Shortbread and Shadows

Shortbread and Shadows (2020) Amy Lane (Hedge Witches Lonely Heart Club)

Bartholomew Baker has had a crush on the guy who usually has the stall next to him, for two years. But Barty is painfully shy, struggling to try and make baking works so he can quit his day job, and, well, his coven just messed up a spell really badly.

(E)ven Lachlan, who knew nothing about magic or omens, could tell that a giant flock of birds flying upside down was bad.

Lachlan has had a crush on Bartholomew for a year and a half, but despite making sure their stalls are always next to each other, he’s gotten nowhere.

He’d also seen Bartholomew get into the conversation, grow somewhat animated, and then stop himself, as though hearing an unkind voice.

When the spell gone wrong affects Bartholomew at the fair, Lachlan jumps into help, and the two can finally be open about how they feel about each other.

The story was cute, and the world building was interesting, and I was very glad that Lachlan had been crushing on Bartholomew, because otherwise things might have been creepy.

I don’t much care for the virgin / rake trope, but at least there some reason for it here. Though I might have liked the story a tiny bit more without that trope. Or the boinking. (But we all well know my thoughts on that front.)

There were several cute and amusing passages, and lots of baking, which is what led me to pick up the story in the first place. (Baker AND magic? I’m in.)

And I was highly amused by this passage:

Dad’s… I don’t know. Europeanish.” Bartholomew snorted, but it worked to calm him down. “Well, that’s my family. Sorry. Nothing to see here, folks. We’re a plain white people, the cheapest of bread.”

That is half my genes right there. Europeanish. Plain white people.

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Rating: 7/10

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