Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake (Winner Bakes All, 1)

I mean it's just a scrummy book! I was outwardly chuckling for like 80% of the book, I got a therapy session, and the leads are insanely hot. Wins all across the board. Hall does a really excellent job with pacing, everything is whip smart and witty, especially our MC Rosaline. She's honestly a badass (I will never understand how people have the energy to do anything on top of being a parent, it's such involved and hard work) but she's also so genuine. She's balanced, both flawed and fleshed out enough to feel human, like I could pop down the street and she'd greet me with a cup of tea. Harry, our burly cinnamon roll love interest, is a man of few words who really goes all out with acts of service for those he cares about. There are so many times in this book that I highlighted and my comment is just "😭😭" because he's such a gentle and kind man. Also, Amelie is the love of my life, and I hope one day she becomes a marine biologist who focuses on deep sea exploration.

I wasn't exactly expecting this from Alexis Hall, the author of m/m books such as rom-com BOYFRIEND MATERIAL and the more serious Spires series. Although the heroine of this new rom-com by Hall is bisexual, the romance turns out to be of the m/f variety here and, in addition, I'd say the romance takes a back seat to Rosaline's journey to self awareness, self realization, and self actualization. Not only that, but, to a large extent, it's another kind of love story, that between single mom Rosaline and her young, precocious daughter Amelie. I just recently finished reading another contemporary romance with a reality cooking competition backdrop: RECIPE FOR PERSUASION by Sonali Dev. Hall's similarly plotted novel here runs rings around that one. Hall's sense of humor is intelligent and delightful, his dialogue smart and sassy, his characters much better drawn than that of most other contemporary romance writers I've read. If you read the book blurb, you'll know what the story's about. 27-year-old Rosaline, who had to drop out of medical school when she found herself pregnant at 18 or 19, is now working low-pay jobs but has an interest in and talent for baking. So she enters the Bake Expectations competition, hoping for the grand prize which will be a boost to her bank account and also to her future. Incidentally, there'll be two men (fellow competitors) who will figure as love interests: Alain, who's upper-class, sophisticated, and well educated, and Harry, a lower class…