Overall: 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢
Storyline:
Writing Style:
Character Development:
Enjoyment:
“Lord love a duck!”
Brownies and Broomsticks by Bailey Cates
The Story:
Katie Lightfoot’s tired of loafing around as the assistant manager of an Ohio bakery. So when her aunt Lucy and uncle Ben open a bakery in Savannah’s quaint downtown district and ask Katie to join them, she enthusiastically agrees.
While working at the Honeybee Bakery—named after Lucy’s cat—Katie notices that her aunt is adding mysterious herbs to her recipes. Turns out these herbal enhancements aren’t just tasty—Aunt Lucy is a witch and her recipes are actually spells!
When a curmudgeonly customer is murdered outside the Honeybee Bakery, Uncle Ben becomes the prime suspect. With the help of handsome journalist Steve Dawes, charming firefighter Declan McCarthy, and a few spells, Katie and Aunt Lucy stir up some toil and trouble to clear Ben’s name and find the real killer.
Key Elements:
Magic, Mystery, Cozy Read, Paranormal, Witches, Savannah, Fiction
Others in Series:
Book 2: Bewitched, Bothered, and Biscotti
Book 3: Charms and Chocolate Chips
Book 4: Some Enchanted Éclair
Book 5: Magic and Macaroons
Book 6: Spells and Scones
Book 7: Potions and Pastries
Book 8: Cookies and Clairvoyance
Book 9: Witches and Wedding Cake
Book 10: Spirits and Sourdough
Why This Rating?
I totally recommend this book to you guys! With a murder mystery to solve and a personal secret to uncover and learn about, Katie is definitely kept busy the first few weeks in a new city! And even though it was a little less spooky than some of the scary books out there, this book was a cute book to read in the season of Halloween!
What a fun book! I haven’t picked up many feel good, cozy mystery books before this book, but this has changed my ways. I will be totally finding more of these because I really enjoyed this book. It also helps that this book is based in a city that I am very familiar with. I have been going down to Savannah and Tybee Island since I was a little girl. It is a stunning town and full of so much beauty and history! With Katie Lightfoot moving into this town, the true magic of Savannah opens up. There is so much more to this little town now that I’ve read this book. Fiction or not, this book has add something special to one of my favorite places to visit. I really wish there was a bakery named the Honeybee Bakery in Savannah though – anyone willing to take up the challenge??
I was getting so hungry while reading this thing! Katie and her Aunt are constantly cooking something throughout this book since they are opening the Honeybee Bakery in downtown Savannah. I loved that the way Cates wrote the book in a way that I felt like I could smell some of the sweets they were baking. Those are the moments I love to experience while reading – the full emersion! So heads up, you may get the urge to start munching on something sweet when reading or the want to start cooking something. I want to cook and bake so much now, especially since Cates included both a brownie and a scone recipe within this book. How amazing is that?! As a cook-wanna-be and baker-for-fun, I am always looking for new recipes to try out. These are 2 recipes that are so going to be tried out soon! I’ll put up my bakes on my Instagram soon if you guys are curious about how they turned out.
This book has such a wholesome feel to it while you are reading. I loved watching Katie solve this mystery with some old fashion small town magic and a bit of Southern charm at work. Because everyone in a small town knows each other and if you are sweet with your words, you can get learn just about anything from people while chitchatting! All of these are exactly what Katie is able to use to get to the bottom of the murder. And can I just say, the “bookclub” is freaking awesome! I’ll let you guys figure out the fun details, but the women in that group are so amazing and so supportive of each other. They’d be the ones to call up in a pinch. Plus, the amount of things I see Katie learning from them will be invaluable in the long run and I am super happy to watch her grow in the future books.
Time to get lost in the next story!
