Add Magic to Taste

by Nina Waters (Editor), A.L. Heard (Editor), A. Reilly (Editor)

For Add Magic to Taste, 20 authors have come together to produce all-new, original short stories uniting four of our absolute favorite themes: queer relationships, fluff, magic, and coffee shops! Our diverse writers have created an even more diverse collection of stories guaranteed to sweeten your coffee and warm your tart.

Genres: Fantasy, Anthologies, Short Stories, Queer, Fiction, LGBT, Romance

306 pages, ebook

Published December 15, 2021

About the author

Claire Houck (she/they/he), pen name Nina Waters, fandom name unforth, is the founder and sole proprietor of Duck Prints Press LLC. She is queer, 40 years old, married to the lovely Lisa, and a mother of two. Claire has been writing fanfiction since the young age of seven, when she penned (well, two-finger typed and printed dot matrix) the timeless classic “the story of my littl ponies and the glob.” Since then, her spelling, grammar and prose have improved immensely. She has written over two hundred short stories, a number of novellas, and 16 novels—some original, some fanfiction—including “A Glimmer of Hope,” which was successfully Kickstarted and self-published in fall, 2016. She’s also had two short stories published. Before she became a full-time writer, Claire had a career as a professional grant writer and program evaluator, providing consultation services for the New York City Department of Education and other non-profit education organizations.

Reviews

[Lex Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Without rating my own story in the collection, I found this anthology delightful and refreshing. It's nice to open a book and find nothing but queer stories that are light and fun. It's also nice to see fluff and tropes celebrated as valid and enjoyable elements of storytelling.

Some of my personal favorites were "Unusual Blends" by Scarlett Gale, "Anywhere, Everywhere, Forever" by Theresa Alef, "The Magic Kin Know" by Lacey Hays, and "Tomb Many Cooks" by Em Rowntree.

[Lucy K.R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This anthology QUICKLY became one of my all-time favorite comfort reads <3

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a fun anothology of coffee shop queer stories. I feel like this might be one of the first anthologies I've read where every single story is almost the same length. they're between 14 and 16 pages and there's none that are longer than that. it means you get a lot of stories and some do a better job at weaving a plot line and memorable characters in that page length than others do. All in all a very solid anthology with a wide variety of queer identities, racial diversity, disability, and body types. one heart means that I really really liked it and two hearts me and that it's a favorite of mine.

💜Sea Salt and Caramel by Shea Sullivan: mm ocean shifter coffee shop meet cute. Very sweet and engaging for being so short. Every story in this is roughly 14-15 pages and I'm impressed by how much I enjoyed this little gem.

Unusual Blends by Scarlett Gale: grumpy sunshine sapphic witches

💜💜The Tasty Crumpet by AL Heard: Guy wanders into magical cafe is absolutely clueless about the fact that it is a magical cafe and flirts with vampire. MM. This was actually really cute and I would 100% read a book set in this little magic-yness setting.

Band by Florence Vale: so like actually really cute but was disappointed bc the notes at the beginning that give themes and rep said asexual MC but that isn't discussed, mentioned, or even hinted at.

A Family Thing by Jessica Black: cynical man has a family curse that he'll be miserable until he meets his other half. Cute but not super memorable

💜Anywhere, Everywhere, Forever by Theresa Alef: established MM half orc, half elf couple and a marriage proposal. I liked this one a lot. Very cute.

The Magic Kin Know by Lacey Hays: sadly one of my least favorite solely because I had no idea what was going on. It has two sapphic MCs who may or may not be fae and there's a baby but beyond that, I'm lost.

Herald of Love by Maggie Page: cute poly problem solving when a pendant becomes animated into a dragon with breath that lowers inhibitions and eases communication. Two women and nonbinary character.

💜💜Knishes and Noshes by Nina Waters: very cute, blind bakery owner uses heat vision to get around until he trips over a dragon who doesn't emit a heat signature. The dragon is nonverbal but the two find a way to communicate and connect. MM

Harmony by I A Ashcroft: I fear this one tried to put too much magic stuff into it without the time to explain everything. It's got a trans barista who used to be training to be magic of some sort and another mage who watches over him I think? I honestly am a bit confused by this one. There's only so much you can put in 15 pages. This needed to be a 50 page story at least. MM

Confluence by Puck Malamud: cute soulmate vibes. Two centuries old creatures find each other again in a coffee shop and realize how much they taught the other without knowing it. Sapphic, shape shifting

💜Flowers Bloom Even Then by Alex Ransom: aromantic nonbinary trans masc sales person has to sell romance potions to very outwardly feminine queer man while trying to keep his aro identity under wraps. Cute. Would read a longer story about these two

💜Breaking Bread by Beth Lumen: mermaid-human bakery with a side of politics. Agender MC, sapphic love interest. Set in Iceland

💜Rain and Moonlight by Lex T Lindsay: fat sapphic queer baker with horrible luck runs into her college crush, a black bisexual badass powerful witch and the two finally admit the feelings they have for each other

💜💜Tomb Many Cooks by Em Rowntree: this has been definitely one of my favorites and I desperately wanted to be longer. It features Hades owning a bakery full of doom and gloom and despair and his customers are feeling despair as they eat his treats until this sunshiny colorful non-binary love comes in and enthusiastically enjoys a cupcake. Then they set out to figure out what's going on with Hades baking and how to make things more successful. It's so cute while also being funny and also acknowledging that darkness does not have to be inherently bad.

Dreaming of Pines by Tris Lawrence: poly romance with a magical cafe that brings you exactly what you need. This was good and I really enjoyed having older characters

💜Something in the Water by Willa Blythe: chaotic magical barista meets fat water spirit and they help each other with their magic. Sapphic.

The Ballad of Yggdrasil by Kristi Mae: I was really excited about this one because in the notes it uses terms like anti-soulmates and aromantic but I honestly was mostly confused. I think that the concept is there but it's not explained well enough or thoroughly enough to be necessarily understandable which was a bummer.

💜In Like Flynn by Jo Mathieson: very cute. Two people want the same book so they end up meeting for coffee to study the book every weekend. Turns out there's a meddling dragon who lives in the book. M/NonBinary

A Leap Worth Taking bg T. S. Knight: reincarnation sapphic age gap. Okay, a little odd but promising.

[Loz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really sweet collection of coffee shop stories

[M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had Kickstarted this project and was delighted when I was finally able to sit down and really enjoy it. Like all anthologies, some stories stand out more than others; I was particularly fond of the following: 

Unusual Blends by Scarlett Gale
The Tasty Crumpet by A.L Heard
Bånd by Florence Vale
Knishes and Noshes by Nina Waters
Confluence by Puck Malamud
Dreaming of Pines by Tris Lawrence
In Like Flynn by Jo Mathieson

What I got out of this was the different ways that Modern with Magic was interpreted. The various cultural influences the authors brought to the magic of the stories were some of the highlights of the book (such as the strong Jewish influence in Knishes and Noshes, or the Norwegian setting in Bånd.) This was a cozy and delightful anthology to read through, and I look forward to the other works that Duck Prints Press will put out! 
(Review also posted to other review sites)

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pros:
- cozy comforting queer magical cafe stories across the spectrum of identities and magical properties
- there was only one singular story I didn’t really enjoy out of all of them, and for an anthology that’s damn impressive
- one of the stories was so cute I just had to sit and wait to keep reading bc I just needed to experience it for longer
- genuinely just made me smile
- the different types of magic that this book covered? Traditions from across the world— Chinese, Russian, Icelandic, Jewish— really were a highlight in here
- soulmates and *anti*-soulmates
- we got polyyyy
- big dragon and mini dragon (Flynn you little shit I love you so much)
- the micro stories that sometimes came after the longer ones were such a highlight. Especially vampire lord is terrified to meet new partner’s family

Cons:
- well now I want full stories for some of these dammit

Overall:
What a delightful read. Cozy and best enjoyed with your hot beverage of choice

[Tris Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm an author in this book; I'm not talking about my own work, obviously.

I've been looking forward to reading this set of short stories. Even being involved in the anthology, I didn't get to read any of the stories prior to publication. When I started reading, I kept a piece of note paper to track my favorites and uh... I was writing them all down.

The stories all had different things they hit for me, but they all left me smiling. Feeling good. Feeling like I'd just had a bit of sweet fluff to eat and some nice hot cocoa to drink. I read this during a week when my life was turning upside down, and it was exactly the anchor I needed to help cleanse my mind one short story at a time.

I'm biased because I'm part of this, yes, but wow, these stories exceeded my expectations. I came away with joy, and I needed that.

[K.C. Norton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like the cozy cafe theme was a bit too narrow for me. I liked a lot of the stories individually, but they’ve all blurred together. It was a bit too cozy, too, in the sense that most of the stories were essentially about two (or more) characters confessing their feelings to each other with a tiny bit of easily resolved background conflict. On one hand, I like having queer stories with low stakes and very little conflict around character attraction and identities. I just think the magical cafe theme meant that a lot of the stories ended up feeling very ‘samey’ to me after a while.

If you’re the type of person who seeks out coffee shop AUs on AO3, though, this is probably right up your alley. I was also happy to see a few aro & ace stories in here, plus trans and nonbinary rep. I was just talking to someone about how even queer anthologies often skew toward cis couples. There are also a few poly stories. I haven’t looked up all the individual authors, but there was a range of racial and cultural character rep, too.

[G · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic collection of magical tales. There was quite a bit of different representations, not always ending in love, which was nice to find. Many of the the tales felt like they were too short and that there could have been entire novels devoted to those characters and their story lines. Due to page constraints, only a couple of the tales suffered from a bit of fast pacing; they began fairly slow and sped up considerably near the end as if there was a rush to complete the story in a specific word count range. Many of the tales felt modern and felt like it was magic in modern society; only a few felt time agnostic just based on how it was written, how technology wasn't referenced or included, or how the tale firmly was fixed in a liminal space. It would have been nice to see some a couple of tales in a more historical setting or time period just to round out the experience of past, present, future, everywhere, nowhere, and in between.

[Taaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not what I expected, when it was recommended to me (because I was looking for good rep of ace people actually having a relationship). And in fact, the one ace character in this anthology...is just ace in the tags. Their asexuality is neither mentioned nor acted upon in the story.

But that doesn't change the fact that the stories are super sweet and lovely to read. Just ...proportions, people. Another ace who's asexuality really plays a role on getting together, would've been nice in all those stories.

And ... really, meet cute is now used inflationary, isn't it?

(Massive kudos for the tags!)

[Cass · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apart from one story that claims a character uses he/they then only uses they/them for him, I really enjoyed this book. It was very diverse with multiple types of relationships and sexualities and genders. I loved the coffee shop theme, and even slightly sadder stories were very cozy. Unlike some other anthologies that don't feel developed enough, I think this one was put together perfectly, and no story suffers for being short.

[Sun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adorable collection of short romantic cozy fantasy stories. The LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC representation was wonderful. Not enough romance stories have enby characters. I also especially loved the disability representation in one of the stories.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're a fan of queer romance and magical coffeeshop rendezvous, this book may be for you! Every snippet is the start of a new relationship. Some of them felt complete and wrapped up nicely, while others made me wish they were longer than just a few pages!

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology is a "spellbinding (and scrumptious!) collection of heartwarming queer stories." All of the stories feature magic, there is diverse representation, and all center on a coffee or tea shop in some way. There are sweet, warm stories of people who feel on the edges of society for different reasons, and then find someone who appreciates them just how they are.

A few of the authors of the stories are people I follow as fan fiction authors, and it is great to see them writing original characters and stories as well.

These stories are so soft! It is absolutely the book equivalent of being wrapped in a warm blanket and brought a cup of hot tea. A feeling I needed, as I read many of these stories as I was traveling to and from my grandmother's funeral with my family. This was a perfect collection to bring along, and I really felt it was doing good things for my brain.