A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking

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There should have been so many grown-ups who should have fixed things before it got down to me and Spindle. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of Mona's worries.

Mona is a very reluctant hero, wanting “to make really good sourdough and muffins and not get messed up with assassins and politics” — and she would much rather not have to do anything heroic because really, that’s something required of adults. She was the one who found the body of the girl in her aunt’s bakery, but because Mina is a wizard (does being able to magic bread even count ? I very much hope that Kingfisher finds that her lovely heroine won’t leave her alone – and that she, too, misses Mona. 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. Good thing she has found a ally in street kid with a lot of street smarts and a gingerbread man she might have magicked just a little more than she was supposed to, to help her out.

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. Despite not being sure whether it would be light-hearted and humourous or darker with super high stakes, I enjoyed this audiobook! You won’t find world building on the scale of an epic fantasy here, but what you will get is a surprisingly touching and exciting plot in which the magic system plays a vital role. What is visceral is the amazing descriptions, the smells, sights and textures that pop out of this book, as the characters crawl through, over and around the story. I did like that it explored why the adults not doing their jobs in the damn first place and then relying on a child to save everyone was such an awful thing, because a lot of YA fantasies either don’t have adults at all or the adults are plainly evil instead of merely sleeping on the job, and the implications of making children step up are kinda…skipped over.

She is a sensible 14-year-old girl who makes for a great protagonist, not only because she is relatable (as much as a wizard can be, I guess) but because her concerns are so very normal. I felt that it had such rich themes and such a wonderful premise that even more could have been made of it, we could have gone into much more detail concerning the magic system, the world, etc. A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking reminds me of three really different things; Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, Harry Potter, and Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K. Mona’s wry and often disgusted commentary on what’s happening around her and just how far the situation has been left to go awry reads like both Sixteen Ways and the Discworld. But the city government and constables are turning against wizards, even minor ones like Mona, and the assassin seems to have a nose for tracking down and killing anyone with magical powers.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.