Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall

19 reviews

allonsyahhlee's review against another edition

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funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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ohheyitskaitlin's review against another edition

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funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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historic_wince's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I nearly DNFed this book 8% into it. I could not get past the second hand embarrassment of the

Spoiler

FMC lying to the love interest in order to impress him

. Granted, this is supposed to be cringe worthy, but it nearly did me in. I’m glad, however, that I picked the book back up and finished it. (The audiobook, btw, his excellent. Narrator did a really great job with all the voices).

Our main character is Rosaline, a bisexual disaster. She’s a 27 yr single mum, who’s still desperately trying to live up to her parents expectations. And while she’s always doing what’s best for her kid, she’s not always doing what’s best for her. That includes her dating life.

I really enjoy how Alexis Hall’s writing style has matured and his character work remains top notch. Some readers mayn’t appreciate just how contemporary some of the references are, nor that the book/baking show is rather self referential. Others may not like the ‘love triangle’ at the center of this story, but I really enjoyed the character development throughout the 8+ weeks and how the two love interests juxtaposed one another. This novel contains several sex scenes, but not of them are intended to be ‘spicy.’ Instead, they are central to the development of the plot and character arcs of our main characters.

I did foresee

Spoiler

Alain’s suggested threesome, but I will admit how the scene played out was more scary than I anticipated. Rosaline is assaulted by Alain’s female friend, and both women were coerced by Alain himself to participate. The scene is not particularly violent and Rosaline is able to safely barricade herself until able to the leave the situation.

I think this series has a lot of potential and I’m looking forward to the next installments.

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cluckieduck's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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sglance9's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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alexgloriaj's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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nabecker13's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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plumpaperbacks's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This was good in the beginning and in the end, but my interest waned during most of the middle. While I did like Rosaline, my favorite characters were side characters—specifically, Anvita and Amelie. The banter was highly entertaining, but there were also times where some of the dialogue and even a couple of characters felt cringey. I liked Alain at first, but then he started to get on my nerves more and more, and then he outed himself as a totally pretentious, jealous asshole. I no longer like him. And while Harry is a sweetheart, no doubt about it, I… didn’t really feel any chemistry between him and Rosaline?? I liked their friendship, but never really got attached to their romance.

Spoiler

Also, it felt pretty obvious to me that Rosaline would win the competition. Books like these almost always either have the protagonist win, or they come in second/third place but still end up getting some sort of prize out of it. I’m happy for her, don’t get me wrong—and definitely glad that Alain didn’t win—but yeah. No surprise factor here.

Overall, this was fine. Not the new favorite I’d hoped it would be when I started, but not bad either. I’d recommend it, but there are other romances I’d recommend first/more. I’ll probably read the next one just because I’m curious, and these books are, at the very least, entertaining.

Representation

bisexual protagonist
lesbian side character
achillean side character
Punjabi side character
side character with an anxiety disorder (unspecified)

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cheye13's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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bookedinsideout's review against another edition

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funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book would have been more fun without Alain, but it was a meaningful arc of a story and the structure covering each weekend of the baking competition was great. (More of what I was hoping for with Love & Other Disasters.) Going in with adjusted expectations helped too… I had barely started reading it last year when I saw reviews talking about how she doesn’t get together with the hero until the end of the book and there’s a total shit of a guy that nobody should touch with a barge pole (those reading guide questions from Alexis Hall were great!) that she’s with for much of it, as well as a sexual assault. At the time I felt it wasn’t for me, but I decided to try again feeling more prepared and falling more in love with Alexis Hall’s writing and wit, which is on full display here.

With all that in mind (i.e., not expecting a light-hearted baking competition), I’m really glad I gave it another go because it was so satisfying to see Rosaline be reminded of her priorities and value, state her boundaries, and… take the cake. The sexual assault was condemned by the book and treated with care, and we got to see people believing the victim and no pressure to forgive or console the perpetrator. As much as I wanted to see more of Rosaline and Harry, it was a great story. And that last chapter sex scene with communication and running off the railroad tracks of heteronormative penetrative sex was perfection.

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