Thursday, June 03, 2021

2021 book 124

 Alexis Hall's Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake

I have to be in the right mood for a contemporary romance, but this one is set in what is basically the Great British Bake-Off, so it shot to the top of my list. The problem here is that I was super psyched to read a novel about a struggling bisexual single mother competing in a baking show, and was initially not interested in the romance at all. I kept waiting for the romance scenes to end so the baking show stuff could commence! Or more scenes with her sassy lesbian best friend, adorable daughter, and/or her overachieving, overbearing parents. But then I realized I was reading a different story than I thought and got way more invested. I did wish it got there a liiiiittle faster; there is A LOT of frustrating stuff in there (I prefer less time spent on JERKS/it's annoying to wait so long for the inevitable). But good discussions of classism/what makes for a meaningful life. I think this would have been better if the balance had shifted a little earlier, but still very fun. B+.

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