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4.3cozy-vibes fiction in-my-home-library ...more387 s3 comments carol.1,640 8,938

Really, how can any baker resist a title that, along with the lure of an enthusiastic but somewhat unreliable sourdough starter named Bob? But what at first seems to be a murder mystery when a young baker named Mona finds a body in the bakery morphs fairly quickly into a coming-of-age story, in the setting of a politically unstable landscape. 

"You’re making their lives better, just a little tiny bit. It is nearly impossible to be sad when eating a blueberry muffin. I’m pretty sure that’s a scientific fact."

There were two problems here, both of which will vary tremendously depending on the reader. One, the lead is a very timid sort. While she does grow into her magic, I would hesitate to say she grows significantly into her personhood power. While that is entirely alright, the mileage one gets out of this may vary. She's a young, rule-follower, trusting sort of young person, and that's fine. Her emotional breakdowns are in line with this persona, as are her worries. And I kind of applaud Kingfisher for trying to tell a story about someone who doesn't want to be a hero, and who doesn't get powered-up and stomp all over the story. But. But not my favorite kind of lead character. I might have d her better if I was ten. 

The second challenge--perhaps much in baking--was one of scale. Had Kingfisher been content to keep it a smaller story in Minor Mage, it would have worked better for me. But I found myself puzzled, supremely, by dual ideas (spoilery) of a large enough city that children can escape multiple guards on a canal and through smugglers' pathways, but that same young baker can make seven golems and twenty gingerbread men can hold off an advancing army in a way that a populace can't. , how effing incompetent is this city and the advancing army?  

That said, there's plenty to enjoy here. The baking is probably the most fun. Bob the sourdough starter is hilarious and steals every scene (and that ranks right up there with things I never thought I'd say about a book, along with spiders are cool). I kept waiting for the little gingerbread man to run down the road shouting, "you can't catch me," but that could be because I just read The Big Over Easy.

"In Bob’s case, it was easy. I stuck both hands into the soup tureen and tried to convince him that what the world needed was a whole lot more Bob. As this coincided with what Bob himself had always believed"


It's a decent Kingfisher, which means the characterization feels solid. There's a few standard characters rolled in (pushy, loving aunt, a thief) as well as some intriguing ones (the uncle, the horse witch). It's ethics and world-building are probably geared a little simply compared to some of her other works, which may be why it feels a little younger. Still, it's a Kingfisher, and the writing is occasionally quite perfect.

"Nobody said anything to me, and they didn’t exactly stare, but they knew I was there, and I knew that they knew, and they knew that I knew that they knew, all in a creepy, crackling tangle of mutual awareness."

On the scale of Kingfisher, I'd say Nine Goblins < Defensive Baking < Minor Mage < The Tomato Thief.fantasy female-lead food-n-book ...more242 s2 comments Tadiana ?Night Owl?1,880 23k

4.5 stars! Review first posted on FantasyLiterature.com:

A dead body is an awful thing to find on the floor of a bakery, especially when you’re a fourteen-year-old baker’s assistant with just a minor talent in magic, enough to make gingerbread men dance and biscuit dough turn fluffy on command. It’s worse when the city inquisitor decides to accuse you of the murder, for no particularly good reason. It’s even worse when you realize that there’s a mysterious assassin on the loose, targeting people who have magical powers, no matter how insignificant.

Mona is an orphan who works in her Aunt Tabitha’s bakery, using her talent with baking (and a little magic) to help with her job. It’s not an easy life, but Mona loves being an apprentice baker … and there’s the fact that her magical powers only work with bread products. But the city government and constables are turning against wizards, even minor ones Mona, and the assassin seems to have a nose for tracking down and killing anyone with magical powers. Soon all wizards, great and small, are abandoning the city, and Mona is on the run.

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking is T. Kingfisher’s latest in a run of excellent middle grade fantasies featuring intrepid children and young teens, including Summer in Orcus and Minor Mage. The baking details give this fantasy an unusual and down-to-earth spin. It’s fun to see Mona bringing a rather stale gingerbread man to life, but to have the gingerbread man unexpectedly develop its own personality is, well, icing on the cake.Something patted my cheek. I looked down and saw the gingerbread man on my shoulder. He was steadying himself with a hank of hair in one hand, and with the other he reached up and caught the tears I hadn’t known I was crying.Kingfisher’s fantasies are reminiscent of Robin McKinley’s work, with whimsical details and amusing parenthetical remarks. The main characters are well-rounded and come alive on the page. Often charming and personable animals are part of both authors’ formulas, but here instead of an animal sidekick we have animated gingerbread men and other bakery products with minds of their own, not to mention Bob the belching sourdough starter. Bob is a scene stealer, which is something I never would have guessed I would say about a gloppy bucket of yeast and dough that extends tentacles.

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking is, Minor Mage and Summer in Orcus, somewhat darker than may be the norm for middle grade fantasies. While people (even good ones!) die and those adults who should be in charge are fallible, this is still ultimately an uplifting and empowering tale. It’s about people who don’t really want to be heroes — who shouldn’t even have to be heroes — but still rise to the occasion when others have failed, because they’re needed.

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking is whimsical and dark and imaginative and fantastic. It gets my enthusiastic recommendation for readers both young and old.

Thanks so much to the author for the review copy!fantasy middle-grade yay-for-presents182 s Melissa ? Dog/Wolf Lover ? Martin3,589 10.8k

Buddy Read With My MacHalo’s! Although I finished first as I don’t have a life, mostly
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