Any Way You Slice It

Sieve. Measure. Mix ... Win  For Carrie Quinn, baking isn't just a hobby: it's her future. Winning the Castlecreagh baking competition and becoming best young pastry chef in the country is the first step towards her dream. But when she and Dara Harte, handsome pastry prodigy and Carrie's sworn nemesis, are both disqualified from the competition, it seems like her future has crumbled. Unless the pair can find a way to bake together. Can they rise above their rivalry and complicated home lives long enough to succeed? Or are they a disaster waiting to happen, any way you slice it?

Méabh McDonnell was born in Dublin and grew up in Loughrea, County Galway. She has worked with the Clare People newspaper as sub-editor and children's books reviewer, and founded and edits cindersmagazine.com. She has an MA in journalism and is the Children's Book Manager in Charlie Byrne's Bookshop, Galway. She lives with her husband and son in the Galway countryside next door to a castle. Her 2025 novel, Any Way You Slice It, was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards Teen and Young Adult Book of the Year 2025. In 2024, her novel Into the Witchwood won the School Library Group of the Literacy Association of Ireland Great Reads Award.