The Sweetest Spell, by Suzanne Selfors is a very fun fantasy novel. It's sweet (it's about magical chocolate, of course!) and original, and I enjoyed it quite a lot. The heroine is a downtrodden girl, damned to be picked as the scapegoat of her village because she was born with a crippled foot. She has a sort of magical connection with the cows of the village because they saved her from death as an infant, and this connection becomes even more important later, when fate sweeps away most of the rest of Emmeline's village. After being rescued by a charming young cowherd, Emmeline discovers her magical power of creating chocolate; but not all is well, because many people desire to control her ability and profit from it.
I did have a few reservations about this story; I thought that Emmeline was too naive at some points in the story; her ability to trust complete strangers even after she'd been kidnapped and held captive seemed unrealistic. And the descriptions of the kingdom's geography baffled me. I was unable to understand how Emmeline could be washed DOWNriver from an area of river-bottom to a hillier and less flood-prone region, which was, nonetheless, not far from the sea-coast.
These minor points aside, The Sweetest Spell will appeal to anyone looking for a light, frothy fantasy novel with just a few magical elements, a likeable and believable hero, and a fun story.
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