, but he also was not a reliable narrator. Sometimes that can be charming in its own way, but not with Paris.

I did really like the idea of a televised baking competition being the setting for the book. I thought it was fun and I enjoyed reading about the other competitors. It just wasn't enough to keep me going. Overall, the book was just too much for me and it just wasn't worth it.

I have loved everything Hall has written, and I enjoyed the book. However, I think this book will split opinions down the middle. First, it's not really a romance. There's no happily-ever-after, and even calling the ending a happy-for-now is difficult, since their relationship is implied to be happening, but there's not really confirmation. As a work of contemporary fiction, though, it's really solid--characters who are flawed go about their lives and learn how to live with other characters who are flawed.

Paris is such an incredibly anxious character to read that I can imagine people with anxiety skipping this book for fear of spiraling out of control. He's also a character that has a lot of growth to do, some of which happens on the page. Some of the conflict serving as proxy for very real cultural battles reads a little heavy-handed. That all said, I think it's a solid work of contemporary fiction. Marketing it in this way also smooths over some of the flaws in the characters and the debates characters have with each other, since contemporary fiction characters are supposed to not be perfect and learn to change as part of their storylines.

If you are looking for a cute romcom… this isn’t it. If you are looking for a great anxiety rep with parts that will be relatable and cringey this is it! Lol. Paris was equal parts sweet and relatable to horrifying and completely annoying. That being said I loved being back at the baking show with its quirks and crew dynamics.
Enjoyed probably wouldn’t read it again.

Thanks to Netgalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for an eARC of this book.

I loved Boyfriend Material but didn’t care much for Husband Material and this book brought me back to loving Alexis Hall’s work. As someone with anxiety, seeing it written out and represented is so important and valuable. I love seeing the progress of Paris (although it did seem quite quick at the end and that’s not how anxiety works) and I love how Tariq interacts with Paris. I think the ending is really well done. I also love the British Bake-Off theme and the excellent banter. Reading the first in the series isn’t necessary either; I didn’t read it before but I want to read it now! 1 for spice, but it’s pretty much entirely in the first chapter and things mentioned by the flatmate.

The book left me rather confused about how I felt about it. Being in Paris’s head was exhausting. The intense, constant anxiety was realistic and well done but there needed to be some relief for the reader. My heart broke for Paris but it also got a little overwhelmed at his shame and sadness.

Tariq was not a good fit for Paris. I didn’t feel they had much chemistry, didn’t really understand why they were with one another, and didn’t care for Tariq’s attitude.

The tone was a weird mix of horribly serious and lighthearted that didn’t actually work well or make a lot of sense to me.

I did like the ending and was happy with where Paris ended up by the end. I was proud of him and rooting for him.

3.5 stars

Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble is, in a lot of ways, everything you expect an Alexis Hall contemporary romance novel to be - it's witty, well written, filled with peculiar yet endlessly charming characters. This book, however, dealt with a lot more serious topics than an average romance novel does and the romance, well, wasn't really at the centre of it all. That said, while I would maybe hesitate to classify this book as a romance novel, I have enjoyed it immensely and have appreciated the way Paris's anxiety disorder was handled. Paris was a lot. And in the beginning, as a reader, I did find him a tad exhausting. However, as time went on and I got to see him for who he is, I have grown incredibly fond of him, something I must attribute to Hall's exceptional writing and a well depicted mental health crisis.

Overall, a great read and I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to read it early. Highly recommend but mind the trigger warnings and know not to expect a "classic" romance plot! I can't wait for the next book in this baking series!

Paris Daillencourt is About to Crumble by Alexis Hall ⭐⭐

This was a difficult one for me. I really wanted to enjoy it because I enjoy Hall's books generally, I enjoyed the first in this series, and I love the Great British Bake Off style competition show setting. However, I had a really hard time reading Paris's anxiety brain narration. I understand from my own experience with anxiety and from what I've heard from others that it was very accurate for some people and was, therefore, well written. Maybe it was a wrong book wrong time for where I am at mentally right now, but I didn't not have a lot of patience or concentration for Paris's cyclical insecure thoughts--being in his head was exhausting. I do hope others enjoy it and I still look forward to the next in the series, but this one wasn't it for me.

Thank you @netgalley and @readforeverpub for the advanced copy. You can find this book when it is released October 18/22.

#ParisDaillencourtIsAboutToCrumble #BookReview #AdvancedReaderCopy #eARC #ebooks #NetGalley #ForeverPublishing

Alexis Hall has written another warm and fuzzy one! After reading most of the author's other works, I am super happy with how refreshing this book is. It understands the complexity of multiple identities in a way that I think many readers are going to find relatable. Tariq is an awesome character and whips Paris (and his mindset) into place without making it the POCs job to educate the Rich White Guy. Love love love!

I was given an ARC of this novel via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this more than I ultimately did. I love the bake expectations set up and a MM romance but Paris as a MC was insufferable through the first 70% of the book. And I had been excited about the anxiety representation but I really think a 100 pages of Paris spiraling could have been chopped from the book and it would have had a stronger impact. I was pleased with the ending and Alexis Hall always does banter well. But phew. It was hard getting through 20-70% of it all

Thanks to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the e-ARC!

I have very mixed feelings about this book, and I hate that I feel that way, because I absolutely love all of Alexis Hall’s other books. Based on Rosalind Palmer Takes the Cake and the synopsis of this book, you’d expect this to be another adorable romance. While there is romance in this book, it reads more like a primer on what it’s like inside the head of someone with intense anxiety. And there’s nothing wrong with that! I feel, especially if you don’t actually experience anxiety like that, it could be a useful tool to help empathize with what’s going on in a loved one’s head. But as someone who has intense anxiety myself who was going through a particularly anxious time while reading this book, this was a really hard, triggering read. In that way, it’s a very well written book (like all of Hall’s). I probably will not return to this one for a reread as I have with all of Hall’s other books. It was just a little too real for me.

I wanted to love this so badly, but I couldn’t even finish it. Paris was immediately exhausting, and as a person with anxiety, I wanted to sympathize with him but I simply couldn’t. I usually enjoy Alexis Hall but this one was a miss for me almost immediately. Two stars because some of the humor was good, and I enjoy Alexis Hall’s dialogue. That said, this made me cringe almost immediately.

paris daillencourt spent the first 15% of this book being so insufferably anxious that i almost had to give up! but the hilarious banter between these characters and the sweet relationships that blossom from this british baking show kept me hooked and i ended up really enjoying it.

paris is a 20 year old student in london, the offspring of a wealthy fashion designer and world famous model, who loves to bake. he's nervous about literally everything that could (but probably won't) happen and he ends up on bake expectations after his roommate, self proclaimed fat glaswegian sex goddess morag, signs him up.

the story follows paris through his journey with his mental health, his budding romance with tariq, his complicated relationship with his parents, and more. it was hard to read about paris for a while because it just made me anxious!! i wanted to tell him to shut up and please just medicate himself!!! but this is what made it so realistic. i loved getting to see his growth throughout the story but the highlight was truly the dialogue!!!

alexis hall writes banter so well. there were so many moments when i genuinely laughed out loud (some would even say guffawed) and even when paris was being insufferable, there was always a funny line to lighten the situation and make it more fun to read. it wasn't steamy (tariq is waiting until marriage to have sex boooo) but it was always incredibly sweet. i didn't love this story but i love hall's writing and i can't wait to read more.

dnf after 1 page and 4 lines. had to stop reading before i even finished the second page because i saw the words “marie antoinette’s vagina"

3.5 rounded down.

I had noted the content warnings for this title but the execution of the protagonist's severe undiagnosed generalised anxiety disorder (which gets diagnosed only around the 80% mark of the book) was a lot more intense, relentless, and prolonged than I'd bargained for. Many reviewers with the same diagnosis have noted the accuracy of the rep, and it definitely felt very raw and very real, and no doubt replicated how something, especially if left unchecked, can utterly and entirely overwhelm one's life and existence to the detriment of everything and everyone around that person, and feel repetitive and exhausting to boot (even more so on the page)---but the journey from diagnosis to a semblance of "it's going to be okay even if hard and always a work in progress" was crammed into too short a timeline and the narrative felt very top=heavy as a result; not to mention that between the baking show and everything else going on, the narrative seemed very cluttered.

I loved the banter and the baking show premise (I haven't read the first Winner Bakes All book and am not planning to), but everything was really overshadowed by Paris's GAD and I'm not sure the balance between Hall's trademark humour and ability to sensitively, and with nuance, portray heavy topics was achieved here as well as in Boyfriend Material, for example (though, granted, it was a very different book with different protagonists). I also didn't buy Paris and Tariq as a couple even without the insta-relationship; until very late on when they reconcile I didn't even understand them as friends. I generally feel like this would have been stronger had there been another POV (perhaps Tariq) to not only break up Paris's voice (very unreliable narrator as we soon know) but to also give us an outsider perspective on him. Plus, I really wanted to get to know Tariq more---really appreciated the discussions about religion, choice, abstinence etc as they related to him, and his realisations that he also didn't handle his relationship with Paris well (a lot of which makes sense since they are 20-21)---and wouldn't have minded more about his family who seemed awesome! Speaking of family, the mystery about Paris's parents was never addressed? A pretty glaring omission given how much of his mental-health issues stem from there and how many times he tries to contact them through the duration of the book.

First things first, if you're looking for a light, fluffy romance, then this is not the story for you. It's a raw portrayal of life with anxiety that happens to feature a wonderful and engaging romance, but it isn't the main plotline.

That being said, I think that the book was all the better for it. When I first started reading, I couldn't help but be irritated with Paris and his borderline insufferable behaviour, until I realised that that was the whole point. He is very flawed and extremely mentally ill, and while watching him at his lowest point was painful, watching him pick himself back up and work on himself after was really beautiful. The author didn't shy away from delving into the harsher realities of struggling with mental illness, and I'm a huge fan of the way he incorporated it into the story.

As for the romance, it was quite tumultuous and there were times when I actually didn't want the main pairing to end up together, but I did still find it compelling enough to keep me reading.

All in all, this is by no means a feel good book, but it is a valuable one that I ended up thoroughly enjoying.

DNF @37%

I’ll start with what I liked because there was quite a bit of it:

The thing I liked the most about this was definitely the anxiety rep, I thought that was done very well as someone with a lot of anxiety and I really connected to Paris’s character.
I loved the cooking show aspect of it and from what I read I wish there had been a little more focus on that because a lot of the book took place outside of it.
Tariq and Morag I also really enjoyed and I liked their characters a lot.

Now for what I didn't love:

Every character besides Tariq, Morag, and Paris I do not remember in the slightest, they were all pretty forgettable.
I feel like this book was misadvertised, the cooking show seemed like a very secondary part of it and for parts, I just completely forgot it existed.
Paris and Tariq I don’t really get together, I feel like if they weren't physically attracted to each other then there wouldn’t even be a romance because we hardly ever see them talk about anything other than Paris’s anxiety, Paris being rich, and Tariq’s religion.

Usually, I would’ve kept going and finished this because I was honestly enjoying it but we just weren’t vibing and I never felt like I wanted to pick it up it felt more like a chore so I decided to put it down. I don’t want to discourage anyone from reading it because I did genuinely like a lot of it so if you want to pick it up, pick it up, it just wasn’t for me.

This was a good book, but don’t expect a romance going in. I really enjoyed Paris and I felt his journey to be fairly relatable. This was my first Alexis Hall read and I’m intrigued to peruse the rest of their work!

(Thank you Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for giving us this eARC in exchange for an honest review!)

I was excited to read this book especially when I read Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall and I really enjoyed that book. I really liked the whole baking competition, it reminded me of Masterchef (I know that there are baking contests, but I really love Masterchef). I think that this was a very unique idea for the main character. I wasn't a super huge fan on the plot convenience for the main character, Paris. He seemed to be super sporadic during the challenges, like he started crying during some of them and would have super low expectations for himself. It feels like when it is being told in that character's perspective, it doesn't feel so realistic that he is going to be winning those challenges.

Also, his relationship with Tariq felt a little forced in the beginning. It felt like their relationship happened way too quickly. I did like their cute conversations about Greek mythology and Aladdin, it added to their quirky relationship. I was not a fan of the obscene dialogue during certain situations, it felt off and it didn't really match the setting and situation.

I absolutely LOVED this little romance novel! I want to read everything by Alexis Hall.


Paris Daillencourt is a recipe for disaster. Despite his passion for baking, his cat, and his classics degree, constant self-doubt and second-guessing have left him a curdled, directionless mess. So when his roommate enters him in Bake Expectations, the nation’s favourite baking show, Paris is sure he’ll be the first one sent home.

But not only does he win week one’s challenge—he meets fellow contestant Tariq Hassan. Sure, he’s the competition, but he’s also cute and kind, with more confidence than Paris could ever hope to have. Still, neither his growing romance with Tariq nor his own impressive bakes can keep Paris’s fear of failure from spoiling his happiness. And when the show’s vicious fanbase confirms his worst anxieties, Paris’s confidence is torn apart quicker than tear-and-share bread.

But if Paris can find the strength to face his past, his future, and the chorus of hecklers that live in his brain, he’ll realize it’s the sweet things in life that he really deserves.

I was quite hopeful for this book. The cover was absolutely fabulous, and the description seemed promising. It's not that I didn't enjoy the book, I did. I just was expecting to get a book that wasn't a pretty exact spin-off to the Great British Baking Show. The characters were too similar. I was hoping for a bit more originality in the features of the book.

I did, however, enjoy the way Hall put together her characters. As someone who suffers from generalized anxiety disorder, I could relate to Paris with ease. His struggles were real, and even more real in the fact that he didn't realize they were struggles. Tariq was also a great character. I appreciated how Hall wove his religion throughout the novel while still showing how he interacts with the other cultures and religions around him, and how they react to him.

In the end, I feel like this book was an okay read. I enjoyed reading it, but was just hoping for a bit more originality.