378 reviews for:

Magic Bitter, Magic Sweet

Charlie N. Holmberg

3.45 AVERAGE

hevz_lt's review

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Not gunna lie... this wasn't my favourite Charlie N. Holmberg novel, but it still has everything I love about her stories: rich world-building, in-depth characters, complex relationships, and those heart wrenching bitter sweet endings to her stories!

hurrairah's review against another edition

2.0

there was literally no information regarding the plot in the first third of the book and when we got to know stuff in the second half, the ending was pretty predictable to me

i was not invested in the characters and i could care less what happened to them

writingjules's review against another edition

4.0

The only reason this book took me two days to read is because I was exhausted the first night and fell asleep with my face plastered onto my kindle because I refused to actually choose to put the book down...

Let me say that I am a big Charlie Holmberg fan. I loved all four of her other books and went into this with high expectations. And while I met a story I was totally NOT expecting, it did live up to my desires for another great Holmberg read.

The thing about this book is that Holmberg has such unique story ideas that she always keeps me guessing. This book appeared to be about a baker with magical abilities and some fairytale interweaving but ended up being so much more. The mystery of who she was and how she got to this place was subtle and layered enough that it kept me intrigued through the entire book. I had read that there was a plot twist/reveal and what my brain went on to imagine it would be is NOT what I ended up with, which I loved.

I expected the romance to develop in a particular way and it didn't. It was fresh and new and delightful. The ending was completely satisfying and (gosh- I don't want to say bittersweet because that's just too 'on the nose'...) let's just say it was everything I wanted it to be: tender, satisfying, complex, and giving a sense of 'more' to the story.

I loved the metaphors and descriptions in the writing. I do want to go back and reread this sometime, though, because I feel like there were a few characters that I just didn't connect to as strongly as I wanted or didn't slow down enough to get into their motivations. I don't know if that was the writing or my fast pace reading this. Either way, I won't mind spending more time with such a delightful book.

I am pretty sparse with my 5-star ratings these days so let me just say that a 4-star rating in my books is a pretty high recommendation. ;)

Magic Bitter, Magic Sweet is a book that met all my expectations in unexpected ways.

*I was given a NetGalley copy in exchange for an honest review.

feyley's review against another edition

5.0

This was one of the most unique books I've ever read. And it looks like the author only writes unique fantasy novels so that's a huge plus in her favor.
I enjoyed the way that we learned the world through the character's eyes, as she didn't know entirely what was going on or how everything worked. Each of the characters felt like they had their own voice which is refreshing after some things I've read recently. The story was nothing like I expected but it was wonderful. It kept me guessing the whole time, I just couldn't put my finger on what she and Fyel were supposed to be.
But I would definitely recommend this book to people, I have already started. And I will be picking up the rest of this author's books asap.

dumbish's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.25

cmachleit's review

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

mnsutten's review against another edition

3.0

Even though I did like it, there were a number of moments that just made me go "what?!" Parts seemed disconnected though a number of pages later, you see how you go there. Just a little bit of a turn off that it was disjointed. By the end though, I was pleased and thought it was good. Not amazing, but good.

ljrinaldi's review against another edition

3.0

This was a mixed bag. The first third of so was full of suspense and moved swiftly. The second third slowed down to a crawl and the final third had me wondering when it would all be over

Good premise, thoughts and feelings baked into things. I didn't like the amnesia trope. I'm sure it is to build suspense but it gets annoying.


Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

aretz's review against another edition

3.0

Solid 3 stars. This novel isn't as good as her Paper Magician series. The ending for this novel didn't seem very logical and the epilogue was disappointing. I guess I wanted this to be more connected with the idea of fairy tale or creator as if Maire had flung herself into a book, but her actions ultimately didn't really seem to connect with what was happening in the novel. What actually happened was just...not that interesting...I almost felt that the author's dogma and her own wants got in the way of her story. And I hate to say that because I really enjoy Holmberg's writing style and her ability to tell a story, but this...this just fell flat. Perhaps this was just too ambitious of a story to only be fit into less than 300 pages. The romance elements were a little lax, the world outside where she's been dropped off wasn't quite built up, and the plot just didn't seem to fit in with the final mystery that took a really long time to get to.

All in all, I highly recommend The Paper Magician as a first read from Holmberg--Magic Bitter, Magic Sweet might be more of a turn off than an encouragement to keep going with the author's novels.

letz_get_in_a_book's review against another edition

3.0

This book lived up to being bitter and sweet. But like baking it is slow and sometimes falls flat. However my biggest grip is the title of the chapters. What are they? Allemus’ thoughts? If someone would explain I would be so happy.

The longer you think about the book the worse it gets. I liked her other novels better.