{"id":19885,"date":"2022-03-17T19:39:13","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T23:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=19885"},"modified":"2025-05-05T20:18:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T00:18:56","slug":"shortbread-and-shadows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/19885","title":{"rendered":"Shortbread and Shadows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shortbread and Shadow<\/a>s<\/em> (2020) Amy Lane (Hedge Witches Lonely Heart Club)<\/p>\n

\"Shortbread<\/a>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.<\/p>\n

(E)ven Lachlan, who knew nothing about magic or omens, could tell that a giant flock of birds flying upside down was bad.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d also seen Bartholomew get into the conversation, grow somewhat animated, and then stop himself, as though hearing an unkind voice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.)<\/p>\n

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.)<\/p>\n

And I was highly amused by this passage:<\/p>\n

Dad\u2019s\u2026 I don\u2019t know. Europeanish.\u201d Bartholomew snorted, but it worked to calm him down. \u201cWell, that\u2019s my family. Sorry. Nothing to see here, folks. We\u2019re a plain white people, the cheapest of bread.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That is half my genes right there. Europeanish. Plain white people. <\/p>\n

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press<\/p>\n

Rating: 7\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[193,292,24,196,148,26,56,16],"tags":[841,402,50,842,544],"class_list":["post-19885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7-10","category-ebook","category-food","category-novella","category-queer","category-romance","category-sexual-content","category-supernatural","tag-amy-lane","tag-baking","tag-boinking","tag-hedge-witches-lonely-heart-club","tag-mm"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-5aJ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19888,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/19888","url_meta":{"origin":19885,"position":0},"title":"Portals and Puppy Dogs","author":"Michelle","date":"March 18, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Portals and Puppy Dogs (2021) Amy Lane (Hedge Witches Lonely Hearts Club) Alex is glad his roommate Bartholomew has found his true love, but Alex's life is still a mess: he put in for a transfer, so he could try and move on from his huge crush on his boss,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Portals and Puppy Dogs","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Portals-and-Puppy-Dogs.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Portals-and-Puppy-Dogs.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Portals-and-Puppy-Dogs.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Portals-and-Puppy-Dogs.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Portals-and-Puppy-Dogs.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":19893,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/19893","url_meta":{"origin":19885,"position":1},"title":"Pentacles and Pelting Plants","author":"Michelle","date":"March 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Pentacles and Pelting Plants (2021) Amy Lane (Hedge Witches Lonely Hearts Club) Jordan's coven screwed up. Badly. \u201cIt\u2019s more personal than that,\u201d he said. \u201cThe magic itself was offended. We hadn\u2019t just told a polite lie on paper\u2014 we\u2019d told a polite lie to ourselves.\u201d Tow of their friends as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pentacles and Pelting Plants","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Pentacles-and-Pelting-Plants.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19896,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/19896","url_meta":{"origin":19885,"position":2},"title":"Heartbeats in a Haunted House","author":"Michelle","date":"March 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Heartbeats in a Haunted House (2022) Amy Lane (Hedge Witches Lonely Hearts Club) This book recovers the events of the previous three, only told from the points of view of Dante and Cully, who are trapped in the house, because they couldn't admit what everyone around them could see: they'd\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Heartbeats in a Haunted House","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Heartbeats-in-a-Haunted-House.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3278,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3278","url_meta":{"origin":19885,"position":3},"title":"Simply Sensational Cookies","author":"Michelle","date":"November 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Simply Sensational Cookies (2012) Nancy Baggett So, maybe I have a problem. This is the fourth cookbook--dessert cookbook (and third cookie book)--I've finished in a week. But I love baking. What can I say? And I'm always looking for just that perfect cookie. I have two other of Nancy Baggett's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Simply Sensatoinal Cookies","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/simply-sensational-cookies.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":322,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/322","url_meta":{"origin":19885,"position":4},"title":"Cookies and Brownies","author":"Michelle","date":"October 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Cookies and Brownies (1999) Alice Medrich This is, hands down, my favorite cookbook. I bought it on whim from a cookbook club, and when I pulled it out of the box, was slightly disappointed at how slender the book was. This was the only disappointment this book was ever to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "10\/10"","block_context":{"text":"10\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/10-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cookies and Brownies","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.klishis.com\/Books\/images\/cookies_and_brownies.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":30,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/30","url_meta":{"origin":19885,"position":5},"title":"Discworld","author":"Michelle","date":"June 22, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Witches Abroad, Mort, Wyrd Sisters, Small Gods, Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett Mort (1987) Death takes an apprentice. The horse entered the square by the Hub road, steam curling off its huge damp white flanks and sparks striking up from the cobbles beneath it. It trotted proudly, like a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19885\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}