A Wizard’s Guide To Defensive Baking

This page contains affiliate links, and we may receive compensation if you click on a link. You can read my full advertising disclosure HERE.

Manufacturer: T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon)
Brand: Fantasy Fiction
Brew: Ebook
Steeping Time: 320 pages
Tea Service: Personal Choice
Strength:

Synopsis: Fourteen-year-old Mona isn’t like the wizards charged with defending the city. She can’t control lightning or speak to water. Her familiar is a sourdough starter and her magic only works on bread. She has a comfortable life in her aunt’s bakery making gingerbread men dance.

But Mona’s life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona’s city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of Mona’s worries…

Siege. Sorcery. Sourdough. Have you ever heard a better tagline?

Mona isn’t your typical baker. In fact, while she thinks her talent to be small and useless, I’m sure there are hundreds of thousands of people who wish they had a power as simple as perfect baking every time they put something in the oven. However, the book doesn’t start off with scrumptious scones or delectable cookies. It starts with a dead body. Promptly followed by delicious baking.

When Mona arrives at the bakery her aunt and uncle own, the body of a girl is what greets her. A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking starts with a high and rides it all the way through the book. We quickly learn that wizards, no matter how small their powers, are not safe, Mona included. The pace is engaging, the story is well told, and the characters are to die for. I knew I’d like this book, but I didn’t plan on falling in love with it as hard as I did.

For me, the characters are what make this book so wonderful.

Mona is such a wonderful heroine in that she doesn’t want to be one. She’s just a kid who wants to go about doing normal life stuff, not be thrust into the position of saving the kingdom. Her internal comments are gems and I laughed so hard while reading her thoughts. Spindle becomes an unexpected sidekick, and his young, jaded outlook on life is a force to be reckoned with. Even Mona’s aunt is a true joy to read. Another character I loved was the Duchess. She is flawed and scared, and she admits it. A rarity for an adult. However, my favorite character was not the adorable, raging gingerbread man, nor the incredible semi-sentient sourdough starter Bob, but Knackering Molly.

Knackering Molly wasn’t my favorite throughout the book, but she swept the award from all the rest with one touch of her forehead to that of her dead horse Nag (who’s actually doing pretty well for himself due to Molly’s magic). I’m sitting here weepy as I write about her. Heroes come in every shape and size, and Molly and Mona show that so well.

Even though this book is probably meant for a YA, it’s a rather dark story.

There is murder, assassins, homeless kids, despair. And yet, somehow I laughed through the whole book. T. Kingfisher an amazing writer, and she pulls you from laughter to tears and back again. She also hits some pretty hard discussions, such as what makes a hero and why they’re needed in the first place. Uncle Albert is the quiet sort, but his conversation with Mona about what being a hero means is a stark, hard talk that I think every adult needs to hear. Sometimes, being a hero isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. And how on earth is a 14-year-old baker with minor power supposed to be this hero? You’ll just have to read the book to find out. Because she does a smashing job.

I adored A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking. I read an ebook copy from the library, but there is a solid chance I’ll buy a physical copy to read again in the future. More than anything, I hope that there is a sequel. I’d read the hell out of that!

Have you read A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking? Leave a comment and let me know what you thought about it! Want to read it for yourself? Click here to get a copy of your own.
Cheers,
Lydia