Bumpy Oak Books

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

4 stars

Leisl Adams debuts with a contemporary graphic novel, Batter Royale. Marketed as Check, Please! meets The Great British Bake Off, readers follow Fred and Rose as they compete on a reality cooking show. Fred wants the prize money to help save his mother’s restaurant. Rose wants the money to fund her attendance at culinary school. The competition reveals that Fred and Rose’s feelings for each other might be extending beyond friendship.

I went into this graphic novel expecting it to be cute and fun, and it definitely met my expectations. I love the art style and the inclusion of recipes for the various desserts being made through the story. Rose is a protagonist you can’t help but root for.

I do feel that Chopped! would be a better tv show comparison than The Great British Bake Off, given that there are traps, twists, obstacles, and heated competition between the various teams. This would set the expectations in a way that would be more representative of the tone of the story.

My only real complaint is that the story was kept heavily surface level. Adams did introduce the background of Rose’s parents separating and the potential for Fred’s mom to lose her restaurant, but these issues were mostly background problems. Rose and Fred in general, while our most developed main characters, were pretty two dimensional. None of the other competitors were developed significantly beyond the main antagonist, and even then the characterization remained flat.

Overall, I absolutely enjoyed this work for what it was and recommend this graphic as a light-hearted good time. I look forward to future works from this author and find Batter Royale to be a lovely debut.