Reviews

From the book jacket: Syd (no pronouns, please) has always dealt with big, hard-to-talk-about things by baking. Being dumped is no different, except now Syd is working in the kitchen of the Proud Muffin, a queer bakery and community space in Austin. And everyone who eats Syd’s breakup brownies break up.

My reactions
At the outset, I had some difficulty with the constantly changing pronouns – not just Syd but Harley and others seem unsure which pronouns they prefer on any given day. But I got over this and began to enjoy this YA romance.

Syd is a great character, who exhibits many of the typical teenager anxieties, though Syd’s constant trying to “fix things” for everyone does seem a bit over the top. But then, Syd is a teenager. I did like how Capetta explored relationships and changing feelings and how we need to learn to communicate openly and honestly.

And I loved the recipes!

leslie_oh's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

4.0

novella42's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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? Yes

5.0

This book was generous, warm, and wholeheartedly delicious. A cookie. This book was basically a cookie. Fresh out of the oven and scrumptious.

I adored all the food metaphors, many of which were downright poetic. I loved the way that the city of Austin was its own character, one very true to form, I think. It was just so sweet, in every way I could've wanted. It really had everything I could've asked for in a YA queer romance set in my hometown.

It reminded me of the queer foodie goodness of Chef's Kiss by TJ Alexander, and also the magical realism culinary romance of The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.

Tiny spoilery complaint about the polyam rep:

my only complaint here is that I don't know anyone in the polyamorous community who would surprise invite someone to a polyamory brunch. The community functions on lots of communication and informed consent, which is otherwise wonderfully represented in this scene, but the plot device of having Syd invited without understanding it was a polyam meetup rang really false to me. Maybe it was meant to be a misunderstanding? I think the main reason it bothers me is that polyam people get pinged with a lot of suspicion that we'd try to trick someone into dating us, when the reality is most polyam people (at least the ones I know) go to great lengths to make sure everyone is on the same page and opting in on their own terms. But otherwise, it was a great scene and I truly appreciated having good representation.

Anyway, I loved this book so very much and think I will be swinging by Book Woman soon to pick up a hardcopy for my own Comfort Book Shelf.

I've also snapped pics of the recipes for the Very Sorry Cake and the Shiny New Scones and have loaded up the ingredients in my HEB grocery app. I will update here if they turn out as delicious as they sound!

Content Warnings

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