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bookcasey's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This book was a delight. It’s an almost closed door romance for people who like watching GBBO. There is a LOT of cussing, British-style, and discussions of part of the bisexual woman experience that don’t get enough attention (biphobia satisfyingly called out!) I laughed and cheered and cringed (intentionally).
Even if you didn’t love Boyfriend Material, I would recommend still giving this series a chance.
Even if you didn’t love Boyfriend Material, I would recommend still giving this series a chance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing
Moderate: Biphobia and Classism
Minor: Mental illness, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
Extensive descriptions of food, like watching GBBO. SA and sexual content are very mild. Accidental pregnancy is a key plot point but occurs years before the book takes place.fromthefoxhole's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I mean it's just a scrummy book! I was outwardly chuckling for like 80% of the book, I got a therapy session, and the leads are insanely hot. Wins all across the board.
Hall does a really excellent job with pacing, everything is whip smart and witty, especially our MC Rosaline. She's honestly a badass (I will never understand how people have the energy to do anything on top of being a parent, it's such involved and hard work) but she's also so genuine. She's balanced, both flawed and fleshed out enough to feel human, like I could pop down the street and she'd greet me with a cup of tea.
Harry, our burly cinnamon roll love interest, is a man of few words who really goes all out with acts of service for those he cares about. There are so many times in this book that I highlighted and my comment is just "😭😭" because he's such a gentle and kind man.
Also, Amelie is the love of my life, and I hope one day she becomes a marine biologist who focuses on deep sea exploration.
Hall does a really excellent job with pacing, everything is whip smart and witty, especially our MC Rosaline. She's honestly a badass (I will never understand how people have the energy to do anything on top of being a parent, it's such involved and hard work) but she's also so genuine. She's balanced, both flawed and fleshed out enough to feel human, like I could pop down the street and she'd greet me with a cup of tea.
Harry, our burly cinnamon roll love interest, is a man of few words who really goes all out with acts of service for those he cares about. There are so many times in this book that I highlighted and my comment is just "😭😭" because he's such a gentle and kind man.
Also, Amelie is the love of my life, and I hope one day she becomes a marine biologist who focuses on deep sea exploration.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Cursing, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Classism
Minor: Abortion
pencilspeaker's review against another edition
emotional
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Sexual assault, and Gaslighting
kaitlinnoodles's review
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Classism
Moderate: Biphobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Alcohol
Minor: Ableism, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Violence, Medical content, Abortion, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail
leahisdudish's review
4.0
wish gbbo was actually called bake expectations. this series is *chef’s kiss*. was onto alain from the start.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Biphobia, Sexual assault, and Classism
mwag13's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Biphobia and Sexual assault
historic_wince's review
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I nearly DNFed this book 8% into it. I could not get past the second hand embarrassment of the FMC lying to the love interest in order to impress him . Granted, this is supposed to be cringe worthy, but it nearly did me in. I’m glad, however, that I picked the book back up and finished it. (The audiobook, btw, his excellent. Narrator did a really great job with all the voices).
Our main character is Rosaline, a bisexual disaster. She’s a 27 yr single mum, who’s still desperately trying to live up to her parents expectations. And while she’s always doing what’s best for her kid, she’s not always doing what’s best for her. That includes her dating life.
I really enjoy how Alexis Hall’s writing style has matured and his character work remains top notch. Some readers mayn’t appreciate just how contemporary some of the references are, nor that the book/baking show is rather self referential. Others may not like the ‘love triangle’ at the center of this story, but I really enjoyed the character development throughout the 8+ weeks and how the two love interests juxtaposed one another. This novel contains several sex scenes, but not of them are intended to be ‘spicy.’ Instead, they are central to the development of the plot and character arcs of our main characters.
I did foresee Alain’s suggested threesome, but I will admit how the scene played out was more scary than I anticipated. Rosaline is assaulted by Alain’s female friend, and both women were coerced by Alain himself to participate. The scene is not particularly violent and Rosaline is able to safely barricade herself until able to the leave the situation.
I think this series has a lot of potential and I’m looking forward to the next installments.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism
Moderate: Biphobia, Emotional abuse, and Sexual assault
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders
cluckieduck's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
slow-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
Graphic: Biphobia, Cursing, and Classism
Moderate: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Gaslighting
finesilkflower's review
funny
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This is complicated to review because there are some things I really, really liked and some I really, really didn't. The general premise is Bakeoff meets Gilmore Girls, two of my favorite things. A young single mom enters a Bakeoff-esque televised British Baking competition, has romance(s) with a fellow baker(s), confronts her rich emotionally cold parents, and comes to terms with what she wants in life. On paper it all sounds great and in general, I enjoyed reading the book.
I think the main misstep for me was that sexual assault is a major plot point. It's not depicted with graphic violence, it's more coercion, and there is a content warning for it at the beginning, but that doesn't make it work any better - it saves people from being blindsided by it, but by the time you get to it, you still are because the rest of the book has been so lighthearted and so throughly part of a cozy genre. I don't mind a romance that deals with a serious subject, or a cozy book where a main character has a traumatic past, but having the assault actually take place in the narrative felt really out of place tonally. Not only did it feel unnecessary, I think the storyline would have been stronger without it.Rosaline didn't just need to learn that the guy she was dating was an asshole - something that was made abundantly clear by the assault; she needed to learn that the things he wanted from her life were not the things she wanted from her life, which is a more subtle point. It was abundantly clear already to the reader that they weren't endgame so there was no need to turn the audience so thoroughly against him. Rosaline coming to the realization that he was being overbearing about her life choices, that he was treating her in a similar condescending manner as her parents, or simply that he had different values would have been sufficient reason to cause the breakup and would have aligned better with her overall character arc.
Miscellaneous observations:
Alexis Hall writes some bitingly clever and funny one-liners, but also has a tendency to prioritze one-liner cleverness over other things (e.g. characterization or being understandable), so the writing style pulled me out of the narrative at times.
Hall extremely nails the voice of GBBO, while making enough changes to make it feel distinct. The judges are basically gender-swapped Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry, with different accents and mannerisms, but I found myself really liking them. Host Grace Forsythe as described reminded me a bit of Sandy but I could hear all of her dialogue in Sue Perkins' voice. I ate up the descriptions of each individual contestant's bakes; the contest action was extremely engrossing in a similar way to watching the show.
I have to admit that as tonally inappropriate as it was, I really enjoyed the creatively disgusting foul-mouthed monologues of the showrunner.
I like the character being bisexual and that not really making a difference to the plot (except insofar as some of the specific ways that characters are shown to be assholes is through biphobia).
Amelie isn't a believable child, but I suppose she's not meant to be - she's meant to be the child character in a rom-com. It sometimes felt like all the characters were that way, though: archetypes. There is a level of abstraction that makes it hard to connect to these characters emotionally.
I think the main misstep for me was that sexual assault is a major plot point. It's not depicted with graphic violence, it's more coercion, and there is a content warning for it at the beginning, but that doesn't make it work any better - it saves people from being blindsided by it, but by the time you get to it, you still are because the rest of the book has been so lighthearted and so throughly part of a cozy genre. I don't mind a romance that deals with a serious subject, or a cozy book where a main character has a traumatic past, but having the assault actually take place in the narrative felt really out of place tonally. Not only did it feel unnecessary, I think the storyline would have been stronger without it.
Miscellaneous observations:
Alexis Hall writes some bitingly clever and funny one-liners, but also has a tendency to prioritze one-liner cleverness over other things (e.g. characterization or being understandable), so the writing style pulled me out of the narrative at times.
Hall extremely nails the voice of GBBO, while making enough changes to make it feel distinct. The judges are basically gender-swapped Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry, with different accents and mannerisms, but I found myself really liking them. Host Grace Forsythe as described reminded me a bit of Sandy but I could hear all of her dialogue in Sue Perkins' voice. I ate up the descriptions of each individual contestant's bakes; the contest action was extremely engrossing in a similar way to watching the show.
I have to admit that as tonally inappropriate as it was, I really enjoyed the creatively disgusting foul-mouthed monologues of the showrunner.
I like the character being bisexual and that not really making a difference to the plot (except insofar as some of the specific ways that characters are shown to be assholes is through biphobia).
Amelie isn't a believable child, but I suppose she's not meant to be - she's meant to be the child character in a rom-com. It sometimes felt like all the characters were that way, though: archetypes. There is a level of abstraction that makes it hard to connect to these characters emotionally.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia and Sexual assault
slytherin11's review against another edition
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Sexual assault, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Sexual content