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kylieqrada's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Cancer, Sexual content, and Grief
Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent
Minor: Violence, Vomit, and Car accident
veronica_chamaedrys's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Death of parent
Minor: Vomit
Content warning not in the list: Childhood neglect.divine529's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
This book follows our two main protagonists Sylvie and Dominic, who met previously in a show called Operation Cake (kind of like GBBO) where Sylvie was a contestant and ended up leaving the show due to an epic disaster involving a cake and Dominic's face (he's a judge). Now four years later, Sylvie is a new judge on the show and her and Dominic have to come face to face again despite having competing bakeries across the street from each other. Throw a competition to win a bid to make a royal wedding cake, explorations of trauma and grief and complicated relationships of all kinds and you have the basic idea of what this book is.
This book both hooked me from the beginning and took me some time to settle into. Baking in books is one of my favorite things and adding royalty into the mix is a recipe for a book I will most likely love and on those fronts it didn't disappoint.
Sylvie and Dominic are both interesting characters with lots of trauma and grief and different ways of coping and managing that and exploring all of that through their relationship with intimacy (everything from glances and gentle touches to sexual intimacy) was so heartbreakingly beautiful to watch and the relationship between Rosie and Johnny was lovely to see alongside the mystery and treasure hunt plotline of figuring out what happened to one of Rosie's relatives and his life (it's complicated). The relationship with Dominic and Pet was so good and I love them both. And even though I had issues with it at times, I really liked Sylvie and Jay's relationship too (though it utilized one of my least favorite tropes in books, I thought it was handled decently for a change).
Overall, I have a lot of feelings about everything in the book and it's hard to encompass all of them here, but I really enjoyed this and I can't wait to read the second installment.
I thoroughly enjoyed this and I look forward to revisiting this in the future.
Graphic: Sexual content, Vomit, Grief, and Alcohol
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Blood, Medical content, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Death, Car accident, and Death of parent
caseythereader's review against another edition
- 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
- 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!
Graphic: Cancer, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Moderate: Alcoholism, Vomit, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail
getbrekked's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, and Car accident
Minor: Mental illness, Violence, Vomit, and Death of parent
100_pages_hr's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed getting to know Sylvie and Dominic. I always enjoy the opposites attract tropes and this was no exception. It was quite interesting how different these two were and it was fun to see how things worked out. I really liked that while neither had a perfect childhood they both had some good memories. I loved how they began to open up to each other. I also loved how it lended well to personal growth for both characters throughout the book
Sometimes side characters don't do much for me, but I really liked Pet. I'm hoping she gets featured in a future book in this series.
Reality television and baking in general are not my favorite - but that shows you how good Parker is - because I still really enjoyed this book. The reality television parts were appropriately dramatic and the cake parts had me wishing sugar didn't have such a bad effect on me.
I look forward to more in this series and reading a new Parker book has me wanting to reread her first series.
I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley. This is my honest review.
Graphic: Sexual content
Minor: Cursing, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Alcohol
meganpbennett's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Update: 2023-04-05: Book was wonderful to read a second time.
Update: 2024-08-22: Reread the book and found it quite enjoyable.
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Grief
Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Vomit, Stalking, and Death of parent