Review: Bliss by Kathryn Littlewood

Title: Bliss
Author: Kathryn Littlewood
Source/Format: Purchased; Paperback
More Details: Middle Grade; Fantasy
Publisher/Publication Date: The Inkhouse; February 14, 2012

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Synopsis from Goodreads...

Kathryn Littlewood’s culinary caper blends rich emotional flavor with truly magical wit, yielding one heaping portion of hilarious family adventure...

Rosemary Bliss’s family has a secret. It’s the Bliss Cookery Booke—an ancient, leather-bound volume of enchanted recipes like Stone Sleep Snickerdoodles and Singing Gingersnaps. Rose and her siblings are supposed to keep the Cookery Booke under lock and whisk-shaped key while their parents are out of town, but then a mysterious stranger shows up. “Aunt” Lily rides a motorcycle, wears purple sequins, and whips up exotic (but delicious) dishes for dinner. Soon boring, non-magical recipes feel like life before Aunt Lily—a lot less fun. So Rose and her siblings experiment with just a couple of recipes from the forbidden Cookery Booke. A few Love Muffins and a few dozen Cookies of Truth couldn’t cause too much trouble . . . could they?

Bliss by Kathryn Littlewood is one of those books I’ve been meaning to read for a very long time. I’ve known about it since it came out back in 2012 and always thought the premise of a magical backery sounded like an interesting idea. It wasn’t until recently that I finally read the book and can firmly say that while Bliss had some brilliant moments, it was more of an average read for me. 

There was nothing inherently bad about the story. My main problem, my one complaint, is that there were some scenes that I just didn’t like. Other than that, I read the book in just a couple of hours. For the most part I liked the story, characters, and magic. There were a lot of pretty neat details that led to some really...uh...interesting situations that were produced by magical baking mishaps. What I liked most about this book was how the magic worked as an ingredient for cooking. The prologue of Bliss opens with lightning being folded into batter, which I thought was pretty cool. Another thing that appealed to me was the bakery. I love to bake, and knowing that a lot of cooking gets done in Bliss is what originally drew me to this book.

Rosemary, the main character, felt like she was underappreciated, and I could agree with that. Littlewood took the time to show some of the things Rosemary was tasked with, which I appreciated because it provided a reason for why the character was feeling that way. I also liked Rosemary's siblings—Parsley, Sage, and Thyme. 

Overall, Bliss wasn't half bad. The end of the story was kind of a cliffhanger. Since I already have the second book on my shelf, I will likely read it just to see how the situation is resolved.