Sweet

Sweet
Kathryn Littlewood

Take a pinch of charm and magic and lashings of laughter and you have the perfect recipe for the delicious second novel in the BLISS BAKERY trilogy. Indulge in the magical adventure…The Bliss family cook book filled with magical recipes has been stolen by renegade Aunt Lily. It falls to eleven-year-old Rose Bliss and her three siblings to try and win back the book and avert disaster.Another treat of a story to curl up with

For my beloved Grampy, a craftsman of the highest order

Contents

Title Page (#u71376bcb-eac9-5b13-ba62-caa09d722c8e)

Dedication (#u7f50e11a-8890-5606-ac1f-ac87b2a3d728)

Prologue Prepackaged Magic (#ulink_3924a4ff-6442-5195-830c-c34e96475dc2)

Chapter 1 The Challenge Will Be Televised (#ulink_7b00c498-45ae-51c9-abb5-6fb0f3ad61b2)

Chapter 2 A Cat of Many Words (#ulink_6e51680e-e7c4-5c0d-a437-c3d8d69fe06b)

Chapter 3 Enter the Master of Ceremonies (#ulink_ab35fb22-56d5-5ef9-8d83-cc015d7fc0a8)

Chapter 4 Sweet, Sweet Nothings (#ulink_58eaded6-1725-56a3-8ec8-758b5eaefba9)

Chapter 5 Quiet as a Mouse (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6 The Seventeenth Floor (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7 Picture Im-perfect (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 Making Whoopie (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 A Grave Birthday Celebration (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 Head in the Clouds (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 Bothered, Bewitched, and Beheaded (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 Romancing the Stones (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 Home, Sick Home (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 A (Tiny) Thief in the Night (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 An Unusual Challenge (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 Tears from a Rose (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17 Caught on Tape (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 18 The Cat Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgments (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

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IT WAS NINE months after her Aunt Lily stole the Bliss Cookery Booke right out from under her nose that Rosemary Bliss discovered something horrible on the shelves of Ralph’s Supermarket in downtown Calamity Falls.

Rose’s sneakers squeaked on the floor as she stopped dead in her tracks.

Staring back at her from the front of each of dozens of cardboard boxes was the smiling face of her lying, conniving aunt. Each box bore a banner reading LILY’S MAGIC INGREDIENT! AS SEEN ON TV.

The economy-sized tub of mayonnaise Rose had been carrying slipped from her fingers and fell to its death on the floor. “Mum!” she cried.

Rose’s mother, Purdy, ran over. “Oh dear.”

“No, Mum, not the mayonnaise. Look!” Rose pointed at the boxes of Lily’s Magic Ingredient.

Since she’d disappeared with the Bliss family’s magical Cookery Booke, Aunt Lily had made good on her promise to use it to become famous. She had written a bestselling cookbook, Lily’s 30-Minute Magic, and had a cooking show on TV. Now there she was, smiling happily on the shelves of their very own supermarket, while the rest of Calamity Falls had fallen into a grim malaise.

Without the Booke, Purdy and Albert Bliss had no choice but to make ordinary pies and muffins and croissants from the pages of an ordinary Betty Crocker cookbook. The baked goods were still delicious, of course, and the residents of Calamity Falls still came by every morning as they always had; but the magic of the town had dried out, leaving everything and everyone in it feeling a bit like warm lettuce: sickly, grey, and wilted.

In the picture on the box, Lily looked as beautiful as ever. She had grown out her close-cropped hair, and now it fell to her shoulders in perfectly wavy heaps the colour of black chocolate. She was smiling seductively, her hands covered with orange oven mitts and planted on her hips. “Add a tablespoon to any of Lily’s 30-Minute Magic recipes,” the box read, “for a dash of magic!”

“Listen to this!” cried Purdy, reading from the box. “‘Not a sufficient source of Iron or Vitamin C. Ingredients: Secret. FDA approval pending.’”

“Why would anyone eat anything that hadn’t been approved by the FDA?” Rose asked.

“Lily is a celebrity,” Purdy said, brushing her wild bangs from her eyes. “People see her face, and they plunk down a credit card. Plus, look at the size of this fine print.”

FDA APPROVAL PENDING.

“What do we do, Mum?” Rose whispered, the hairs on the back of her neck standing as straight as soldiers. Rose already felt guilty enough knowing that the biggest mistake of her young life – trusting her treacherous aunt Lily – had brought calamity to Calamity Falls. The thought that the calamity had spread to the rest of the world was just too much guilt to bear.

“What we do is figure out exactly what this ‘magic ingredient’ is,” Purdy said, rolling up the sleeves of her tattered blue coat. She swept box after box into her red plastic shopping cart until the shelf was empty.

* * *

Rose and her mother spent the rest of the weekend baking all of the recipes from Lily’s 30-Minute Magic and adding a dash of Lily’s Magic Ingredient to each one.

The Magic Ingredient was a blueish-grey powder that smelled like burned toast. When Rose threw a tablespoon of the Magic Ingredient into the batter for Lily’s Gooey Chocolate Pudding Cake, the batter sizzled like hot oil and whispered her aunt’s name with each pop: “Liiiilllllyyyyy!”

When Rose tossed a tablespoon into the crust of Lily’s Caramel Apple Tarte Tatin, the crust rattled on the table, giggling “Lily!”

The same happened with the Lily’s Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée, the Cherry Clafouti à la Lily, and the Just Peachy Peach Pie.

Rose’s brothers, Ty and Sage, walked through the kitchen on their way to play basketball in the driveway. “Did someone say ‘Lily’?” Ty asked. In the time since the Bliss Cookery Booke had been stolen, Ty had grown taller still. He gelled his red hair straight up in the front so that it looked like he was wearing a tiara two inches high, or a tiny, red-picket fence. He had treated himself to a bottle of cologne from the pharmacy for his sixteenth birthday, and he smelled like a walking European discotheque.