A DASH OF MAGIC

In this hilarious sequel to Bliss (2012), 12-year-old Rose Bliss and her eccentric family travel to Paris, where she competes in an international pastry competition to outbake her scheming Aunt Lily Le Fey and recover the Bliss Cookery Booke. 

After Lily stole the Booke with its secret, special family recipes, the Bliss bakery’s pies, muffins and croissants have lost their magic, leaving everyone in Calamity Falls feeling “a bit like warm lettuce.” Meanwhile, Lily has a best-selling cookbook and a popular TV cooking show, and her Magical Ingredient threatens to have the “country in the palm of her hand.” Determined to stop Lily, Rose challenges her in the formidable Gala des Gâteaux Grands, with the Booke as the prize. To assemble the bizarre ingredients for their unconventional recipes, Rose and her family risk their necks and encounter ghostly creatures, searching the Seine, the Louvre, the Catacombs, the Eiffel Tower, Versailles and Notre Dame. Employing unorthodox cat-and-mouse subterfuge, a desperate Rose eventually discovers she may not need magic to be the best baker if she has her family’s love. Readers will savor this latest Bliss family adventure as Rose and her siblings traverse Paris trying to outmaneuver Lily and turn the baking world upside down. Spot art captures key themes.

Fantastic fantastical fare.