Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble: by the author of Boyfriend Material (Winner Bakes All Book 2)

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Paris Daillencourt is a recipe for disaster. Despite his passion for baking, his cat, and his classics degree, constant self-doubt and second-guessing have left him a curdled, directionless mess. So when his roommate enters him in Bake Expectations, the nation’s favourite baking show, Paris is sure he’ll be the first one sent home. Despite his passion for baking, constant self-doubt has left him a curdled, directionless mess. So, when his roommate enters him in Bake Expectations, the nation's favourite baking show, Paris is sure he'll be the first one sent home. I loved this so very much. The second Alexis Hall book in the Winner Bakes All series is very different from Rosaline Palmer. The weekly reality show set-up is here, but we spend more time away from the show with the MC, Paris Daillencourt, and I loved it. There's still plenty of "show" with Grace Forsythe, Wilfred Honey, Marianne Wolvercote, the other contestants and the bakes; but now that readers are familiar with the set-up it felt right to spend a bit more time away from it. I also enjoyed the nod to some previous contestants that have appeared on a very similar baking show and the social media hellscape that surround contestants on these shows.

This is not a romcom! I repeat this is not a romcom! Think of a gay Bridget Jones like Henry Fry’s First Time for Everything. The books have the same kind of vibes. Users who reposted Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble by Alexis Hall Read by Ewan Goddard - Audiobook Excerpt Anyways, to end on a positive note: I really, really like this book. It has fantastic representation (mental illness; sex positivity; religion; race); it goes in interesting directions that we don’t typically see in romances; and it’s funny as hell. I read it in one sitting. I understand why some people might dislike the book (like I said, Paris is a lot), but it’s absolutely worth a read. Recommended if you enjoy great representation; improbably named cats; romances without a misunderstanding at the 80% mark; books that are probably more bildungsroman than romance but romance still plays a prominent role; books that are more HFN than HEA; great descriptions of food. As for the “com” part, the tone of the book is a very weird mix of super heavy and lightweight fluff that didn’t always work for me. One may outweigh/overshadow the other for you and maybe you won’t consider it a romcom. Arguments could be made either way. (And personally I would say it’s *barely* either.)

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In 16% AJH managed to squeeze in comments about Nazis, Jewish people, Muslims, ancient Greeks, Egyptians, people from Glasgow, hippies, the French, penises, various political parties, and public schools (UK version). I have no idea if these were meant to be funny or AJH's incessant need to use his widely published books for half-baked social commentary and I am not going to waste any of my time trying to parse it out. Either way it shouldn't be in a light-hearted romcom about baking. it IS a romcom; despite the super heavy topics, there is quite a lot of lightheartedness and humor in it, mostly found in the TV show and flatmate scenes On top of the fundamental ideological and lifestyle differences, Paris is sort of a crap person. Even with excusing some stuff due to his crippling anxiety, he is just overall insensitive and hard to be around (even as a reader). And not only is Paris unlikeable, but Alexis Hall seems to lean into that and make the whole reading experience unlikeable also.

Even the book club questions at the end are hilarious - e.g. "Do lemon shortbread and vanilla shortbread count as two different kind of biscuit? If so why?" (treading into Jaffa Cake territory there...) and "Favourite '80s movie? Favourite '80s band?" I'm choosing to DNF for now at 30%. Being in Paris's head the entire book (it's told entirely from his perspective, third-person) is a LOT. He's a very anxious person, and I am also an anxious person, so it's too much. And I say this as someone who usually likes characters with anxiety in books (for instance, Misha Horne and Erin McLellan do this really well), but I'm not sure what it is here with this particular book. The way Paris's anxiety is written just feels like a drag to read and kind of feels like it keeps the reader at a distance. I will say that the audiobook narrator did a very nice job with this story, but that wasn't enough to bump up my rating. I'm going to be dropping this series but I'll still read Alexis Hall because when he is on his game.... whew, fire. Wow, I have no words! This is fabulous and I love everything about it (even if some of the dark moments were really rough for me to read). Every once in a while you read a book that you want to SCREAM FROM ROOFTOPS about. I'm screaming, people!' Sonali Dev

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I do enjoy the fact that, like Rosaline Palmer, Paris D. etc. is kinda using the framing device of GBBO/Bake Expectations to look at British culture. Like, we are shown behind the scenes and into the constructedness of a beloved piece of reality TV, but we are also urged to apply the same birdseye view on social issues such as classism, biphobia, Islamophobia, mental health struggles, etc. which make up folks' everyday reality. Now Paris was entered into this baking competition by this roommate and went through with it because he had mental issues. He meets Tariq, who he tries to be in a relationship with. It does not work out. Now I want to put in here that this was in a 3 month time frame. He did the show, met the guy, got broken up with, and fainted due to anxiety all in 3 months. This book needed an editor, it also needed exponentially less N*zi and antisemitism casual conversations included for something publishing in 2022. Paris' anxiety representation was almost a caricaturization with how surface level "overthink everything" he was, with not much else included. If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be exhausting. We're also hit with the Hall specialty of extremely pretentious name and pop-culture dropping throughout the book - it's not as much fun when you need to bring a dictionary along while trying to read a romance. We also have the Hall special of his inability to write women in his books. I ended up not finishing the first book in this series, largely because I realized soon after starting it that the genre was just really not for me. I was hopeful that this second installment might be a better fit but, unfortunately, I think it's essentially more of the same, just with a male protagonist instead of a woman. As Tariq told Paris, "Blank stares and running away are your whole thing" and when it comes to reading 90% of the drivel AJH has written since 2020 I highly recommend everyone do the same.

Oh boy, where to start? First of all I think I deserve a medal for managing to slog through this book. I had an absolutely terrible time reading it and the only reason why I finished it is because I kept hoping it would get better and also because I would like to get to 100 books on my goodreads challenge. From the bestselling author of Boyfriend Material comes a sweet and scrumptious romantic comedy about facing your insecurities, finding love, and baking it off, no matter what people say. There is definitely less romance than you’d expect from the cover and the blurb and the romcom label and, well, everything. But I really liked what there was. I liked both characters, I liked that it started low-key, I didn’t even mind the no-sex-before-marriage thing because I thought it was handled well. I was SO happy when Paris finally started to get some help, though I wish it could’ve come sooner. I also, surprisingly, didn’t mind that the end of the book leaves his and Tariq’s relationship on a hopeful but somewhat tentative note, because it seemed to suit them – they are both really young, they’re growing as people, it felt like what they’d had was meaningful and what they still might have was genuinely promising, and even if it didn’t last, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. Again though, probably not a popular note to end on if you’re promoting this as a BAKING ROMANCE, lol.

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Every once in a while you read a book that you want to SCREAM FROM ROOFTOPS about. I’m screaming, people!’ Sonali Dev