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Rating: 4 Stars
Release Date: June 6, 2023
Format: eBook (Personal Library) + Audiobook (Borrowed from Library)
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Adiba Jaigirdar’s The Dos and Donuts of Love is a very sweet young adult contemporary sapphic romance, that captures both the unpredictable fun nature of reality TV shows and the realities of being a teenager growing up in a world of social media. Shireen, the main character, is a Bengali teen living in Ireland and working at her parent’s donut shop. When the chance comes up to enter a baking competition and win some money to support her future, she jumps at the opportunity. However, things become very complicated when you throw in her ex also competing in the competition (cue love triangle).
Shireen is a very relatable teenage character. She’s very flawed, and makes mistakes (which she later owns up to). I really appreciated how she had such a strong support system around her, and how they were very supportive of her identity. As someone who’s guilty of not always being aware of smaller regions/cultures in the world, I also want to acknowledge how Shireen very respectfully corrected people who assumed she was from India and took the opportunity to educate on the Bangladeshi culture.
“You’re supposed to be the ‘bigger person’, and for some reason that means bearing it in silence.”
Social media can be a cruel place, and keyboard warriors are just jerks. The author did not shy away from difficult but relevant topics in this book (see the content warnings below for more specific details). After the first episode of the baking show airs, Shireen takes a lot of heat online (especially from racists and those who are fatphobicr). And when one of the judges of the show (Padma, who is also a woman of color and Shireen’s hero) tries to be a resource for her in dealing with that, it also makes things get worse. In her own words, “The thing is I don’t know what felt worse. The abusive tweets coming from strangers or the fact that nobody seemed to care about them. That even Niamh didn’t seem to care about them.”
Last but certainly not least, all of the food references in this show made me hungry. I loved how descriptive the author got with all of the flavors in each dish. I also appreciated the acknowledgement that different cultures can have their own way of making something. Shireen using her Ammu’s recipe was another way of acknowledging her culture and heritage, and I was so excited as a reader to see that. It was reminiscent of my own grandmother passing down her recipes to the family, or how my own family came together to gift my older sister various family recipes ahead of her wedding.
Overall, this was a great read. I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy The Great British Bake Off, young adult contemporary stories, and sapphic romances. While this is my first book by Adiba, I’m definitely hoping to read more in the future.
Thank you to @guccinary97, @Tearexanne, and @24hryabookblog for making this such a fun buddy read for me. Looking forward to reading The Scarlet Alchemist by Kylie Lee Baker with you next!
Content Warnings: Fatphobia, colorism, anti-Asian social media post directly discussed on page, racism
