I was so excited to be approved for this book, since it had been on my radar for a while. Advertised as a successor to Legends and Lattes, except with a baking competition, I had very high hopes. When Arleta, a human baker, receives an invite to participate in a baking competition that could make her a whole new life, she's terrified and convinced she won't win, but is dragged in by a random elf who really wants her to enter.
Arleta is a complainer who is ridiculously unfortunate. Her attitude, or perhaps the world's bizarre attitude, about magicless people seemed like Penner was trying to make some point about prejudice, but it came across heavy-handed. Arleta is also such a passive actor in the story; things happen to her, instead of her doing things. Theo, the love interest, could have been replaced by a cardboard cutout, or maybe his horse, for as much personality as he had.
I think the biggest thing that set this apart from L&L was the lack of edges in the world. Everything was perfectly smooth and sanded down, and it felt like a story written to fall into the cozy fantasy genre, not a story that was written out of love for cozy or fantasy. This one bummed me out.

I'm not sure what to make of this book. I was starting to vibe with the story and then the male love interest came in an ruined it immediately for me.

The premise of A Fellowship of Bakers and Magic sounded so much fun that I immediately requested it. The story is wholesome, and I loved it so much! J. Penner has created an incredible world filled with amazing characters. I loved their relationship and slow burn romance was amazing to read. And did I mention the delicious food? If you enjoy cozy fantasy, definitely pick up this book. I can't wait to read more from this series. Thanks to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I'll post my review closer to the publication date.

This was a cozy fantasy but I found it to be a little slow. It took me a little while to like Arleta. She’s ready to win the baking competition!

If you are into:
🥐Cooking
🥐Pastries
🥐Potential romance
🥐Self discovery
🥐Heart warming friendships

Then this book is for you!! Thank you NetGalley, J.Penner and Poisoned Pen Press for the eARC!

Rating: 🥐🥐🥐
Publication date : April 15 2025

Thank you Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this arc.

I loved this book. The concept drew me in immediately, as a fan of both fantasy and baking competitions, and I found it to be a very enjoyable read.

The friendship between Arleta, Doli, and Jez was so sweet and fun, and I loved where things ended up with Taenya. Theo was charming and I really enjoyed the dynamic he and Arleta had.

Overall this book is great, and I will certainly keep my eye out for any other books in this universe. I hope to see what these characters do next. (And I very much look forward to trying out the recipes at the end of the book)

I wanted to like this so badly. The premise sounds great but the book is SO lackluster. Arleta was unlikeable. All she did was go on and on about being magicless. And the romance didn't make it better. Theo was nice enough, but no effort was made to make the connection feel genuine. Instead it was a lazy attempt at a fated mates trope. Which Arleta went on and on about how they couldn't be fated because she was a poor pathetic magicless human. At least it had recipes from the boring baking contest, so I gave it another star for that.

This was a super cute and cozy read. I loved the characters, although I’m not sure why this was tagged LGBTQIA aside from the gay orc neighbors who make an appearance for maybe 6 paragraphs.

Arleta Starstone is wonderful baker. Having lost her parents at 16, our main character is deeply traumatized. Understandable but please, have at least a little bit of faith in yourself. Especially when there are people who tell you that you truly ARE a formidable baker and that actually DO care for you!
But no, she constantly cries about how she can’t do anything, should not participate in the great bake off, doesn’t deserve love or friendship.
I do like characters that doubt themselfes and have a good development, don’t get me wrong. But this went on nearly all the time and then suddenly, poof, she’s like “yeah actually I AM good!” It wasn’t believable at all.

I really wanted to love this book because cozy fantasy, magic and pastries sound great! But sadly, not this time.

This was an amazingly cozy read!
In this story, Arleta Starstone is a talented human baker. However, in a world where many beings have magic, and she does not, Arleta has to work twice as hard to get herself noticed. One day, her neighbor enters her into a baking competition and she gets accepted! Thus begins Arleta’s journey to the baking competition and hopefully, her dreams.
I loved how delightfully cozy this book was. Found family, tasty treats, and a baking competition in a fancy city all set this book up to have a great atmosphere. J. Penner did a great job of landing this book right on the line where things never got super angsty or emotional to break it out of the cozy genre, yet it still had enough plot to keep the reader interested.
I also loved all of the characters in this book. Found family is one of my favorite genres and I love how the unlikely characters become friends throughout the book. I felt like the characters were all well written and well rounded.
4 stars, and recommended to anyone who is looking for a low stakes cozy fantasy. I’m looking forward to the next book in this series!

I had a really hard time getting into this book despite the fact that I am an LOTR and Great British Bake Off superfan. The writing style was too staccato for my taste and it was pulling me out of the story. I am a DNF.

Beautiful, magical, emotional, and deeply layered. I really loved this book.

It is character driven, with diverse and lovable characters. It's well-paced. I never felt bogged down with superfluous details. And I loved the world-building, which felt new, but still familiar.

There is also some great subtext in this book. Nothing is particularly overt, but the story does an elegant job of mirroring the isolating influence of bigotry—the you'll-never-be-good-enough judgment of others.

In the end, I cried. Before the end, I cried. This is a beautifully moving and life-affirming story. It is a book about embracing your truth and following your passions. And it is a story of self-discovery, found family, friendship, community, and love. The world needs more books like this.

Thank you Poison Pen Press/Sourcebooks for a copy of this ARC! I was incredibly excited to receive this so I can't thank you enough!

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book as much as I would've liked. I love cozy fantasy, I love food/baking competitions and I love low stakes! Alas, this book did not give me the mix I wanted. But to get the positives out of the way:

1. The side characters were pretty fun! There was not one that I didn't like, and thought that they added a lot to the book in a good way. I do wish they appeared slightly more often, but I don't think it would've matter either way.
2. The writing was easy to read! I tore through this book quite easily, although I did see some sentences that made me have to think somewhat. Otherwise however, again, I had no problems reading this book.
3. I LOVE that recipes were provided at the end of this book. As someone who loves to bake, I appreciate it when books about food give out the recipes to the food shown in the book!
4. Theo is great, I adore him. He's just a nice green thumb who respects Arleta as a baker AND as a woman and quite frankly, he deserves better. It was a joy to read when he was around.

Now, onto my not so positive thoughts:

1. I think Arleta is incredibly under written. She's an amazing baker, she's non magical and she's human and...that's kinda all to her. She's also insecure, and unfortunately, I don't think it was written in a way that added anything to her. Nothing about her backstory explains away her insecurities, other than the fact that as a magicless human, people write her off. Her personality doesn't go further than 'nice girl who doesn't want to stand out for fear of being discovered'. This colours a lot of her interactions with other characters (especially those with strong personalities) and it just makes her stand all the more out as a character who is bland.
2. The worldbuilding here is...forgettable? Maybe nonexistent because I couldn't remember a lot of it other than: elves are better than everyone. Which doesn't make sense to me. Nothing here is set up for me to agree with how elves are almost worship liked by other races. I don't think it helps that we don't actually get a lot of elven characters, and the ones we see are already put on a high horse for something other than their race. All in all, I was just really confused.
3. This book is too fast paced when it came to the actual competition. I understand that is a cozy fantasy, but it was boring. We go from one scene to another in fast succession without giving many details. It doesn't feel like there's a lot of stakes involved when we're quick to get the results. There was never a point where I feared anything unlucky would happen to the MC.
4. At times, it felt like there were certain scenes written in for the sake of having those tropes be in the book. Unfortunately, as a result, I don't think they actually fit in. Or the characters weren't given enough time or development for those scenes to work out. Which is a shame because I think they could've worked out.

Overall, I have to rate this a 2 stars. I appreciate the effort that went into this book, but it wasn't for me, I don't think.

This is cozy fantasy perfection!!!! If I could explain what I love in this genre I would give you this book!

In this story we follow Arleta as she’s struggling to make ends meet with her pastry stand. However thanks to her neighbours she has a chance to compete in the Baking Battle and possibly win enough money to buy herself a shop. Through baking elimination rounds, new friends and a love interest, you should definitely see how this story goes!

I’m obsessed with the characters in this, Doli and Jez were wonderful friends to the MC, also their dynamic is why I love found family. Arleta struggled a lot with impostor syndrome in this one, but who doesn’t? She felt very relatable, but also such a sweetheart to read about. Theo???? Theo??? The perfect love interest for me. The writing was super easy to read, the atmosphere super magical, and the baking competition had me craving sweets at 3 a.m. Overall, this was a great read for me and I cannot recommend this enough!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc copy in exchange for an honest review.

3.25 stars

yes, i love cozy fantasies. on a whole, i think this story is pretty forgettable, but nonetheless it’s super sweet, fun, and lovable. it will get you craving all sorts of delectable treats.

i’m happy to say the strength of this book lies in its food descriptions and the bake-off, because that’s exactly why i picked this up. it’s very clear that the author knew what she was talking about, describing the baking process in enough detail that you were immersed in the story. the baking competition was actually very engaging. i enjoyed reading about a character mixing ingredients and creating glazes, which i don’t say too often. and i could practically smell each of the treats; this is a book you should read while eating a warm scone or cookie.

the pacing was definitely a bit slow, which is expected of a cozy fantasy, but the baking competition only lasted about one-third of the story. i feel the author could have cut out a lot of the extra scenes at the beginning to get to the competition faster. a lot of time was wasted because arleta is unnecessarily stubborn and refuses to do things that she obviously should. her dialogue would go something like “oh i can’t go to the competition even though i’ve always wanted to” or “oh i know i have feelings but we could never be together!” and it definitely frustrated me.

the romance wasn’t working for me either for multiple reasons. firstly, arleta and theo had little chemistry. arleta had more chemistry with her lemon bars than with theo. i’m blaming this on theo because he had no depth and was flatter than arleta’s cookies. basically, there were no romantic sparks. the story is very insta-lovey, largely due to fated mates, a trope i’m coming to despise. i think authors rely too much on the “mate” aspect to properly build a relationship, but on the other hand penner did include a lot of sweet moments and dialogue that made me smile.

the side characters stole the show. we have a bubbly dwarf who is a literal ray of sunshine, a fennec fox who hides how much she cares and refuses to sugarcoat anything, and two loving adoptive orc who protect and support arleta through everything. we don’t have much on their backgrounds, but they livened up arleta’s interactions since she couldn’t accomplish much by herself. poor girl would probably be off crying with a raspberry tart without them.

the idea of the ending, everyone coming together in a big happy family, is nice but a little utopian. everything felt a bit rushed (except artleta’s relationship with theo, which was slow as a snail in a frustrating way), especially because taenya’s decisions came out of nowhere. i think the author was trying to make up for the fact that everyone only knew each other for about a week before this.

if you really love cozy fantasy, i think you’d enjoy this, but otherwise it’s pretty slow and lacks depth. to be honest, i’m forgetting the story right now even though i just finished the book. but this is a good book to pair with a warm treat and cup of coffee, and there’s some recipes at the back of the book that i might take a look at! thank you netgalley and poisoned pen press for the e-arc! #AFellowshipofBakersMagicDeluxeEdition #NetGalley

This was my first cozy fantasy and I loved it! The vibes were immaculate and I was swept away by the world instantly. When Theo first appeared I was picturing him as a sort of little imp like elf and then I realised he was actually the love interest and I went oh okay he's supposed to be a beautiful elf 🤭✨ which made perfect sense, because he was - I mean come on he was so sweet and gentle. The baking contest didn't begin till closer to half way and I didn't really mind that. I do however wish there was more to the ball scene - it was far too short. I also loved how everything came together in the end, and how there was growth from many characters including Arleta (although a lot of her growth felt very surface level to me and could have been developed further). Doli was by far my favourite character, how could she not be! I adored the found family trope and I find myself looking forward to future publications in this world.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a great addition to the cozy fantasy selection. It reads like watching an episode of the Great British Bake Off with all the magic and excitement it brings. The romance was cute and fun to watch develop without overshadowing the main plot.

I will say, it did take me a minute to connect with Arleta. She is a little too defensive and pessimistic, and repeats her magicless problem way too many times. While it is understandable with her past, it makes her sort of frustrating to read from her point of view until you get to know her better. This was really my only gripe with the book.

I can't wait for the next installment in this series!

This was the perfect cozy read. It was well paced and I enjoyed all of the characters. I couldn't stop thinking about the yummy treats during it lol! I love competitions in books and a bake off? Sign me up!

I loved the diverse creatures. The descriptions were excellent and the magic was great! Also, fated mates and slow burn? Soo good! I really liked Arleta's character. Her growth was very nice. Plus Theo was 🤌🏻

I can't wait to see what else this author brings to the table!

Thank you Poisoned pen press for the gifted arc

As a big GBBO fan, I enjoyed reading a fantasy version of this style of competition. I liked spending time in the world Penner is building and loved the notes of the found family for Arleta. I felt the ending was very satisfying and left me with wonderful cozy vibes that make me smile.

What I didn't love, was the writing. It didn't feel quite as polished as I would hope for a book being published. I felt it needed a couple more passes of an editor to eliminate some of the repetitive lines and moments. Arleta as a character wasn't the most approachable FMC I would have hope for in a book of this style. I understand what the author was going for but I wish it had been fine tuned in spots so it was less off putting. Also I didn't like with how she treated the MMC most of the time. However, Theo was a wonderful character on his own as were most of the side characters in this story. I liked Doli and will be tempted to read her story in the future.

I appreciate the recipes included at the end and look forward to trying them out.

This book was incredibly sweet and cozy and lovely and just what I needed right now. I loved Arleta and Theo, and all of their wonderful friends. Such a perfect cozy fantasy with lovely baking!

This is such a cute read! It’s so cozy and homely and so easy to read. I’ll honestly be recommending this to everyone!!