For fans of Hex Hall, The Magicians, Practical Magic, and Food Wars! After her run-in with a jealous warlock, apprentice baker Anise Wise can’t wait to get back the kitchen where she belongs. But thanks to her brush with death, the land of the living isn’t all cupcakes and marshmallows. Anise’s magical mojo is way out of whack and her evolving powers are stirring up trouble. As the town buzzes … trouble. As the town buzzes with news that Anise can bake deathly spells, unsavory characters start lining up for a taste. They’ll stop at nothing for the chance to use Anise and her witchcraft to further their own plots.
She plans to hole up researching magic recipes until the attention dies down, but then she discovers the horrifying terms of her bodyguard’s contract. Wynn has saved her life so many times, she can’t leave him trapped. But doing the right thing will mean risking death or worse–being cast out of her dream job.
For this witch, justice might not be as sweet as advertised.
The Spellwork Syndicate Series
1. Deadly Sweet
2. Sugar Spells – October 30, 2018!
more
I had some personal issues come up drastic enough that I didn’t have the chance to read at all, and this is the first book I picked up to read after everything calmed back down. I’m going to be honest, I didn’t expect that I was going to be able to give it a fair review. I hadn’t even been excited about my emails offering free books. Imagine my surprise when I was whisked away into this world and stayed up all night reading until the very last page. This book was the balm my battered soul needed and the vacation my brain had desperately longed for.
I hadn’t had a chance to read the first book, so I jumped in to book 2 with the hope that it wouldn’t be too noticeable. While I certainly noticed, it wasn’t bad and I don’t feel as though there were any spoilers. If you are a person who hates realizing you missed a book, you may be mildly irritated so take the time to read the first book. If you don’t care, you aren’t going to have any problems reading them out of order.
Even without having read anything else, I could tell that there was clear character development among the characters and especially with Anise’s Shield. I loved how Anise was a character that anyone could relate to. She struggles with money problems while the rest of the witches seem to be well-off due to living in a certain area close to their source of magic. It’s actually this that helps her to relate to those in the non-witchy world. I felt is was also interesting how the witch’s face prejudice outside of their little bubble of witch life. Anise sees this first hand while on an outing with friends.
I found myself trying to figure out the next twist and turn only to find that at times, the twist that I was waiting for was actually a straight line. You kept thinking a certain thing was going to happen and it didn’t, which was actually just as rewarding as if it had. All in all, I have found a writer that I’m sure to follow and a book I have to go back and find to read, if only because I can’t wait to find myself lost in their world again.
I highly recommend this book and it’s a clean novel suitable for all ages.
Thank you to Lola Dodge, Ink Monster, LLC., and NetGalley for allowing me the chance to experience this world and share my thoughts and opinions with others. It was truly a wonderful experience.
I have a pretty terrible memory for the details of books, and I read the first one back in March. But I’m pretty sure I liked this one even more than the first!
Lola Dodge’s culinary descriptions continued to make me drool and once again, the cover is really stunning. The way Anise’s magic is infused with the baking was also described in detail and Dodge was able to expand on the magic system she established in book one. We also got to see more of Blair’s necromancy and Gabi’s cryptoid veterinary clinic, both of which were enjoyable.
Character-wise, my favourite part was the burgeoning friendship between Anise and her bodyguard, Wynn. I love begrudging friendships! And this was definitely begrudging on Wynn’s part. We also got to learn how he ended up in his contract as Anise’s bodyguard and what that meant for him. I loved Anise’s attempts to help him and how he opened up as he realised she was genuine about it.
I never saw the twist coming, but in hindsight, I should have known something was up. And those are the best sorts of twists, I think. The different sub-plots of the story all wove together into the climax, and I ended up taking a longer lunch break than I should have to finish the book. From the sounds of it, it looks like book three in the series follows pretty closely from the events of this one, and I can’t wait until March to read it!
(Thank you to the Publishers and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for a review)
Let’s just get this one thing out of the way before we do anything else in this review, readers. These covers are killing me! I have died and gone to purple heaven and you cannot make me leave. I want paperbacks so I can have these books facing outwards on my shelf just facing the room and when I need a bookish pick-me-up, I can just glance over and BAM! Shot of purple power! I’m not saying purple is one of my top 3 favourite colours but I did dye all of my hair purple for a few months a few years ago. No, really. It was a tacky purple explosion of rebellion I enjoyed flaunting in a small Southern Baptist Georgia town. *sigh* Ah, memories. Moving on!
In Sugar Spells, we return to Taos, Arizona and our heroine, Anise Wise, and her compatriots weeks after the events of Deadly Sweet. We quickly learn that Anise has been banned from working at her great-aunt Agatha’s magical bakery for the time being as her magic’s gone a tad bit awry following her near-death experiences of the first book and she’s now filled with death magic. Because you don’t want to accidentally sell any tourists a death-laced custard bomboloni, right?
Well, Anise decides that, yes, she’s going to sell death-laced macarons to see if that will get the death magic to wear off. To a well-paying shifty customer who actually wants to eat an entire batch on a regular basis, and she’s doing it in order to help her Shield, Wynn, pay off his indentured servitude contract.
Now. For the whosits and whatsits. I’m glad to see that Gabi gets more of a role in Sugar Spells than she had in Deadly Sweet where you had to skip back to remind yourself who she was a few times. When her new death magic starts to act up, Anise seeks refuge at Gabi’s animal rescue/hospital and stays in a cottage apartment away from other lifeforms. We also see a fair bit of Blair, Anise’s other best friend, including a bestie shopping trip with all three of them and their bodyguard contingent.
Thankfully, Anise steps away from the bumbling blonde routine she had developed in Deadly Sweet and it seems as if she’s found her feet in Sugar Spells. I’m so thankful for that, too. She doesn’t sit about waiting for her mum or Aunt Agatha for Wynn or anybody and everybody BUT her to do the figuring out of things for her this time. Instead of waiting around for someone or something to fix her magic, she takes the magic bull by the horns and keeps trying to find a way.
My favourite part is, of course, the magical baking. I mean, if I could make good fortune blueberry-lemon bars, well, I wouldn’t be typing, I’d be baking. And, if anybody wants to try to make macarons after reading Sugar Spells, here’s 12 Tips for perfect macaron feet because the feet are important!
Wynn maintains his steadfast role of silent but deadly throughout the story, except for moments where Anise manages to break his stony façade and he gifts us with a full sentence or two. Call the news, it’s a miracle!
I’m giving Sugar Spells 4 stars because it improved a lot from Deadly Sweet and it gave me the edge of my seat feeling a few times. You know how much I love that edge of my seat feeling.
Even better than the first book! I couldn’t put it down. The storyline was even more spellbinding than the first book, the world building is magical and the characters growth is amazing! I’m so ready for the next book! This book was exciting, thrilling, well-written and original!
I’ve seem to read more YA than usual, and as I’ve said in those reviews, they aren’t my favorite genre. I like them, but to me they can a little too YA. However, this second book in this series strikes the exact right tone. I read the first book of the series, and I really enjoyed it. However, as has been the case lately, I liked this second one even better. The characters are really starting to grow and become very real characters to me. They aren’t carbon copies of each other, and each has their own uniqueness. Not only that, the book is well-written and kept my interest up throughout the whole book, even when the book took a strange turn towards the end. I just went with the plot twist and came to appreciate the interesting twist. And, I loved what Anise gained at the end (you’ll have to read the book to find out what). I can’t wait to see what Anise and company get into the next book! I give this one 4 ½ starts and highly recommend it! I was provided the e-book which I voluntarily reviewed.