Korean healing fiction with a dash of magical realism.

Recently, I've been feeling a bit burnt out of the 'healing fiction' genre of translated Japanese and Korean books, since they're all pretty much the exact same book. However, The Midnight Pastry Shop at Hwalwoldang felt like it brought something fresh to the scene - Yeon-Hwa is the new, reluctant, owner of Hwalwoldang, her recently passed grandma's failing pastry shop. However, when Yeon-Hwa finds out that the shop's true purpose is helping spirits cross over into the afterlife, she starts to understand why her grandma worked so hard to keep this place open.

Despite that this book focuses on the stories of deceased spirits, it never felt dark or depressing, and left me feeling like we should all appreciate our loves one while we can, since we never know what might happen tomorrow - not a groundbreaking message, but heartwarming nonetheless.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the eArc!

A fun fantasy quest, with a lush natural settling, and an excellent debut!

We follow Princess Alarie, who is given a quest by her realm's goddess: she must travel to the other realms of their land, collect the lost relics held by each one, and stop the hollowing affecting all of their lives. Given the title, the realm Alarie, and her new bodyguard Taren, travels to in this book is the Wildwood, where she must convince the fae residents to trust her enough to give up their precious relic.

I loved that this was not a romantasy, nor even a fantasy romance - finding a proper fantasy, that isn't epic fantasy, is hard nowadays. There is the subtle makings of a romantic subplot, but its subtlety made it feel so much more real, and meant that the actual plot, as well as the friendships Alarie makes, stand out much more.

My only real issue with it is that I wanted religion to be a larger theme - the opening chapter focuses entirely on the religion of Alarie's realm, and how her relationship (or lack thereof) with her goddess has shaped her life. This was really interesting, and felt very well thought out, so I was disappointed when it wasn't mentioned more than in passing throughout the rest of the book. But, I suppose that this theme may return in the next books in the series... (please!)

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the eArc!