Sugar and Spite
Ratings4
Average rating3.8
Can a bully be defeated by a magical love potion? Jolina can't take Claudine's bullying any longer! The taunts and teasing are too much. Though Jolina knows she's still in training to use her grandfather's arbularyo magic, she sneaks into his potions lab to get her revenge. Jolina brews a batch of gayuma, a powerful love potion. And it works. The love potion conquers Claudine's hateful nature. In fact, Claudine doesn't just stop bullying Jolina -- now she wants to be Jolina's BFF, and does everything and anything Jolina asks. But magic comes with a cost, and bad intentions beget bad returns. Controlling another person's ability to love -- or hate -- will certainly have consequences. The magic demands payment, and it is about to come for Jolina in the form of a powerful storm... Magic and reality mingle in this brilliant new middle-grade novel by Gail D. Villanueva that asks whether it's ever okay to take away someone's free will.
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Technically, I guess this is a 3.5 but I enjoyed it quite well so I bumped it up to 4 because it was cute. The characters did annoy me at times but they're also kids so I let it slide quite a bit.
I went back and forth on whether I liked Jolina or not. Sometimes I would and then she would say or think something slightly annoying and then I wouldn't like her again. But also she's a child! Who's recently moved to a new place so that almost gives her right to be annoying (in my eyes). In the end I did like her so that was good. I liked Claudine more but also I'm a sucker for the mean girl turns into a friend trope. It's one of my favourites and I don't mind seeing it repeatedly because I'll enjoy it every time. I liked that both of them were cat and dog people and that was cute to see.
I did like how the book let both of them be messy and that didn't bother me. Books should have kids be messy characters more often. It won't make them annoying, they're kids and a lot of people want messy characters nowadays. I really like messy characters and I think kids being messy make even more sense because, well, they're kids! Their personalities are still developing, they're still developing, and we shouldn't force adult expectations about their personalities just because we're adults (or insert your age here).
I liked the plot! It started out quickly and then wrapped up quickly as well. It's under 300 pages so of course so the plot has to advance fast. It was a sweet one as it shows the start of a friendship that doesn't start out the way you'd necessarily want it to. But friends can come in any ways and quite often from unlikely places.
I liked the low fantasy aspect of the book – I kept reading the synopsis before I picked it up because I didn't know if it contained actual magic or like suggestive magic? But then I read and saw that it was magic – but also had that bit of suggestive magic. Or rather, your intentions and emotions influence your magic/the way you cast the spells. Which is something I like!
The other characters were sweet. I liked how close Jolina and Claudine were with their families and also might be friends with the other's in the future.
