Love Sugar Magic: A Sprinkle of Spirits audiobook

Review posted on Fafa's Book Corner! Beware spoilers ahead!Trigger Warning(s): Grief and mention of cancer. Rep: Leo’s family is Mexican. Caroline is American-Colombian. Brent is American. I’m not sure about Tricia and Mai. If anyone knows please mention it in the comments!My Synopsis: Leo is officially a Bruja in training! She’s spent the school break with her Tia Paloma studying the basics of magic. Leo strives to learn her special family power so that she can become a great Bruja! And make up for her previous mistakes.Leo’s best friend Caroline has just returned from Costa Rica. With Caroline back, Leo looks forward to spending time with her. Except that her family no longer approves of their friendship. Especially Isabel.Leo is at odds regarding her friendship with Caroline. On the one hand Caroline has helped Leo out. On the other hand Leo would rather please her family then upset them.Caroline decides to surprise Leo at the bakery. Leo is thrilled but a little uneasy. One thing leads to another and Caroline ends up running out of the shop. Leo (disheartened) chooses not to chase her and prioritize her family instead.The next morning Leo is woken up by her Abuela. A dazed and sleepy Leo doesn’t put together that her Abuela shouldn’t be able to physically touch her. Her Abuela says that something is wrong and urges Leo to wake up Marisol.After some investigating the family discover there are more spirits on the loose. Unsure of what caused it, the family band together to find the spirits and send them all back home.Book Format: A Sprinkle of Spirits is written in third person limited following Leo. The last chapter in the book is an epilogue. There are chapter titles, chapter numbers, and little illustrations. Just like the first book Leo’s recipes are at the very end of the book. And lastly there is Spanish throughout the book.Where I Heard About this Book: I read the previous installment A Dash of Trouble.My Thoughts Before Reading: I absolutely adored A Dash of Trouble! I was so ecstatic to be reading the next installment. I am happy to say that I loved it!What I Liked: I loved the plot! As Leo begins training under her Tia Paloma, readers are able to discern the different types of spells, and ingredients used. There’s also a bit more family history explored.The world building was expanded upon, with the discovery of el Otro Lado. Which is where the dead go. Think of it like another dimension for the dead. The majority of the book is about Leo (and co), working together to spend back the spirits, to el Otro Lado. I enjoyed reading about Caroline’s and Leo’s friendship! And their growth from it. With Caroline’s help, Leo learned to be the Bruja she wanted to be. Through Leo’s help, Caroline was able to discover more about her family and her powers. Leo also helped boast Caroline’s confidence.I would say that this book was more about Caroline. Readers discover that Caroline summoned the spirits out of desperation to communicate with her mother. Caroline’s mother passed away due to cancer, a few years prior to the first book.I enjoyed reading about Caroline’s powers and how it was linked to her family history. In the process you do find out more about the culture as Caroline has more knowledge then Leo does.Isabel’s character arc was well done! Through Caroline, Isabel finally realizes that she’s lonely and would’ve liked to have some friends. Though she was rude to Caroline in the beginning, she did apologize.I absolutely adored Leo’s family! They are all close and came through for one-another. With their Abuela around, I gained some more insight about the characters. Specifically Leo’s mother and her Tia. More information is revealed regarding Leo’s dead aunt Isabel as well. I enjoyed reading about their Abuela’s interactions with the entire family, but especially Leo. It was interesting to see how Leo viewed her Abuela. And how she processed the advice her Abuela gave her.The spirits were so much fun to read about! I really enjoyed all of their interactions with one another. Especially Leo’s Abuela and her best friend Mrs. Morales. Tricia’s grandmother.Some of Leo’s friends (from her snack club) played vital role. Leo enlists the help of Brent, Tricia, and Mai in gathering the spirits. It was really fun to read about their attempts at getting the spirits back! I felt that the bond’s (family and friends) were strengthened throughout the book.I absolutely loved how the author portrayed the children’s view on death. What I mean it that I felt the portrayal was realistic. It was very disheartening to read how both Leo and Caroline viewed death. As well as the other children. A Sprinkle of Spirits was an emotional read.My Criticism(s): Absolutely nothing!What I’m Looking Forward To: That cliffhanger was very brutal! I really want answers regarding Leo’s Abuelo. I would also like Marisol to get her own arc in the next installment. And definitely for Leo and Caroline to explore their powers.Conclusion: Overall I loved A Sprinkle of Spirits! I highly recommend it.

I LOVED this follow-up to A DASH OF TROUBLE! Leo, her family, and her friends are delightful, and I really enjoyed coming to understand more of how her magic works, as well as the sweet ancestor-oriented plot of this one. Really lovely.

Rating: 4 Stars ★★★★ A Sprinkle Of Spirits is the magical, utterly charming sequel in the Love Sugar Magic series! When spirits begin showing up around town, Leo, her family & friends work together to solve the mystery! Filled with sweetness, adventure and inspiring messages, this is a heartfelt sequel!It's a new year and Leo's been training more with her family now that she's learned of the Logroño legacy of bruja magic, while her best friend Caroline has been in Costa Rica to spend time with family. However, Leo's finding herself pulled in so many different directions from her training, her family's expectations, experimenting with magic, and all while feeling like her sisters don't trust her enough in her bruja skills, they give her all this advice/rules about magic and family, which leaves her struggling to choose between her family and friends, but also fulfilling her expectations as a bruja.But at the end of the day, she doesn't want to have to pick between family and friends. However, another added pressure arrives when her abuela returns as a spirit and Leo thinks this is her fault. Luckily with the help of family and friends, as she gathers more clues she learns about other spirits who've crossed over and the consequences if they don't find their way back!It was so wonderful getting to return to the Amor y Azucar Panaderia, I adore this magical world of the Love Sugar Magic series and I just could not wait to join Leo on another adventure. You can sense this stress and uncertainty Leo faces in having to make choices, but also with the help of her abuela she learns some solutions in balancing all these different parts of bruja life!At its core this series is about family, friendship, and the magic of those relationships! When Leo finds herself in another magical mishap, she never falters to get help from friends and family when it's necessary. With Caroline having lost her mother, the story also processes grief and healing as Caroline and Leo try to mend their friendship.Leo is joined mainly by her oldest sister Isabel and her Tia Paloma in their quest to not only find all the spirits, but learn how they came and how to send them back home! I like that Leo further develops the relationships her sisters, who can be secretive and also convinced that separating family and friends is what's best for their magic.I could literally sense the weight and intense pressure of all these sides of Leo's life as she's tryin to also help these spirits. But despite that, there's a hope that everything works out in the end.The magic system is developed even more throughout this novel as we're introduced to a new baking spell, Leo's own magic, the magic of spirits, and all those different layers separating our world from the spirit world. As with the first novel, I loved how it emphasized the idea of opposites in creating portal to send the spirits home, it's like solving a puzzle! There's also the focus on emotions and how they play such a huge part in accessing that magic.With that said, learning more about El Otro Lado in relation to our world was developed throughout the novel in such an interesting way. This gave Leo the opportunity to ask more questions, talk with her abuela, and learn more about what was keeping the other spirits wandering around Rose Hill.There's a lot of traveling around town which makes for a fun adventure and along the way, it gives Leo more chances to find this balance between her family and friends.Messages woven in this sequel we're so vital to the narrative of the story and we're developed beautifully over the course of Sprinkle Of Spirits: The importance of prioritizing different relationships in your life, relying on those around you to help when you need it, learning to accept and let go, even when it's difficult, and so much more!Something I completely forgot about this series was just how funny it is! There's lots of humor sprinkled among the cast and just makes this equal parts magical and humorous. There were many moments either through Leo's POV or from the other characters that left me smiling.No specific gripes, but overall this just felt like a 4-star read to me at the moment, but this series is just so good!!A Sprinkle Of Spirits brings readers back to magic of the Logroño family and a new spooky mystery that needs solving! Threads of friendship, family, alongside the humor and deep, meaningful messages of this novel make this such a great sequel! Looking forward to wrapping up the series with the 3rd book![ Reading through my physical tbr/library and so glad I finally picked this one up]

Meiner Meinung nach kann man das Buch super lesen, ohne vorher den ersten Teil zu kennen. Genau so habe ich das gemacht und ich hatte keine Probleme. Ich finde die Geschichte super süß und wirklich spannend. Besonders die Idee mit den Backhexen finde ich innovativ und total ansprechend. Zudem ist der Schreibstil von Anna Meriano sehr flüssig und angenehm. Ich habe die ganze Zeit über mit Leo mitgefiebert. Das Buch ist witzig, kreativ und perfekt für alle Altersgruppen. Ich habe mich keineswegs gelangweilt. Die Geschichte passt perfekt in die herbstliche Jahreszeit, besonders mit dem Geisterthema. Ein toller Zusatz waren die ganzen kulturellen Einflüsse, die man durch das Buch erhalten hat. Ich habe so auch viel dazugelernt. Ich liebe das Buch und kann es auf jeden Fall weiterempfehlen.

I reviewed the first book last Day of the Dead (2020), but due to COVID it took a while for me to get this from my library.It's not a Day of the Dead sequel, so I'm running this review in September this year (2021), for Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept. 15-Oct. 15.The story starts up close to Dia de los Reyes, Three Kings' Day, celebrated January 6. It's well after 12-year-old Leo's last baking magic fiasco resolved -- when she played with magic even though she wasn't an initiated bruja and first caused everyone at school to fall in love with a boy and then shrank him down to minuscule size.With that prior record of causing magical calamity, you just know her next misadventure is going to be epic as well. Leo's spending more time in the bakery, and her family wants her to learn candle magic. But her best friend Caroline is feeling neglected, and a quick stop by the bakery makes it clear there's no room for Caroline in the Logrono family business.As a result, Caroline pockets a candle for herself, but no one notices in the commotion.The next thing Leo knows, she wakes up with her grandmother in her bedroom. The problem is, abuela is dead, muerta. Normally she appears as a ghost, but this time... she's solid. And wants some coffee.At first Leo thinks she's come into her bruja powers, but no... this is, of course, bigger than that. This time, it's Caroline who's inadvertently called upon her family's santeria powers and resurrected -- no, not like brain-eating zombies, this is gentle middle grade misdirection, after all -- a bunch of people around town. Mrs. Leticia Morales, abuela's best friend, before they died. An old man named Old Jack, who just wants to get his garden back into shape. Mr. Nguyen, who wants to tune the piano he donated to the school.Leo and sisters end up asking Mama for help, and Caroline stops by the bakery, and conspicuously, the one person not resurrected is Caroline's mother, who passed away and who she's been missing so much after a trip to Costa Rica without her mom.I'll stop right there. Enjoy this mixed-up story, it's a lot of gentle, magical candle fun!Looking for more book suggestions for your 7th/8th grade classroom and students? Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/