Brownies and Broomsticks Book Review
I’ve been looking for a new cozy mystery series to start, and someone I follow on instagram posted about this book. The cover caught my eye and so did the description! I love cozy mysteries that are centered around food and baking. Add in the fact that it has some cozy magic involved and it sounded like the perfect new read for me. Keep reading for my full Brownies and Broomsticks book review.
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What is Brownies and Broomsticks by Bailey Cates about?
Katie Lightfoot’s tired of loafing around as the assistant manager of an Ohio bakery. So when her aunt Lucy and uncle Ben open a bakery in Savannah’s quaint downtown district and ask Katie to join them, she enthusiastically agrees.
While working at the Honeybee Bakery—named after Lucy’s cat—Katie notices that her aunt is adding mysterious herbs to her recipes. Turns out these herbal enhancements aren’t just tasty—Aunt Lucy is a witch and her recipes are actually spells!
When a curmudgeonly customer is murdered outside the Honeybee Bakery, Uncle Ben becomes the prime suspect. With the help of handsome journalist Steve Dawes, charming firefighter Declan McCarthy, and a few spells, Katie and Aunt Lucy stir up some toil and trouble to clear Ben’s name and find the real killer.. (from Amazon.com)
My Initial Thoughts
I was really looking forward to this book and I’m glad that it lived up to my expectations. It’s very scary to move and start over, so I loved that Katie had such a welcoming family in Savannah. Lucy and Ben were very sweet right off the bat. You can tell that it’s really special for them to be able to share this new business venture with their niece.
I was very curious to see how magic would be introduced to the story. I liked how it was very subtle. First Katie noticed Lucy adding special herbs into recipes. And then she noticed her walking around and muttering things. Is she losing it? No! She’s just doing some quiet incantations. Lol.
I don’t know much about Savannah but in my mind I always thought it was a larger city, which is kind of different for a cozy mystery. The story very much had a small town feel though. I can’t say whether that’s realistic or not but I enjoyed it never the less.
There’s a Book Club
Katie’s Aunt Lucy admits pretty early on that she’s a witch. And here’s the kicker. Katie’s a witch too!
This felt very natural, because Katie has certain feelings when she’s near certain people. So even though she’s shocked, she accepts pretty quickly that she could have magical powers. She meets Aunt Lucy’s book club, which is actually a spell book club. Which is actually a coven of witches.
I loved all of these characters. We got to know some of them better than others, but I imagine we’ll learn more about their personalities and lives in future books.
The Mystery
Katie’s Uncle Ben is accused of murdering Mavis Templeton after the two of them have a disagreement at the bakery. It’s very natural that Katie would want to get involved in clearing Ben’s name. But I did feel like she was a little too forward with her investigation. I also felt that Detective Quinn was kind of doing a bad job at investigating himself. He was getting angry at Katie for intervening but she honestly wouldn’t have had to if he had actually done anything.
I don’t know. Maybe he’ll get better in upcoming books but I’m not a huge fan of him right now.
There’s a potential Love Triangle
I was not expecting for there to be a potential love triangle in this book. And you know what? I’m here for it!
Katie is in a new city and meeting lots of new people. She catches the eye of Steve, a local reporter who is a bit forward. Meanwhile, she also befriends Declan who is a friend and former coworker of her Uncle’s.
Both men are interesting in different ways. So at this point I’m not going to pick a favorite. I think I need more information before I decide who to ship. Lol.
The Food Sounds So Delicious
A lot of the baked goods in this book sounded so yummy. And I was delighted to see that there were quite a few recipes shared at the end of the book. I really want to try to make the peanut butter swirl brownies. But the cheddar-sage scones sounded really good too. Which of these new recipes would you want to bake first?
In Conclusion
I really enjoyed this first installment of the Magical Bakery Mystery Series. Katie is a really enjoyable main character and the side characters are great too. The Honeybee sounds like a great place to hang out and have breakfast.
Thanks so much for checking out today’s Brownies and Broomsticks book review. I hope to be back soon to discuss the next book in the series.
