The Heartbreak Bakery
A Lambda Literary Award Winner
Teenage baker Syd sends ripples of heartbreak through Austin’s queer community when a batch of post-being-dumped brownies turns out to be magical—and makes everyone who eats them break up.
“What’s done is done.”
Unless, of course, it was done by my brownies. Then it’s getting undone.
Syd (no pronouns, please) has always dealt with big, hard-to-talk-about things by baking. Being dumped is no different, except now Syd is baking at the Proud Muffin, a queer bakery and community space in Austin. And everyone who eats Syd’s breakup brownies . . . breaks up. Even Vin and Alec, who own the Proud Muffin. And their breakup might take the bakery down with it. Being dumped is one thing; causing ripples of queer heartbreak through the community is another. But the cute bike delivery person, Harley (he or they, check the pronoun pin, it’s probably on the messenger bag), believes Syd about the magic baking. And Harley believes Syd’s magical baking can fix things, too—one recipe at a time.
Teenage baker Syd sends ripples of heartbreak through Austin’s queer community when a batch of post-being-dumped brownies turns out to be magical—and makes everyone who eats them break up.
“What’s done is done.”
Unless, of course, it was done by my brownies. Then it’s getting undone.
Syd (no pronouns, please) has always dealt with big, hard-to-talk-about things by baking. Being dumped is no different, except now Syd is baking at the Proud Muffin, a queer bakery and community space in Austin. And everyone who eats Syd’s breakup brownies . . . breaks up. Even Vin and Alec, who own the Proud Muffin. And their breakup might take the bakery down with it. Being dumped is one thing; causing ripples of queer heartbreak through the community is another. But the cute bike delivery person, Harley (he or they, check the pronoun pin, it’s probably on the messenger bag), believes Syd about the magic baking. And Harley believes Syd’s magical baking can fix things, too—one recipe at a time.
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Community Reviews
Lovely to read a book with an agender main character. Not something you see often. The whole cast is incredibly diverse- if you’re queer in any way it’s likely you’ll find a character in here who shares your identity- but it’s especially nice that the main ones are agender and transmasc (not sure of Harley’s exact gender identity, but this is the closest I can think of) since both communities struggle greatly with invisibility and lack of representation. Syd’s gender journey felt painfully relatable and I can see this book being useful for a young person who’s just starting to understand themselves. One line in particular hit me hard- Syd said something about how they no longer felt invisible [while wearing pride clothes] but that they were speaking a language no one understands. Reminds me of all the times I’ve been wearing very obvious pronoun pins only to be consistently misgendered. That line perfectly captured this feeling of silently screaming for someone to acknowledge it, someone to just notice what is so clearly right in front of them, that’s pretty common to feel when you’re just starting to socially transition. This is just one example of many of how well queerness and particularly baby-queerness is handled in this book.
As for the story itself, it’s thoroughly adorable! It was so sweet I could feel my teeth rotting while I was reading. There’s a ton of fluff and love and queer joy in this book, with a little angst and heartbreak mixed in to add some spice. It’s predictable but in a comfortable way, like your favorite pastry you’ve eaten a million times and could still eat a million more of. The romance takes a backseat to the magical baking plot- and I do wish a bit more time was spent on developing the relationship between Syd and Harley, but said magical baking plot was so cute I didn’t really mind it. The incorporation of the recipes between chapters annoyed me a little at first (it’s not a gimmick I’m usually a fan of) but when I stopped to read them after the second or third one I realized there were some witty little jokes or story references peppered throughout, and I started to enjoy them a lot more.
The single solitary complaint I have is that there isn’t more to all of this. Where’s my epilogue where we find out what happens to the Proud Muffin? Where’s my 5 year timeskip into Syd and Harley being in college/graduated and deepening their bond? Mostly joking, but I genuinely think an epilogue would be great for this book.
As for the story itself, it’s thoroughly adorable! It was so sweet I could feel my teeth rotting while I was reading. There’s a ton of fluff and love and queer joy in this book, with a little angst and heartbreak mixed in to add some spice. It’s predictable but in a comfortable way, like your favorite pastry you’ve eaten a million times and could still eat a million more of. The romance takes a backseat to the magical baking plot- and I do wish a bit more time was spent on developing the relationship between Syd and Harley, but said magical baking plot was so cute I didn’t really mind it. The incorporation of the recipes between chapters annoyed me a little at first (it’s not a gimmick I’m usually a fan of) but when I stopped to read them after the second or third one I realized there were some witty little jokes or story references peppered throughout, and I started to enjoy them a lot more.
The single solitary complaint I have is that there isn’t more to all of this. Where’s my epilogue where we find out what happens to the Proud Muffin? Where’s my 5 year timeskip into Syd and Harley being in college/graduated and deepening their bond? Mostly joking, but I genuinely think an epilogue would be great for this book.
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