Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Battle Royal

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

antonique_reads's review

Go to review page

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Content Warnings

theaccidentalromanceblogger's review

Go to review page

funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Four years ago, Sylvie Fairchild was a contestant in a Great British Bake-Off (Baking Show for the Americans) type of show. Dominic De Vere was a judge in said show. Sylvie always wowed everyone with her whimsical creations, but those never impressed the more traditionalist De Vere. She was rapidly moving ahead in the competition, when a cake gimmick run amok has her shooting a unicorn hoof smack dab in the forehead of the grumpy judge...

Fast-forward to today and Sylvie is an accomplished baker, with her own fairytale-like bakery/eatery/bar located literally across from De Vere's very classy and traditional one. And, through a series of fortunate events, she ends up being the new judge in the same TV show, much to De Vere's dismay.

When rumors of the new royal wedding pop up, Sylvie knows her competitor will be in the short list and she manages to find herself a way to get invited to show her proposal for the wedding cake.

Let the competition begin!

When they get asked some very hard to achieve and very specific requests from the couple, they end up joining forces in the research. Sylvie figures out that Dominic is not as grumpy as he seems and Dominic, well, Dominic always knew that Sylvie was a fairy in disguise. ;)

If you love GBBO and baking, this one is definitely for you! I loved how the Paul Hollywood/Simon Cowell grumpy Dominic turns into the sweetest cinnamon hero. When Sylvie gets food poisoning after one of their research trips and he takes care of her...*SWOON*.

We get the expected conflicts: Dominic is dealing with his estranged sister who's back into his life like a hurricane and Sylvie runs her bakery with her best friend Jay. There are the expected royal shenanigans and uppity characters but they make it all the more fun to read.

It's light-hearted, low-angsty and a little predictable, but completely adorable. Yeah, the ending is kinda obvious, but it's a romance novel! You WANT it to end exactly like that!

Loved it!

Possible triggers: death of loved ones, toxic relationships with parents, a secondary character gets assaulted with a knife and hurt

Content Warnings

caseythereader's review

Go to review page

emotional funny lighthearted reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

- BATTLE ROYAL is totally precious. Grumpy/sunshine bakers, with a GBBO-type show, and some royal wedding intrigue, too!
- This is a romance novel that really digs into feelings, both past and present. I love a book where you get to watch the leads learn how to care for and support each other.
- To be honest, I didn't really feel any heat between Sylvie and Dominic, but their relationship was so tender that I was mostly okay with it. I'll still keep reading this series; I for sure want to get stories for Pet and Mabel!

Content Warnings

kfmcf's review

Go to review page

funny lighthearted reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This book is an easy, fun read. The characters are likeable (but maybe not loveable) and the plot is decent. I appreciate it being a GBBS homage without being a DIRECT rip of the show (like another book I have read recently). I'm not going to clamor to read this book again, but I am looking forward to the sequel - especially since it follows Pet, arguably one of, if not the most interesting (and possibly only loveable) character in the book.
However, there was one thing about this book I found completely unnecessary (spoiler).

Why does her friend need to be in love with her? It not only makes him completely unlikable (and I am a self-proclaimed sucker for the friends-to-lovers trope, mind you), but it is also in a part of the book with enough conflict that it adds nothing and messes not only with the pacing of the plot of of the FL's character development. Honestly, this part of the book dropped my ranking of it by at least .5 points.

Overall, if you want a light book to take on a week or weekend long getaway (depending on how fast you read), this one does the job.

Content Warnings

bookworm_leilani's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I marked this in content warnings as "moderate child abuse" which I don't think is quite accurate: the abuse, mainly via neglect and heavily emotional, of one of the main characters is a significant part of the narrative and one cannot read around it. However, marking this as "graphic" feels wrong as well, since for most people "graphic child abuse" is going to summon images of physical brutality, which is not the case here. Both Dominic and Sylvia are deeply marked by losses and grief, and the main subplot of the book is their untangling of the complicated relationships with their respective family members.

None of which is to say this book is not good: it's excellent, and I'd even say delightful. While it handles a lot of very heavy topics, including death, lost love, neglected childhoods, estrangements, and mental health, it did not feel overwhelming or dark to me. Conversely it is also not at all what I'd categorize as a "rom com." I loved this book, and think Lucy Parker executed a bittersweet, deeply hopeful, very romantic, very human story while deftly setting up what looks to be a promising series. It's just a.) not a rom com and b.) does deserve content warnings (a feature I love about this app!) but needed some finessing to make sense.

Content Warnings

onthesamepage's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

His gaze went to her hair and locked there. He wanted to touch it. In that instant of time, he obviously desired nothing more than to slide his long fingers into the fine strands, cup her head with that huge palm, tug her forward, take a slow breath . . . and sling her out the window by her ponytail like the Trunchbull.

I believe I was on page 3 when I first had an inkling that I was going to really enjoy this book, and I'm so glad that proved true because I think I would've been gutted otherwise. This has the perfect blend of tropes I enjoy, characters I grew to love, a setting I really like (baking + royalty? heck yeah), great pacing and character development, and, of course, the exact kind of humor and banter that can absolutely make a book for me. I haven't read many romances that are this spot on and conforming to my tastes. I absolutely loved it.

“He once called you the pretty, annoying one,” Mariana added, clearing up that little mind-boggler of a moment. With intense dryness, Sylvie said, “I don’t think he intended you to insert a comma into that sentence.”

It starts with our main characters and how the relationship develops between them. Whether it's enemies to lovers, hate to love, rivals to lovers or whatever other variations there are, this is a trope I really, really like when it's executed well, and by that I mean, the characters don't just start lusting after one another secretly right from the start. By necessity, that means the relationship is more of a slow build, otherwise it doesn't feel believable for me. But I believed it here. Sylvie and Dominic are such a precious couple, and their romance felt so heart-warming and tender. There was definitely plenty of steam too, but it's honestly the quiet, simple moments that got to me and made me root for them so hard. The way Sylvie managed to worm her way through the wall Dominic puts up for the world, and the way Dominic became her support when she needed it, was just *chef's kiss*.

But there's a lot more to this story than just the romance, and those other elements were all amazing too. The book actually deals with some heavier themes like grief from losing a loved one, and the pressures that come with being in the public eye. There are also a lot of very loveable side characters, from Pet, Dominic's sister, to Jay, Sylvie's partner and best friend, to the royal couple, and they're all worth rooting for in their own way. I found the subplots to be just as interesting, and I was super invested in everything the author was trying to sell me. It doesn't hurt that this is a book about two bakers, and romances that have something to do with food always earn extra brownie points.

There is also no dramatic conflict to break the couple apart briefly before they get back together again, because they are adults who communicate, and even when they're going through a tough time, they deal with it and don't run off. That alone would bump it up a star.

Maybe it's too early to say after reading one book by the author, but I have a feeling Lucy Parker might become my comfort contemporary romance author, the way Courtney Milan is for historical romances. Can't wait to dive into her backlist.

Content Warnings