The Heartbreak Bakery

When I was young and full of feelings I didn’t know how to share, when I was afraid nobody would understand me, I found a language everybody knows. Sugar, flour, butter. The comfort of a perfect cookie, the joy of a celebration cake, the bittersweet importance of chocolate. I put everything in my heart into my baking. 

I'm a sucker for stories with cooking/baking-based magic, so I couldn't turn this one down (I did keep it on my TBR for way too long, but... eh, so many books, so little time, right? :D). This was a wonderful story with so much heart, full of relatable characters and a sense of self-discovery. While Syd goes on that external journey of writing a wrong—"the brownies I made after a painful break-up are making other people break up, too! quick, I need to fix this!"—the real internal journey is obviously about figuring out what relationships are even made of. And not just the romantic ones; friendships, familiar bonds, and relationships with self and gender and community are all pretty thoroughly explored.

I really loved the agender and genderfluid rep here, as well as the general portrayal of a big, supportive diverse community. That one part in the end made me tear up a little bit in the best way. Also, Capetta's prose never disappoints: I love how beautiful, poetic, and vivid their language is, and how it changes subtly form book to book, from protagonist to protagonist.

The reason this isn't a five-star book for me is because underneath all of these things that I've listed above and that I very sincerely adore, this was actually a fairly typical YA story of getting to know yourself and the world. While Syd's journey was beautifully executed, there were no real surprises. It was a bit like getting a really beautifully decorated muffin and then discovering that the best part of it is the icing while the insides aren't bad, but like... too predictable or something? I definitely don't mean it in a bad way, and I'm very happy I've read it, though!