* * * * *
Following the recipe is the key to a successful bake. Rosaline Palmer has always lived by those rules—well, except for when she dropped out of college to raise her daughter, Amelie. Now, with a paycheck as useful as greaseproof paper and a house crumbling faster than biscuits in tea, she’s teetering on the edge of financial disaster. But where there’s a whisk there’s a way . . . and Rosaline has just landed a spot on the nation’s most beloved baking show.
Winning the prize money would give her daughter the life she deserves—and Rosaline is determined to stick to the instructions. However, more than collapsing trifles stand between Rosaline and sweet, sweet victory. Suave, well-educated, and parent-approved Alain Pope knows all the right moves to sweep her off her feet, but it’s shy electrician Harry Dobson who makes Rosaline question her long-held beliefs—about herself, her family, and her desires.Rosaline fears falling for Harry is a guaranteed recipe for disaster. Yet as the competition—and the ovens—heat up, Rosaline starts to realize the most delicious bakes come from the heart.
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.
~ Bel
