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tshepiso 's review for:
Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake
by Alexis Hall
The novel follows Rosaline the young mother to an excitable 8-year-old who feels trapped by her circumstances. While she loves being a mum the eternal judgement from her incredibly successful parents for dropping out of Cambridge to raise a child and the ever-tight budget her day job as a sales clerk doesn't quite cover move her to take a chance and apply the Bake Expectations the beloved BBC backing competition. With hopes that the 10,000-pound cash prize and reality tv show fame will open doors, Rosaline commits to 8 weeks of baking. But she doesn't count on finding love on set.
I'll be the first to say I'm a defender of love triangles. When done right they're some of the most fun romantic conflicts a novel can have. Unfortunately, Alexis Hall's approach to the love triangle didn't work for me. The book sees Rosaline initially fall for the on-paper perfectly respectable Alain. The two have an instant connection and spent 75% of the novel in a relationship before she realizes he isn't right for her. Harry, Rosaline's true love interest, while present for most of the novel and given a handful of suitably cute scenes with our protagonist simply doesn't get the page count or presence you'd expect for the romantic lead of a romance novel.
Because of that wonky structure and Alain's purpose in the novel is less romantic rival and more object lesson the story feels less like a romance and more like general fiction with a strong romantic subplot. Harry's bereft presence in the story made him feel a little too shallow and a little too perfect. He, in the end, feels more like a prize Rosaline wins a the end of the story than the richly crafted co-lead I'd prefer my love interests in romances to be.
Further, the way Alexis Hall engaged with the class dynamic between Harry and Rosaline made it harder to be fully swept away by their romance. One of the conflicts in the story is Rosaline's parents disapproving of Harry because he's lower class. Harry faces a lot of condescension from everyone around him because of his cockney accent and blue-collar job. However, because Harry doesn't have a POV in the story it never felt like he had a true voice in pushing back against all the bullshit he faces. We don't get much insight into how he feels about the constant assumptions about his character because of his class even by Rosaline. He's never allowed to be resentful or challenge the classist bullshit he faces. This lack really emphasized how Harry felt like a prize for Rosaline rather than a fully realized character on his own. His working-class identity feels like it's used as a point of intrigue but is never given the depth I think a story tackling class should.
As a contemporary novel about a woman coming into herself, Rosaline Palmer wasn't bad. The baking competition elements were fun as a GBBO fan and Rosaline's arc about standing up against her overbearing parents was fairly well executed. And I especially appreciated seeing Rosaline and her mother reconcile in the end, the touch of complexity and nuance to her character added depth to the story. While the side characters, especially Rosaline's 8-year-old Amelie, were a little twee which I've come to expect from an Alexis Hall novel it was overall okay. Again it wasn't bad, it just wasn't a very good romance.
I think I'm going to take a break from Alexis Hall for a little bit. Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake threw the wind out of my sails from this binge and I heard equally meh things about its sequel. Hopefully, my next Alexis Hall book won't be a disappointment. But you know what they say absence makes the heart grow fonder