Battle Royal

4.25/5

I loved this book. It was a funny and warm read and I enjoyed it very much.

Of course Operation Cake was a caricature of The Great British Bake-Off (including the handshake!) but it was fun. Obviously very exaggerated and overdramatic but fun.

I loved both characters. Dominic was a touch-starved grump with a heart of gold who slowly learns to trust and open up his heart, and Sylvie was a quirky, artistic soul who despite her cheerful exterior, closed and protected herself against hurt and heartbreak again. I love how they both learned how to trust the other person and how to enjoy it. And I loved how their relationship progressed without awkward moments or avoiding each other or shying away from the other after their kiss. I love how they both embraced it and accepted it, even when they were both terrified.

I loved Dom's relationship with his sister and I'm glad they're better now. And Jay and Sylvie... I feel sorry for him, I expected this very early on, but I love that he didn't throw a hissy fit about Dominic, even angry and hurt, he still wanted Sylvie to be happy.

I loved the rivalry, romance, friendship, loyalty and love between Dominic and Sylvie. It was amazing.


...and just now I realized that the main characters share the name of one of my friends and her brother. Awkward! I'm just glad I didn't think about it once while I was reading it hahaha

Slightly overstuffed but very enjoyable!!

I had so much fun reading Battle Royal!
The slow burn was amazing, loved the grumpy-sunshine romance!
Sylvie and Dominic were amazing characters, the setting was fantastic too especially Sugar Fair, Sylvie's bakery. If Sugar Fair existed in real life, I would be there 24/7.
I was very invested in the baking competition show and Sylvie and Dom's dynamics as judges were hilarious.
The only thing that didn't quite work for me was the royal mystery/history. It felt over the top and I didn't care much about that.

LOVED this on audio! Enemies to lovers + a GBBO type baking show + a royal wedding?! Ten stars!

3.5 stars

I'm in the minority here but this was a bit disappointing. Mostly because it seemed there was too much going on and I didn't enjoy many of the subplots that were thrown in. The actual interactions between Dom and Sylvie were swoony and had the trademark Lucy Parker banter but in my opinion, we didn't have nearly enough of those. . I find this particularly frustrating the subplot of the female intern who is hell bent on ruining/ripping of the mcs to further the cause of their male relative/partner had already been used in [b:Headliners|52069082|Headliners (London Celebrities, #5)|Lucy Parker|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1569971230l/52069082._SX50_SY75_.jpg|71670067]. Why exactly was it necessary here? We already had Libby being sneaky in the show, and Johnny being stalked and assaulted, we didn't need to throw Penny's recipe espionage into the mix either. Admittedly, the final showdown between Penny and Mabel was very funny but prior to that any time that very obvious