Magic Bitter, Magic Sweet

By: Charlie N. Holmberg

Narrated by: Kate Rudd

Length: 9 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

Maire is a baker with an extraordinary gift: she can infuse her treats with emotions and abilities, which are then passed on to those who eat them. She doesn't know why she can do this and remembers nothing of who she is or where she came from.

When marauders raid her town, Maire is captured and sold to the eccentric Allemas, who enslaves her and demands that she produce sinister confections, including a witch's gingerbread cottage, a living cookie boy, and size-altering cakes.

During her captivity, Maire is visited by Fyel, a ghostly being who is reluctant to reveal his connection to her. The more often they meet, the more her memories return, and she begins to piece together who and what she really is - as well as past mistakes that yield cosmic consequences.

From the author of The Paper Magician series comes a haunting and otherworldly tale of folly and consequence, forgiveness and redemption.

©2016 Charlie N. Holmberg (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

A MUST READ, BEST BOOK I'VE READ IN A LONG TIME!

im very hard to truly impress so i usually just rate books i dont give a review becaise i dont want to ruin a chance a a good reading experience for others by giving a review that may cause them to not read a book, but for a nice change i can say i couldn't ask for the book to be any better written or for a better story from the author and couldn't ask for any better narration. a great book all around. the story is one that I couldn't predict and one I'd never have dreamed up! the characters are all wonderful (even the "bad ones") and are all evolved and end up coming full circle and playing a bigger part in the story than expected even small ones.
I just can't say enough good things about this book so I'll just say it's a MUST READ

Genuine, haunting, and raw

It's a story that speaks of raw pain and sorrow of loss while finding in the depths of the soul to have mercy. The sentiments are genuine and haunting.
It is a bittersweet story but I feel most will identify with that.
I really loved Kate Rudd's performance of the story! Her voice was able to convey all the characters greatly!
Warning to those who may be easily triggered though. I found there were moments that were hard to get through and had to take a break.

Truly bittersweet ♡

I cannot emphasize enough how much i love this book. I devoured it, and every word i swallowed left me craving the next even more. Truly it is a bittersweet thing, It took me on a journey and at its end it left me wanting more. not because it was written poorly, but it's just that good. the ending was as it should be, but i just didn't want my window into that world to close.

Both Narrative and Story

Really good and different type of a story. Quite enjoyable!

For the first chapter I wasn't sure I'd like the narrator, but then really did. She has a beautiful voice, but a cut to her accent which I mistook for a beginner narrator, but she and her accent fit the character perfect.

The story got a little long on the bitter side but ties together so perfectly towards the end. Don't stop.

still enjoy this author

I enjoy this author, but this is not my favorite of his. No big deal. Not every story is perfect.

An intriguing story, a heartbreaking unfair ending

I can see why a lot of reviewers dislike this story, it's quite dark and harrowing. And it's blurb frankly misleads the audience GREATLY. It is not at all the story it appears to be on the surface, but I still found it interesting. I figured out the twist about halfway but it was well foreshadowed I think, and I was anxious to learn of all the missing pieces that finished the puzzle. But I can see why people found it boring, it is a very specific kind of story that's not for everyone. And while the narrator has a beautiful voice, sometimes I found the decisions of how she read characters odd and disjointed. The accent(?) of the main character Maire particularly confused me for a good chunk of the story, her voice was deep and accented when speaking but the narration, despite being in first person and her perspective, was so much different it was confusing. But it wasn't bad, I love an audiobook narrator who isn't afraid to shout!

My review mostly reflects my personal tastes and less an unbiased critique of the story. I just don't generally find God-like creature fantasy interesting, beings that live in white space and make worlds is just too broad for me, there's no culture or lore to a species like that and I find it difficult to picture what's being described, so the end of the book kind of disappointed me on that part of Maire's character. But truly the biggest disappointment of this novel was Allemas. The book did him so dirty. By the midpoint, when I'd pretty much surmised what his whole deal was, I spent the rest of the book feeling so bad for him and waiting for when all would be revealed and he would finally be given some kind of resolution to all his confused suffering. But instead he gets a short scene of some apologies and then he's gone and dead. AND THEN?? Maire and Fyel step down to have children on a world afterwards?! I've never been more hurt for a fictional character. WHY couldn't Maire and Fyel step down and live with Allemas until he died??? I find it extremely cruel and senseless and makes Allemas' entire character feel like it never had a proper conclusion. The fact that we don't even see a shimmer of an idea that one of their sons may have been Allemas reincarnated which is what I hoped for in the last chapter... I don't know. The story felt like a great allegory for loss and infertile women and the relationship between parent who failed their child and had them selfishly and yet Maire gets everything she wanted in the end and we really see no consequences or any expanse on her feelings for the child she condemned to suffer alone? I just find the ending wholly disappointing as someone who by the end only cared about Allemas as he was the true victim, a child in a man's body who just wanted his mother who didn't even know he was her son. Maire otherwise as a protagonist was kind of bland. Fyel as a love interest was also somewhat meh. I cried when Allemas cried, and that's about as far as my deep feelings went so I wouldn't say this book was bad or that I don't recommend it, but the ending is quite messy and depressing so it's not for everyone.

I enjoy Charlie N Holmberg's work and this book definitely was interesting! But my last thoughts are honestly that after reading this and The Hanging City, Holmberg seems to rush her conclusions, while the majority of the book takes it time to build up slow and steady progress, the endings come like she was only allowed another 50 pages and nothing more and she has to cram it in instead of cutting out the slowest parts of the book prior, and this book sort of suffered from that as well. But it didn't ruin the story, it moreso reflected the flaws of the story that existed regardless of pacing. I just wish we got more time with Allemas after the reveal, his character felt much more nuanced and interesting until we finally understood him and then Maire and Holmberg treated him like a paper doll as if all the build up that showed he wasn't didn't happen. I don't know, I feel bad for Allemas and he was the true main character who deserved better I think.

Interesting but not my favorite

I listened to the another of the author's books (the 5th doll) and I was absolutely obsessed. I fell in love with the style of fantasy that Holmberg presented. When I listened to Magic Bitter, Magic sweet, I felt a bit underwhelmed at the end. I think that the author has created an interesting universe and mythology. However, I feel as though I came in to the middle of something. There's so many missed opportunities. Ideally, this could be part of a series. I would recommend listening to this before the 5th doll as to work up to it. Going from that to this left me disappointed. However I will still continue to buy Holmberg's work

Kate Rudd was very emotional. She bought a lot of passion and variety to the story.

captivating

I loved it! Great story line, keeps you guessing. keeps you wanting more. :) great read

Beautifully written fantasy story.

Maire struggles awake to discover she is on the side of a dusty road remembering nothing about herself or why she was there. She is helped by a woman that takes her back to her village where she ends up setting up shop as a baker. She discovers that she can infuse her bakery products with emotions and abilities that are then given to the person that eats them. Life goes on until the village is invaded and she is sold. Her buyer uses her to sell special bakery goods to people you may recognize from different stories.

I really enjoyed the weaving of this story. No doubt there is deeper meaning within the pages, but I just liked the story for how well the author used adjectives and feeling to put together the loss of memory along with finding out who you are even if you don't expect or may even like where you end up.

sensitive and poignant

a lovely and gripping mystery with a bittersweet ending of love, loss and transformational learning.
charming and careful painted characters, really hard to turn off

kate rudd treats these people with her delicate and careful nuanced performances.
charmed, read this one!