Book Review: Potions and Pastries

On this Mysterious Monday, we bring you our review of a bewitchingly good tale from Bailey Cates. Potions and Pastries is book 7 in the Magical Bakery mystery series, and it is the first book in this series that we have read.

The plot

Potions and Pastries  is set in Savannah, Georgia, where Katie Lightfoot is a witch, a hedgewitch, actually; she does her magic in the kitchen, using herbs and such to help and heal. She’s also a lightwitch, meaning she is a seeker of justice (this is one of our favorite things about her).  Of course, as a witch, she has a familiar—in this case, a Cairn terrier named Mungo. Yes, we were hoping for a feline familiar, but Katie is unfortunately allergic to cats (I know—I couldn’t believe it either!). Mungo is a good companion though; he takes good care of Katie. Plus, Katie’s boyfriend, Declan, is sometimes taken over by the spirit of an ancestor who might be—get this—a leprechaun. 

Much of the book centers on the Honeybee Bakery, where the pastries might have something a little extra added—because, you know, it’s basically run by witches. This is where the cat comes in, because the bakery is named after a cat, Honeybee, an orange striped beauty who is the familiar of Katie's aunt Lucy. Unfortunately, we see a very little bit of Honeybee herself because of that allergy thing.

The mystery really gets going when one day Katie is standing outside with Orla Black, a fortune teller who is part of the secretive Black clan. Katie suddenly gets a message to help Orla (she gets these messages from her departed grandmother sometimes), and in the next second, Orla, seemingly under some sort of spell, steps into the street right in front of an oncoming car. She is killed instantly, and Katie suspects she was murdered. Just try convincing the local police of that though.

So it’s going to be up to Katie to tease out the clues that will lead to who killed Orla—and how. Could it have been a disgruntled customer who didn’t like how their fortune turned out, or perhaps some member of the Black clan? Clan leader John Black was known to be upset with Orla, but how can Katie possibly get any information out of this tight-knit family that is known for not welcoming outsiders? And will the murderer stand for her meddling or try to silence her forever?

Our verdict

I will admit I was disappointed that there wasn’t more cat in this book. That said, we thought the story in Potions and Pastries was terrific. We liked Katie right away, and we even liked Mungo. He proved pretty useful to have around. You know, for a dog. Katie has just enough going on in her life to make for a really interesting read, but it isn’t so much that the mystery gets lost among the personal stuff. There are a few heart-stopping scenes that we just loved. The end wasn’t a complete surprise, but the way things were revealed and the way the story was resolved was surprising (and part of it was heart stopping too!). Call us 91% surprised and 100% pleased.

Yes, I do have to withhold a paw for the relative lack of cat (this is a cat blog, after all), but we loved this book so much, old SoLT asked the Resident Dog to step in and add a couple of woofs to make up for it.

Recommended!

A note on the "Paws Up" system: Miss C gives either one or two paws up. One paw is for a good read; two paws is for a great read. She never gives three or four paws because that would require her to lie on her back...and Miss C does not do that!

We received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. We wouldn’t tell you it was good unless we really liked it!

The link below is an Amazon Associates link. If you purchase the book through this link, old SoLT and I could get some coin for our kibble account. Thank you!