Gingerbread Men and Toad’s Wart

Such a sweet and fast paced novella about a witch who owns a bakery where the gingerbread are magically wonderful! Walter plans to woe her but will her ex-boyfriend put a half to a Christmas romance? The characters are fun and the romance endearing.

This romance-fantasy short is set during the snowy season in the world of Thicket Beyond where witches, satyrs, trolls, and yetis live on the outskirts of the human world. The world building while fun, well developed, and this story’s strongest feature, presented in quite a cartoonishly juvenile way. The dialogue, romantic premise, and character depth were also awkwardly juvenile. Overall it was a silly, fun winter read.

A fun holiday novella with witches and humans in a different spin.

I honestly would love more stories about this world. The worldbuilding done was outstanding even within the short about of time of a novella. The story came across as a coming of age, with both main characters very unsure of themselves which worked. I loved Walter, and hope to see more stories from this world.

Cresella is a witch really different from her peers, because she doesn’t sell potions but prefers to bake gingerbread men of which humans are fond, because apparently they find really funny to be able to talk with their cookies – or run after them if they escape as we can see in the first chapter – before eating them.
Besides her talent in the kitchen, Cresella is a kind heroine, with good temper – something that, when added to her job and the fact she’s the only witch who doesn’t have green skin, puts her apart from the other witches.

Cresella, like any good witch, has an unusual pet: a bad tempered basilisk (if you can judge it on the answers the heroine gives as the pet communicates mentally). But this pet doesn’t prevent her from feeling lonely, especially as she broke up with her ex because he cheated on her – but can you expect anything else from a satyr? lol

Walter, the hero, is only seen through the heroine’s eyes. He’s a human who seems kind, perhaps a bit shy, and he’s amazed by what he sees of the magic world in the village that works as a junction with the human world. We discover through reading that he’s also persistent and brave.

The magic world is interesting, there’s not much details because the story is short but there are enough to show the differences with the human world: lots of supernatural creatures of all kinds (satyr, yeti, faeries, …) with micro details for each of them (as an example the heroine regrets in front of danger that witches don’t have magical powers but only brew potions), and it made me want to know more.

All in all it’s a cute short story that made me smile. Lucky draw.

This was a cute little novella that was just the right bite size of romance. Helps put me in the holiday mood.