An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona’s city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. T Kingfisher's books are like a hug - a dark, sometimes frightening hug, but with characters that you can't help falling in love with, just a little bit.

and every time biscuits were mentioned I was imagining British biscuits - however I think they're the softer more scone-like US-style biscuits (they're eaten with honey in one scene) which threw me off somewhat. Mona is such a superb protagonist – having been orphaned and then looked after by her aunt and uncle, her life is jogging along quite nicely.T. Kingfisher is one of my new favorite author finds this year and so far it doesn't matter if it is Young Adult, Middle-Grade (like this book is) or a PG-13 Fantasy book all of them have been fantastic so far.

And he is the least thing our fourteen year old magician dreams up when asked to defend her whole town from flesh eating savages. The story is about a murder mystery, there are dark echoes of totalitarianism and ethnic cleansing (all wizards either have to leave town or are murdered), and finally there's an army threatening the city while its usual defenders are away. 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. From the adorable cover and title (and the fact our main protagonist is fourteen years old), I thought this was an MG story.

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. 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. The setting is a medieval city state where most of the subjects are just about coping, though there is widespread poverty.

Sometimes you have to rise up to a challenge when those in charge have failed in their responsibilities, and hope that you are not alone.I want to have it so that I won't need to fuss my drawers procuring it when I am most in need of a laughing, weeping, cheering-my-fool-lungs-out read that doesn't have the effrontery to wink at me or let me know it's clever-clever. Where Harry Potter comes in, of course, is that Mona is just 14 and she’s expected to save the city. The world's largest collection of books, toys and movies for smart, confident, and courageous girls. If they think this book is too harsh (or whatever) to be published for children, then how the heck would Roald Dahl.

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. And happens to think that dying with mismatched socks on is not very cool at all (which I am sure is something we can all wholeheartedly agree on), for three. One day, while 14-year-old wizard Mona is working in her aunt Tabatha's bakery, she finds a dead girl on the kitchen floor. who manages to still be a (sensible) teenager (mostly) with all the shit that is going on in her life, without all the whining usually associated to these types of books.

There are other wizards in the city of Riverbraid but they are similar to Mona with specific abilities or not that powerful at all. I very much hope that Kingfisher finds that her lovely heroine won’t leave her alone – and that she, too, misses Mona. Nuestra protagonista Mona es una maga menor y solo conoce la magia a través de su oficio, la panadería. I not only laughed out loud at many points, but ended up reading bits to my husband who needed to know what I was cackling about so much. I can’t tell you how Kingfisher does it, but she is really good at making you love her characters without even realizing it.