Pub Day Review: Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble

Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble by Alexis Hall
Out today from Forever

Paris Daillencourt is About to Crumble is book two in Alexis Hall’s Winner Bakes All series. Following up last year’s Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake, we once again find ourselves on the Bake Expectations set. Though this book is part of the series, it can absolutely be read as a standalone.

The titular Paris is absolutely drowning in anxiety in all areas of his life, and this only intensifies when his roommate enters him in the Bake Expectations show. It is on the show that he meets Tariq, who is a lovely and delightful gay Muslim. And I’m going to stop you right there if you think that this is a light-hearted rom-com. Because it isn’t. And it’s better for it to be what it is than to gloss over the important bits just for the sake of making it palatable to those who expect this to be another Boyfriend Material.

And this is the point where I’m going to get a bit ranty, because I made the mistake of scrolling through some reviews and that is something I absolutely should not have done. The general theme I keep seeing in some of these reviews is that they didn’t like the book because Paris is too whiny, too wound up in his anxiety, just generally “too much.” They say that it’s exhausting being in Paris’s head that much. Well, you know what else is exhausting? Actually living with the degree of anxiety from which Paris suffers. Been there, done that, got the pharmaceutical cocktail.

Another point that folks seem to be fixating on is the racism that is portrayed in the Twitter comments about the show. All I’m seeing is “how can we be writing this in 2022??” Ummmmm…have any of you actually been on Twitter in 2022? Because it’s a hellscape filled with the absolute worst of humanity. Hall has fished in that particular cesspool and has reeled in an accurate depiction of people who should not have access to the internet.

Putting my ire behind me now, I will tell you that this book made me feel so much that it tended to overflow out of my eyes. Yes, it has its dark moments and maybe that’s not for everyone, but it’s definitely for me. And I hope you find that it’s for you, too.

Also, Morag is the fat Glaswegian sex goddess we didn’t know the world needed. Just saying.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Forever for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.