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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
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:
No
A rom-com set in the dual baking worlds of a televised baking competition, and a competition for a bakery to earn the chance to make the cake for a Royal Wedding. Sylvie and Dominic clashed instantly when they met four years earlier on Operation Cake. Her glitter and color infused creations rubbed him the wrong way, a baker who prefers to bake in varying shades of cream. He's a famously cranky judge, and she was a contestant. Their rivalry culminated in one of Sylvie's bakes launching itself into Dominic's face, and then she had the gall to take the premises across the street from his hallowed bakery to open her own.
This was a warm hug full of moments of surprised laughter. I do love a well-done Grumpy One falling in love with a Sunshine One, and this was very well done, mostly because Dominic and Sylvie are much, much more than those tropes would imply. (This is also a very well done example of Enemies to Lovers.) The baking show setting wasn't as important as I thought it would be, but I loved the journey they went on in their quest to earn the commission of baking the wedding cake for Princess Rose and her love match Johnny.
One of the things I liked best about this, besides the characters (and Humphrey the cat), was how the book was also full of interesting plot. I prefer my romances to have story to go with the swooning, and this has a good story (even if I did call one of the main twists pretty early on). I am SUPER pumped for Pet's book (Dominic's sister), which is next up. The backstory of their sibling relationship made my heart hurt, as did Sylvie's with her aunt/adopted mother, Mallory.
Very good, will be re-reading.
This was a warm hug full of moments of surprised laughter. I do love a well-done Grumpy One falling in love with a Sunshine One, and this was very well done, mostly because Dominic and Sylvie are much, much more than those tropes would imply. (This is also a very well done example of Enemies to Lovers.) The baking show setting wasn't as important as I thought it would be, but I loved the journey they went on in their quest to earn the commission of baking the wedding cake for Princess Rose and her love match Johnny.
One of the things I liked best about this, besides the characters (and Humphrey the cat), was how the book was also full of interesting plot. I prefer my romances to have story to go with the swooning, and this has a good story (even if I did call one of the main twists pretty early on). I am SUPER pumped for Pet's book (Dominic's sister), which is next up. The backstory of their sibling relationship made my heart hurt, as did Sylvie's with her aunt/adopted mother, Mallory.
Very good, will be re-reading.
lighthearted
medium-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:
Yes
3.5
this book alternated anywhere from 3-5 stars for me as i was reading it, and i wanted to reiterate that 3/5 is not bad! this is definitely a fun romance that i’d recommend, and it has enough character-focussed scenes/development to satisfy me. that being said, i agree with a lot of other reviewers that suggest it just had too much plot.
without spoiling, this book had 2 major plot lines, one of which turned into about 3 smaller major plot lines. the last 100 pages felt quite rushed and introduced even more things that i feel didn’t add a lot to the story, and could have been better used to wrap up the existing plots more completely. that section is what caused me to rate 3 instead of 4 stars, but up until that point the book was a solid 4 star read that i definitely would suggest you read, assuming you already enjoy this genre of book!
this book alternated anywhere from 3-5 stars for me as i was reading it, and i wanted to reiterate that 3/5 is not bad! this is definitely a fun romance that i’d recommend, and it has enough character-focussed scenes/development to satisfy me. that being said, i agree with a lot of other reviewers that suggest it just had too much plot.
without spoiling, this book had 2 major plot lines, one of which turned into about 3 smaller major plot lines. the last 100 pages felt quite rushed and introduced even more things that i feel didn’t add a lot to the story, and could have been better used to wrap up the existing plots more completely. that section is what caused me to rate 3 instead of 4 stars, but up until that point the book was a solid 4 star read that i definitely would suggest you read, assuming you already enjoy this genre of book!
Battle Royal has a LOT going on.
I'll start by saying that I did enjoy the romance. Sylvie and Dominic's relationship felt fairly natural and believable. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the sex scenes - normally those are written very over the top or like the most perfect moments in all of literature, but sex can be weird, funny, gross, etc all while being enjoyable and romantic and I think Lucy Parker did a good job of capturing this. The relationship felt pretty real (for a couple of people doing a lot of not so realistic stuff).
The baking show premise was a cute one, but completely unnecessary. We visited the show several times, but it didn't do anything to progress the plot and it introduced us to a number of forgettable characters. Nearly every time a producer or contestant was mentioned, I had to double check to see if I knew who they were already. Was I supposed to care that one of the contestants was a cheat and two of them were fan favorites to hook up with one another? This information didn't do anything for the story. It would have been fine to say that Sylvie and Dominic met several years ago on the show, had the exploding cake moment which got her eliminated, and now they own rival bake shops across the street from one another. That's it. The rest of the show was completely unnecessary.
As was the dead uncle. I think Sylvie and Dominic going head to head on the wedding cake project and figuring out ingredients together was enough to bring them together. The uncle and his lost love felt forced. This research project introduced us to so many more unnecessary and forgettable characters.
Oh gosh, then we have the sister being stabbed, the security guard having the hots for her, the baking store partner being in love with Sylvie (which I think we were supposed to feel for Sylvie about, but he was such a minor character that I was annoyed by Sylvie's response), the shop intern sabotaging (but not really) Sylvie ... and the fact that Dominic figured it out but didn't tell Sylvie? That was completely brushed over. There were just so many over the top moments like this that did zero for the plot and could have been left out. All we needed were the back story (oh my gosh, not EVERY detail of their life stories - did we need the librarian who Dominic has known his whole life that we never hear about again?) and the competition (which was super anticlimactic and even acknowledged as such in the book).
I'll start by saying that I did enjoy the romance. Sylvie and Dominic's relationship felt fairly natural and believable. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the sex scenes - normally those are written very over the top or like the most perfect moments in all of literature, but sex can be weird, funny, gross, etc all while being enjoyable and romantic and I think Lucy Parker did a good job of capturing this. The relationship felt pretty real (for a couple of people doing a lot of not so realistic stuff).
The baking show premise was a cute one, but completely unnecessary. We visited the show several times, but it didn't do anything to progress the plot and it introduced us to a number of forgettable characters. Nearly every time a producer or contestant was mentioned, I had to double check to see if I knew who they were already. Was I supposed to care that one of the contestants was a cheat and two of them were fan favorites to hook up with one another? This information didn't do anything for the story. It would have been fine to say that Sylvie and Dominic met several years ago on the show, had the exploding cake moment which got her eliminated, and now they own rival bake shops across the street from one another. That's it. The rest of the show was completely unnecessary.
As was the dead uncle. I think Sylvie and Dominic going head to head on the wedding cake project and figuring out ingredients together was enough to bring them together. The uncle and his lost love felt forced. This research project introduced us to so many more unnecessary and forgettable characters.
Oh gosh, then we have the sister being stabbed, the security guard having the hots for her, the baking store partner being in love with Sylvie (which I think we were supposed to feel for Sylvie about, but he was such a minor character that I was annoyed by Sylvie's response), the shop intern sabotaging (but not really) Sylvie ... and the fact that Dominic figured it out but didn't tell Sylvie? That was completely brushed over. There were just so many over the top moments like this that did zero for the plot and could have been left out. All we needed were the back story (oh my gosh, not EVERY detail of their life stories - did we need the librarian who Dominic has known his whole life that we never hear about again?) and the competition (which was super anticlimactic and even acknowledged as such in the book).
Super cute baking plotline, relatable characters. Dominic seems like he might be an alphahole type hero but turns out not to be. There is some good chemistry and things get pretty steamy eventually, but it's a bit more of a slow burn.
3 stars.
this was... kinda a giant mess. i felt like the plot was all over the place and it was almost like all of the plot lines were fighting each other. for context, the story starts off with our protagonist as a contestant on a show called operation cake which, for all intents and purposes, is the fictionalized version of the great british baking show . slyvie, a very avantgarde cake designer, creates a flashy cake for the semifinal, but it all goes wrong when it explodes and ends up smacking dominic, the grumpy judge and future love interest, in the face. flash forward, and sylvie and dominic work at two rival cake shops on the same street. when word comes out that a princess is getting married and is looking for someone to do the cake, sylvie and dominic both enter their designs and end up in a rivalry that turns into romance.
now, if this was the main plot of the story, this easily would've been a 5 star read. dominic and sylvie are delightful, together and apart, and i adored their early scenes together where they clearly are rivals. however, on top of this plot, sylvie is invited to be a judge on the newest season of operation cake aside dominic, and there is another plot involving dominic and his estranged sister, along with sylvie reliving the grief of losing her beloved aunt. trying to balance all of these plot lines was way too much, and i kept losing track of what was happening throughout the story.
also, this is pitched as enemies to lovers, but dominic and sylvie aren't ever really enemies? they're rivals, but even then their relationship takes off super early on in the book, and then basically becomes this stable thing that rarely wavers throughout. like they become smitten with each other as soon as they start hanging out, which really takes away the aspect of rivalry i was expecting from this. also, half of their inner monologues are about wanting to bone each other which okay, we get it, you're two hot people who think the other is a greek god. i don't need to read about it every few pages.
i think if this book was better edited, i would've enjoyed it a lot more, but since it isn't, i'm sorry to say this didn't live up to my expectations.
this was... kinda a giant mess. i felt like the plot was all over the place and it was almost like all of the plot lines were fighting each other. for context, the story starts off with our protagonist as a contestant on a show called operation cake which, for all intents and purposes, is the fictionalized version of the great british baking show . slyvie, a very avantgarde cake designer, creates a flashy cake for the semifinal, but it all goes wrong when it explodes and ends up smacking dominic, the grumpy judge and future love interest, in the face. flash forward, and sylvie and dominic work at two rival cake shops on the same street. when word comes out that a princess is getting married and is looking for someone to do the cake, sylvie and dominic both enter their designs and end up in a rivalry that turns into romance.
now, if this was the main plot of the story, this easily would've been a 5 star read. dominic and sylvie are delightful, together and apart, and i adored their early scenes together where they clearly are rivals. however, on top of this plot, sylvie is invited to be a judge on the newest season of operation cake aside dominic, and there is another plot involving dominic and his estranged sister, along with sylvie reliving the grief of losing her beloved aunt. trying to balance all of these plot lines was way too much, and i kept losing track of what was happening throughout the story.
also, this is pitched as enemies to lovers, but dominic and sylvie aren't ever really enemies? they're rivals, but even then their relationship takes off super early on in the book, and then basically becomes this stable thing that rarely wavers throughout. like they become smitten with each other as soon as they start hanging out, which really takes away the aspect of rivalry i was expecting from this. also, half of their inner monologues are about wanting to bone each other which okay, we get it, you're two hot people who think the other is a greek god. i don't need to read about it every few pages.
i think if this book was better edited, i would've enjoyed it a lot more, but since it isn't, i'm sorry to say this didn't live up to my expectations.
lighthearted
medium-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:
Yes
This book was alright, I was expecting a little bit more. I thought it was going to be more explosive with bigger scenes and plot twists, but it was just kinda there. Not a lot of plot changing events or scenes, very very minimal spice (maybe 2 scenes and it is very brief). I was hoping the epilogue would be better and take place further down the road, but it ended with the wedding and the potential for another book in the series, so it didn't feel as wrapped up as I had hoped. There were also random POV changes mid chapter which made it difficult to follow at times. It was also a third person POV which isn't my favorite. Overall, it was fine, not something that will stand out to me in the future though.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Grief, Abandonment
Minor: Death of parent