Holiday Reads: YA & Middle Grade Featuring Sweet Treats

We continue our feature on holiday worthy YA reads today with a couple of books that will have you craving all those cookies and sweets that get baked up this time of year. So if you’re going to indulge, why not indulge your reading sensibilities as well as your taste buds!

First up, check out the tantalizing Sweetly by Jackson Pearce, a modernized adaptation of Hansel & Gretel that takes place in a chocolate shop. The concoctions described within these pages will have your mouth watering!

Here is the official synopsis:

Twelve years ago, Gretchen, her twin sister, and her brother went looking for a witch in the forest. They found something. Maybe it was a witch, maybe a monster, they aren’t sure—they were running too fast to tell. Either way, Gretchen’s twin sister was never seen again.

Years later, after being thrown out of their house, Gretchen and Ansel find themselves in Live Oak, South Carolina, a place on the verge of becoming a ghost town. They move in with Sophia Kelly, a young and beautiful chocolatier owner who opens not only her home, but her heart to Gretchen and Ansel.

Yet the witch isn’t gone—it’s here, lurking in the forests of Live Oak, preying on Live Oak girls every year after Sophia Kelly’s infamous chocolate festival. But Gretchen is determined to stop running from witches in the forest, and start fighting back. Alongside Samuel Reynolds, a boy as quick with a gun as he is a sarcastic remark, Gretchen digs deeper into the mystery of not only what the witch is, but how it chooses its victims. Yet the further she investigates, the more she finds herself wondering who the real monster is, and if love can be as deadly as it is beautiful.

If you enjoy Sweetly, also check out its companion novel, Sister’s Red.

Another recent YA featuring a delicious treat is The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. The book has an eerie, dreary setting on a small UK island — and also features some delicious treats known as November Cakes. Though fictional and created solely for this book, Maggie went ahead and concocted her own recipe for the treat. Personally, I think they’d make a great breakfast on Christmas morning.

Here’s more about The Scorpio Races:

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

For younger, middle grade readers, check out It’s Raining Cupcakes by Lisa Schroeder. Follow Isabel and her mom’s adventures in setting up a bake shop and experimenting with different and delicious cupcake recipes.

The book even features a couple recipes for you to try at home:

Twelve-year-old Isabel is dying to get out of Oregon. She spends her free time in the library, reading and dreaming about faraway places. When her mom decides to open a cupcake shop in their little town of Willow, Isabel feels just like buttercream frosting to a cupcake-stuck. It seems as if it will be another disappointing summer, until Isabel learns of a baking contest. If she can come up with a winning recipe, she might have a chance of competing in the bake-off in New York City! But Isabel’s best friend, Sophie, is also entering the contest, and things always seem to go Sophie’s way. To make matters worse, Isabel and her mom don’t exactly see eye-to-eye on the type of recipe Isabel should enter. In this sweet treat by popular teen author Lisa Schroeder, Isabel discovers that maybe it’s not about where you go in life as much as it is about enjoying the view from wherever you are.

For even more, try the companion novel Sprinkles & Secrets.

For the comments: What are your favorite books about food? Any favorite recipes you like to make this time of year?