“I love you” would never be right for them, but they had their own words—Je crois en toi—better and more tailored to him. They fit him, and he hoped they’d fit her too.
Adèle has only one goal: catch the purple-haired thief who broke into her home and stole her exocore, thus proving herself to her new police team. Little does she know, her thief is also the local baker.
Claire owns the Croissant-toi, but while her days are filled with pastries and customers, her nights are dedicated to stealing exocores. These new red gems are heralded as the energy of the future, but she knows the truth: they are made of witches’ souls.
When her twin—a powerful witch and prime exocore material—disappears, Claire redoubles in her efforts to investigate. She keeps running into Adèle, however, and whether or not she can save her sister might depend on their conflicted, unstable, but deepening relationship.
BAKER THIEF is the first in a fantasy series meant to reframe romance tropes within non-romantic relationship and centering aromantic characters. Those who love enemies-to-lovers and superheroes should enjoy the story!
Representation of note
Claude/Claire: Fat BIPOC bigender, bisexual & aromantic
Adèle: Asthmatic, demisexual, biromantic cis woman
Includes several side characters across the queer spectrum, including multiple non-binary people with neopronouns
content notes
Fire, human experimentation, human trafficking, witch hunts, elaborate descriptions of food
Tropes
Enemies to Queerplatonic Partners,
Humans as Power Source, Secret Identity
ACCOLADES & OTHER COOL RECOGNITION
INDIE INK AWARDS 2022
sELF-PUBLISHING FANTASY BLOG-OFF 8
OTHER INFORMATION
Genre/Age Category: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Fiction, with trends of mystery and cozy fantasy
Publisher: The Kraken Collective
Publication Date: June 26, 2018
Cover Artist: Laya Rose
ISBN-13 (paperback): 978-1-7753129-0-1
SERIES EXTRAS
All Baker Thief physical copies now have a wonderful map of Val-de-mer designed by Sarah Waites (Illustrated Page Designs). This wasn’t true for the first five years of its existence, however, so I’m making the map available to all! Hit the button to download.
FAQ
Baker Thief is listed as the first in a series. It’s been five years. Will there ever be another book?
Yes! It is in the cards and I have some preliminary work done on it. If everything goes well, it should be out in 2025.
I want to write a review about Baker Thief, but I’m not sure how to best treat Claire/Claude’s pronouns.
There are two ways you can go about this. First, you pick one (Claude and he/him, or Claire and she/her), mention your choice and the existence of the other name and pronouns, then stick to it through the entire review. You can also alternate between the two and change pronouns accordingly. Please do not use “they/them”, however. At no point in the novel does Claude refer to himself with they/them, and it feels incorrect to use it as an in-between for his actual pronouns.
I’ve seen the Baker Thief Rainbow Crate special edition and I want it! Can I? Ditto for the baking mat!
Any existing surplus will be directly in Rainbow Crate’s shop, so look for it there! I do not have copies to sell. As of now (August 2023), the leftover copies of the special edition are in the shop! No idea how long it’ll last, so get yours now if you want one!