I adored this book so much! The characters had well developed personalities, and the political intrigue was spot on. The world building is done through the teaching of Wren so it is spread out through out the book. I didn't expect the ending, and had my sights set on a different character being guilty so it was a great unexpected twist. But looking back it all makes sense. Can't wait to read the next in this series! ( )

3.5 ( )

An enjoyable world populated by some interesting characters, but Wren's characterization is all over the place, and Luana's writing, while occasionally very lovely, is undermined by redundancies, incorrect word usage ("chaff" is not the same word as "chafe"), and purple prose—all of which could have been addressed by a decent editor. ...And it looks as if it's too late to recommend more rigorous editing for the next two books in the trilogy. Alas. ( )

Really enjoyed this book! The romance was laid a bit too thick on the get go, but other than that I found myself rooting for everyone.
I've always thought that infusing food with magic is one of the most entertaining ways to use magic to begin with, so this was a hit with me right away. Add the cozy mystery factor and you've got a winner.
Definitely will go for the next book as soon as I'm feeling peckish for a lucky cupcake again. ( )

Thank you to Live Edge Publishing and Netgalley for sending me an ARC to review, although all opinions and comments are of my own.

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*All of my reviews are as spoiler-free as possible unless states otherwise*

I am a character-driven story kind of reader and is a huge factor that affects my reading experience. Which was a good thing in this case because I found the plot to be really cliche and it was something that I was able to predict at every twist. But this is coming from someone who has read her fair share of fantasy books.

The story started out really interesting for me and is the kind of world that I have always wondered "What if there was a world like. . . ". It could have easily become a high fantasy with elves and all that but I was really happy it did not take that turn. I enjoyed the character interactions and I have to say that it is what I lived for in this book. I enjoyed the writing style of the author which made the cliches less of a problem and made it easier for me to accept that that is just how the story goes.

It could have done with some more world-building and less cheesiness, nonetheless, it was a book that I found to be quite unique in terms of the idea of the world itself. It was far from being a bad book, and I actually enjoyed a part of it despite the cliche. ( )