A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking

3.5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews

Summary
Mona is a young baker, with a very little bit of magic that, she insists, can only do minor things. But when a girl turns up dead on the bakery floor, Mona finds herself in much more complex straits than she could have imagined.

Review
With a title like A Wizard's Guide To Defensive Baking, I figured this was a shoo-in for good book status. And it does achieve some of what it sets out to, but I found myself largely disappointed.

The concept is good – teen wizard who only knows baking magic – and the ending is good – a few genuinely moving scenes, a good resolution. For me, though, the first half or more of the book is very by-the-numbers. You get exactly what you'd expect; no straying outside the lines. Except, it's not so deftly done as I'd hoped. We're told so often that Mona only knows bread magic and that she's of little account and that everyone must be better than her and that she's only a humble baker, that I'd have knocked myself on the head with the book if the book hadn't already been doing it for me. This point of the setup could not have been made more pointedly if a whole chapter in huge bold print had said no more than, She's just a humble baker, not a hero.

The actual magic is on the fuzzy side, but I think Kingfisher largely gets away with that, as she does with various plot holes. This is YA adventure, so we don't demand rigor. And the final third of the book finally settles in, drops all the insistent modesty, and let's the plot go forward. It's just getting to that point that's a bit tricky.

It's not helped by a certain carelessness – some elements that don't really fit the environment (like milk crates – which imply glass bottles and delivery, and dislike of ‘the government') or a key moment when Mona learns about golems – forgetting that she specifically mentioned them many chapters back – etc.

The solid ending partly rescues the book, but it's a bit of a trudge to get there. Still enjoyable, but not new and not deft.