Paris Dailencourt is About to Crumble is SUCH A FANTSTIC romance by Alexis Hall.

I loved this queer m/m romance. The diversity is fantastic in this story. I really appreciate the anxiety that was represented in this book in addition to the gay rep.

Let's not forget about all the baking and kissing.

Absolutely LOVED this book SO much!

Listen, Alexis Hall is brilliant, generally. Writes very down to earth books. Sometimes, however, there is this issue of the books in question being insanely long winded, which is what happened in A Lady For A Duke and also here. It felt as though a lot of it could have been condensed to some extent.

Paris is difficult. He isn't exactly an easy character to follow -- if you've never experienced his level of anxiety he will drive you absolutely nuts. He is also incredibly stubborn and really frustrating to read because of that.

I did, however, appreciate the representation of his mental health journey. Hall made his jumps in logic easy to understand.

Tariq -- honestly, I would have rather the perspectives been switched. He was great; complex and interesting and he, for one, had many different relationship dynamics in his life.

The baking show element was fun, it was integrated well into the story but wasn't the focus of it. I liked all of the characters that were involved in it.

Overall, it was an okay book, great mental health rep.

In exchange for an honest review of Alexis Hall latest novel “Paris Daillencourt is about to Crumble” I write this review. At 370 pages, this novel had many elements I enjoyed one being its fast pace, romantic relationship, and competition. I find Hall managed to explore nuanced areas of identity and what that means for “new adults” in romantic relationships. As they created Boyfriend Material for which I have read brought a “new” examination to what it means to be Queer and in a relationship. The nuance to Paris Daillencourt and Tariq Hassan’s queer identity was appreciated as the novel explored the characters mental health struggle, or relationship with religion . The content guidance at the beginning of the novel was appreciated. Overall it is a novel I would recommend to fans of Boyfriend Material. I gave it 3.5 stars and on goodreads a solid 3 star.

Baking competitions, a friendly and charming love interest and a theme of mental health. What’s not to love?

Paris Daillencourt is about to crumble. Quite literally. After being entered into the competition by his roommate, Paris is determined not to be the first one sent home. His anxiety struggles lead him to accidentally injure a fellow contestant, Tariq, who takes it in stride and becomes his friend. However, the stress of the competition often gets to Paris and the unforgiving fan base watching at home is not there to sugarcoat their opinion of him. Will Paris overcome his anxieties and take the competition by storm? Or will he crumble like an over baked cookie to the pressure?

I always love a good baking competition book! I find them wholesome and fun to read and PDIATC is no different. The pace was decent, spanning the competition, and the plot was good. The characters were where this book really shone.

Paris is crippled by his undiagnosed general anxiety disorder. It ends up causing him to self sabotage more often than not and it was heartbreaking watching him struggle for so long. And we’re not just talking on Bake Expectations, it causes self sabotaging in his day to day life, too. The topic of mental health is a very prevalent and important theme to this book and Paris is a very good example of just how much anxiety can affect a person.

The ending was good. It wasn’t what I’d consider a HEA. I’ve seen a few people say they’d consider it a HFN and I agree with that. I am satisfied with how it ended, though. I just wish we got a resolution about the absentee parents.

If you want a book with mental health rep, a sunny love interest and baking then this book is for you! Thanks very much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I had been really looking forward to this book but somehow this didn't click for me. I couldn't relate to the characters at all. Having read other work by the author, I had hoped for something better, but this just was not for me.

I love Paris! Once again, Hall depicts mental illness with a sensitive and well-written understanding. I love Tariq, and I was delighted to return to the baking tent. I do ship Jennifer and Grace, but maybe just as a backround couple? Love this series, but I would read Hall's shopping lists.

dnf at 15%
this book tackles anxiety in such a realistic way, but it ended up too realistic for me and was triggering for me. hopefully this book finds it perfect audience!
thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

It was a very cute read!
I am a huge fan of Bake Off, so this queer, kind of like, Bake Off setting was really fun to read.
My only reason for not giving it four stars is because I didn't really like the main character, even though I could relate a lot to all the anxiety and overthinking.
It was a very cute read and it made me want to bake so badly! And to just watch the latest season of Bake Off, really.

Paris Daillencourt is literally about to crumble. I'm not totally sure he doesn't. Billed as a queer romcom, Paris signs up (hesitantly) for a baking competition and falls for one of his competitors, Tariq. Let me just stop now and profess my appreciation and confusion for how Tariq is able to tolerate Paris because frankly it was hard for me to do so. While I appreciate a character that accurately shows how debilitating anxiety can be, Paris is out of control. He repeatedly gives excuses for his ailment and for the most of the book he doesn't even try to establish why he is the way he is or try to change. He barely copes in life and it's hard to imagine anyone finding him attractive let alone willing to become his romantic partner. Paris is tedious in his naiveity and racism and constant apologies. In fact, its Tariq that saves this story, in his patience, and constant call out of Paris's egregious behavior. And Morag, whose out of control sexual exploits are hilarious and provide much needed levity to this story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review this book.

I enjoyed reading this book but at times I found Paris to be a bit insufferable... His self deprecating nature got old so fast.
I wouldn't necessarily say this book is heavy romance because it's not. It's more of a fiction story about a baking show and there are two contestants who happen to go on dates. Lol
Overall I didn't love this book, but it was okay! I have enjoyed Alexis Halls' other books so I think this one was just a dud for me because of the characters.
I thought the formatting of the book was great and the pacing was good too!

Add this to my "books I stayed up way too late to finish" list.

Y'all, I really enjoyed Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble! Thank you to @netgalley for the digital ARC.

Things I loved:

🧁 The anxiety representation is really well done here. Alexis Hall does an incredible job of showing just how debilitating generalized anxiety disorder can be in its extremes. The stream of consciousness during a crises was particularly relatable for this fellow anxiety human.
🧁 We do not deserve Tariq. He is the most precious, adorable, patient, funny, stylish love interest ever. I was rooting for him so hard throughout the book.
🧁 I love the GBB so this book setting was super fun!
🧁 The side characters in this story are strong, they very much felt like people you would see on TV but real enough you actually like them. Morag is also definitely a fat, hot sex goddess and I love her to pieces.

Things I didn't love:
🧁 Paris's growth in the last 20% of the book was what I wished for him all along. I was really glad to see Paris's friends rally around him to get him the help he needed. However, with how very extreme his anxiety was, it's such a disservice that he is made to wait so long for help. Even in their support, not a single person recommends therapy until Paris is far past a normal mental breakdown. It broke my heart.
🧁 Due to everything above, Paris was hard to love as a character. To be clear, this is not due to his anxiety, but due to the lack of effort to make a change to get better. There are pitfalls, and therapy takes ever so long to really make substantial changes, but as someone who both suffers with mental health disorders and also has dated those with mental health disorders, at the end of the day it is impossible to help those that do not seek help for themselves.
🧁 It was a bit strange to have the major issue of Paris's absentee parents to be brought up over and over again and never get a resolution.

I will certainly be going back to read the 1st book now that I know it's a series! This beauty published 11/2 of 2022 so go get it from your local bookstore or library!

If you love the Great British Bake Off, you might like this book, but you will have to deal with a main character having extreme anxiety for most of the book.

I enjoyed this book but I can see where other people might not. Paris is the main character who goes on their version of GBBO and meets a cute boy he likes. And then his anxiety causes him to self-sabotage his relationship and life. If you are expecting a cute romance, this is not the book for you. It focuses more on the mental health of Paris than the romance. I thought the romance when it did happen was cute but a little rushed, but I am happy where it ended up. It felt more realistic than a perfect ending. The writing was good, and I thought including some Twitter text was a great addition, and I could have used more of them. There were quirky one-liners and references that were fun to read, but I imagine it could age this book on a reread.

Overall an enjoyable book, but I would not recommend it to anyone who might get triggered by reading about someone experiencing extreme anxiety.

I really enjoyed this story, but I'm giving it a lower rating because I feel like it wasn't marketed correctly. I was under the assumption that it was going to be a cutesy, coming of age, self discovery type romance. However, in reality it was quite sad and heavy. I really enjoyed the anxiety disorder representation, but I think the severity in which it was being portrayed should've come with a warning.

Another in this delightful not-quite-GBBO series, Paris Daillencourt is a character I could identify with and root for. He finds himself, and a relationship, through his participation in a baking competition show, and as such there is a large cast of entertaining characters that the reader gets to know. I appreciated the use of social media throughout the text as well.

Honestly, I’m between 2.5 and 3 stars for this one so I split the difference. I adore Alexis Hall and his books, but this one was probably my least favorite I’ve read so far. As someone with anxiety, it can be tricky to read characters who have anxiety - it’s hard to find books that do it right without making it triggering. This was a triggering kind of story - Paris has very severe anxiety and apparently no one has suggested that to him until he goes on a baking show and meets a prospective love interest who is like “hmm something may be medically wrong here” and then Paris is like “no, this is just me” all while thinking he doesn’t want to appropriate a medical condition that isn’t his. Honestly Paris should have been in therapy years before 80-some percent of the way through the book. So often I was torn between wanting to give Paris a hug and wanting to scream “GO TO THERAPY” at him.

There were parts I liked - Tariq for the most part, Morag for the most part, Paris in therapy and his friendship with Joy, and most importantly the entire laser tag scene with Tariq’s family.

Overall this fell flat for me, despite loving the GBBO style story where I could easily envision how each weekend would go. I wanted to like this so much more than I did.

I absolutely adored A Lady for a Duke so I keep trying Alexis Hall's books, but I can't seem to get into their contemporary books. This was a fine read, but nothing that I was super excited about. I didn't feel like there was anything overly exciting going on. It was an easy read.
Thank you NetGalley and Forever for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

Paris Daillencourt has two things: an undiagnosed anxiety disorder and a spot on the hit show Bake Expectations.

This was a times a very funny and very difficult painful as Paris's anxiety sabotages his relationship and his time now the show until he is forced to deal with it.

I enjoyed this book thoroughly. The characters were so good, I love when a character is a mess and is so relatable. The romance was perfect. On top of that, there was a plot aside from the romance that was just as captivating!

After Boyfriend Material, I had such high hopes for this book! The MC was a mess, exactly how I pictured it, having anxiety myself. I did think the romance was going a bit first at the start, but the ending was just really lovely. It just really fit the story

Sadly this one didn’t hit as much as the first book in the series, but it was still relatively enjoyable. I am hoping that the third book rounds the series out for me.