Brownies and Broomsticks

A Magical Bakery Mystery, Book 1

By: Bailey Cates

Narrated by: Johanna Parker

Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

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....

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2012 Penguin Group USA (Inc.) (P)2013 Tantor

well written and with a great narration

Bailey Cates, happily surprised me with this mystery. I do like cozy mysteries--but some are just for the brain dead--REALLY! BUT This one is a keeper!

It all starts when a northern girl, moves to the south to help and uncle open a bakery. Her name is Katie Lightfoot. She has been trained as a baker. After a bad experience up north, she is happy for a new start with her life, and to work with her uncle and aunt to open a new bakery. After some time, her aunt explains to Katie, that she and her book group are practicing witches, and she was one too. Her parents had never told her, that she is from a long line of witches. All of this came to Katie as a big surprise. From here the mystery starts--- after the sudden death of an annoying old lady, and that the police think her uncle is a suspect, Katie's hackles are up. She is going to find out who did it and save her uncle, even if she has to use her witchy side.

Well worth the credit and I will reread it with a smile in the future.

A charming fantasy mystery

Katie Lightfoot has had a bad breakup with her fiancé, and needs a big change. So she's taken her pastry school education and her experience working in an Akron bakery to Savannah, Georgia. Her Uncle Ben and Aunt Lucy are starting a bakery there, and she's bringing her business and baking experience to the project.

What she doesn't know is that Aunt Lucy has a family secret to share with her--one her own parents have been keeping from her.

Katie's father and mother, her mother's sister Lucy, and Katie herself are all witches. Specifically hedge witches, gifted in the use of herbs and related matters.

Such as cooking, and baking.

Katie isn't sure she really believes any of this, but she loves her new home, is excited to be starting the Honeybee Bakery, and likes the ladies of her aunt's "spell book club," i.e., coven. Even with the hassle of being manipulated by the nasty Mrs. Templeton into hosting the Downtown Business Association meeting at the bakery days before they're scheduled to open, it's a good time.

Then someone breaks Mrs. Templeton's neck and kills her, moments after she and Uncle Ben have had a testy discussion about her refusal to pay the full agreed price for the breakfast meeting. A man fitting Ben's description was seen near her car just before she was found dead. Ben isn't a good suspect, or one that Detective Peter Quinn especially wants, but he's the only suspect.

Katie is suddenly juggling starting up a new bakery, two cute guys (Declan, a firefighter Ben used to work with when he was fire chief, and Steve, columnist for the local paper), the alarming idea that she's a witch, and an investigation into who really killed Mrs. Templeton, before the police arrest Ben because they don't have anyone else.

This is an entertaining start to a promising new series. I haven't mentioned Honeybee the cat, or the little terrier, Mungo the Magnificent, who are looking like very promising characters. I enjoyed the characters, the setting, and the tone.

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from Audible in exchange for an honest review.

junk food lit!

honestly the writing is not great (no one needs to know that the main character is wearing a floral skort) and a few bits i personally found low-key offensive, but i definitely wasn't expecting or wanting award winning prose from this series, it is a good distraction when there's a lot of serious stuff happening in the real world.

Cute story

It is just what the title says it was a nice easy listen, predictable but fun and definitely inspired me to get in the kitchen and bake!.

Can Katie prove her uncle is innocent?

Brownies and Broomsticks by Bailey Cates is a good book. I listened to the Audible version of it, and I loved it. This book that made me feel like I was there with the characters. Brownies and Broomsticks is set in Savannah, Georgia when it was nice and hot, which was splendid as the last few days it’s been getting cold here in Montana. What a perfect book to listen to while doing my chores or taking a walk.

The Main Character:
The main character in Brownies and Broomsticks is Katie Lightfoot. She is a twenty-eight-year-old baker who is a recent transplant to Savannah, Georgia. Kate arrives there after a breakup with her fiancé. She is in Georgia to open up a bakery with her aunt and uncle. The story is from her point of view. I think this worked quite well under some specific circumstances that Katie had found herself in throughout the story.

What I liked about Katie
• Katie loves to bake, and she was doing that with her aunt and uncle by owning a bakery.
• She took in a dog hoping that she wouldn't have to take him to the pound. Thank goodness she fell in love with him instead.
• Katie is stubborn and didn’t take any prisoners when it came to trying to help to solve a murder.

What I disliked about Katie
• She didn’t at least try to entertain the notion of what her aunt told her about herself and her family.
• Katie didn’t trust herself or her instincts.

The Love Triangle:
This book is the first in this series, and Katie Lightfoot doesn’t know which guy she likes. However, before moving to Savannah, gave up on men for a bit to have a break. The two new men in her life currently are Steve and Declan. Steve is a newsroom reporter, and Declan is a fireman. They both like Katie but they hate each other. I have no clue which one she will choose.

The Villain:
I am not going to spoil this for anyone, but I will tell you that there are more than one. So, I figured out one just not the other. I liked how Ms. Cates was able to do this.

The Narrator
Ms. Parker did a great job on narrating. It was a bit hard at first, but toward the middle, I liked how she was portraying each character with her voice. It helped transport me to Georgia.

Five Stars
Brownies and Broomsticks by Bailey Cates was magnificent to listen. I loved it so much. This book was excellent and kept me guessing about who did it. There was a lot of red herrings until we finally got to the real killer and when we got to that part, I was certainly shocked that I was wrong. It was great. I am giving this book a five-star rating, and I am recommending to anyone that likes cozy mysteries.

Anyways until the next time enjoy this review brought to you by
Baroness Book Trove.

If you would like to read more reviews like this one, please go to baronessbooktrove.com

A Little Mystery with your Magic

Johanna Parker is an excellent narrator as always, and Bailey Cates has created a quirky coven of colorful characters that are worth spending some relaxing hours with. As a cozy mystery, this story doesn't require deep thinking or puzzling. Actually, I think the fun might crumble in the face of too much over-thinking.

If you enjoy baking, the recipes included in the book are available on a pdf at the publisher's website with a code given at the beginning of the recording. I haven't downloaded them yet, but there are a lot of yummy-sounding items at the bakery.

If you enjoy things magical, the basic practices, symbols and herbs discussed are true to tradition as far as my experience. I always wonder about that in a fiction book, so that was a nice discovery.

As far as negatives go, while the female characters are alive and textured, the male characters are flat and fall into stereotypes -- good guy fireman, slimy reporter, cranky detective, thug, nearly invisible husband. Also, since it's the first book in a series, and there are a so many characters, more time is spent introducing people than developing the mystery. I guessed whodunnit within minutes of the murder.

That said, I enjoyed these people enough to listen a second time while I was doing other things around the house, and I will be happy to buy the second book in the series when it comes out in audiobook.

Light Fun Sleuth Novel

Any additional comments?

Its light. Its fun. It is not thought provoking, or emotionally challenging. It took a minute to get out of the Sookie Stackhouse frame of mind due to the narrator but after I got into it it was ok. It was a nice setup novel, just a hint of romance but the setup for a angsty love triangle is created. The story was amusing but not as funny as a Molly Harper or Janet Evanovich. It was "magical" but not overwhelmingly or complicatedly so, more contemporary than urban fantasy, she's not building a whole new world. I give three stars because it was good but it wasn't epic or a reread.

Fun, easy read!

A friend recommended this author. It's a much lighter read than I normally read, but I really enjoyed it! I will continue reading the series! Katie is a pastry chef, who moves to Savannah to help out her aunt, who is a witch. Katie finds a lot out about herself, finds a cute dog, and also a mystery! One of those warm, cozy reads.

Fun!

So as a pagan I normally get really annoyed with this kind of book. I only downloaded it because it was on sale. I didn't expect to really like it! This entire series is fun. I really like that there is a lot of love and light in what the main character does.

good book

enjoyed listening. I do not like reviews that require me to write more than I want to write