Eleven-year-old Mimi has found her place in her big Indian family as the baker. Her father, a food critic, is her sounding board for trying out new combos of spices, flavors, and textures.
But when he comes home from an assignment and starts stuffing his face with pretty much anything, unable to vocalize beyond saying everything is "scrumptious," Mimi knows something's up. She just doesn't know what.
Around the same time, two things happen. First, she hears her deceased mom's favorite song coming from the woods behind the house and follows it to a boy, who quickly becomes her friend and baking companion.
Second, a new bakery opens in town. Mimi samples its fare and it has the worst treats! But when the owner decides to hold a bake-off contest, Mimi wants to enter, sure she can win.
Along the way, she starts to think the boy she befriended is really just spying on her to win the contest, and some of the ingredients he showed her in the forest have truly "magical" effects on her family.
Then she's fairly certain he sabotages her ingredients in the first round of the bake-off. The baking mitts come off! Even once she learns the bakery's owner may be trying to entrap Mimi in the fairy world.
I won't spoil how it ends. There are a few side plots with older siblings liking each others' significant others, and it's supposed to be a retelling of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Shakespearean play. But they were minor subplots and it's totally readable without paying much attention to them.
A fun, middle grade baking romp!
