Pitch perfect, with humor and heart. What does it mean to be a hero?

“A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking” is another heartwarming fantasy novel by T. Kingfisher, which is the pseudonym Ursula Vernon uses for her works for adults. It takes place in a medieval alternate world that features limited forms of magic. Our protagonist is a fourteen year old girl known as Mona. Mona works at her Aunt’s bakery, and this is where she has discovered her limited magical abilities that deal with doughs and breads. She can use magic to make them cook better, or even to make gingerbread cookies dance. She’s happy with her life, and all is well, until she finds a dead girl on the floor of the bakery early one morning. This event brings her into the spotlight, and makes her a target for those who are trying to eliminate all those who have magical abilities. Mona’s life is now in danger, and soon her whole city is as well. Will we be able to help protect everything that she’s always held dear? This could be considered a young adult novel, but it clearly can be enjoyed by adults as well. It won a number of awards in 2020-2021, and I think it was deserving of these accolades. It’s a positive novel and has an uplifting ending.

Yeast is a living thing, and dough is magic—ask anyone who’s learnt to bake bread. I love Bob. I love the gingerbread man who becomes more than just a trick. I love Mona for who she is and who she becomes—and who she does not. More from this world, please! Too much whimsey to enjoy here to spend it all on one novel.

Death by sourdough starter! Misbehaving gingerbread men! Murder and sass! What more could you need.

I think the only word for this book is “delightful.” In a standard-issue medievaloid fantasy setting, a teenage apprentice baker and wizard finds herself thrust into the unexpected role of saving the city-state from plots and foreign invasion. With the help of an animated gingerbread man and a magical familiar in the form of a sourdough culture named Bob. I mean, what more do you need to know? The protagonist is believably complex and flawed and the baking-based magic (indeed, the general premise of how magic works in the world) is well-realized and woven into the plot and its resolution. I may be biased in my love of this book because the quarantine initiated me into the Sourdough Tribe. But then again, I think it’s just that good.

A well rounded feast of an adventure, with characters you feel you know, and action that’s a crafted pulse of stress and stillness.

Yeah, maybe some pieces are dark, but heroes don't come out of frivolous peril. It does start with a dead body. If you are old enough to handle the dead body, you're probably okay with the rest. (There are a few sewers as well, and they're appropriately gross for sewers. So, uh, be warned.) Also, there is enough baking that I'm hungry now & eying the box-mix of cookies speculatively.