A review by witchofthemountains
Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic, by Meghan Ciana Doidge
1.0
I wanted to love this book, I really really did. It was recommended to me based on my love for the Wishcraft series by Heather Blake and, at first, it seemed to have all the things I love: baked goods (who could resist the cupcake on the cover?!), witchcraft hidden in plain sight (I'm always a sucker for the 'hidden community' trope), and magical beings. I honestly did not see how this book could lose.
And then it did, leaving me bitterly disappointed.
The main character - who, to be honest, I cannot recall the name of despite finishing this book a very short time ago - is too perfect. Her mother was a teen mom free spirit who hooked up with some backpacker at 16 and then left him. Don't feel bad for the MC though, oh no: her incredibly rich, powerful, loving, and well-respected grandmother raised her. In a gated mansion-like house that is protected by Serious Magic.
This same grandmother owns a vast amount of realty and leases some of it to the MC, from which she runs a highly successful bakery. She loves working at her bakery, from which she also sells trinket strings of slightly magical items that totally don't have some other hidden importance uh uh, no way, not even a little one..... But working at the bakery isn't all fun, don't worry. She often has to deal with being hit on by her customers because she's just so pretty that she's had to learn how to keep these men - and sometimes women {gasp} - happy enough to buy her cupcakes (all of which have titillating names ending with 'in a cup') without leading them on. She is so pretty, in fact, that every magical guy she meets is so taken with her magic/looks combo that her foster sister (whom she begged her grandmother to adopt out of a bad situation because she's such an amazing person) can't even get a second glance until the poor guy realizes it's just magic-based infatuation and that the MC isn't really who he wants at all... including the sister's current boyfriend.
This is all given to us in the first ten minutes of the audiobook, including the introductions and lead-ins that audiobooks add on.
I could go on to the way the author details certain things way too much - like the way the MC dances while at a nightclub (detailing dancing scenes is...painful for the reader. Leave it fairly vague and move on to the storyline. I don't need three minutes of finger flicks and hip checks, but thank you) and not nearly enough time on things like how the magic looks, works, feels, or functions. If you're going to write a book with 'Magic' in the title and have your main character be a witch.... focus on the magic, not the mundane stuff we can all do.
Not all of the blame falls to the author, though. With some editing and refocusing, I think her work could be very engaging and I will come back to her work later on if she produces another series with a less 'perfect' main character. If I had read this instead of listened to it, I might have made it further before I pulled the plug and moved on to something else because the narrator really, really did not help. Everything was either full of drama, dripping innuendo, or completely deadpan... and none of it where you'd expect it to be.
The thing that finally had me returning the book to the library (after waiting months on a waiting list to get it) was the scene in which the MC has been very nearly seduced by a pack of Weres at a club, then found herself chased through darkened streets by a blood-hungry vampire who thinks she might be killing local vamps (this same vamp revealed that her father isn't human... BUT WHAT IS HE!??!?!?!!?! {cue dramatic music and close-up}) and races to her grandmother's gated and magic-protected mansion for safety. Her grandmother is on a surfing vacation so the house is empty and apparently being painted, because the MC knocks over a can of paint water as she enters. This causes her to lament "Could this night get any worse?!" and the narrator presents it in such a way that the MC really seems to think that spilled paint water is on par with completely losing track of herself and then nearly dying. Yeah... I'm good, thanks. I like my characters to have a bit more tendency towards critical thought.
I think I'll stick to my Heather Blake and keep looking for another cozy magical mystery to read until she updates Wishcraft. In the meantime... I still want that cupcake.
And then it did, leaving me bitterly disappointed.
The main character - who, to be honest, I cannot recall the name of despite finishing this book a very short time ago - is too perfect. Her mother was a teen mom free spirit who hooked up with some backpacker at 16 and then left him. Don't feel bad for the MC though, oh no: her incredibly rich, powerful, loving, and well-respected grandmother raised her. In a gated mansion-like house that is protected by Serious Magic.
This same grandmother owns a vast amount of realty and leases some of it to the MC, from which she runs a highly successful bakery. She loves working at her bakery, from which she also sells trinket strings of slightly magical items that totally don't have some other hidden importance uh uh, no way, not even a little one..... But working at the bakery isn't all fun, don't worry. She often has to deal with being hit on by her customers because she's just so pretty that she's had to learn how to keep these men - and sometimes women {gasp} - happy enough to buy her cupcakes (all of which have titillating names ending with 'in a cup') without leading them on. She is so pretty, in fact, that every magical guy she meets is so taken with her magic/looks combo that her foster sister (whom she begged her grandmother to adopt out of a bad situation because she's such an amazing person) can't even get a second glance until the poor guy realizes it's just magic-based infatuation and that the MC isn't really who he wants at all... including the sister's current boyfriend.
This is all given to us in the first ten minutes of the audiobook, including the introductions and lead-ins that audiobooks add on.
I could go on to the way the author details certain things way too much - like the way the MC dances while at a nightclub (detailing dancing scenes is...painful for the reader. Leave it fairly vague and move on to the storyline. I don't need three minutes of finger flicks and hip checks, but thank you) and not nearly enough time on things like how the magic looks, works, feels, or functions. If you're going to write a book with 'Magic' in the title and have your main character be a witch.... focus on the magic, not the mundane stuff we can all do.
Not all of the blame falls to the author, though. With some editing and refocusing, I think her work could be very engaging and I will come back to her work later on if she produces another series with a less 'perfect' main character. If I had read this instead of listened to it, I might have made it further before I pulled the plug and moved on to something else because the narrator really, really did not help. Everything was either full of drama, dripping innuendo, or completely deadpan... and none of it where you'd expect it to be.
The thing that finally had me returning the book to the library (after waiting months on a waiting list to get it) was the scene in which the MC has been very nearly seduced by a pack of Weres at a club, then found herself chased through darkened streets by a blood-hungry vampire who thinks she might be killing local vamps (this same vamp revealed that her father isn't human... BUT WHAT IS HE!??!?!?!!?! {cue dramatic music and close-up}) and races to her grandmother's gated and magic-protected mansion for safety. Her grandmother is on a surfing vacation so the house is empty and apparently being painted, because the MC knocks over a can of paint water as she enters. This causes her to lament "Could this night get any worse?!" and the narrator presents it in such a way that the MC really seems to think that spilled paint water is on par with completely losing track of herself and then nearly dying. Yeah... I'm good, thanks. I like my characters to have a bit more tendency towards critical thought.
I think I'll stick to my Heather Blake and keep looking for another cozy magical mystery to read until she updates Wishcraft. In the meantime... I still want that cupcake.