Review: Love Sugar Magic A Dash of Trouble by Anna Meriano

Posted May 3, 2024 by Lola in Contemporary, Review / 3 Comments

Love Sugar Magic: A Dash of Trouble (Love Sugar Magic #1)
by Anna Meriano
narrated by Kyla Garcia

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Contemporary Fantasy
Age Category: Middle Grade

Blurb:
“A charming and delectably sweet debut. Mischief, friendship, and a whole lot of heart—Love Sugar Magic has it all.” —Zoraida Córdova, award-winning author of the Brooklyn Brujas series.

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?

Debut author Anna Meriano brings us the first book in a delightful new series filled to the brim with amor, azúcar, y magia.

My Review

I had bought this one in audio a while ago and decided now was the time to listen to it. And I am so glad I did as this one was so much fun. This book features baking and magic as well as baking magic and I loved it. It has a good plot, likable and realistic characters and it was just so fun to read. I liked the vibe this book had with the family being brujas, witches of Mexican ancestry, as well as the festival of the dead playing a prominent role in the story.

The book follows the point of view of Leo, who is the youngest of 5 sisters. She feels left out and knows her family is keeping secrets, when she goes snooping she finds out the big secret that her whole family are brujas, Mexican witches. Now Leo knows she has magic too and she wants to cast spells, but with hardly any guidance and not wanting to reveal her snooping to her mother, she gets into some trouble when her spells don’t pan out the way she wants.

I liked Leo, I felt her actions and behavior all made sense. With how her feeling left out leads to her snooping. Then there is her discovery of magic and I could understand her excitement and wanting to use her magic. She also tries to be helpful and use her magic to help her friend. Things do go wrong, but even then she eventually realizes she made mistakes and I like how she goes about in fixing it. I enjoyed reading about Leo and how she deals with everything going on. It also was fun to read about her interacting with her family and how all her sisters have their own personality as well. I really liked the ending and how everything got resolved and can’t wait to read book 2!

I just loved the theme of baking and magic this book has. There is so much about the bakery and Leo does some baking of her own as well. It definitely make me hungry and wishing I could try all the delicious sounding things they bake. I liked reading and learning more about the Festival of the Dead as I didn’t know a lot about it as it doesn’t get celebrated here as far as I know. And then there was the magic, which was so fun, especially how a lot of their magic is tied to baking or requires baking. And then there are the other magical abilities and it all was just so fun and exciting to read about. I liked following Leo and seeing her discover more about the magic. The further in the book the more magic there is and I enjoyed reading about it.

The narrator felt like a perfect fit. I thought her voice fit the characters and I liked the different voices she did for everyone. There is a lot of Spanish in this book and her pronunciation sounded flawless to me, although I know any Spanish. Leo doesn’t know a lot of the Spanish words either and the ones she does usually get translated, so I didn’t feel like I was missing anything. I felt the inclusion of the Spanish words added to the vibe of the story.

To summarize: I really liked this fun Middle Grade book that’s filled with baking and magic. Leo is a likable character and I felt her behavior made sense. I understood how excited she was to use her newfound magic powers and I liked how she used her magic to try and help her friend. Even though it does ofcourse go wrong as she doesn’t know a lot about it yet. I liked the ending and how things get resolved and Leo owns up to her mistakes. This book was so fun to read and I liked the baking theme and the magic as well as the Mexican Spanish vibes with the Spanish words in the book and the festival of the dead. I also liked reading about Leo’s whole family, all her sisters have their own personality and interactions with Leo. I also liked reading about Caroline, Leo’s best friend and how they interact. The narrator felt like a perfect fit with her Spanish sounding fluently and her voice fitting the characters. I liked the different voices she did for the various characters. I already got book 2 and hope to listen to that one soon!