I was able to get an early look at this thanks to NetGalley. It's a fun cookbook with sweets and savories from many favorite childhood and/or classic books. Even though I'm not familiar with all of the books mentioned, the recipes stand on their own and many of them sound (and look) quite tempting.
For example, the "apple of life bites," which consist of apple disks, bacon, creme de brie, and pecans...yumm!! Or the sweet potato bacon pastries inspired by Little Women. Or the poetical egg salad sandwiches from Anne of Green Gables. Or the blackberry lemon sweet rolls inspired by A Little Princess. I am making myself quite hungry...
Anyway, it's a very nice book with great pictures of most of the recipes. I think anyone with a flair for themed parties would love it. Or anyone who loves yummy food in general! ( )

I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.I love eating treats, tea and reading so why not combine all them? I love this book and hope that you will enjoy it as well! ( )

A Literary Tea Party from Alison Walsh is a fun little cookbook for those who might want to throw a themed party or just want to relax with a themed tea and treat reading break. The book is designed to be relatively accessible for any cook or baker, though admittedly some cooks insist on asserting that THEY would be able to improve on the recipes. Well, yeah, okay, whatever. When you publish your book I'll be interested in reading it. Until then...

Yes, as some know-it-alls like to point out, the idea of books at the juncture of literature and food is not brand new. So what. Almost every one of those books have elicited a comment along the lines of "I would love to see this done with [fill in the blank with a genre, a time period, etc], that would be so fun." And it is, except for those who must, simply must, point out the idea is not brand new. Guess what, I just finished a mystery the other day and the protagonist was a detective. That has already been done. Anyway, those people feel so much better now, so, whatever...

I first received a copy of this book for review and loved the idea. I thought I had reviewed it already but I hadn't. I bought a couple copies as gifts and that was when I realized my lapse. So, here I am. I obviously thought highly of the book, I bought copies as gifts, so I do recommend it.

The recipes are straightforward and easy to follow, the pictures are lovely, and the connections to the stories, whether direct or assumed, were fun as well. As the title says, there are blends, which are the teas. With the advent of the internet finding teas are not that difficult any more and special blends are so much more fun than just a standard blend. That said, unless you have a love of tea you may well find yourself substituting in this area unless you're throwing a party, in which case who cares if it is a little extra work. It is a party. For day to day drinking, maybe try a blend periodically and find some you particularly like. I am personally looking forward to trying my hand at a few of the blends.

I recommend this to anyone who enjoys the fun of such a concept. If you're one of those cooks who only like cookbooks that challenge even the best chefs, you'll be disappointed, this is about the joy of gathering together and sharing treats, tea, and literary conversation, not bragging rights about the difficulty of the recipes.

As an aside, I recently read another interesting book that combined food and history, The Course of History by Struan Stevenson. It has complete meals from 10 import historical meals/events. Harder to duplicate than these but the history surrounding each meal was fascinating. ( )

Taking inspiration from the literary worlds of Pooh Bear, the Phantom of the Opera, Sherlock Holmes, Alice's Adventure in Wonderland and more, A Literary Tea Party is a whimsical collection of savoury and sweet recipes for themed tea parties.

Think 'Star-Crossed Focaccia' inspired by Romeo and Juliet, 'Candied Flower Cookies' from the Secret Garden, and 'Arctic Trail Coffee Muffins' from White Fang.

The treats included have difficulty levels that range from easy to moderate; there are some candy recipes that seem a bit more challenging. The photographs really do a nice job of showcasing the nibbles, and there are book quotes that identify the inspiration for each bite.

The only issue I had was with the tea recipes. Examples of ingredients for recipes include:
2 tsp chocolate
2 tsp honeybush
1 tsp lavender buds
1 tsp cream
3 tsp toasted mate

There is a note a the beginning of the tea section explaining that all ingredients "refer to teas of that flavor, not extracts or dairy." So, basically you are mixing various types of store-bought tea. For special occasions, it would probably be fine. It seems a bit too specific for an everyday home cook, unless they are a huge tea drinker and keep lavender buds and toasted mate on hand.

This cookbook would be a great help for planning a book-themed party.

*eARC Netgalley* ( )