Review – The Confectioner’s Guild (The Confectioner’s Guild, Book 1) by Claire Luana (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 327 pages
Publisher: Live Edge Publishing
Release Date: October 23, 2018
ASIN: B07G4GRB5S
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Confectioner Chronicles
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Wren knew her sweet treats could work wonders, but she never knew they could work magic. She barely has time to wrap her head around the stunning revelation when the head of the prestigious Confectioner’s Guild falls down dead before her. Poisoned by her cupcake.

Now facing murder charges in a magical world she doesn’t understand, Wren must discover who framed her or face the headsman’s axe. With the help of a handsome inspector and several new friends, Wren just might manage to learn the ropes, master her new powers, and find out who framed her. But when their search for clues leads to a deep-rooted conspiracy that goes all the way to the top, she realizes that the guild master isn’t the only one at risk of death by chocolate.

If Wren can’t bring the powerful culprit to justice, she and her friends will meet a bittersweet end.”

I got this book through Kindle Unlimited and was really excited to read it. I have a soft spot for books about magical desserts and have been loving series such as Love, Sugar, Magic by Anna Meriano and The Spellwork Syndicate by Lola Dodge. I was hoping this would be another amazing magical dessert series, but I was a bit disappointed. I just had so much trouble staying engaged in this story.

This book is about a young woman named Wren who gets asked to join The Confectioner’s Guild after she finds out she can imbue her cupcakes with magic. Shortly after her introduction to the Guild she is accused of murdering the very guild master who admitted her. Wren must work quickly, with her newfound friends, to unravel the mystery of who actually killed the confectioner’s guild master.

This book just did too much, too fast, too soon for me. Just as the reader is getting to know Wren and being immersed in this amazing world of magical food guilds…BAM! suddenly Wren is accused of murder. The story quickly turns from this amazing magical story to a fairly simple murder mystery. All the fascinating magic is pushed to the background as Wren struggles to find the true murderer.

There is a sweet little romance between Wren and the lead investigator that I enjoyed. I also think a lot of the side characters had potential, but ended up being underdeveloped. The world of these magical guilds was intriguing, but again it felt under-realized.

I wanted to love this book so much but ended up almost stopping it a number of times. I just could not stay engaged with the story or the characters. They had potential to be amazing but just never got there. The writing was okay but didn’t flow very well, I really had to concentrate and work to read this story and I think that’s why my mind wandered away from it so easily.

Overall I enjoyed the potential this book had but was disappointed by the execution. There are so many cool ideas here and they all ended up taking a backseat to a simple murder mystery. There were many characters that had potential to be intriguing but they also ended up underdeveloped. I, sadly, won’t be continuing this series.