Love Sugar Magic

I picked this book for the foodie magic of course. I love the idea of a bruja-owned bakery in Texas.

Leo is the youngest of five girls and hates always being thought of as the baby. She wants to do what her sisters do but is told that she should just enjoy being a kid. As a person who hated being a kid, I get how annoying that might be. When her sisters don't have to go to school on Halloween in order to get ready for the big Dia de los Muertos festival, Leo rebels. She skips out of school to see what they are all doing at the bakery. What she sees is her family doing magic.

She knows that she is in trouble for snooping so she tries to figure out magic on her own. She has talent but it is backfiring and causing chaos in her school. Eventually she has to tell her sisters in order to undo the damage she has done.

Birth order plays a big role in this magical system. That isn't something that I've seen a lot in books. The oldest of a generation can influence people. The second can make what she desires appear. The third-born can talk to ghosts. (Her twin sisters are sharing that talent.) There hasn't been a forth-born in anyone's memory so no one knows what Leo will be able to do.

There are recipes for several baked goods in the back of this book.

This is the start of a middle grade series. It will be interesting to see where they take the story from here.


This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story