Dana

Fun, extremely fast paced graphic about three siblings accidentally breaking Pandora's “box”. The story felt very rushed and fast paced to the point where I thought it was a graphic adaptation of a novel but I don't think it is. The characters were fine, but too many to get close to, and the plot is very chaotic imo. Fun but forgettable. 

Well done graphic about a boy who's not dead and a girl whom everyone forgets teaming up to save the boy from the Hungry Ghosts. I liked that this had a message that memories of your loved ones give you comfort rather than forgetting them to ease the pain. I also liked the illustrations and story, even if I disagreed with how her father handled everything. Overall, a solid story for middle schoolers who either love adventure, food, and ghosts or for those who might need some comfort after loss. 

I really liked this one! We follow Val who is a kid who knows who she is and what she likes and is unapologetic. I liked that she really owned up to her mistakes and was eager to learn. I liked that the bully understood they had done wrong and tried to fix it. I liked that the adults didn't seem to continually brush off the kids and listened to them. The only thing I wasn't a fan of is the lack of background on Val. All we know is that she got in trouble for fighting at her old school; we don't know why, how, or if she was expelled because of that. I wished for a little more context in that regard.

Overall, a great pick for D&D kids who need a role model with confidence!

Art Club follows Dale as he pursues his passion for art by attempting to start an art club at his middle school despite harsh pushback from the vice principal. I didn't care for the art style personally; too sketchy and unrefined looking. The story was nice but felt sort of crammed in and some details felt like they fell to the side. Overall, not a bad graphic for passionate artists in middle school!

While this presents Livy's mental health issues (anxiety and panic disorders) in a good way, I wasn't a fan of the illustrations too much. It felt very freeform and at times abstract. However, the story is really good, albeit full of middle school drama, and I really enjoyed seeing Livy take responsibility for her actions and GET HELP!!! That's so important! Overall, great for any middle school kids who may be struggling with anxiety and other mental health stuff.

That was quite an ending to this three book series! It did the thing I do not like so much; intense multi-chapter build up to a fight and resolution taking maybe 3-7 pages. Whyyyyy? I'd have loved a more drawn out and intense fight after such a hard-fought preparation. I will say however, it was satisfying and well written so I can forgive the brevity. 

I saw someone else say that book 1 was Fi and Briar's, book 2 was all four's, and book 3 was Shane and Red's and that is 100% the case. I really liked following the four main characters and I enjoyed their 3rd person close POV chapters. I was impressed at how much I was feeling for these four little mistake makers. I loved how flawed and dumb and yet passionate and clever they were. 

I really liked that book 3 got back into the dungeon delving, treasure hunting part of Fi and Shane that we fell in love with in book 1. Not that book 2 was boring, but it was less... adventurous? It was absolutely necessary for plot and character development, but it lagged where this one shone.

Overall, I'm super happy with this series and I think its a FANTASTIC LGBTQIA+ fantasy adventure! It's very well written with a satisfying and happy ending with four main characters that you fall in love with. Definitely recommend!

This one picks up almost right where book 1 left off. I definitely forgot most of what happened in book 1, but there's enough recap/flashback to fill in the gaps and I really enjoyed where we were going. This one really put the romances in the spotlight. I liked being able to closely follow our four main characters and get a small peek into their heads. I thought that Briar is a little bland but getting into his head and seeing his flashbacks to 100 years ago, I feel like he developed the most out of all four of them... even though Red also grew a lot. I did have a hard time believing that Shane would really risk it all for a pretty girl and that their relationship was started on a superficial base; Red is pretty. But we definitely see Red and Shane begin to fall much more intimately. They each have qualities the other admire for deeper reasons than ‘pretty girl'.

All in all, a solid book 2! I really look forward to the conclusion of book 3! 

 I do recommend reading these books one right after another as they pick up where the last left off and do not recap at all.

I thought this installment was better than the last. I felt there was more character development and I see where the plot is headed. I liked seeing the history of the world; it was insanely beautiful. The art is delightful again if not occasionally confusing when there are no words to direct the eye.

Overall, this story is beautiful and engaging and I look forward to more! It certainly ends openly enough. 

I really wanted to love this one more than I did. I think it was well written and very interesting, it held my attention through to the end, but it just didn't do all I wanted it to.

I was sort of surprised to see how much of a role religion played into the story. I have a fair amount of religious trauma, so it was making me a little uncomfortable although I understood it did have a significant role to play within the story and within the characters themselves. That's why I didn't love it the way I wanted to.

I did love being able to closely follow both of the main characters! It was interesting to see how they each interpreted their interactions. And the romance was so good! The slow burn was really damn slow but I loved seeing each of their realizations. Very cute.

All in all, still LOVE Allison Saft and her writing! I look forward to her future books! 

 Way too fast paced to really get into it, but as a novel to graphic adaptation, that makes sense. Interesting story of siblings falling through a magic mirror into Snow White's story and “messing” it up and then trying to “fix” it. I liked the kids but this felt very, very juvenile to me; like good for 2nd or 3rd graders. Probably great for fans of the original series! 

 Fantastic graphic about Black hair that is very much needed for today's youth. Not my place to critique but I found it a beautiful story with a heartwarming message. Illustrations were very colorful and lovely. 

 I haven't read a Tricia Levenseller book I haven't liked yet and I doubt I ever will.

You can definitely tell this is a debut (the writing and pacing got a little wonky) but it's still a fantastic adventure. It is the perfect woman-led pirate adventure! I LOVED Alosa! She's so spunky and snarky and clever. I really enjoyed Riden too! He is soft and kind but smart as a whip and loyal to a fault. I also love that he fell first.

The plot was... eh. Predictable, except for one thing towards the end, but still very much enjoyable. I liked just being taken along for the ride! I'm super excited to start the next one too! 

 Lovely art and story about loneliness, burnout, and taking care of yourself sometimes takes a village. I was a bit confused by some of the subplot(s)(?) but overall lovely story. 

I really enjoyed this, even more than the movie, or perhaps because of seeing the movie first. I really enjoyed the movie and thought Millie Bobby Brown did great as Elodie. I wasn't sure I wanted to read the book as I had just recently watched the movie, but my darling Jen told me I'd like it more knowing the differences between the movie and the book.

I believe, if I understand this right, the author got a copy of the screenplay early, wrote this inspired by that, the screenplay then got revised and used some of the book's ideas. If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me.

I think this really took the things I struggled with in the movie and made it better! I wanted to know more about where Elodie was from, how she grew up, and her background. I was surprised at a slight change: Prince Henry is much more villainized and the Queen much more humanized than the movie. And honestly, I felt the book did it better.. And I liked the ending of the book much more. While it was satisfying in the movie, I wanted a little... more out of it. I got that here. It was definitely much more confusing, but it was so satisfying. I always love epilogues. I love seeing the ‘after'.

Overall, definitely worth the read and very well written as well!

I really liked this! As an avid D&D fan, I really took this as just plain fun. There's a lot of criticism about how it really doesn't do anything new and it's a very run-of-the-mill adventure, but to me, that's where the fun is! Besides, my groups are so utterly insane that this was a nice reprieve. 

I liked having moments when I identified certain spells or effects and knew that some of them “made their save” or “failed their save”. It was pretty cool to know almost exactly how the magic worked. 

I really liked the characters even if they were all fairly “predictable”. I really enjoyed Tess and Cazrin's friendship too (maybe something more in the future??) as well as Tess and Anson's friendship (which felt familial to me). I love me a good found family book and this one ticked all those boxes. I loved how they each had to earn their key and room in their magical inn by acting as a team and looking out for one another.

All in all, a fairly predictable and safe D&D novel, but extremely fun and fast paced nonetheless. I sincerely hope there's more!

 I love one sitting books. And T. Kingfisher delivers short and sweet books that pack a punch. I really adored Nettle & Bone and a coworker recommended this one as I love fairytale retellings.

I love love love Toadling. She's so sweet and good and tries so hard even when she fails. She never gave up even would it would have been easier to. I could read another 40 novellas about her adventures.

I really liked the way this was twisted too. I wonder if Toadling's “gift” twisted the child into being so cruel or if it truly was in her nature without Toadling's interference. That's my take on it at least. I loved seeing that passage of time out of context for Toadling as she had no context for time really. It was just very well written.

T. Kingfisher is definitely one of those authors to pull me from reading slumps! 

I've loved Shark Week ever since it began. One of my few memories of my fraternal grandparents was going to their trailer on a lake for a week during summer vacation and watching Shark Week in the evenings. I was enthralled. But somehow it wasn't until my late 20's did I realize that sharks were my favorite animals (specifically whale sharks, but I do love all sharks).

I really enjoyed this book for someone who doesn't real nonfiction regularly. The history of sharks was fascinating and I highly recommend reading near a computer to look up what these historic sharks looked like. It was super cool. There is a lot of scientific jargon that made my eyes glaze over a few times, but I pushed through and I feel like I learned a lot about sharks and where they came from. 

Recommended for any shark mega fan. I desperately want to go shark teeth hunting now!

I have a bad habit of reading the last pages of books. I like to make sure its worth my time and see if it ends on a cliffhanger or not. But NOTHING prepared me for the many twists at the end of this book.I really enjoyed [book:We Hunt the Flame 36492488] and I feel like [author:Hafsah Faizal 17276299] keeps getting better and better with every book. I find her writing to be really engaging and draws me into the story whether I'm into it or not!I initially found this one difficult to get into because a lot of things happen with little to no explanation. There were several times throughout the book I flipped back pages and reread and realized things with fresh eyes. I found that part of the fun! The book is definitely two steps ahead of the reader and I liked being taken for a ride!I know a lot of people found Arthie difficult to connect to; she does do an excellent job at keeping everyone (including the reader) at bay, but I found that part of her charm. She's by no means my favorite character (Jin, Flick, and Matteo are my precious darlings) but I liked her chapters and loved being deceived by her. Jin and Flick were great characters for their chapters and I look forward to seeing where their relationship goes!The end of the book clearly sets us up for another and I CAN'T WAIT! IT WAS SUCH A GOOD, TWISTY ENDING.

This is a collection of short stories inspired by Chinese mythology/folktales. I really liked the first one, but since it was so long, the others fell flat as they didn't get very much page time. I also didn't understand the context of these stories other than they're being told by a frog to a small girl to keep her occupied. I will see if I can get my hands on book two to see if there's more to that story.
 

I could easily read another 10 volumes of their adventures.

While this one is just as existential crisis inducing, I felt it was just better. More cozy, more comforting, more confusing? Regardless, a cozy little scifi asking some pretty deep questions and refusing to answer them. Absolutely delightful.

If you like cozy existential crisis's, this is for you!

 I had high hopes as ‘Dealing with Dragons' is one of my favorite books from when I was a kid. But this did not meet those expectations and I think it's only partially my fault.
I liked the idea of it; the Dark Lord's daughter got sent to Earth and is thrown back into her original world knowing nothing of magic or being evil. I liked Kayla; she was clever, kind, and a pretty good leader.

I did not like her mother, who would nix every idea and plan for no reason other than it wouldn't help them get back to Earth. She was so utterly single-minded on getting to her home and doing what she thought would protect the kids that she was extremely annoying and antagonistic. Like she didn't want Kayla to learn magic despite them NEEDING magic to get home. Del, Kayla's little brother, continually snoops into Kayla's stuff, gets hurt as there are enchantments protecting it, and then their mother yells at Kayla for it. Del is a decent character, but it got annoying how much he'd get into trouble (trouble that would hurt him) and Mom would be angry at everyone and everything OTHER than her son. That was severely annoying.

Overall, its a well written more modern take on magic and dark lords, but doesn't live up to Patricia C. Wrede's other works. 

I knew from the moment I read the description, I'd love this book. And I was right. I have been describing it to others as a regency fantasy romance which would probably be my favorite genre of books at the moment. I absolutely adored every aspect of this book from the characters to the writing to the plots. While it wrapped up a little neatly, it still ended in a way that I am extremely satisfied with! I will be reading the other Allison Saft book I have ([book:A Far Wilder Magic 48909025]) very soon from how much I LOVED this.I'm very lucky to be starting out this year with some incredible books!!

Don't get me wrong; it was good but just good. 

I really expected more art school for taking place at an art school but the main focus is softball. I did really like our team of misfits and their trials but I hate when characters try to keep secrets from their parents. Especially since I found Molly's moms to be super cool. I didn't understand why she'd keep it a secret for so long. But all in all, a pretty good and quick read. 

 DNF@ page 225 (67%)

It's time to call it. It's been months since I've read it and I have no desire to actually finish it.

Overall though, I didn't hate it. I was just so bored. There's a lot of purple prose. It's well written, for sure, but just a lot to slog through and it wasn't what I needed to get out of my year long reading slump. I think I was also promised spicey enemies to lovers and it wasn't spicy (yet) and it was taking much too long for them to get together.

I did enjoy that Everen's chapter's were 2nd POV. It was different and fun and I liked seeing how that changed the narration of the book. I liked that.