Super cute and super short Balkan folklore about a girl who works at a bakery and had a customer come in with a special request for a bread that can only be made with ingredients that are found in the woods in the middle of the night. When she goes to find it, she finds more than expected and when she makes the bread, the customer reacts in a way which can only be expected in folklore.
The narrator was spot on and this was so short that I was kinda shocked at the abrupt ending. I was prepared for more to the story!
Enjoyed it and I think kids would like it as well.
Thanks to Netgalley for this audiobook arc in exchange for my review.

True Loaf is a short story written by Austen Johnson. The story, which is based on Balkan Folklore, follows a baker named Riley. She is sent on a magical adventure when a newcomer to town requests that she bake a special loaf of bread for him.

My favorite part of reading this was the afterword by the author where she describes the four parts of a magical tale. I ended up listening to the story two more times to follow along and see how each of these parts were included in the plot

Pros: I liked that this short story is based on Balkan Folklore because that is a culture and tradition I have not heard many stories or read many books from. My favorite part of this story was the magical realism. I also appreciated the author's note at the end of the story because I learned more about the elements of the folklore story and it showed how much can be analyzed from a very short story.

Cons: I think a well done short story packs all it needs to in a few pages but also leaves the reader wishing there were more. The con here is that I really enjoyed this short story, but I wish it weren't so short because I wanted to read more!

Thank you to NetGalley and Lore and Lyre for the opportunity to listen to this story!

I've shared my review on Goodreads and StoryGraph.

True Loaf by Austen Johnson is a short story based on Balkan Folklore and it’s truly interesting but made more so by the authors note that follows. The breakdown of the story’s structure and importance of the sequence gave me a better understanding of traditional folklore and magical tales.

It’s very short so I’ll forgo a traditional summary and just say that I found it enchanting with a wonderful setting. Dorchford and Whisper Wood sound like a world I’d like to revisit in the future!

Penny Scott-Andrews narrates and her tone is melodic and affecting! She kept me invested throughout!

It was very cozy and fairy tale like, really liked it but It wasn't quite there, I think I just personally prefer a little longer stories, didn't really have enough time to connect with the characters

True Loaf by L. Austen Johnson

This holiday weekend, I decided to be a bit adventurous and try an audiobook from NetGalley’s available selections. I was immediately taken in by the artwork of this cover and the chance to listen to a wee story.

True Loaf by L. Austen Johnson is an enchanting mini modern folktale. I was charmed by this inventive tale which was at once fresh and familiar as any timeless folktale should be. In True Loaf, our heroine Riley works at a bakery where they cater to unusual requests. One day a stranger enters the bakery and makes a rather unusual request. Riley must go on a short adventure in search of the special ingredient necessary to honor the stranger’s request. As in any good folktale, Riley realizes that things are not always what they seem and must rely on her wits for things to turn out well in the end.

I was also happy to discover that in celebration of paperless reading experiences and the magic of the Whisper Wood, the author has partnered with One Tree Planted. For every audiobook sold within the first year from release, one tree in North America shall be planted. Now available, release date: 27 July 2021. I would like to thank @netgalley for the gift of this charming audiobook.


Narrator: Penny Scott-Andrews
Length: 16 Minutes, 3 Seconds

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I requested this book because I live in the Balkan, but I'm not from here and I was interested about the folklore. It was too short too enjoy it. I wanted more information, I don't understand the ending. It was nothing special for me because of its length

This is so good. I highly recommend this short story. It is the first short story I have listened to as an audiobook and I loved it. It is the perfect length. I could see this becoming more popular because a deterrent of audiobooks is their length. This is book leaves a lot to your imagination but the fact that there is plot and story building in as short of story that it is is impressive. The author's voice is very fitting for the story. The narrator's voice fits very well. into the story. The story has fairytale vibes. I loved this and would definitely read it again.

That was such a fun story to hear!

Honestly, despite the fact that I think this story need more work and I wish there was more, I really enjoyed it!

A cute but way too short story. Riley, a baker, is sent on a quest by a customer to find a rare white yarrow and bake it into a bread.

I liked the story, but it was a bit too short and too scripted. The story is inspired by Balkan folklore and follows the Hero's Journey. My problem was that it seemed like the author was just checking off a list of what a Hero's Journey story must have and doing the minimum. Nothing is wrong with the story, but nothing stands out either, and it was too short for any real development.

It seemed like a 2nd draft, not a finished story. I would love to read a more polished version of this.

Thank you NetGalley and Lore and Lyre for the opportunity to listen to this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this story. It's a short story based on folklore. I only wish it was longer and a little more story added in.

A short story inspired by Balkan folklore, which thankfully doesn't go into retelling but sounds so authentically Balkan, I kept thinking it must be a retelling of an existing story! Elements, such as the 9 turns (3 by 3, often important in Balkan, or at least Bulgarian stories), the importance of the time of day the herbs are collected, and the bread, often symbolic for magic in Balkan and Bulgarian folklore, made me feel nostalgic for the stories I was told as a child.

The yarrow is a herb associated with healing, because of its blood-clotting qualities, but in myths and folklore, it has often been used to purge the devil or symbolise love. As it is masterfully recounted in this short story. Having knowledge of details like these made it an absolute delight to listen to.

My only reasons for not giving it five stars were the slightly confusing time period, and the narrator's voice. The latter is entirely a personal judgement, as I have a low tolerance for certain auditory stimuli, and the way the narrator was pronouncing certain words jarred me. The former I found weird because the modern setting seemed a little at odds with the story itself.

It's important to realize that this is an incredibly short audiobook. It is just one short story based on Baltic folklore. The short story was okay, but I actually preferred hearing the author talk about the inspiration and folklore it is based in afterwards.

Perhaps a whole book on that or more short stories would vastly improve this audiobook.

I grabbed this because of the adorable cover. The story was short and sweet, though it did feel vaguely unfinished. Ironically, I found greater enjoyment listening to the "outro". It was interesting to learn about the mechanics of folklore and the ways Johnson applied them to True Loaf.

A whimsical little story inspired by Balkan folklore, but that can be misleading as True Loaf is not a retelling of any specific Balkan folklore. It is, instead, inspired by the tone, plot and structure of folk tales.

As someone who has read Morphology of the Folktale and studied some folkloristics back in uni, I can see that there are definitely elements of folklore in this short story. However, I found True Loaf wanting in the sense that it felt incomplete. The tone was there, the plot and structure were also there, but it just didn't entirely feel the same as a folktale would (probably due to the modernity thrown in which clashed a bit with what would've otherwise felt like historical fiction).

Other than that, it would've been a better listening experience for me had a different narrator been chosen. While I do like their voice which strengthened the whimsical feel of the story, it was difficult to understand at some parts (English isn't my first language) and I felt like I missed out on details because of that. Replaying the parts I couldn't understand the first time round, didn't help as well and just made me wish there was a script I could read along instead.

A simple short story with the potential for more. I enjoyed the discussion of folklore included at the end as it's an area of interest of mine, and much of the description was lovely. Everything proceeded a little to easily for me, our hero didn't face many real challenges. The language was also charming when descriptive, but the americanisms and modernity thrown in in a story that otherwise felt in a mythic folklore time took me out of the story and detracted from my enjoyment. It's a very short audiobook so there's not much I can say but I did think that it was well performed.

The way I consumed True Loaf by Austen Johnson was via audiobook. It's a short story based on Balkan folklore and mythology,which is something I grew up on. I really enjoyed that, even though short, this story gave me the same whimsical feeling of hearing my mother or grandmother, and later on my teacher, telling me different folk tales and myths.
Listening to this as an audiobook was a fantastic experience, as the narrator did an amazing job giving all of the characters their own voice.
This is a story of a girl, Riley, who works in a bakery. One day, a stranger comes in, asking her for a special ingredient, after which she embarks on a journey of searching for it.
I would highly recommend listening to this audiobook if you're in need of short, but truly magical story.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing this audiobook for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of the audio version in exchange for an honest review!

This was a fun quick story! I really enjoyed a modern story that still has all the trappings of a traditional folktale, and it makes me want read more Balkan stories. I also appreciated the discussion of folkloric elements at the end and how each was represented in the story. I wish these representations were clearer, though, along with the story being a bit longer. I know the author is keeping with the short and brief timing of a folktale, but I feel like a longer story would have allowed for more depth, especially where the brothers who are actually princes are concerned. I would love to see this story lengthened and turned into a novella if not a full length novel. It would be fun to see more magic and more depth of character. But I did really enjoy an original story with traditional tropes.

Lore and Lyre made the audiobook ‘True Loaf’ by L. Austen Johnson available for review via NetGalley. It is narrated by Penny Scott-Andrews and is 24 minutes long.

It is a short story inspired by a Balkan folktale. Riley works in a bakery and one day a strange man comes in and asks for an unusual ingredient to be baked into a loaf of bread. Riley has to go on a moonlit adventure into the woods to find it.

Following the story is bonus content in the form of an article by the author about how she came to write the tale and an analysis of the folklore of the story in terms of structure and symbolism.

Overall, a charming tale bound to appeal to listeners both young and old.

This is a short story inspired by Balkan folklore. I’ve listened to the audiobook version which is only 20-30 minutes long.

Overall, it’s a cute and entertaining tale. However, it felt a bit poor of depth and ends very abruptly leaving the reader unsatisfied. You don’t get to know the ending and you don’t get the moral of the story (at least I haven’t).

I would prefer it to be a bit longer and more condensed of details around the characters.