Information:
- Author: Adiba Jaigirdar
- Genre: Contemporary, Romance
- Page Count: 336
- Year published: 2023
Read This If You Like:
- Baked goods
- Competitions/reality shows
- Second Chance Romance (and love triangles!)
- Diverse characters
- Books with plus-sized characters
- Queer representation
- Puns
Spoiler-Free Summary:
Shireen has not been herself since her recent breakup with her former girlfriend, Chris. But then she gets the email she’s been waiting for since forever- the one saying that she’s been accepted as a contestant on the first season of The Junior Irish Baking Show. Winning the competition won’t bring only a massive cash prize, but also attention to the donut shop owned by Shireen’s family, known as “You Drive Me Glazy.” Things soon become complicated on the show, as it turns out Chris is competing against Shireen. She’s also starting to become friends with Niamh, a fellow competitor, and it’s possible they might end up being more than friends. And the media is suspicious of Shireen, and not in a good way. To win the competition, Shireen must prove herself and avoid sabotage- and also navigate her feelings of love.
Review:
This was such a unique concept for a YA book, and it perfectly met my expectations. The first thing you will notice is the clever title and the beautifully illustrated cover, and inside there is a story as sweet as the baked goods that the bakers create.
Shireen was an amazingly diverse, layered character. I haven’t read any books with Bengali characters before, so it was nice to see Shireen as a member from an underrepresented group. Shireen also identifies as plus-sized, and her experiences with fatphobia are realistic and eye-opening. She also is seen to have anxiety, and she is queer (her exact sexuality isn’t given.)
The romance aspects also played a huge part of the story. The story combines both the “second chance romance” tropes (Shireen reunites with Chris, her ex-girlfriend) and the love triangle (Shireen has to choose between Chris and Niamh) tropes beautifully. In the end however, the romance ended a little half-baked (pun intended based off the plot of the story), the end of Shireen’s relationship with [SPOILER] came out of nowhere and there wasn’t a lot of closure. I didn’t really connect with Shireen’s relationships with both Chris and Niamh either, while they weren’t bad, I didn’t find them overly adorable or sweet, their relationships just felt average.
The reality show setting was really unique and realistic. The bakers in the competition all had to experience challenges like on real baking competitions- time limits! Accidentally messing up the entire dessert! Harsh judges! However, there was one scene during the competition that felt a little unrealistic (not revealing it because of spoilers.) The book also included the real-life issue of media and internet harassment, which many of the characters had to deal with. And the baked goods that the contestants created all sounded so delicious- this book absolutely deserves a cookbook based off the story.
There is one more thing I want to mention about this book: the puns. If you absolutely love this book’s title, you got lucky, because the same sense of humor remains in the book. Most of the chapter titles are baking themed puns, and they are sprinkled around the story at some points. Also, one of the judges of the baking competition has a name and personality that makes him a direct copycat of a certain real life MasterChef host known for his harsh criticism.
Overall, anyone looking for a fun, romantic, and diverse YA story should try out this story. I really enjoyed this one, and I’m planning to read more books from this author.
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