baking, love, competition, and food puns

Shireen Malik is ready. And she’s not. She’s been baking for years and working at her parents’ donut shop You Make Me Glazy. She studies recipes and re-reads her favorite cookbooks until they fall apart. She binges The Great British Bake Off over and over. So she’s ready for The Junior Irish Baking Show, competing against other teen bakers from Ireland for a delicious cash prize. She can use that towards her dream of opening a bakery where she can make the food of her parents’ native Bangladesh.

But she’s also not ready. It’s not been that long since she and her girlfriend Chris broke up. Chris and her family have a donut shop right across the street from You Make Me Glazy. That’s actually how they met. And now they’re broken up, but they’re both competing on the Junior Irish Baking Show. And worse yet, when they go to the informational meeting before the first taping, they find out that the first challenge will be a team challenge. And Shireen and Chris are matched up together for that first bake.

Shireen is nervous about working with Chris. They hadn’t spoken to each other since they broke up. Now they had to communicate well enough to bake something that will impress the judges and get through to the next round. And when Shireen finds out who the three judges are, she’s even more intimidated. There is a beloved Irish baker who everyone has watched on television for years, a Michelin-starred chef and restaurateur known for his abrasive judgments on cooking shows, and an Indian baker who Shireen has looked to for years as an inspiration.

And if that’s not enough stress, Shireen met another baker at that informational meeting, Niamh, who is friendly, maybe even flirting, with her. Shireen likes Niamh, but she’s not sure about jumping into another relationship so soon, especially with her feelings for Chris being so jumbled up. She tries to just focus on the competition, creating bakes that will impress the judges and help her through to the next round. But when the trolls come out on social media, calling her out for her heritage and for her weight, Shireen struggles to believe in herself.

Shireen has the support of her family and her best friend, but will that be enough to get her through all the challenges she’s facing and set her up for the future she’s been dreaming of? Or will her baking dreams fall flat?

The Dos and Donuts of Love is a sweet queer rom com about young bakers, first loves, and lots of food puns. Author Adiba Jaigirdar, the author of The Henna Wars, brings this charming love story to life. Through food fights and arguments, macarons and lava cake, blog posts and online trolls, these friends and competitors find their way to express themselves, to believe in themselves, and to make new paths for themselves as they bake their way to the top.

I loved The Dos and Donuts of love. I mean, it wasn’t that difficult for me, as I already love donuts. And I love a good bake-off. But these characters made me want to cheer for them as they struggled in the competition kitchen and in their relationships, and the whole book just felt to me like a big, home-baked hug.

Egalleys for The Dos and Donuts of Love were provided by Feiwel & Friends (Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group) through NetGalley, with many thanks.