[Book Review] Cupcakes, Trinkets, And Other Deadly Magic By Meghan Ciana Doidge & Brew La La Coffee Vanilla Buttercream Coffee

Title: Cupcakes, Trinkets, And Other Deadly Magic
Series/Universe: Dowser Series, Book 1
Author: Meghan Ciana Doidge
Publisher: Old Man in the CrossWalk Productions
Publication date: January 9th 2014
Page Count: 266 pages
Age Rating: NA & Up (blood, violence, gore, language, and vague sexual mentions)
How I got my hot little hands on it: Downloaded FREE from Amazon (still free guys!)
Publisher’s page: Cupcakes, Trinkets, And Other Deadly Magic

If you’d asked me a week ago, I would have told you that the best cupcakes were dark chocolate with chocolate cream cheese icing, that dancing in a crowd of magic wielders — the Adept — was better than sex, and that my life was peaceful and uneventful. Just the way I liked it. That’s what twenty-three years in the magical backwater of Vancouver will get you — a completely skewed sense of reality. Because when the dead werewolves started showing up, it all unraveled … except for the cupcake part. That’s a universal truth.

My Review

Cupcakes, Trinkets, And Other Deadly Magic is a bit like Practical Magic (the movie) meets True Blood (the TV show) – but with more cupcakes and less hanky-panky.

Jade Godfrey is a twenty-three-year-old, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, eye-catching cupcake bakery owner and half-witch. She lives a comfortable quiet life in Vancouver with her Gran, who’s a powerful and respected witch, and her feisty foster sister Sienna, who’s a half-witch like Jade. She spends her days blissfully insulated in her own little world, baking cupcakes and crafting trinkets out of found magical bits and bobs in her craft room – unitl the day her bubble bursts and a chillingly attractive vampire comes sniffing around her bakery and home. Things just go from bad to worse when werewolves show up, including a grumpily handsome Alpha, and Jade learns that she’s somehow dead center (pardon the pun) in a gruesome murder investigation. With her Gran inconveniently out of town, Jade has no choice but to get involved and take care of things herself – something she’s definitely not equipped for or used to thanks to her extremely sheltered upbringing.

I’m going to be honest, Jade was a bit too Mary Sue for my taste in some parts – every guy wants a piece of her, which she attributes to magic being attracted to her, as she is to it, but even handsome lawyers and random bus drivers can’t help but smile her way and can’t keep their eyes off her. She’s also extremely sheltered and can’t recall information that seems like it would be pretty crucial for a magical person to have – she knows almosts nothing about vampires or werewolves and has to look them up in her Gran’s books, and then she forgets some of what she read when she tries to remember it later. Honey, you can be pretty, powerful, and smart and still be cute – I promise. Still, she had her moments and was still a pretty likable character – especially with her cupcake obsession. Jade is always thinking about cupcakes, is always craving cupcakes, and always wants to give other people cupcakes.

The plot was interesting and unique, but I kind of guessed what was in the works early on, and felt like Jade should have figured it out earlier as well, but she has this whole self-acknowledged willful ignorance thing going on for her that seems to be practically her brand. But it’s an interesting world the author builds and I eagerly followed it until the end.

My absolute favorite parts of Cupcakes, Trinkets, And Other Deadly Magic were the interactions between clever, sarcastic vampire Kett, the Grand Conclave Investigator, and serious, grouchy Desmond, Lord and Alpha of the West Coast North American Pack, as they worked, begrudgingly, on the werewolf murder investigation together. I would absolutely read a buddy cop series with those two in it. There wasn’t really any romance between Jade and Kett or Desmond beyond some moments of physical attraction – I just hope the series isn’t building towards the dreaded triangle-of-death.

All in all, I enjoyed this book, especially for the price, and the storyline kind of has me hooked. Although I was getting Mary Sue vibes from the main character, Jade was still likable and the other characters really stole the show, enough that I’ll probably read the next book in the series.

In Cupcakes, Trinkets, And Other Deadly Magic, Jade is a cupcake baker who loves her craft – and the fruits of her craft. In almost any situation, she can think of a cupcake that would make it better. While dark chocolate with chocolate cream cheese icing may be Jade’s favorite cupcake, I’m a vanilla buttercream on strawberry cake kind of girl, so for a nice little treat to go along with this book, I’m recommending Brew La La Coffee Vanilla Buttercream Coffee – a lovely medium roast coffee flavored with hints of sweet, creamy, ever-so-slightly buttery frosting.