Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake

I really, really love The Great British Baking Show. And I loved Alexis Hall’s single-mum heroine, Rosaline Palmer, just as much.

Her fierce love for her daughter had me rooting for her right from the beginning and possibly sneaking a flashlight under the covers so I could read in bed without waking my husband.

The book is both a love story and a growth story, and the added fact that it reads like a novelization of The Great British Baking Show is a bonus as delicious as a buttercream frosting.

As a reader, I adore Alexis Hall. As a writer, his pitch-perfect prose and wonderful characters give me a bad case of Holy-Crap-I-Could-Never-Write-This-Well. Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake straddles the line between Women’s Fiction and Romance. Yes, there’s a happy ever after, but the story is about more than the romantic relationship. Rosaline truly goes through a period of growth and healing, with a focus on her versus the couple that is reminiscent of Women’s Fic. She’s a single mother and a baker on a show inspired by The Great British Bake-off. A racially and sexually diverse cast of… show more.

I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard with a book. I was crying! If you’re a fan of The Great British Baking Show you must read this. Alexis Hall is clever with her relationship crafting and incredibly skilled at bringing in hilarious English insults—not to mention some euphemisms that slayed me. As someone who watches Bake Off to chill out and remember that the world isn’t so bad, I can’t help but push this book onto anyone who’s ever enjoyed the show. That said, the book doesn’t shy away from a common sexual assault that may be… show more.