A Dash of Magic

A Dash of Trouble (Love Sugar Magic, #1)

by Anna Meriano
Series: , ,
Published on January 2, 2018
Pages: 336
Source: Library

Leonora Logroño’s family owns the most beloved bakery in Rose Hill, Texas, spending their days conjuring delicious cookies and cakes for any occasion. And no occasion is more important than the annual Dia de los Muertos festival.
Leo hopes that this might be the year that she gets to help prepare for the big celebration—but, once again, she is told she’s too young. Sneaking out of school and down to the bakery, she discovers that her mother, aunt, and four older sisters have in fact been keeping a big secret: they’re brujas—witches of Mexican ancestry—who pour a little bit of sweet magic into everything that they bake.
Leo knows that she has magical ability as well and is more determined than ever to join the family business—even if she can’t let her mama and hermanas know about it yet.
And when her best friend, Caroline, has a problem that needs solving, Leo has the perfect opportunity to try out her craft. It’s just one little spell, after all…what could possibly go wrong?

I picked this book for the foodie magic of course. I love the idea of a bruja-owned bakery in Texas.

Leo is the youngest of five girls and hates always being thought of as the baby. She wants to do what her sisters do but is told that she should just enjoy being a kid. As a person who hated being a kid, I get how annoying that might be. When her sisters don’t have to go to school on Halloween in order to get ready for the big Dia de los Muertos festival, Leo rebels. She skips out of school to see what they are all doing at the bakery. What she sees is her family doing magic.

She knows that she is in trouble for snooping so she tries to figure out magic on her own. She has talent but it is backfiring and causing chaos in her school. Eventually she has to tell her sisters in order to undo the damage she has done.

Birth order plays a big role in this magical system. That isn’t something that I’ve seen a lot in books. The oldest of a generation can influence people. The second can make what she desires appear. The third-born can talk to ghosts. (Her twin sisters are sharing that talent.) There hasn’t been a forth-born in anyone’s memory so no one knows what Leo will be able to do.

There are recipes for several baked goods in the back of this book.

This is the start of a middle grade series. It will be interesting to see where they take the story from here.