A review by displacedcactus
Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall

emotional lighthearted relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
If a romance featuring a love triangle between a bisexual cisgender single mom and two cis het dudes competing on an obvious GBBO analog sounds like your thing, you will not be disappointed by this book. It does exactly what it promises, delivering:
-A love triangle
-A heroine confident in her sexuality and tired of dealing with casual biphobia
-Two physically attractive love interests
-A colorful cast of fellow contestants and friends and family "back home"
-Lots of descriptions of bakes
-Lots of cheeky inuendo
-Lots of "behind the scenes" reality TV baking competition hijinks
-A precocious plot moppet
-Steamy love scenes

One thing I really enjoyed about this book was the structure -- It was broken up by week of filming the show, and then the days within that week. This made it REALLY easy to keep track of where we were in the timeline of the competition and exactly how much time has passed as these relationships developed.

One thing I didn't like was well, the love triangle. Major spoilers ahead:
It's pretty obvious to the reader, early on, that Alain is a snob and self-centered and not after the same things in life as Rosaline. Sure, he's good looking and flirtatious, but it's hard to think they're going to end up together at the end. I guess the author may have been hoping the reader would expect a redemption arc for him, making it less of a clear-cut decision between Alain and Harry. But as is so typical in these love triangle plots, rather than making the point of the triangle have to make a difficult decision (or consider ethical non-monogamy), the decision is made for her. In this case, Alain ends up crossing a serious line with Rosaline, which I will explain in further detail in the next spoiler section.

I always feel a little bad for the love interest who gets chosen by default because the other guy ends up being a jerk/already married/dead by the end of the book. It feels less like Harry gets chosen for who he is, and more like he gets chosen for being Not Alain and being there for Rosaline when Alain goes too far.


A little elaboration on the TW at the start of the book about an attempted assault:
There is a non-violent assault attempt that Rosaline manages to escape from. It involves someone purposefully intoxicating Rosaline to try to get her defenses down, unwanted kissing/touching/advances, and verbal coercion of the "I thought you were cool" variety with additional tones of slut-shaming and gross attitudes about bisexuality. Things to do not get too far, but it could still be potentially triggering for anyone who has trauma from a similar experience.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings