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A review by shanaqui
Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall
emotional
funny
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
4.0
Rosaline Palmer is a single mother who dropped out of a prestigious university and ended her plans of becoming a doctor in order to be a parent. And she's pretty happy with that, but sick of relying on her family, and she likes baking, so... being part of Great British Bakeoff with the serial numbers filed off sounds like a potential step forward.
She's surrounded in this by a mostly-lovely book cast, including her daughter Amelie, her ex-girlfriend Lauren, and some of the cast of Bake Expectations, the baking show. Not all of them are that great, though: there's your usual mix of prejudices, weird ideas and oddball personalities that you get on this kind of show. It felt pretty true to how these types of things turn out, as a fan of Great British Sewing Bee. It's all a bit cynical about how the shows are made, of course, but in a way that's fairly realistic and with a certain amount of affection for the format.
There are two love interests, and one of them turns out to be an absolute cockwomble. I'm sorry, I really can't be polite about him. It does start subtly enough that I can see how Rosaline falls for it, and sometimes he says the right things and seems sincere... but for me as a reader, alarm bells rang very early, and I found it difficult to enjoy that aspect of the book. (I mean, "enjoy" is a difficult term to apply to reading about a guy who is very prepared to be emotionally abusive anyway, and the way it worked out here, I appreciated how it was done and how the picture was built up, but he was a bit too obvious and I never had an "ohhhh" moment about it.)
Anyway, broadly speaking I really enjoyed it, once I got past the massive embarrassment squick after a character did something daft on page 50.
She's surrounded in this by a mostly-lovely book cast, including her daughter Amelie, her ex-girlfriend Lauren, and some of the cast of Bake Expectations, the baking show. Not all of them are that great, though: there's your usual mix of prejudices, weird ideas and oddball personalities that you get on this kind of show. It felt pretty true to how these types of things turn out, as a fan of Great British Sewing Bee. It's all a bit cynical about how the shows are made, of course, but in a way that's fairly realistic and with a certain amount of affection for the format.
There are two love interests, and one of them turns out to be an absolute cockwomble. I'm sorry, I really can't be polite about him. It does start subtly enough that I can see how Rosaline falls for it, and sometimes he says the right things and seems sincere... but for me as a reader, alarm bells rang very early, and I found it difficult to enjoy that aspect of the book. (I mean, "enjoy" is a difficult term to apply to reading about a guy who is very prepared to be emotionally abusive anyway, and the way it worked out here, I appreciated how it was done and how the picture was built up, but he was a bit too obvious and I never had an "ohhhh" moment about it.)
Anyway, broadly speaking I really enjoyed it, once I got past the massive embarrassment squick after a character did something daft on page 50.