Sweet & Bitter Magic

By: Adrienne Tooley

Narrated by: Ferdelle Capistrano, Andrea Emmes

In this charming debut fantasy perfect for fans of Sorcery of Thorns and Girls of Paper and Fire, a witch cursed to never love meets a girl hiding her own dangerous magic, and the two strike a dangerous bargain to save their queendom.

Tamsin is the most powerful witch of her generation. But after committing the worst magical sin, she’s exiled by the ruling Coven and cursed with the inability to love. The only way she can get those feelings back - even for just a little while - is to steal love from others.

Wren is a source - a rare kind of person who is made of magic, despite being unable to use it herself. Sources are required to train with the Coven as soon as they discover their abilities, but Wren - the only caretaker to her ailing father - has spent her life hiding her secret.

When a magical plague ravages the queendom, Wren’s father falls victim. To save him, Wren proposes a bargain: if Tamsin will help her catch the dark witch responsible for creating the plague, then Wren will give Tamsin her love for her father.

Of course, love bargains are a tricky thing, and these two have a long, perilous journey ahead of them - that is, if they don’t kill each other first.

©2021 Adrienne Tooley. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

I loved it, but have some critiques.

okay, this was a really solid story, not at all what I was expecting, which was refreshing. it took a while to listen all the way through because one of the narrators spoke super slowly and it sort of drove me crazy. then...I realized I could listen to her chapters at 1.2 x speed and it sounded perfectly normal, and I kicked myself for not thinking of that sooner!
other than that little glitch, I thought it was well written, and well preformed. it really carried across an important and unconventional message. most fantasy novels carry a moral that has to do with power and responsibility or society and justice or science vs spirituality, but this one had a more interpersonal message. I think I had a therapist spend about a year trying to get me to learn what this book clearly communicates in a handful of hours.
that said, I felt a certain character was given little to no accountability for their actions and their part in what happened, all the growth and character arcs were had by other characters, which is fine, except I thought it a little unfair.
like, I get that they were 12 year olds when most of the crap went down, but we're just supposed to be okay with 12 year old Marlena being a vapid, selfish, little sh*t who refused to communicate her needs to the people who loved her and supported her most? like, her sister spends her life blaming herself for everything, including her death, but Marlena never once said what she wanted, she just secretly resented everyone for not automatically knowing what she never so much as hinted at. totally classic 12 year old move, I know, but even five years later, nobody is like, "hey, Tamsin, it's not 100% your fault, your twin was kinda a butthead."

I was unclear on why exactly Marlena was dying. did she have a chronic illness made worse by magic use or was using magic the only reason she was dying? either way, a little acknowledgement that magic was killing her (or killing her faster) by their mother or literally anyone would have made sense. like, it never occurred to anyone that if magic was part of her illness she should...I don't know...maybe stop? she wasn't even good at it. so I didn't understand the point on her continuing, and I sort of felt like there should have a been some stronger motivation to keep her in training than was given.
also, the dad was whiny jerk and had more to apologize for than what was covered. he manipulated his daughter into staying with him by playing up his illness. then again, she was like, 17 so probably a little young to be leaving home on her own anyway, but it's implied he would have kept doing it indefinitely which is highly problematic. this made my sympathy for her giving up her love for him almost zero. like, without it she wouldn't care, and he seemed better off without someone to manipulate. so I wasn't emotionally invested in her internal conflict about her father. I had a sort of "eh, screw that guy" reaction to him getting left behind.

good story but narrator was not

I enjoyed the story but couldn't make it more then 6 chapters in with the audio book before just physically reading it. The narrator for Wren was so hard to listen to she was so slow and monotone that it felt like dragging nails across a chalk board. love the story when I physically read it but I would not recommend the audiobook

Great book

The book and narration is well worth a listen. Interesting characters, world and story. although there are some minor issues. it feels like one of the characters doesn't really have proper motivation for the "journey" in the story. I do wish there were some extra motivation, and it could easily have been fixed by mixing in parts from the rest of the story. Parts of the story was also Very predictable. To the point where you'll know what's going to happen 2-3 chapters before it happens. To not spoil anything, I won't go into details. But other then that, there are little to complain about. I'd say it's a very good book with good characters and a pretty satisfying ending.

Really liked the book

Really liked the story but tamzens narrator sounded pretty robotic and terrible. Overall though it was good

This book was fantastic!

I love this book! The mystery, the suspense, the romance, all was perfect! Ferdelle Capistrano and Andrea Emmes did a really excellent job performing this story! I thoroughly enjoyed their narration.

Good But the Narrator was Monotone

I liked the story and normally don’t like enemies to lovers but this in was written well. My inly compliant was that the narrator was so monotone. Other than that it was good.

Best book EVER

I loved this book it was so amazing and so lovely and Beautiful is just loved it

Good book, not the best narration

The book was pretty great overall I really enjoyed it However, the narration felt off to me. The narration felt a bit robotic, most of the time the way the story was narrated, it didn't seem to match with how the lines were written. This really threw me off and took me out of the story pretty often.

awesome

I really loved the little bits of classic fair tales that were thrown in there. they were different but recognizable for what they were.
they sorry was really good and had a few surprises too.

Loved it!

Great story! Both bitter and sweet.
I can relate to the inner feelings of the protagonists and some of the secondary..