Sweet & Bitter Magic

Written by Adrienne Tooley

Narrated by Ferdelle Capistrano and 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Mar 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9781797121659

Adrienne Tooley

Adrienne Tooley grew up in Southern California, majored in musical theater in Pittsburgh, and now lives in Brooklyn with her wife, six guitars, and a banjo. In addition to writing novels, she is a singer/songwriter who has currently released three indie-folk EPs. She’s the author of Sweet & Bitter Magic and Sofi & the Bone Song. You can find her online at AdrienneTooley.com.

Reviews for Sweet & Bitter Magic

[Rachel Rudiger · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A really cute story. Narrators sound robotic. Would recommend reading.

[Abbie Bauer · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3.5–this is a very cute story. The concept is not groundbreaking but still a nice book to read. The audiobook for this is kind of a mess though. Towards the last third of the book there are moments where the audio quality changes. Also, one of the narrators reads some of the character lines like Siri so I had to listen to the book on 2x to get through them.

[Kiley Mackin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Story was cute and enjoyable enough, but as another reviewer mentioned, the audio was messy. Tamsin's narrator was great, but Wren's was stilted and unnatural, and left me not really enjoying Wren as a character. Not to mention there were sections of the audio where the quality changed and sounded like they were re-recorded and edited in, throwing off the flow of the narration.

[Monica Hay (monicathewriter) · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

One of the narrators sounds like a robot, which was incredibly distracting. The story wasn’t very interesting and I didn’t really feel impacted by the ending. Unfortunately just wasn’t the book for me

[Jewelry Bonney · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book has a compelling storyline and was actually hard to put down. By the way, there is a competition happening right now till the end of May on the NovelStar app, I hope you can consider joining. If you have more stories like this, you can also publish them there just email the editors [e-mail], [e-mail] [e-mail].

[Alex V · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Tbh, I think that the narrator’s voice had a huge impact on my enjoyment of this book. It almost seemed like it was being read by a robot. And while so many books rush the ending, I thought this one could’ve been hurried along.

[Elwira Filipiak · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

*3.5/5
"Sweet & Bitter Magic" was one of my most anticipated releases of 2021 and for a debut it was a great book. It had the enemies to lovers, the cute sapphic romance, a morally grey protagonist and the perfect atmosphere to top it all off. Definitely recommend.

[Airun 357 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Cool to hear and enjoy a quiet evening, to relax and let time pass by

[Harita S · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very heartwarming and light read. Got exactly what my baby sapphic heart craved.

[samantha virella · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Tamsin is cursed witch. For years her curse has caused her not to feel love, so she takes it. When the people of her village come to her for help their payment is their love for someone in their life. Her village lives in constant fear of her.

A plague has befallen the country, one of magical origin. As it infects people they forget their loved ones. Sadly one such infected is Wren’s father. But Wren also has a secret. She is a source of magic, which are so rare and coveted that they are rarely found out side the witch lands. Yet Wren has managed to hide herself all these years. Until her father comes down with the plague.

Seeing no other choice Wren strikes a deal with Tamsin to help save her father. In return for his life, she will pay for her love for him. The two team up to track down the source of the dark magic causing the plague, but as they work together Tamsin’s secrets start to come back from the dead, and wren, well she just might start having feelings for the witch who can’t love.

I really enjoyed Sweet and bitter magic. Especially the magic system in it. It wasn’t very complex, but I did love that it was a system where you had a magic bar( like in a video game) and could only use x amount at a time with out loosing power.

On top of that there the love and relationship wren has with her father is very touching.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook and thought this was a fun wlw witchy quest that had me gasping and yelling at the book half the time.

Cw
Death
Violence
Death of a parent
Murder

[Ka'iulani Kauahi · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book has a wonderful start. It did slow down at the conflict, and took its time wrapping up.

The world is interesting as is the character development. I would read a sequel.

[Rebecca · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked this book. It was engaging and well paced.

[Thea Karan · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I didn't like this. While the magic system was somewhat interesting, the world was too fantasy-ladia, the relationships never felt fully fleshed out and fantasy plot left me unsatisfied.