3.5 Stars

It’s time for a little book review rant. Marketing a book the right way and to the right audience is such an important part of a readers’ experience. Over the last few years I’ve seen women’s fiction and chic lit being marketed as romcom. And that’s great, there’s probably quite a bit of crossover and a good chance a romance reader will enjoy one of those genres if there’s a satisfying enough HEA. Certainly not all romance readers, though.⁠

See with women’s fiction and chic lit is more about the journey the characters go on. Whether is a serious or funny one. The focus isn’t on the main couple or the romance, even if there is one. As a reader of all those genres, you need to go into a book with the right mindset and expectations. ⁠

It’s such a disservice to a book when a reader expects a rom com and ends up getting one of the other two. Not because the book isn’t good but because that’s not what you thought you were getting. ⁠

I know it’s tempting to slap a popular style cover to appeal to a wide market and categorize the book a certain way for sales, but think of the after effects. If readers are let down with the experience, they may not pick up another one.

All that to say, I enjoyed ROSALINE PALMER TAKES THE CAKE by Alexis Hall. But it’s certainly a fun “chic lit” with a bisexual lead character who is on a journey of self discovery and then a small side of romance. In fact, if you go into this with the romance book mentality you’ll be immediately ticked off because there’s a love triangle and the heroine does sleep with someone other than the hero. But if you have the right mindset when you pick it up, it’ll be a great experience! I was fortunate that I was able to switch gears quickly and it didn’t take away from having fun listening to this audiobook (which I certainly recommend). Rosaline isn’t perfect and I actually really liked that. She’s made mistakes, many in fact, she’s not a perfect person now and she’s still trying to get a handle on her life. But she’s trying her best to be a good mom and her daughter is adorable.

Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall was such a joy to read. I read his book Boyfriend Material last year on audiobook and reading this one with my eyes allowed me to really ruminate in his humor. The absolute absurd Britishness of this as an American reader was so much fun and also as an avid lover of The Great British Bake Off I thought this was so much fun. The references to inside jokes on the show and the absurd mishaps make this such a special romance. I also would consider this more Chick-Lit or contemporary because of the journey Rosaline goes on. It follows different paths and her reconciling and accepting the life she is living, even if her parents don't approve. I also loved the bisexual representation! Though I am not bisexual myself I thought that as a sapphic person I could relate to a lot of Rosaline's experiences on dealing with clueless straight people. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a fun lighthearted read about baking, or any GBBO fans!

Super fun romance read! While I wanted to shake the heroine and push her towards the better guy, it was good to see the idiot get what he deserves at the end. Recommending to all my library romance readers.

Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake is an absolute delight, I loved the characters and the writing immensely!

Highly recommend for any romance reader that loves complex characters with heart to root for, the story was as sweet as the baked items!

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was really hoping to love Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake, I adore romances with a baking/cooking aspect. Unfortunately I really struggle with love triangles and had a hard time connecting to the plot. DNF for now, but I may try again at a later point.

I love Alexis Hall. Let me state that clearly.

I'm not sure why but this title did not work for me. I'm not a fan of the characters and it feels like I am missing something.

Sadly, I have decided to put this title down. I will absolutely try Alexis Hall again. For me she is 1 to 1.

Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake had so much going on as it followed Rosaline, a single bi-sexual mother, as she competes in a British Baking Show. This book tried to do too much, and it could have trimmed down the story. The love triangle was not necessary. Rosaline's daughter, Amelie, was my favorite character. She made me laugh every time she was present in the story!

Overall this was a good story. I enjoyed the British narrator for the audiobook. There were some delicious descriptions of baked goods. It made me want to bake something.

Thank you, Forever, for this complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake, was my first ever Alexis Hall and I cannot wait to read more from this author. I do feel like this was less a romance and more woman's fiction or personal growth story. I really enjoyed the baking contest, I think that was so much fun to read about. I loved Rosaline as a character, I think it was so much fun reading about her and being inside her head. Rosaline snuggled a lot on deciding what was best for her and I related a lot to her in that way. Alexis Hall can right an amazing story but I do feel like this was marketed in the wrong way. I feel like the romance was really a secondary plot. Either way, im so happy to have read this but if anyone is going into this, expecting a strong romance, dont.

this was a very entertaining and fun book to read! I loved the baking competition aspect of the book and could have used more Harry and Rosaline! I loved Rosaline's strong and assured personality as well. She stuck up for herself and her life without any apologies. I appreciated the TW from the author in the beginning, but could have had this book be a bit shorter!

I decided to DNF Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake at 20%. I really wanted to love the story, but sadly I wasn't connecting with the characters or the storyline. I will try to pick up the book again at a later time.

• ROSALINE PALMER TAKES THE CAKE  •

This was largely a case of my expectations being too high and letting me down a bit, through no fault of the author. Boyfriend Material was one of my favorite books I read last year so I was very much looking forward to Rosaline Palmer.

I really enjoyed the setting of the baking show and how in-depth into Rosaline's life and character we get. I was really rooting for her so much. What really made this fall a bit flat for me was that I was expecting it to be a "romance" when it was more general/women's fiction. Again, nothing wrong with that, but when it wasn't my expectation it caused a bit of disappointment. 

Because the focus was more on Rosaline than on the romance, I was left feeling frustrated by how much time was spent with her being with Alain, instead of Harry, and that made the little bit of time we got with them together feel incredibly rushed.

Overall, I still liked the story, but I was left wanting more.

3.5/5 stars

Source: NetGalley: ARC provided by publisher in exchange fir an honest review


Alexis Hall is pretty much an auto-read/buy for me. I adore his writing and humor, and all his memorable characters. Being a Great British Bake Off fan I eagerly awaited the release of Rosaline Palmer as everything about the premise promised fun and any opportunity for things to go haywire, and I was all there for it!

Rosaline is a single mother devoted to her precocious eight year-old daughter, working a part-time job and feeling content enough. When she had her daughter young she had to give up her studies in medicine and never went back to school. While she's happy with her decision, she can't help but feel like she's let people down i.e. her high-achieving parents. To break out of her mediocrity, she enters the reality show Bake Expectations hoping to prove to everyone that she can be good at something and make them proud of her. While the show's week-to-week challenges tend to go a bit sideways, her romantic prospects are at least looking up. Alain is one of the other contestants with whom she's clicked, and she's making friends on the set.

Now I obviously loved this. Rosaline is sarcastic so that won me over immediately, but she was also an insecure, kind of oblivious mess which I could relate to easily. She has this need to be instantly liked and it can land her in some odd situations like the one she managed when she first met Alain. Her need to impress comes from often second-guessing herself thanks to her parents nitpicking aspects of her life. If there's one thing that's beginning to bug her is that recurring assumption by others that her having a child at such a young age has ruined her life. She has never seen it that way. She's always seen that as her choice and one of my favorite moments in the book is when she acknowledges that while her choices work for her, they're not what others would have chosen for themselves. And she constantly has to fight against that. She dates Alain because he checks all the boxes that would make her parents proud. In the meantime, she gets to know another contestant, Harry better and she finds that she gets on with him really well. His blue collar view of the world and gentle considerate demeanor appeal to her. When my eldest daughter and I discussed the book after she read it, she mentioned that Rosaline's family along with Alain and Harry gave her Gilmore Girls vibes. It makes sense!

The Bake Expectations experience is her much-needed, overdue growing up moment. I will say I was rather surprised by her naivete because how is she not familiar with people from different backgrounds? While her parents are rich, she herself is not so I sometimes couldn't comprehend how she held on to some preconceived notions about others. There is a lot of classisism which is not apparent to her even though she unknowingly participates in it herself. But that's what I like about this book - that she goes from lacking awareness to this realization about how she's been operating for years.

There is a scene that is way out there and disturbing. Rosaline finds herself in a situation with Alain and another person that's spurred on by mixed signals and once again, assumptions. She calls it out for what it is - sexual assault - and the subsequent gaslighting on Alain's part is infuriating. Once again, as much as Rosaline can be oblivious (because the clues were all there), in that moment she did stand up for herself and refused to be taken advantage of. For anyone needing more details, she does stop it from going further and manages to find a safe place to call and wait for help.

I know there are readers who have issues with Rosaline's sexuality in this as she is bi but ends up dating a straight guy and thus feel that it's bi erasure. At least, that's how I understand it. I don't feel that I can speak to that, and I am not here to negate anyone's own feelings or experience about it, but I can say that I was simply happy for her to be with someone who was a good person.

So I think you get that I loved Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake even if Hall did slag off Spurs fans 😏. (At least it's the Spurs fan who ends up being the hero.) I mean, since it's been released I own the hard copy, the ebook and down the line I'll own the audio as well because I love this freaking book so much. I love Hall's writing and how he uses personal memories that are universal to bring out how the characters are feeling like when Rosaline first arrives on set, "which left Rosaline feeling distinctly first-day-of-school...". There's charm and wit galore throughout, and as always, side characters that take the mickey out of the main ones, and who add whimsy to the storyline. I got a kick out of the reality show hosts, and oh my gosh! The foul-mouthed producer had the most colorful and creative insults known to humankind. I adored her! These characters aren't perfect but the ones I really cared about gained insight and grew up. I'll definitely be reading this one again and waiting rather impatiently for the next in the Winner Bakes All series.

After having mixed feelings about the author's previous book Boyfriend Material, I'm happy to report that I very much enjoyed this one and felt that the tone suited my tastes considerably better.

I very much enjoyed the humor, the lightness and the sweetness of this book. Alexis Hall has created really wonderful characters who feel fully realized and as though you would see them on your screen on a particular TV show. I often feel as though books that work with TV tropes can feel over the top, but this wasn't the case with this one, it really did feel like it had a place in that universe.

This will be a re-read for me for sure.

Thank you to NetGalley, Grand Central Publishing, and Forever for this ARC.

I had high hopes going into this one and Hall did not disappoint. I loved that this book took me on a journey right along with Rosaline. This isn't a full fledge romance but there is love within the pages of "Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake". I adore the way Hall brings her characters to life in real ways.

Not sure I can put into words how much I enjoyed this book! I have a lot of feelings, good feelings, towards this book. I really did enjoy it and I would highly recommend this book to my friends and family!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book. When it came to this book, after reading quite a bit of cooking/baking books this year, I enjoyed the baking competition aspect the best out of those books. If you love the Great British Bake-off you'll love this. It also showed a bit of what happened to the contestants afterwards, which is something I appreciate. I think though, where people are having trouble with in this story, are a lot of bisexuality stereotypes, the stereotypes when it comes to the single parents, and class stereotypes. With these, I felt like there was too much sometimes and if it was dialed back, I would love the story even more. There is a trigger warning for attempted rape, and I understand why it was put in there, however, I felt that there could have been another way. When it comes to the romance aspect other than that, I was rooting for the endgame person early on and I was very annoyed with the other guy from day 1 especially since endgame guy communicates very openly even in the bedroom(which I want more of in books please and thank you). I also was annoyed with how the anxiety aspect but upon reflection, there was a possibility that there was more to it than meets the eye. Overall, I really enjoyed this book, there are some aspects in this story that I wanted to be expanded upon and other aspects I wanted dialed back. Because of these points, I have to give this book a 3.5-4 out of 5 stars.

I enjoyed this one but it wasn't my favorite. The beginning chapeters were a bit long which made it difficult to get through and the characters are all super intense, especially Lauren. I really loved how it was focused on Rosaline's sexuality and the stereotypes surrounding her being bisexual. I thought it was also important that her daughter was very aware of their situation and understood, even when her classmates did not. She was by far my favorite character in the book. Amelie was very entertaining and super smart as an 8 year old! Lauren was way too intense and I disliked almost every scene she was in because it was just too much.

I think most people would agree when they sayd Alain sucks and is a judgmental ass. Then Harry comes in and hes the complete opposite. He is sweet and gentle and is just an all around great guy. I think it took way too long for Rosaline to figure out what she wanted and the romance was short lived at the end. I wanted more! I absolutely loved the baking competition and all the other characters really grew on you.

I would still recommend this to anyone who loves a good romance, and anyone who loves baking!

Although the storyline concept was great, I was a bit disappointed. There was just a lot happening and I understand sexuality is important but it seemed to be discussed more than baking. There was one particular chapter which I felt was a bit unnecessary and kinda spoiled the book for me. However, I loved the parts where the contestants were in the ballroom and it made me want to watch GBBO again - especially where someone commented that the US love when the Brits are hopelessly non competitive - I wish there was more of that. Amelie was one of the brightest parts of the book and her adorable and witty personality made the book worthwhile especially with her banter with Lauren. Overall, a decent book with some great parts.

I was really hoping to love this one, especially after loving Boyfriend Material so much, but it just fell flat for me. I didn’t connect with the characters or the plot. I think Alexis Hall is an amazing writer and I’ll definitely be reading more from them but I just didn’t vibe with this one. I felt like certain comments made by the main character were honestly questionable and borderline annoying. I am all about “woke” characters who call out problematic behavior but this book took it to an extreme in my opinion. One conversation between two characters about judging or not judging other people body types all felt off to me too. It just feels like the whole book is trying way too hard to be funny and then also woke Twitter or something and with the plus size comment, it just felt so weird to read that. What was the point of using that to describe this random side character anyways and then make it about political correctness but also a joke? In the end it ended up feeling like a lot of forced conversations with redundant information. It’s not that I didn’t agree with the sentiments I just wasn’t a fan of the delivery. I wanted more romance than I got from the storyline which left me putting off reading as opposed to feeling gripped. Of course I want my books to have more than just a romantic plot, with characters with complicated and developed stories, but this one just wasn’t for me.

This is a cute and fun book. Lots of food references which made me hungry. I really liked the story but it did drag a bit. Could have been a bit shorter but am excited to read more in this series.