This was so cute!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this audio arc!

Inspired by Balkan folklore this short story was so whimsical and nice! I love short stories so if you personally prefer longer ones I would direct you elsewhere, as short stories have their own feel and atmosphere.

A very autumnal read! I recommend this for September-November months!

I am a fan of short stories. I was hopeful for this one, but I think it just didn't hit the mark. It felt magical, but then there were some moments of disconnect that took me out of the story. Maybe I just wasn't fully inversed in the world and it didn't allow me to enjoy it as much.

This is a very short Fairytale based on Balken Folklore, I don't know anything about the origin story so I cannot comment on that. The story was very enjoyable and a quick read. True Loaf gets a little dark and there is a lot that happens in such a short story. I am very curious and will be looking into the original inspiration for this story. The narration was very well done and sucked me into the world. And I just have to state the obvious, that this cover is STUNNING. Check it out if you enjoy short stories!

The cover is what first drew me to this story and it matched the vibes of the story perfectly.
Penny Scott-Andrews is a wonderful narrator.

This was such an interesting story and I enjoyed it very much. The atmosphere was absolutely wonderful and the writing just bumped it to another level. I do wish that the story were a bit longer to explain more about the ending. The story just kind of ended without any explanation as to what just happened.

I want to first thank Netgalley for giving me an advanced audiobook in exchange of my honest review.

4.5/5


This is a short story, and it is really fast paced, that even if I had to summarize it, it will have a lot of spoilers.

Even though everything was beautiful and I loved it, just took 15 minutes of my time listening to this intesting story.

I really have no complaints about it, it's just beautiful and interesting and we learn about some things, and also this teach us some beautiful lessons.

I have got nothing else to say except that I will give it 4.5 rating, I enjoyed it. I hope if you read it, you would enjoy it too.

Short Story Inspired by Balkan Folklore

When a strange man puts in a strange request at the bakery where she works, Riley must go on a mini-adventure to find one unusual ingredient. Along the way, she realizes that things are not always what they seem.

A micro-story. Actually just 10 pages long and 15 minutes on audio with stunning narration by Penny -Scott Andrews had me immersed in Riley's world of fantasy and magic giving me a warm autumn feel.

It is available to listen to on @netgalley. Do check it out if you just want to take a break and sit back for a while.

This was such a wonderful short story audiobook. I really enjoyed the fairytale theme. This was a perfect bite sized short story. Despite the length, a lot happened and the story wrapped up nicely. The narration was also very well done and I enjoyed the quick listen.

This left me wanting more. it was very. written very fairy tail like whimsical I love the setting and I think this book would be good for people that like old fairy tales .

On an ordinary day in the bakery, a not-so-ordinary customer walks in with a strange request. Riley reluctantly agrees to it, but a journey is necessary to find a particular ingredient for the bread. After a peculiar venture through a forest, things become a little more complicated than Riley had anticipated.

As a short story, it managed to captivate my attention right from the beginning and left me wanting to hear more by the end. I was intrigued by the slice of magic that was served and thought it was very well written overall. This story is a perfect quick read for people who enjoy lighthearted tales if magical forests and mysterious beings!

I have been looking for a short story audiobook for a while, the cover called my attention, unquestionably great.

This is my firsts short story by the author, can't wait to listen/read more of her work.

I definitely would love to read more of Riley's adventures. It'd be wonderful to continue this story I'm sure Riley has more to give us.

This book is simple, short, and amazing. The characters are enticing, the plot is engaging, and the ending left me wanting more, so much more. I'd read a full-lenght novel about this story without a second thought.

If you want to satisfy your itch for a fantasy, magic and intrigue then this is your book- look no further!

True Loaf gives you a quick literary hit; it being very short in length but no less enjoyable for it. It can be read (or listened to if you are an audiobook listener) in very little time and is a great little listen if you’re after a rapid but well formed little story.

Riley, who works at a bakery, gets somewhat of an odd request from a customer and works to comply and goes in search of this obscure recipe ingredient. What unfurls from there you’ll have to discover for yourself, but it’s bound to be something that is beyond the expected!

Thank you to the author and publishers via NetGalley for this audiobook, in return for my honest thoughts and review.

true loaf, a short story inspired by balkan folklore :)

age: any (childrens)
my rating: 3 stars

this was a cute and suspenseful foll story that i very much enjoyed. i liked the characters and the amount of description the author managed to include in such a short space of time was truly impressive. while at first i did not really like the narrator, i fell in love with the voices they put on and listened to the whole thing!

What an absolutely delightful story!

The cover is what caught my eye at first, and I'm glad that it did. I can imagine the tale of Riley and the stranger being passed along through different generations altering with each retelling until iI was lucky enough to hear it today. It is everything you expect from a story inspired by folklore - a little mysterious, a little frightening (if you're young), with a moral at the end.. but I'll leave that for you to figure out!

I'm not entirely sure what I just listened to ..... I never knew there could be a story about bread.

This is more of a micro story and perfect as a bedtime read and also feels longer than a fifteen minute tale.
The audio book narration by Penny Scott-Andrews was absolutely phenomenal and really gave off some eerie vibes that kept me invested in the story.

This is essentially a mini fairytale based on Balkan folklore where Riley is requested to bake some bread with a key ingredient she must find in the forest.

Certainly a short story ill be thinking about for a while.

Thanks to Netgalley and Lore and Lyre for the advanced Audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars under the assumption that this is a preview of more to come. If this is meant to stand alone my rating would be lower for unanswered questions.

True Loaf by L. Austen Jones is a cute modernized folktale.It's a bit hard to excuse Riley's naivety given that she's old enough to be tending a bakeshop on her own but it's hard to translate lore-based behaviours into a modern setting.

I'm not familiar with its origins so I'm not sure what the Yaro is meant to symbolize and what Aiden and Riley's bond is meant to represent.

I'm hoping this is a sampler of a book to come- it felt like a prologue to a larger novel given that it was extremely short and I feel like I missed the lesson that was supposed to come from this.

I really loved the narrator though, I'd be disappointed if this doesn't get fleshed out into a full story.

Thank you NetGalley and Lore and Lyre for an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This was SO short, but still very much entertaining. The audiobook was pretty good, but I did struggle to get used to the narration style -- and since this is a novella, I only had so much time to get used to the narrator's voice and accent. With that being said, I feel like this is such a special little story. I came across the Kindle version while shopping for ebooks the other day, and I'm so glad to have found the audiobook on NetGalley. Cool stuff.

This story was captivating and even a bit weird, which is what made it all the more interesting. My only gripe with it is that I wish it would have been longer. I understand that the author wanted to keep it short and sweet—and I’m by no mean saying it doesn’t work, because it really does—but I think the story could have flourished even more if it had been a tad longer. The narration was great and it’s what truly made it feel like being told a tale before bed, like when I was a child.

This feels like the sort of story to listen to while drifting off to sleep. The narrator has a soothing almost childlike tone to her voice and it is quite pleasant to listen to. The story itself isn't that satisfying - it's very short and I was a bit confused about what it was all about. I would have liked a bit more explanation about who the men were and what the importance was of the loaves. As an audiobook, it was lacking, but as an adult bedtime story I might not expect to hear out to the end, it did the job.