A Dash of Magic by Kathryn Littlewood
3:15 PM
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
ISBN:978-0-06-208429-3
Genre:Middle Grade
Review by Phil
Synopsis (Goodreads.com): Rosemary Bliss will do anything to get back her family’s magical Cookery Booke.
That’s why she challenges her aunt Lily to an international baking competition in Paris: If Rose wins, Lily agrees to return the Cookery Booke that she stole. If Rose loses—well, the consequences are too ugly to think about.
But Lily isn’t playing fair—she is using a magical ingredient to cheat. The only way for Rose to compete is for her to find magical ingredients of her own.
Together with her long-lost grandpa, his sarcastic talking cat, and a turncoat French mouse, Rose and her brothers must race around Paris to find essential—and elusive—magical ingredients to help her outbake—and outmagic—her conniving aunt.
Rose has to win or the Bliss Cookery Booke will be lost to her family forever.
My Thoughts (Spoiler-Free):
Every now and then I need a good middle grade book. Whether it be because I am sick of reading predictable teen life, or just because I am in the mood for a good adventure, sometimes I just need a middle grade. I stumbled upon the Bliss Bakery series while browsing Barnes and Noble one day. Immediately the cover attracted me, and from reading the description I knew I had to pick it up. I mean a magic bakery?!!? Does that not sound awesome?! Well, needless to say I loved the first book in the Bliss series entitled “Bliss”, and was head over heals excited to find out the sequel had been released. The books center around the Bliss family, a family of magical bakers whose life goal is to make their little town happy with their baked goods. Rosemary Bliss is our main protagonist, a 12 year old girl who wants to become one of the best bakers she can possibly be.
In “A Dash of Magic”, we follow the Bliss family to Paris as they watch Rose compete in a televised baking competition, lead by world renown pastry chef Jean-Pierre Jeanpierre, against her evil Aunt Lily. The eccentric , yet amazingly talented Jean-Pierre creates a competition very similar to popular TV shows (like Chopped or Iron Chef), in which every day the contestants are given a surprise theme to base their baking off of. To win the competition, and finally defeat Aunt Lilt, Rose decides that she must use her magic recipes in the competition, and collect the strange and magical ingredients in Paris.
I really enjoyed this book. It was fun and silly, everything I expected it to be and more. The old characters were believable and charming as always, and the new characters added something even more to this great series. While I still do enjoy the first book more, I would recommend this book to any young reader, or even any adult, who wants to add a little dash of magic to their reading schedule!
♚♚♚♔♔
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