With her latest release, Charlie N. Holmberg is quickly making herself one of my very favorite people in the world and I wish we could be friends and drink coffee together and laugh over things that don't make sense to anyone else. (If you're reading this, Charlie, please don't think I am a crazy stalker. I'm actually a very nice person.)
In "Magic Bitter, Magic Sweet" an exceptionally gifted baker named Maire is faced with some unusual and extraordinarily challenging circumstances. She has the ability to infuse her baked goods with emotions and qualities. Lavendar infuses hope into her pastries. Berries provide wisdom and cocoa is used in concoctions for love. It's not simply the ingredients that provide the magic, but the thoughts that Maire entertains as she is preparing each batch of batter or dough. Maire is living a quiet, happy life with a kind couple who have taken her in. She cannot remember anything of her childhood but seems to have made herself a comfortable life. Until one terrible day, marauders come to her village, destroying much and capturing people to be sold as slaves. Maire finds herself in a cart, in chains, and sold to a most unusual individual who knows about her abilities and has her baking for his "customers." During the course of her enslavement, things begin to change and Maire finds out some mysterious truths with the help of her friend Fyel who is able to help trigger her memory, piece by piece.
Holmberg's writing is simply delicious. She brings her characters and settings to life in a remarkable way. She weaves the theme of baking in the way she describes her character's emotions. "...swirls in my stomach, like I've swallowed a dance." She provides just enough description of the physical appearance of the world in order to allow the readers' imagination to take off with the rest. I often find that other authors make their words the goal of their story, but Holmberg crafts her words in such a way that the words themselves get out of the way of the storytelling. It makes me wonder of Holmberg has infused her words with some sort of magic, the way Maire infuses her delicacies.
This review has also been posted on my Goodreads profile.
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