This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend. Read the full disclosure here.
Book: “Crumbs” by Danie Stirling
Publishing Info: Clarion Books, July 2022
Where Did I Get This Book: The library!
Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound
Book Description: Falling in love just got sweeter in this charming, romantic YA graphic novel from WEBTOON, the #1 digital comic platform. Ray, a young seer struggling with her powers, discovers first love and friendship in her town’s magic bakery.
In a very special town, there’s an even more unusual bakery with a selection of baked treats hand-crafted to help your dreams come true. For Ray, a quiet young woman with special powers of her own, the order is always the same: a hot tea with a delicious side of romance.
When Ray meets Laurie, the kind barista who aspires to be a professional musician, she gets a real taste of love for the first time. But even with a spark of magic, romance isn’t so simple. Both Ray and Laurie are chasing their own dreams and even when Ray starts to see the future, she can’t predict her fate with Laurie.
Based on the beloved webcomic from WEBTOON, this sweet coming-of-age story of friendship and first love comes to life in graphic novel format with gorgeous illustrations and exclusive content.
Review: I had seen “Crumbs” by Danie Stirling here and there on my various book related social media accounts, mostly Goodreads. The cover kept showing up and I had to look into it because it was, admittedly, super cute, and by the time I did check it out I was pretty convinced that I should read it. What’s not to like, after all? I like graphic novels, the magical elements sounded cute and serene, and I like a nice feel good romance. And besides, I feel like I’m suffering from massive existential dread in my day to day life, so something fluffy and sweet could be welcome. So I checked it out from the library and gave it a go. To mixed results.
I will say that this book is admittedly very sweet and cozy. I do like that there seems to be a sudden rise in more cozy fantasy novels, with titles like “Legends and Lattes” and “The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches” being pretty well liked by audiences, as sometimes you just need a charming and sweet story and you want it to have fantasy elements to boot. I did find “Crumbs” to be a very easy going read, and I liked the light fantasy tidbits like the magical bakery, the phones with little spirits acting as Siris, and even the hinted at broader magical government system and how even THAT can be a bit of a can of worms. I would absolutely LOVE to spend time at Marigold’s bakery, eating cakes and drinking coffees with various spells and charms cast upon them to help the consumer with things like self confidence and romance (but not in a boundary breaking or violating way). I also really liked that our protagonist Ray is a Seer, but not in the usual sense, in that she can only see things that are happening in the present and are existing in the now. So while she can’t, say, predict a giant storm that is going to be coming in a week’s time, she can see that at this moment there is a rainstorm happening miles away. Usually we think of seers in fantasy as being strictly dabbling in the future, so having it be in the now is SO interesting to me. This of course grows and shifts as Ray hones her powers during her time working for the Grand Council, which helps keep society in place and acts as governing body of sorts, and I enjoyed the ins and outs of it.
But I think that there is a clear flip side to this, and that is the fact that it’s almost TOO cozy and twee when it comes to the romance arc between Ray and her boyfriend Laurie. It starts cute and sweet enough, as Laurie is the barista at her aunt Marigold’s bakery and Ray is a regular customer, going there once a week for tea and a romance pastry, and seeing them tentatively begin a relationship was tender and felt pretty realistic in a number of ways. But I think that what was less interesting to me was that their conflicts, while pretty realistic as well, just didn’t feel very high stakes to me, and therefore felt kind of boring. I don’t need there to be a huge melodramatic problem that leans towards full on dysfunction or toxicity. But at the same time, I really don’t find myself super invested when the problems are about mild trust issues (that we don’t REALLY explore beyond one moment) and someone who is too much of a people pleaser. I can understand that there are people who aren’t comfortable with any kind of high stakes unhealthiness being portrayed in a relationship, but man, I do kind of want a little more conflict in my fiction, because for me fiction is about being able to explore those things in a safe way BECAUSE it is fiction. I know that this is personal preference, and that there are almost certainly people out here who will really love this aspect of the book. But it didn’t gel with me.
Finally, I really liked the artwork. It fits the tone of the story, and I always love seeing how food is drawn in graphic novels because it’s fun to see how tantalizing it can be.
“Crumbs” didn’t work for me an all levels, but I definitely know there are people who like cozy fantasy and gentle stories about romance and relationships that will enjoy it.
Rating 5: It’s a sweet and gentle romance with some hints of magical creativity, but “Crumbs” didn’t invest me too much in the central characters and their maneuvering through a relationship.
Reader’s Advisory:
“Crumbs” is included on the Goodreads lists “Cozy Fantasy Romance Reads”, and “Food Themed Romance Comics”.
The Library Ladies 