Battle Royal (Palace Insiders #1) by Lucy Patker

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Beloved author Lucy Parker pens a delicious new romantic comedy that is a battle of whisks and wits.

Ready…

Four years ago, Sylvie Fairchild charmed the world as a contestant on the hit baking show, Operation Cake. Her ingenious, colorful creations captivated viewers and intrigued all but one of the judges, Dominic De Vere, the hottest pastry chef in London. When her glittery unicorn cake went spectacularly sideways, Dominic was quick to vote her off the show. Since then, Sylvie has managed to use her fame to help fulfill her dream of opening a bakery, Sugar Fair. The toast of Instagram, Sugar Fair has captured the attention of the Operation Cake producers…and a princess.

Set…

Dominic is His Majesty the King’s favorite baker, the go-to for sweet-toothed A-List celebrities, and a veritable British institution. He’s brilliant, talented, hard-working. And an icy, starchy grouch. Learning that the irksome Sylvie will be joining him on the Operation Cake judging panel is enough to make the famously dour baker even more grim. Her fantastical baking is only slightly more troublesome than the fact that he can’t stop thinking about her pink-streaked hair and irrepressible dimple.

Match…

When Dominic and Sylvie learn they will be fighting for the once in a lifetime opportunity to bake a cake for the upcoming wedding of Princess Rose, the flour begins to fly as they’re both determined to come out on top.

The bride adores Sylvie’s quirky style. The palace wants Dominic’s classic perfection.

In this royal battle, can there be room for two?

*Source: NetGalley; ARC provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review

You know anything that comes from Lucy Parker is going to be adorable. It's generally a safe bet. Battle Royal delivers on the sweetness and silliness but also gets real that it can be a bit disconcerting.

Sylvie has been doing well for herself since she was last on national tv and made a complete mess of things before she was booted off the show. Her bakery is a hit, her creations are phenomenal and now the show, Operation Cake wants her back as host. Sounds good but she'll have to judge alongside Dominic who was literally the recipient of her messy baking mishap on live tv. Their creative styles are drastically different, their approach to judging different, so what on earth could they have in common? How about the fact that their bakeries are down the same street from one another and that they're both asked to submit cake design proposals for an upcoming royal wedding. Soon these two enemies become cohorts of sorts on a mission to produce the best cake possible. Success for both of them would mean thriving businesses and a chance to gloat at the other.

As always, Parker writes some of the best zingers and ridiculous situations. Sylvie is one of the most disarming characters, full of love and ready to champion anyone. Dominic appears gruff on the outside but he's honestly a teddy bear on the inside. Sylvie brings that out. The two of them working together is unexpected but fun. 

The touching aspect of Battle Royal is the element of grief. It's pervasive throughout. All the main characters have suffered some sort of loss or abandonment, and their souls are deeply marked by it. It's this that has me thinking that Battle Royal isn't the typical rom-com that readers of Parker's are used to. It's still good and I enjoyed it but I think anyone dealing with grief should be aware that it is a general theme of this story. That and the notion of a found family. They've all had their hearts broken by family either through rejection or disappointment, but it's the ones that they've fostered and nurtured that's become what a family should ideally be. Not going to lie, this hit kind of hard because I understood it so well. 

I will read anything by Lucy Parker because her stories are always entertaining and touching. I think she pushes herself here to explore some complicatedAny fan of Great British Bake Off and romance in general will love this. Battle Royal appears to be a good start to a new series!

~ Bel

Breathe, Annie, Breathe by Miranda Kenneally

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Annie hates running. No matter how far she jogs, she can’t escape the guilt that if she hadn’t broken up with Kyle, he might still be alive. So to honor his memory, she starts preparing for the marathon he intended to race.

But the training is even more grueling than Annie could have imagined. Despite her coaching, she’s at war with her body, her mind—and her heart. With every mile that athletic Jeremiah cheers her on, she grows more conflicted. She wants to run into his arms…and sprint in the opposite direction. For Annie, opening up to love again may be even more of a challenge than crossing the finish line.

I was so excited to pick this up from the library but did so without realizing that it was the fifth book in the Hundred Oaks series. I don’t know how that fact escaped me. So I just left it on my shelf staring at me, not willing to return it yet but also hesitant about reading a book out of order.  At 6 o’clock one morning when I just couldn’t sleep any more, I gave in. You see, I couldn’t knock this book out of my mind and it’s been that way since I saw the cover and read that excerpt. I grabbed my favourite blanket, propped myself on the couch and finished it in three hours.

I found myself wrapped up in Annie’s story immediately. Having run in the past, though not recently, I was fascinated by her decision to run a marathon and how she described her training. She’s still processing the loss of her boyfriend and rebuilding a life for herself. Doing this is her way to make Kyle’s own dream of running  a marathon come true.  It also keeps him close to her.  As I read on, I also felt like it was personal atonement for her for the things that did go wrong between them shortly before his death.  Her heart is a wreck just as much as her body is going through the grueling training. Despite the heavy discipline and the hours she spends between training, working and school, this single-minded focus is what is holding her together.

She’s thrown off when Jeremiah comes into the picture. It’s the first time she finds herself attracted to someone since Kyle and she feels a little guilt, as if she’s being untrue to his memory. But she knows life goes on and she has to go on with it. Still she won’t let her new friendship or attraction to Jeremiah mess with her end goal.  That being said, there’s also something refreshing about being in his company. Annie feels the pressure and loss most around people who knew Kyle and knew them as a couple. Hanging out with Jeremiah and his family is like finding an emotional sanctuary.

As these two draw closer, Annie learns that Jeremiah has his own quirks that he’s trying to work on. The question is can she handle a friendship with him knowing that there are certain things he needs in his life? It means they both have to learn to let go, have trust and embrace risks. This is the hurdle that Annie has to jump over in order to move on.

Breathe, Annie, Breathe is worthy of all the praise. It’s written so beautifully and the emotional moments are not sappy but are treated with sensitivity.  I also enjoyed the silly banter between Jeremiah and Annie. They are a good match for each other but it takes a while to get there. Any initial concerns I had about reading this series out of order has been dashed and I'll happily catch up on Kenneally's other books.

 ~ Bel

Ten Tiny Breaths (Ten Tiny Breaths #1) by K.A. Tucker

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Kacey Cleary’s whole life imploded four years ago in a drunk-driving accident. Now she’s working hard to bury the pieces left behind—all but one. Her little sister, Livie. Kacey can swallow the constant disapproval from her born-again aunt Darla over her self-destructive lifestyle; she can stop herself from going kick-boxer crazy on Uncle Raymond when he loses the girls’ college funds at a blackjack table. She just needs to keep it together until Livie is no longer a minor, and then they can get the hell out of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

But when Uncle Raymond slides into bed next to Livie one night, Kacey decides it’s time to run. Armed with two bus tickets and dreams of living near the coast, Kacey and Livie start their new lives in a Miami apartment complex, complete with a grumpy landlord, a pervert upstairs, and a neighbor with a stage name perfectly matched to her chosen “profession.” But Kacey’s not worried. She can handle all of them. What she can’t handle is Trent Emerson in apartment 1D.

Kacey doesn’t want to feel. She doesn’t. It’s safer that way. For everyone. But sexy Trent finds a way into her numb heart, reigniting her ability to love again. She starts to believe that maybe she can leave the past where it belongs and start over. Maybe she’s not beyond repair.

But Kacey isn’t the only one who’s broken. Seemingly perfect Trent has an unforgiveable past of his own; one that, when discovered, will shatter Kacey’s newly constructed life and send her back into suffocating darkness.

Ten Tiny Breaths explores the emotional upheaval of loss, betrayal, forgiveness and the ultimate steps toward healing. Kacey seems like a young woman who is perfectly in control of herself and her circumstances. She takes on the responsibility of raising her younger sister and won’t allow herself to be distracted from that. She channels all of her aggression and anger into kickboxing and keeps everyone else at arms-length.

When they arrive at their new home in Miami, little do Kacey and Livie know that this apartment complex will become a family to them complete with off-the-wall characters. Kacey is forced to learn to get along with them and slowly let people in. That includes her neighbor, Trent who throws her off her game. She’s all cool and tough until he’s around and then she loses control of her senses a bit.

I wasn’t really all that crazy about Kacey initially. She’s hard and purposefully unlikeable though she does try to be nicer for the sake of her sister. It’s understandable why she’s that way but it's still amazing anyone would even try to cozy up to her with that personality, which is why I was baffled by Trent's interest in her. (I eventually picked up on Trent's motives before Kacey worked it out.) Trent and her other neighbor Storm, try to no avail to get her to talk about her past recognizing that she's a ticking time bomb. When things do finally crash around her, it’s almost a blessing in disguise as she’s forced to confront her horrifying loss along with the pain and anger she has bottled up for years.

Kacey and Livie left their past to arrive in Miami with nothing and gain everything through the family they create and the breakthroughs that open the doors to their futures. It ends on a very hopeful note but not before the painstaking exercise of healing and the hardest of all – forgiveness.

K.A.Tucker has built upon Ten Tiny Breaths with a series featuring the characters she has introduced here. It'll be interesting to visit with them in each of their stories to see how they progress and what they make of themselves. The second one, One Tiny Lie, is Livie's story and her time to shine.

~ Bel