Reviews - A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking

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7.95k reviews for:

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking

T. Kingfisher

4.06 AVERAGE

katrilovesbooks's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Loveable characters: Yes

ericbuscemi's review against another edition

3.0

After an interesting opening premise, I struggled to get through the middle third of this book, to the point I almost stopped reading it. My favorite characters at that point were an animated gingerbread cookie and a sentient sourdough starter — which is not a great sign, considering a) neither of these are the protagonist, and b) neither was focused on heavily in the story. However, remembering all of the glowing reviews here on Goodreads, I decided to push on and see what I was missing. I'm honestly glad I did, as I really enjoyed the final third of this book. The action picked up, the lengthy, introspective 'woe-is-me' passages from the protagonist — a fourteen-year-old baker wizard named Mona — faded away, and all of the plot lines came together quite satisfactorily. Knackering Molly's role in the climax was both epic and touching. While the ending couldn't entirely turn my opinion on the book around as a whole, it did make me glad I finished it and saw through to the end of the Mona's journey. One bit at the end I really appreciated was the fact that the characters recognize and commiserate that a teenage girl should never have been put in the position to save her kingdom (which seems like a direct shot at the Harry Potter franchise, although it is a prevalent trope in a lot of young adult fiction).

yars_reading_corner's review against another edition

5.0

If you are into the idea of of Christmas and Gollums, the side of witches and cute baking inspo, this is the book for you! I started reading it on and off before Halloween thinking that it’s going to be a cozy fall book, but it turns out that it was perfect for the timing thanks to the gingerbread cookies and all those cozy details remind me more of winter rather than fall.

Obviously, it’s not entirely low stakes, but come on! The war is literally in a magical world, and the scale is equivalent to a village rather than a whole worldwide area, also the idea of an all powerful yet helpless in reality Duchess that only moans and cries, was actually quite comedic degrading.

So if you’re looking for a short read to get back into reading after a slump this is exactly the kind of book I would recommend you