Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis HallMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Four and a half stars.
Rosaline Palmer is a bisexual single mother to a precocious daughter. She gave up her career ambitions to be a doctor when she got pregnant and now she has a part-time job at WH Smith (a large chain of stationery shops in the UK) and specialises in disappointing her extremely successful parents, one of whom is a cardiologist and the other is an oncologist.
In desperation to pay off her parents' loans, Rosaline enters a national TV baking show called, punningly enough, Bake Expectations. On her way to the first weekend of shooting, Rosaline misses her train and gets left in the middle of the country with a handsome, charming, witty, erudite landscape architect called Alain who is also a contestant on the show. As with the real-life baking show that this novel is based on, the contestants are both a series of cliches and also an eclectic mix of modern British society. Although as the contest progresses Rosaline is forced to reassess some of her preconceptions about the other contestants.
I'll be honest, Alexis Hall, romance and baking - it doesn't get much better than this. The dialogue is witty and the characters are engaging, the trials and tribulations of the contestants and Rosaline's amazing daughter Amelie just swept me away like a self-saucing pudding.
My only minor criticism is that I could see the 'twist' coming almost right from the start, but it was lovely to see Rosaline's journey.
Overall, I love, love, loved it and I only wish I could read it again for the first time.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
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