Deadly Delicious by K.L. Kincy
Genre: middle-grade, paranormal fantasy
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Date of Release: August 10, 2015
Cover Artist: Ihor Reshetnikov
Find Online: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Goodreads
Description:
Twelve-year-old Josephine DeLune can’t take the heat this sweltering summer of 1955, and she was out of the kitchen long ago.
An awful cook, she ruins recipes left and right, and she certainly can’t compete with her family’s reputation for extraordinary food. Her daddy’s parents ran one of the best restaurants in all of Paris, but Josephine lives in Paris, Missouri. On her mama’s side, she’s up against a long tradition of sinfully delicious soul food. Rumor has it, her Creole ancestors cooked up some voodoo to make tasty even tastier. Josephine knows the secret ingredient: she comes from a long line of conjure witches with spellbinding culinary skills.
Disenchanted, Josephine works as a carhop at Carl and Earl’s Drive-In. Just plain old hamburgers, hot dogs, and curly fries, nothing magical about them. She’s got bigger fish to fry, though, when a grease fire erupts into a devilish creature who hisses her name with desire. Turns out he’s the Ravenous One, the granddaddy of all voodoo spirits, and he’s hungry for her soul. Josephine thinks he’s got the wrong girl-she’s no witch-but a gorgeous, dangerous night-skinned lady named Shaula sets her straight. Josephine is one of the most powerful witches alive, so overflowing with conjure that her out-of-control cooking simply catches fire.
Josephine would love to laugh this off, but Shaula warns her that she must learn to master her magic before the Ravenous One devours her soul. Spurred into action, Josephine breaks out her grandma’s old conjure cookbook and starts cooking. Nothing grand, just the usual recipes for undying friendship and revenge. But soon Josephine can’t escape the consequences of her conjure. When the people of Paris start turning into zombies with a strange fondness for cake, Josephine looks pretty responsible for their undead reawakening…
My Review
(I received a free copy of this book in exchangge for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
I thought the plot of this book was a really intriguing one. I liked the fact that Josephine’s family clearly had a reputation for cooking with ‘conjuring’… though I was a bit confused about how much Josephine’s dad was actually aware of.
I liked the first part of the book. I felt it drew me in really easily and that I was able to follow the storyline fairly easily. It was interesting to see Shaula throughout the book. I was left unsure about her motivations and alignment for most of the book. I would have liked some more details about her and how she was connected with Josephine.
It was interesting to see how the legends varied and that there seemed to be a whole culture related to the witchcraft. It would have been good to see more of other witch families, since I can’t imagine Josephine’s is the only family who can do that kind of magic..
I thought the atmosphere of the book came across particularly well, even though the attitudes of some of the other characters towards Josephine were really awful. I did like Quentin, even though I had a lot of dislike for Authelia. Despite some of the things she comes out with, I didn’t really have a lot of sympathy for her.
I thought it was cool to see the different forms of ingredients that went into the recipes. I thought it was interesting to see that the zombies were desperate for cake and the reasons why made a lot of sense.
I liked seeing Josephine’s interactions with her family and it was also good to see the detrimental effect on them from the news articles. I also thought it was cool to see the effects the pie had on Quentin’s dog. It made me smile to read about that.
I thought this book was easy to read and very entertaining. In the future, I would be interested in reading more books by this author… and a sequel to this book, hopefully. It would be good to see more of Josephine… and hopefully learn more about her family history
About The Author
K. L. Kincy (Duvall, Washington) loves zombies, though she hopes to meet only the cake-eating kind. Deadly Delicious is her first book for children. She has a BA in Linguistics and Literature from The Evergreen State College.
K. L. Kincy also writes for teens and adults as Karen Kincy.
Find Karen Kincy Online:
About Curiosity Quills Press
Curiosity Quills Press (CQ) is a small hybrid publishing company specializing in genre fiction of the highest quality. With 150+ titles in our catalog already and approximately 6 new books coming out each month, there’s never a dull moment at CQ. We work with major retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Audible to ensure that you, the reader, can find whatever you are looking for at your convenience.
Founded in 2011 by Eugene Teplitsky and Lisa Gus, CQ was initially a resource portal for writing and publishing, created in an effort to help writers, like themselves, survive the publishing industry. After rapid success, CQ morphed into publishing press that over time has solidified its share in the market. Now we spend our days searching for the next great escape!
Ink of Blood 