Burned through another book for the reading challenge last week. This was an interesting book in that it was an enjoyable read, but at the end, you feel like you really haven’t read anything. I’ll get into more of what I mean by that, but what was the book about?

Maire is a baker who lives in a nice little fantasy town. She doesn’t remember who she is or where she’s come from, however, she just knows her name. She also knows that she has a special power that allows her to infuse magic of things like luck, love, or other emotions/characteristics into what she bakes. Her life is turned upside down when bandits attack her village and she is taken away with others to be sold as slaves. The person who buys her is eccentric but seems to know about her powers. What does that mean for her and will she be able to get away from her owner?

The story seems pretty interesting, and I think that it’s okay. Now, what I think the author gets wrong is that she wants this to be an adult fiction book, so tries to toss in some heavier stuff, but this is really a YA book with a little bit off the screen sex and a few intense situations. But beyond that, I think with the plot, it just wanders at time without really feeling like you have much of a purpose when reading it. The writing itself is well done, but the plot if just kind of there. The person who buys Maire is intentionally not fleshed out that well, but is supposed to be a very interesting character and just ends up feeling pretty dull and you don’t get them. Which is some of the point, but it’s not handled in what I would call a good way, instead it just feels like they aren’t driving the plot forward like they should.

The characters, besides Maire and her owner and one other character aren’t really fleshed out. They feel more like your standard fantasy villagers, which they are, but they don’t have much of anything that stands out about them. There are also only three of them that you really get to know. Even Maire and her owner don’t feel like they have a ton of depth. Again, I think this is done somewhat intentionally, but it doesn’t make for the best book, even if it makes sense within the book.

There are a few more confusing bits to this book that I don’t want to get into too much. Let me say that it has some heavy laying on a fairy tale themes in the book. However, there is no reason for that. In the world that Charlie Holmberg has created, she’s done nothing to set-up more fairy tale themes. it’s just a standard fantasy world that she then brings in a few mentions to fairy tales and lays it on fairly heavily in the middle, and then ignores it again at the end. The end is the other big thing that doesn’t make a ton of sense. I won’t spoil it, but let’s say that it tries to get deep, and it feels a bit like Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy mixed with an anime that has been about giant mechs fighting and the last episodes are an existential crisis, I’m looking at you Gurren Lagann and Neon Genesis Evangelion. I think it could have been done in a way that would have worked, but you are told bits and pieces of what is going to happen in the end, but you never feel like you have a real chance of discovering it with the character, versus just having her told what is going on.

Now, I have been pretty hard on this book. I do want to come back and say, I think that the writing style is pulled off well. You get this sense of whimsy that ties nicely into the fairy tale aspect and the cake baking. And I was able to read through it quickly and didn’t feel like it was a slog, because there are hints of interesting that you can keep on finding. I would say that this book is like rice. By that, I mean that the rice is good and helps make up a meal, but it’s nothing amazing just by itself and just kind of plain. That’s what this book is, it’s good but in the end, for a fantastical idea like it has, it just ends up being a little bit plain. Not bad and reading it I had my fill of the rice, there’s just nothing that makes me want to come back and have more of this book or things by this author, even though I am slightly interested in her Paper Magician series, but after one book, I don’t feel like I need to fill up on rice.

Have you read the Paper Magician Series or Magic Bitter, Magic Sweet? Did you like them? What are some books that you think a “rice”?

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