The Heartbreak Bakery

By: A. R. Capetta

Narrated by: Krystal Hammond

Teenage baker Syd sends ripples of heartbreak through Austin’s queer community when a batch of post-being-dumped brownies turns out to be magical - and makes everyone who eats them break up.

“What’s done is done.” Unless, of course, it was done by my brownies. Then it’s getting undone.

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 baking at the Proud Muffin, a queer bakery and community space in Austin. And everyone who eats Syd’s breakup brownies...breaks up. Even Vin and Alec, who own the Proud Muffin. And their breakup might take the bakery down with it.

Being dumped is one thing; causing ripples of queer heartbreak through the community is another. But the cute bike delivery person, Harley (he or they, check the pronoun pin, it’s probably on the messenger bag), believes Syd about the magic baking. And Harley believes Syd’s magical baking can fix things, too - one recipe at a time.

©2021 A. R. Capetta (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

amazing LBGT coming of age novel

Cyd works at their local queer bakery while going to high school hoping that they will be a professional baker one ay. Cyd's summer was turned upside down when their relationship ended with W abruptly. Things get infinitely worse when they bake brownies that might actually break up couples. It becomes their summer goal to bring back together couples and to also find their way through love, identity and their future.

Note: Cyd is not sure which pronoun to use, I used they instead of he/she but this will be a common theme throughout the novel.

Characters are well written.

Loved the book. Very well represented agender and gender fluidity as only one aspect of characters, without making it the only thing they are. I loved the LGBTQ+ representation across the spectrum in such rich complexity. I hope we see more of Syd and the Proud Muffin, Part II.

Great Love Story

Syd and W had they're first fight in 4 years. Now W has broken up with Syd. Syd is a baker and every brownie Syd makes breaks people up. I liked this book so much. I got invested in Syd's life. I got happy about Syd and Harley and sad about Syd's bosses, Vin and Alec, at the Proud Muffin. The recipes were pretty cool. OMG this author makes me cry and then that's it. What happens now for Syd and Harley?

Cute, easy, queer

Cute story, very YA. Loved the representation and recognition of all the different ways to be part of the LGBTQ community.

Liked the story line, didn’t like the way queerness was depicted. I am part of the LGBTQ community and not speaking on behalf of all of us, just this is my take.



The LGBTQ “representation” it was a bit much.

Every single character was referred to with gender neural pronouns regardless of how they actually identified and that 1. Made it difficult to follow at times because I wasn’t sure who was being referred to 2. Feel like was “too” neutral. Not everyone wants to use gender neutral pronouns/

Spoiler *like Harley specifically said “he/him” yet he was always referred to with they/them.

Just was kinda annoying to follow and kinda just blanketed everyone.

Yes love the usage and awareness of pronouns but what’s the point of asking pronouns and making a point to discuss them if you aren’t going to actually use them???

Really that was my biggest issue with the book.

Spoiler: also didn’t like that they made the sister ACE/AERO instead of maybe she was just a private person? Just felt forced the way the author made a point that everyone was part of the LGBTQ community. ( which like amazing utopia, fantasy world, but like if that’s the case make it more clear instead of depicting Austin’ Texas as some inclusive queer Mecca.

Thought that part made it a bit out there and not grounded in reality. Hard to actual imagine.

Not bad

What I liked: the romance was cute, there was a lot of representation, and I liked that in the end, they didn't chalk all the problems entirely down to magic baking.

What I didn't like: It may not matter to everyone, especially if you enjoy baking, but I found the overwhelming amount of baking references cheesy. Like yes, I know this is a story about a bakery, but it made the main character sound very one-dimensional. Everything they observed could be turned into some baking-related metaphor. At one point the other character even had to specifically ask the MC to list non-baking related things about themselves.

Overall, my rating comes mainly from the fact I found myself being bored. It's still worth giving this book a try, though, as sometimes a book just doesn't do it for you. For me, it was one of those times.