*Spoilers ahead*

I absolutely loved this book. By the time I got through maybe two chapters, I was already excited to read the second book. This book is a perfect blend of magic, baking, and adventure. Spoiler: Seth was the warlock, and I kind of saw it coming, but that was more of my cynicism than the writing giving it away prematurely. I can’t wait to read the second book and find out more about witchy baking and the backstory of all the characters in Taos.

I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The number one thing that drew me to this book was that cover. It is sickly sweet and yet there seems to be this sinister feel to it. I had to know what this was about. Turns out it is a magically baking book. Just what I needed.

Do not read this book if you are already hungry. There are so many delicious baked goodies in this and the descriptions and the love of our main character for baking are so good. I wanted to go bake or at least I wanted to eat all the baked goodies mentioned. I mean I am lazy. I’d like an Anise in my life who would bake all the things for me.

While most of this focuses on the magical baking as that is the talent of our main character and the world that she is taken into, there is a lot more to this world. There are various talents out their like necromancy. I felt that this was not developed enough in the background. There seem to be little talk about rules. There seem to be a lot of different talents but little shown of how they work. I just wanted to know and see more of that. We got to see so many witches and yet I got such little idea. The same of this goes for the guardians and their contracts. However I have gathered this is an element of the next book.

I have to say that the plot wasn’t very special. Of course there was a villain that was after Anise. It was also way too obvious who that was going to turn out to be. With this idea of magical bakeries there was just so much more that could have been done I think.

Even so I liked Anise who was really just an ordinary girl who had to work hard to gain any approval. I am glad she made friends but it was kind of sad this was through her mother’s friends to be honest. It would be great to see her make a friend that she made out of her own strength. Her interactions with her guardian were amusing but I did find her angry at him was misdirected. It wasn’t like he had a choice at being her guardian. He was assigned.

I love Anise and can't wait for more of her adventures. Totally engaging and engrossing, I enjoyed not only Anise but the other characters and the world building. I'm actually very upset I found this before any other books were published! I'm excited for more details of the world and building on the characters and relationships, and the new challenges Anise will face after almost dying a couple of times.

Anise, like her mother, is a witch, but she's grown up in the "normal" world.  Witches are generally distrusted, feared, and downright discriminated against, so she's gotten used to hiding her true self and moving frequently.  After an accident, however, Anise is sent to live with her great aunt, who owns the only magical bakery in the country, situated in a community of witches.  There, of course, she finds out that many things her mother told her were lies, that she needs a lot of remedial bakery training, and she needs to have a bodyguard whenever she leaves the house.  Because, oh yeah, the last bakery apprentice is missing and may have been killed.

Anise is in college, so while I think that would technically make this new adult, it reads much more like a young adult novel.  There's bit of a Princess Diaries vibe, since she goes from working at the local grocery bakery to being the heir apparent to her great aunt's bakery, making friends with the daughters of Syndicate members, and being important enough to have a bodyguard following her around.

I'm a pretty big fan of the Great British Bake Off, which is a good thing, because a large part of the book is about Anise baking, or taking pastry classes, or thinking about baking...  Personally, I loved the descriptions of baking and how magic affected it.  There's not as much about the rest of the magical system, which I suppose could be explained away as Anise is more interested in nailing down pastry basics so that she can earn a place at her great aunt's bakery.  Since this is the first in a series, I'm hoping there's more about the actual magic side of things in later books.

“Your power feels like pink sugar. Or tapping a spoon through the crust on a really good crème brûlée. But there’s a redder, bready vibe to it, and—” Her stomach rumbled again. “I shouldn’t have skipped breakfast.”

I loved Anise's love of baking.  It's very clear that it's her motivation in life, even so far as leaving her mom and moving to a strange place.  She's also, refreshingly, normal.  She doesn't suffer from too-stupid-to-live syndrome (she lets the grown-ups handle the bad guy), she worries about homework and making friends, she's not the most powerful whatever.  She's also not a super-special snowflake - she quickly finds out once she gets to Agatha's bakery that while she might be very good for a home cook, she's got a long way to go to measure up to her great-aunt's standards.  While she's understandably disappointed, she takes it all in stride and throws herself into her community college pastry chef courses.

Another thing to love about this book - most witches are female, so there are gobs and gobs of strong female characters, both in her mother's generation as members of the Syndicate, and Anise's age.  Anise, helped along by some baked goods, quickly makes friends with the daughters of her mother's friends.  Besides one snippy bakery employee, there's blessedly little woman vs woman jockeying, which is a relief.

As for cons, the mystery bit is ridiculously predictable.  Also, if you don't care about baking, you're probably going to be bored.  It's everywhere in this book, from descriptions of the things Anise is baking to the prose (at one point, her thoughts fly away "like baking soda on the wind.")  Anise has pastry on her mind, and while I enjoyed it, I can certainly see where someone who's less culinary minded would find it trying.

Overall, this book is adorably sweet and a whole mixing bowl of fun!  Recommended for fans of baking and magic!

This book was a lot of fun to read. It made me crave sweets more than once while reading.

I love the baking/cooking puns with some of the names. The synopsis is slightly misleading, her aunt didn't "pop out of the woodwork", it was more of a huge misstep on Anise's part that leads her to contact her GreatAunt. But, that's the only thing.



The way the plot unfolds was done really well. There was nothing that I saw that hinted at who it was targeting her. It wasn't hugely shocking when it was revealed, but I didn't expect it to be who it was. There wasn't really any romance in this book, and the flirtation that was going on didn't involve who I thought it would, and that was nice. Though with how the book ended, that might change.



Some of the time, the dialog didn't fit, to me, with how people their age would talk. They are minimum 18-19 years old, because they are in college, but sometimes they talked like they were closer to 15-16 years old. I know that's only about a 3-year difference. But people can grow a lot during that time, especially "young people".



I felt that there was a good balance between the baking and the mystery of who the Warlock was. I also liked how all "bad witches" are referred to as Warlocks.

The only thing I have to say that is remotely negative about this book is that I am a little confused at what Anise's mother did to get kicked out of Taos. I might have missed it, and perhaps I should stop reading in bed when I am tired.

I can't wait to read the rest of this series. It was so much fun to read and the next book's synopsis sounds like it's going to be another great read.

I really enjoyed Deadly Sweet, the first book of this new series. The world was interesting, the characters were fun and there was plenty of action. I can't wait for the next book!

I have a really hard time rating anything that makes me immediately go looking for the next book (and yelling "NOOOOO!" like I just found out Darth Vader is my dad when I find out it doesn't come out for almost a year) as anything less than 5 stars. So BAM! 5 stars!

I really enjoyed Deadly Sweet. There is an element of romance but I have a hard time calling it a YA Romance. There's an element of fantasy (witches and magic and familiars) but I have a hard time calling it YA Fantasy. Actually, the main character (Anise Wise) is early college age, so I have a hard time calling it YA (but I don't think it's NA because that seems to be YA with sex scenes...) The only thing I don't have a hard time calling this book is AWESOME.

The Goodreads blurb on this book is horrible. Anise is a witch with a talent for baking enchantments in a world where witches exist but aren't terribly common or accepted. I kept thinking of witches kind of like cosplayers while reading this book. If you see someone in full cosplay randomly in public (in your school, working at the bakery at your local grocery store) they're super out of place and they definitely get the side eye. But there are places (ok, conventions mostly, but humor me) where there are LOTS of cosplayers gathered together, and then it's just par for the course. Non-cosplayers still tend to gawk a bit, take photos and things, but there is a community of like-minded people there and you're way less likely to have some jerkwad come up and start harassing you for the way you're dressed.

Except cosplayers are witches and can do magic, which may or may not be scary to people, especially when Anise feels cornered and threatened and burns down her county fair.

Basically Anise and her mom move a lot, while Anise pretends to be "normal" and tries to hide that she's a witch, and when people do find out they move to another town, and Anise starts over at the bottom of the totem pole decorating cakes at the local Grocery-Mart bakery. Oh, and gets repeatedly rejected from community college baking programs because they don't accept witches.

The blurb says Anise loves baking and potion making, but what she actually loves is baking enchantments into her pastries. (There aren't really any potions involved... but there is magic infused vanilla!) It's cute how she adds a pinch of anise to her bakes as her sort of signature. Anyway, after she accidentally burns down the county fair, Anise's great aunt Agatha finally answers an email Anise wrote her a year ago begging for an apprenticeship in her magical bakeshop (creatively called "Agatha's Bakeshop"). Little does Anise know, Agatha's Bakeshop in Taos is located on what is known as a vortex, a super magically charged area around which whole communities of witches spring up.

Suddenly Anise goes from having to hide what she is and fly under the radar as much as possible, to living in a community full of other witches. She starts making some of her first ever real friends, meets people who have known her family for generations, and learns there are all sorts of things about the witchy world she had no clue about. Including the mystery of what happened to Agatha's last apprentice, Hayley. (Seriously, they need to rewrite this blurb. She moved to Taos, not Sedona; Agatha is part of the Spellwork Syndicate, 13 matriarchs who keep the town safe and are not shady at all; Agatha's last apprentice is missing, not assassinated...)

I enjoyed the world building in this series, and appreciate how witches have particular areas of magic in which they excel, like Anise is good with kitchen witchery, Blair's family runs towards necromancy, Paula has a healing/cleansing magic that is apparently very herbal based, etc. I love Agatha's familiar, Fondant, and need to know more about her. I love Anise's Shield, Wynn, and need to know so many things about him, like where is he from? what does his contract involve? why does he sleep so much? The budding friendship between Anise and the daughters of her mom's old friends is great. OH! I need to know all the things about Anise's mom's past! What happened there? I'm really hoping these answers will be in the next book.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN I HAVE TO WAIT ALMOST A WHOLE YEAR FOR THE NEXT BOOK?!?! I need it NOW!!

This book does NOT end on a cliff hanger, and could be read as a stand alone, but it definitely left me wanting more and I can’t wait to see what develops for Anise in the second book, Sugar Spells.

Deadly Sweet by Lola Dodge is the first book in the new Spellwork Syndicate series. This one is a bit of a young adult/new adult fantasy/paranormal read mixed with a bit of mystery. The main character is a young kitchen witch who bakes spells into her goodies but after moving to a new town finds herself the target of an assassin.

This was a nice enough opener to this series introducing readers to Anise who is a witch and wants to attend pastry school but keeps getting rejected. After a witchy accident she learns of a great aunt that will take her to a more witch friendly town and teach her to bake. The only problem is this puts Anise on a hit list with many attempts on her life.

I didn’t find the mystery too particularly difficult to figure out in this one as the story went on. Also, what I kept wishing for while reading this one was a bit more into the magical side of things. I think the story focused a bit more on dessert than magic most times which left me wanting to know about the powers and witchcraft. But even with being a tad on the predictable side and not going very deep into the magical world it was still a light and fun young adult read.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

When I started this new-to-me author, I wasn't sure what to expect. It's a mix of witchery, mystery, cookery, and romance. The heavy emphasis is on magic (witch circles, warlocks, warding, etc. etc.), and very little on romantic entanglements. I didn't expect the story to focus quite so much on the magic, and for me that was the least enjoyable part. The descriptions of the baking confections were absolutely mouth-watering, however, and the characters were individual and fun. Not sure whether I'd read the sequel, but I was definitely entertained.

*ARC via netgalley*

Anise escapes to Taos where she can finally live out her dream after an incident in New York. She is a witch living in a world that is terrified of witches and so she did what she could to blend in until everything blew up in front of her and she had to leave town. Things fall into place once she becomes an apprentice to her great aunt’s magical bakery in Arizona, but reality is too good to be true and soon Anise discovers that her years of baking is horrendous according to her aunt, she must learn how to bake from scratch by attending college, her fellow coworker who hates her guts happens to be her baking professor, she somehow has to have a bodyguard follow her around 24/7, and apparently her life as at risk every time she leaves the house.

This novel was magical from the world building to the characters and plot, but unfortunately this isn’t a standalone, so many questions are unanswered by the final page. I had many theories about Wynn’s role as bodyguard and why he seemed to sport a permanent cloud of rain over his head, but we didn’t learn much about his character. I picked out the warlock from the beginning so that wasn’t a shock. And I found it annoying and childish when Anise would go on and on over Seth’s appearance. It got to the point where she was comparing him to chocolate mousse and other baked goods. She sometimes made stupid decisions and let her “chocolate mousse” of a crush cloud her judgement to the point where she became careless, but at least she acquired her senses back after a bit.

I received an ARC of Deadly Sweet from NetGalley.

A pleasant, though slightly predictable, tale of a young, inexperienced magical baker trying to find her place in a new town where she can finally use her gifts freely.

The book itself is a bit more magical-realism rather than full-on magical hijinks, and also focuses far more an baking than magic. So if you are a foodie or you enjoy foodporn this is might be for you. Though if you are hungry, this may not be the best thing to read because you will just be envious of the delicious baked goods that are described but that you cannot have.

In terms of writing, the book was simple and rather straightforward. I found the first half to be a bit slow in terms of plot development, but it did pick up around the 50% mark. The surprise reveal was not much of a surprise for me. Because I placed my bets on who the villain was going to be pretty early on.

Overall, I liked the book. But I did not find it was anything particularly new.

Deadly Sweet is an awesome combination between witchy stuff and delectable delights. I could almost taste the confections by reading the descriptions. Do I really have to wait a year for the next book?

Deadly Sweet by Lola Dodge is an upcoming Young Adult novel all about Magic and Baking. Anise Wise is a baker, and her famous Aunt Agatha hires her as an apprentice in her Magical bake shop. Anise moves in with her Aunt and is quickly overwhelmed. She isn't anywhere near where she thought she was talent wise. She definitely isn't up to Agatha's standards. But when she realizes that her life is in danger, for unknown reasons, she obviously finds it difficult to mange, school, baking, and boys, all under the watchful eye of her bodyguard, Wynn.

I liked the world building in this book, and the aesthetic. Oh, and the Magic. Always the magic. But, I wasn't a fan of the characters. Anise never listens and never follows orders. Wynn is unnecessarily grumpy all the time (and we never figure out why.) There is a lot that we never figure out actually. Why did Anise's mom get banned from the magical town? Why is Wynn so grumpy? What exactly does his contract say? And a few more that I really can't ask with out spoiling some major plot for everyone. Also, most of the book is made up of action scenes, all ending with Anise blacking out. It happens so many times and was seriously over used.

The story is set up to lead into the next book, but since things with Anise's attacker were pretty much wrapped up in this one, I'm guessing she'll get herself into some more trouble throughout the rest of the series.

Bottom line. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. 3 stars.

This is a really fun book with lots of series potential.

*3.5 stars*

A quick read with an interesting premise, “Deadly Sweet” delivers a fresh take on witch mythology where potions and magic go hand in hand with baking the perfect cherry pie.

Anise is a character who is out of her element when it comes to most things, except for those that are in the kitchen. When her magic gets her in trouble and she is forced to leave her home where being a witch is legal yet heavily feared for a town surrounded by families of strong magical heritage she slowly learns to harness her magic and excel in her one true passion with the help of her great Aunt and two new friends who have their own talents.

This book sets up an interesting take on a supernatural creature we’ve seen before in literature, film and television by giving it an angle where magic has concentrations outside of the usual spellbooks and nature tie ins and instead offers up the idea of recipes in place for potions and a way of learning this skill outside of your typical Hogwarts-esque magic school.

My only critique is that our main character had a bit of Rupert Giles syndrome where she had at least 5 moments of complete blackouts I don’t know if that was a way to create drama or to hurry the plot along with a narrative break but after about the second time she went down I started to roll my eyes.

Overall it’s a fine book for someone looking to stay in that genre but wants something new and outside the norm, it will be interesting to see how the sequel deals with the fall out of some of the choices in the first and how that affects everything going forward for Anise, when everyone knows you have to bake with a clear heart and good intentions or else it won’t come out as you expect.

**thank you to netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**

Cupcakes, magic, danger and tension. What more could you want in a YA read?

This book was such a fun and easy read! The characters were likable, the plot made sense and the pacing was great. Not a single moment of waiting or boredom.

I'm glad there was no real insta-love though I am looking forward to seeing what happens with a couple of characters as the series moves forward.

Can't wait for the next installment, Sugar Spells, coming late 2018!

In the mean time I think I might check out Lola's other works.

A competently written new adult urban fantasy, blending the light and fluffy style that usually gets a cartoonish cover and the thriller style which tends to have inadequately clothed tattooed women on it (regardless of the actual content of the book). The two don't always blend well; a sequence about snacks and sleepovers with college friends will be followed abruptly by an almost-successful attempt on the heroine's life. But the author does do a decent job of making the lighter parts important enough to the character that their mundane nature doesn't become too dull, and the thriller parts are varied and engaging.

In the thriller sections, the author walks a fine line between having the protagonist not be an idiot (she's aware of the potential consequences of her actions, knows her limitations, and recognises that she should leave the heavy lifting to her elders) and having the protagonist not be the one who resolves the problem. This does require a certain minimum amount of ill-advised decisionmaking and begging successfully for inclusion in operations she shouldn't really get included in, but it's handled well enough, and enough in character, that my suspension of disbelief didn't get overstrained. That's a balance not all authors in this genre achieve.

The main character, Anise, is well-motivated, and the stakes are compelling: she's a kitchen witch who's grown up outside the areas where witches are accepted, because her mother was banished for never-fully-disclosed reasons, and she wants to train as a baker and fulfil the potential of her heritage. But a dangerous warlock is active in the area, and seems to be targeting her specifically. She has limited resources, which she spends in desperate defence after desperate defence, and it costs her realistically.

I made a bet with myself very early on about the likely outcome with both Seth, the hunky fellow student, and Wynn, the bodyguard. I was dead on with Seth, but the Wynn arc is yet to fully work itself out (I'm still sure I'm right, though). There are no real surprises in terms of genre tropes being taken in new directions, but within its genre this is a well-executed and entertaining example.

Deadly Sweet is book 1 in The Spellwork Syndicate series. I've loved all the books I've tried from Lola Dodge so grabbing this one was a no brainer. This book seriously made me crave all the baked goods, so don't read this while hungry. I loved the magic aspects and cannot wait to see what the next book brings us!


Anise Wise is your every day college aged girl that happens to be a witch. Her and her mom are constantly on the move because she winds up using her magic and getting caught. It's no fun having an angry mob if you're caught so they haven't really settled down. After a stressful situation it happens again and Anise goes to live with her great aunt and starts working as her apprentice at her bakery. This is a perfect fit for Anise since that's her dream job and she's great at baking and enchanting those delicious baked goods. There's something sinister bubble over though, the last apprentice mysteriously disappeared and strange occurrences are starting to happen around our lovely witch. All signs are pointing to someone targeting Anise and she has to figure out who's behind it before it's too late.


Deadly Sweet is a great start to a new series. I really got sucked into the world and was on the edge of my seat when Anise was being targeted. I had a suspicion on the whodunit and was right, it was such an entertaining read. If you're a fan of New Adult books with paranormal mixed in I think you'll love this book!