A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic, by J. Penner, is a cozy romance fantasy set in the world of Ardenshire. Arleta Starstone is a magicless human in a world filled with magical creatures. Arleta dreams of opening her own bakery, but as a magicless human she has to work twice as hard on her recipes to make enough money. That is until her Orc neighbor secretly enters her into the Elven Baking Contest. The prize money could help her buy that dream bakery. Arleta is caught between wanting to prove her culinary prowess and wanting to hide from all the magical folks who think less of her because she human. In order to win the contest, Arleta must find what makes her bakes magical.

This is a very sweet and comforting book to read. All of the characters are entertaining. The diversity in the book is good, there’s characters from all different walks of life working to come together. The friendships formed in this book are the highlight of Penner’s writing. This book is a fun, sweet, heartwarming book to read when you’re looking for something with low stakes.

The idea of the baking contest is great. It’s an excellent setting for a cozy novel. The contest kinds of reads like the Great British Bake Off. There needs to be more of the baking contest in the book. The actual contest only takes up a third of the book. It’s the main plot point and it’s where all of the interest of the book is. There needed to be more written about the actual competition. The Judges of the competition could have been filled out more. They seem to come out of nowhere, but it would have been nice if they had been in the story more. It would also have been nice to get more of the other competitors in the competition. The baking contest would have been excellent if it had been flushed out a little more.

The romance in this book was not as well paced as it could have been. The development of the relationship was good. Arleta and Theo made for a cute couple and they romantic tension was good. However, their conflict in the book was not well thought out. The pacing of the relationship messed with the overall pacing of the book. The relationship should have been paced to go with the baking battle, but it read as a separate story. If the two plots could have been better melded together the story would have seemed much more cohesive.

Overall, this is a good book, it just needed some work with the pacing. If you liked Legends and Lattes this has a very similar vibe. There are stakes but they aren’t very high, so its a nice relaxing read. This book is definitely worth picking up if you’re looking for you’re next cozy fantasy read.

I was given an ARC by Netgalley and Poison Pen Press for an honest review.