Battle Royal

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.

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