This is really two stories in an interesting comic fantasy world built by the author. I really like the idea of dough magic, water magic, and the like.

The main character is fairly passive, pushed into action when needed. Of course, that is sort of like the Duchess in the story also. My favorite character was probably Bob - he definitely knows what he wants, and that's more Bob!

This book won a few awards for young adult books, and it is definitely that. The first part was the better story; I thought the second section was fairly quick and slightly out of control.