Death by sourdough starter! Misbehaving gingerbread men! Murder and sass! What more could you need.

I think the only word for this book is “delightful.” In a standard-issue medievaloid fantasy setting, a teenage apprentice baker and wizard finds herself thrust into the unexpected role of saving the city-state from plots and foreign invasion. With the help of an animated gingerbread man and a magical familiar in the form of a sourdough culture named Bob. I mean, what more do you need to know? The protagonist is believably complex and flawed and the baking-based magic (indeed, the general premise of how magic works in the world) is well-realized and woven into the plot and its resolution. I may be biased in my love of this book because the quarantine initiated me into the Sourdough Tribe. But then again, I think it’s just that good.

A well rounded feast of an adventure, with characters you feel you know, and action that’s a crafted pulse of stress and stillness.

Yeah, maybe some pieces are dark, but heroes don't come out of frivolous peril. It does start with a dead body. If you are old enough to handle the dead body, you're probably okay with the rest. (There are a few sewers as well, and they're appropriately gross for sewers. So, uh, be warned.) Also, there is enough baking that I'm hungry now & eying the box-mix of cookies speculatively.