The Parisian Christmas Bake-Off
3.5 stars.A very sweet Christmas contemporary. It’s a short, easy read about a school teacher who enters an elite baking competition, only to reconnect with her past and the real reason for the season.
Because it’s quite short, I did feel like the romance was rushed. It was acknowledged in the text, even, and I appreciated that, but I was still left with the feeling that the hero uprooted his whole life for a woman he’d known less than a month.
The actual baking contest was also a bit undefined. One of the contestants suggest that Henri isn’t actually looking for an assistant, but is just here for the money. How is he making money on an untelevised contest? There’s no word on how the contestants were chosen, just that a friend pulled some strings to get Rachel in. Did they pay him for the privilege of being insulted?
Still, the baking is the absolute best part. I anticipated each new day and the descriptions of petit fours, Christmas buns, and fluffy souffles. It’s obvious the character and the author both get a lot of joy from baking.
I enjoyed it very much.
