Sapphyria 's Reviews > The Great Witches Baking Show

The Great Witches Baking Show is a wonderful first book in a new series by Nancy Warren. As a fan of the television show The Great British Bake Off, the premise of this book piqued my interest. I was not disappointed at all in book one.

The Great Witches Baking Show begins the adventure of Poppy Wilkinson, born in England, raised in America, and recently returned to England. Happy to be back in Europe, Poppy has more than one reason for entering the The Great British Baking Contest. She's looking for ties to her birth mother and any family members she can find. She also discovers certain traits she possesses are not all that unfamiliar to the show's hosts.

The baking contest gets off to a rough start when one of the contestant's continues to have his baking station sabotaged. Things escalate and the contestant is later found dead by his oven after hours. Now there may be a murderer in their midst. Poppy then feels obligated to figure out what happened to the contestant. Already nervous to be in the televised baking contests, Poppy finds herself completely overwhelmed with everything going on around her.

All of the characters are great. Poppy is a wonderful, down-to-earth person who just wants to know and understand her heritage. She learns a few things about her past in hopes of finding her birth parents but also discovers additional parts of her heritage that is a total surprise. The hosts, other contestants, crew, and estate residents all lend realism to this wonderful story.

Filled with paranormal and witchy references, this story is fantastic and pulled me into a fabulously created world with realistic and likable characters. The murder mystery was engaging and I was just as focused on solving the mystery as Poppy. The author did an amazing job keeping the identity of the murder under wraps until the appropriate time. I may have had a tiny idea of the culprit but wasn't entirely sure until the person was revealed. I look forward to the continuation of the series.

I was provided a copy of this book to read.