The Magic Cupcake by River Laurent

​ROMANTIC COMEDY

Publication date: 11/14/2018
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Cliffhanger: I dunno

Honestly, I’m not even sure what possessed me to read this book. Maybe it’s the deep and abiding love I have for cupcakes? (They’re all magical, in my opinion) I dunno. But I do know that it’ll take more than a pastry-laden title to trick me into buying books going forward; this book has made sure of that.  ​

First of all, I’ll be representing the Unpopular Opinion Crew on this one. Again. Sigh. If you check this book out on Amazon, you’ll see tons of glowy, gushy reviews from people who think it’s just so, so cute. I suppose it’s possible that I’m just a grumpy old bitch because I didn’t see the humor. Whatever. I can live with that.

via GIPHY

Here’s what didn’t work for me:

1. The heroine and her friends are super immature. And folks, I’m willing to admit that I enjoy a healthy amount of childish humor, but this crew was even too immature for me to handle. I mean, the heroine got drunk with her friends and decided to go out in search of a love potion to give to her neighbor (a stranger) to make him fall in love with her. I know we’re supposed to write this off as drunken hilarity, but it wasn’t funny, it was just...stupid. I don’t have time for stupid.  
2. I’m pretty sure “gypsy” is a derogatory term, yet this book is peppered with the word. And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, the “gypsy” in question is a complete stereotype.
3. The idea that a sober adult would even CONSIDER putting a foreign substance in a man’s drink with the intent of making him fall in love with her is, a) ridiculous, b) childish, and c) predatory. Let’s just for a moment imagine, shall we, that this was the story of a man who considered drugging a woman. In that instance, it’d be an episode of Criminal Minds instead of a sweet, funny rom com. Spiking people’s food is wrong, folks. (End of public service announcement) (Note: Based on other reviews, I get the impression that the hero’s food wasn’t actually spiked with anything. I don’t care. The fact that it was considered by the heroine and her friends was enough to make me put the book down and give it a very disappointed head shake.)
4. I’m no grammar Nazi, but holy hell, there were a lot of errors in this book. The editing was lacking, to say the least. And it wasn’t just typos, either. There were glaring continuity errors that I picked up on even though I was skimming most of the book.

So, about 30% into the book, because of everything I mentioned above, I gave up and slapped a DNF rating on this one. Life’s too short to read books that annoy you.  


Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
It’s not really stigma-y...just bad. 

Other reading suggestions:

Romance heroes who give a whole new meaning to "Love thy neighbor"​

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Romance novel meet cutes we can't get enough of​