Gluten for Punishment

Maribel Weathervane has finally found her rhythm. The bakery is thriving, the wards are holding, and her sourdough starter has only threatened one customer this week. She's got a guardian who runs hotter than a proofing oven, a flock of chickens with a chain of command, and a were-rooster who has eaten the welcome mat twice. Life in Foxglove Hollow is weird, but it's hers.

Then the bread starts lying.

When a corporate bakery chain moves into the neighboring town, Maribel isn't worried. Matte black packaging and artisanal branding can't compete with two hundred years of magical sourdough. But The Polished Grain isn't selling bread. It's selling poison - loaves that taste like perfection and slowly dismantle every bond in Foxglove Hollow. Neighbors turn cruel. Marriages crack. And when Maribel takes one bite, the voice in her head tells her the man she loves is a cage she should walk out of.

Behind it all is Beatrice Burn: corporate bread witch, control enthusiast, and the proud owner of a synthetic starter that's feeding off Foxglove Hollow's magic like a parasite in a matte black box.

When Breadna is kidnapped, the wards start failing, and the town begins eating itself alive, Maribel has to raise a new starter from scratch, outwit a villain whose supply chain is disturbingly efficient, and fight her way back to the people she loves - starting with the one sleeping next to her.

Armed with a teenage sourdough who can't pace her rise, a raccoon heist squad in reflective vests, and a goat whose commitment to blocking traffic is truly unshakeable, Maribel challenges Beatrice to the only battle that matters:

A bake-off. Town square. Saturday. All welcome.

May the best bread win.