A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking

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The other downside (it’s all downsides) of Ursula Vernon being not as famous as she ought is that my library never gets any of her books — infuriating! I can’t tell you how Kingfisher does it, but she is really good at making you love her characters without even realizing it.

Someone is murdering wizards, an enemy marches across the countryside, and her magical friends are evacuating from a ramped up persecution. Yes, this is really my little nefarious self reading (and slightly enjoying) a not-so despicable piece of not-so revolting YA. Mona is 14 and has a magical gift for baking, which she has to repurpose into self defence and then defence of the city in the face of danger.For the most part while I read this book I thought I only really cared about Mona, but woe the day when somebody threatens Bob or Mona’s aunt Tabitha. And that’s the point at which she discovers that EVERYONE has been hoping that someone else would fix the mess.

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking is a 2020 young adult fantasy novel by Ursula Vernon, under her pseudonym T. She works in her aunt's bakery, and ends up part of a murder mystery mixed with political coup mixed with helping a city through a siege. Well…a big formal wedding is about the same (and because we do cakes, I’ve been on the periphery of a few), except that if things go wrong in a siege you’ll all die horribly, and in formal weddings, the stakes are much higher. The world's largest collection of books, toys and movies for smart, confident, and courageous girls.You’re probably not aware of this, but the diminutive bastards are actually the ghosts of ancient philosophers and will try to suck out the truth from your ankles at the first opportunity.

I liked that these people (and the other wizard…no, not Elgar) supported Mina and helped her realize her full potential, even though the need for this was literally because of them. That should give you an idea of the quality of Author Ursula Vernon's (pseudonymously known as Kingfisher) prose overall. No, we really don't do enough societally to recognize the real quiet heroism demonstrated daily in ordinary (unglamourous) people fighting against incredible odds. The situation shouldn’t have been allowed to get so far off the rails that a 14-year-old is not just their best but their only hope.

Mona is a young magiker with control over dough, biscuits, and pastry adjacent products (although icing gives her a headache). It’s a pretty young story, with some inconsistencies and contradictions that can annoy an adult reader, but I’m pretty sure would not bother a child in the slightest. Following Mona on her journey as she finds out just how much talent and creativity she has for baking bread-like products and making them to fantastical things was so entertaining.