thecandlelightlibrary's Reviews (1.25k)

I am so excited to see the rise in cozy fiction! This is perhaps my favorite genre and for years it was so difficult to track down the right books. A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic is a decent debut and I'm excited to see how the author continues to grow as the series develops. I loved the food descriptions throughout the story and was excited to find several recipes for important bakes in the back of the novel and can't wait to try them. While it would have been nice to see a recipe for each of the important bakes, I know how hard recipe development can be.

What didn't quite work for me, though, was the pacing and the choice of main character. I think the plot points and different subplots could have been better balanced and more time could have been spent on the baking competition itself. Arleta doesn't even arrive to the location where the baking competition will take place until nearly 30% of the way through the story (and not all the remaining story is spent focused on the baking competition), and the romantic subplot progressed rather awkwardly for me. As for the choice of main character, I'm not sure if Arleta was the best character to focus a "cozy" fantasy on - her lack of confidence and frequent backtracking detracted from the otherwise cozy and lighthearted atmosphere. If she had stopped self-sabotaging once she started the baking competition, or at least showed more consistent growth as a character, I probably would not have found her as frustrating as I did. Overall, though, I'm looking forward to the next book in this series and seeing how this world and these characters continue to develop.

I absolutely love wordplay & this turned into my first 5⭐️ read of the year! I thoroughly enjoyed how the humor, etymology, & mystery was woven through the cast of entertaining characters. Definitely looking forward to rereading this one.