Time to Rise

Thanks to the publisher for an eARC provided through NetGalley. The following is my honest and personal review of the book.

Time to Rise is a fun romcom set in Sweden that follows two storylines.

The first is set in the modern day, about a TV show host who helps bakers improve their business and products, and a small town bakery owner whose friend entered into the show. Both of these people come from a long line of bakers, him on his paternal side, and her on her maternal side, and so they are very passionate about what they do. 

To complicate things, his TV show persona is mean and condescending, while she refuses to be made to look stupid when she is confident that she is a better baker than him. And neither of them can back out of the show.

In parallel, we follow a storyline from 1945, where a Finnish widow who is passionate about baking migrates with her two children to Sweden and takes a job working as a packer in a family-owned up-and-coming bakery, run by the family's single son. 

And the two storylines eventually collide in the cutest way.

I enjoyed reading the book, the story flows easily, and it is a warm and fluffy romcom. 

Both Nora and Henrik have their motives for the show to go on, which got me invested in it as much as they were. And they both are skilled bakers, which makes their quarrels and disagreements plausible. 

Tuula and Nils' storyline was so tender, and it left me with a little heartbreak. 

The parallels between the two storylines are pretty clear, and it was easy to draw conclusions and make predictions, but it was in line with what I would expect of a romance story, and I was glad to be reading a book where a happy ending is pretty much guaranteed. 

I also loved how the storylines diverged from each other, particularly, how Henrik and Nils handled their relationship with their fathers. I also appreciate the way that both Nora and Tuula contributed to those decisions.

The side characters were interesting and diverse, and I liked to see female friendships throughout the story. And I enjoyed the glimpse into Swedish Christmas traditions!

However, in Nora and Henrik's storyline, there was more telling and not as much showing as I would have liked, especially regarding their quarrels and their romance. I usually love reading banter, and I felt there was room for more. I also felt the ending was a bit abrupt since the issue of sourdough starter, which is the core of the whole book, did not feel resolved until the epilogue.