Review: Love Sugar Magic A Sprinkle of Spirits by Anna Meriano

Posted October 23, 2024 by Lola in Contemporary, Fantasy, Review / 4 Comments

Love Sugar Magic: A Sprinkle of Spirits (Love Sugar Magic #2)
by Anna Meriano
narrated by Kyla Garcia

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Contemporary Fantasy
Age Category: Middle Grade

Blurb:
The second book in this breakout series that’s been called “charming and delectably sweet.” (Zoraida Córdova, award-winning author of the Brooklyn Brujas series)

Leonora Logroño has finally been introduced to her family’s bakery bruja magic—but that doesn’t mean everything is all sugar and spice. Her special power hasn’t shown up yet, her family still won’t let her perform her own spells, and they now act rude every time Caroline comes by to help Leo with her magic training.

She knows that the family magic should be kept secret, but Caroline is her best friend, and she’s been feeling lonely ever since her mom passed away. Why should Leo have to choose between being a good bruja and a good friend?

In the midst of her confusion, Leo wakes up one morning to a startling sight: her dead grandmother, standing in her room, looking as alive as she ever was. Both Leo and her abuela realize this might mean trouble—especially once they discover that Abuela isn’t the only person in town who has been pulled back to life from the other side.

Spirits are popping up all over town, causing all sorts of trouble! Is this Leo’s fault? And can she reverse the spell before it’s too late?

Anna Meriano’s unforgettable family of brujas returns in a new story featuring a heaping helping of amor, azúcar, and magia.

My Review

I wanted to listen to something familiar, then I remembered this series and decided to listen to this second book. I really enjoyed this book and think it’s a great sequel. It has a new problem for Leo to deal with and I liked how the situation was quite different from the first book. Which made it feel fresh and still familiar as well as we see more of the same characters from book 1 and some new ones as well.

I really liked listening to this book. The narrator is awesome and really fits the series well, I like how she does all the different voices and the Spanish words all sound natural as well as far as I can tell. This book deals with themes of loss and death as well as friendship and magic. I thought these themes were handled well. It could get a bit sad at times, but mostly the book had a fun and uplifting tone.

I liked seeing how Leo dealt with things and handled the situation. There are some great moments when she realized she made a mistake and apologized as well as when she steps up to fix this situation. She’s growing into her powers and has learned from things in book 1 and learns more in this book as well. I like her as main character and I enjoyed seeing her interact with her family and friends. There are some interesting scenes involving Caroline and it was fun to see a few other friends from their snack club as well. It also was nice to see Leo interact with her Abuella in this one and there are some very sweet and heartwarming moments. The conclusions wraps things up in a satisfying way despite being a bit sad as well.

It was fun to see more of the bruja magic in this book, this book focuses more on candles and spirits. I was a bit sad there wasn’t as much baking in this one, but there is a pivotal moment were one of their family baking spells helps out a lot which was nice to see.

To summarize: I really enjoyed this book. It has a different problem for Leo and her friends and family to resolve. I liked how the situation and how it happened is quite different from book 1. This book deals with spirits and has some themes surrounding death and unfinished business. I really liked seeing how Leo handled the situation and enjoyed seeing her interact with her friends and family. There are some heartwarming moments between Leo and her Abuello as well as between Leo and her friends. The ending has a satisfying conclusion and I liked learning more about the bruja magic along the way. The narrator is awesome and I thought she was a great fit for the story with how she did all the voices.