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Emotional abuse, bi-phobia, gaslighting, sexual assault Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake is a fun rom-com in which a single mom enters a baking contest (a fictional version of The Great British Bake Off) and finds true love. The question is not “will she find true love” but “with whom will she find it?” Readers should expect to be very hungry while reading this book, as well as by turns amused, infuriated, and delighted. They should also expect to be really moved as this funny book does not flinch from some serious and painful topics. Our story begins with a missed train. Rosaline is the daughter of two very high-achieving parents who put enormous pressure on her to become a doctor. However, she dropped out of college to raise her daughter Amelie and now works in a stationary shop and struggles financially. Her ex-girlfriend, Lauren, is still her best friend and biggest cheerleader. Rosaline applies to be a contestant on Bake Expectations in hopes of landing a higher-paying job, perhaps involving a cooking column. She’s vague on the details.
Roberts ( Rat Time) returns with a thoroughly entertaining collection of autobiographical comics featuring her distinctive blend of deadpan humor and quirkily sincere flights of fancy. She observes life with husband Scott, pre-teen daughter Xia, and dog Crooky with equal parts appreciation and bemusement. “Xia and I played Barbies more intensely than ever before,” Roberts tells her mother, recalling Xia-as-Barbie improvising her way through a job interview, a scene followed by another in which the dolls awkwardly converse about art (imitating, one assumes, life). In another vignette, Roberts digs into her curious satisfaction at having spent weeks destroying her old sketchbooks and journals: “I’m being more productive whenever I’m not making anything.” Moments in which, for instance, a plate of Christmas cookies slips to the ground, to be picked up and placed in the trash one-by-one, are quiet examples of malaise creeping in. But Roberts remains exacting; when praised by a friend for being self-aware, Roberts quips she’s not a “better person” but only able to “see my flaws with absolute clarity.” The droll line drawings gently capture the oddity of quotidian activities, such as vacuuming the blades of a ceiling fan. Roberts’s slightly warped perspective hilariously and poignantly reflects back to readers the transient absurdity of domestic life.
Boyfriend Material) does it again with this scrumptious, quietly subversive rom-com set against a Great British Bake Offâstyle reality TV show. Bisexual 27-year-old Rosaline Palmer, single mother to a precocious eight-year-old, goes on Bake Expectations in a desperate attempt to turn her life around. On the way to the first filming, she winds up stranded with fellow contestant Alain Pope, an archly charming architect. Alain is everything Rosaline thinks she should want, and to impress him she tells him a heap of lies about her life. Itâs a classic rom-com setup, but Hall upends expectations: the deception is swiftly and realistically revealed, and even as Rosaline enters a relationship with Alain, she finds herself bonding with contestant Harry Dobson. Harry, a gentle giant electrician whom Rosaline initially writes off as a âcockney fuckboy,â soon proves his quiet decency and subtle sense of humor. Hall balances the adorable love story and witty narration with incisive critiques of classism and the fetishization of bisexual women. As Rosaline learns to trust her instincts and stand up for herself, the tension of the competition keeps the plot flying, and the vibrant castâincluding vivacious baker Anvita and Rosalineâs ex-girlfriend, Laurenâcouches her journey toward self-actualization in encouraging community. Hilarious, heartwarming, and grounded, Rosalineâs story proves that happy endings look different from person to person.