The Magic Callaloo by Trish Cooke
The book, The Magic Callaloo by Trish Cooke and illustrated by Sophie Bass is one of those books where I picked it apart to make my overall score. First, I looked at the big picture which is almost a 5. The only reason it wasn’t a full 5 (and a 4.75) is because the text was crowded on the page and it was a smidgen on the longer side. The details included made me wonder if it would have been better as a novel, or […]
There Are Monsters in My Room: (Interactive Shine a Light; A Hidden Shadows Book; Fear of the Dark) by Fanny Pageaud
There Are Monsters in My Room: (Interactive Shine a Light; A Hidden Shadows Book; Fear of the Dark) by Fanny Pageaud is, to be honest, okay for me when it comes to the story. It was not really “new” but was also not “same old” either, but still, it was not completely grabbing me. However, the clever illustrations are the complete package. These images caught my eye not because of what you do see, but what you do not see. They are fun and I […]
To Kill a Badger by Shelly Laurenston
As the sixth novel in the Honey Badger Chronicles (and who even knows what number in Laurenston’s extended shifter universe), readers will know exactly what they are getting into with this one. After the first three novels focused on the MacKilligan sisters finding hijinks and love, the following three have followed Max’s basketball team members as they get closer to the O’Malley brothers (Siberian tiger shifters). Laurenston knows that we are primarily here for the sisters, and especially Charlie, so unlike other romance series where […]
Brigands and Breadknives by Travis Baldree
This simply wasn’t the year for me and cozy fantasy. I don’t think I was in quite the right headspace for it so I didn’t enjoy these types of novels nearly as much as in other years, even when it was authors I previously enjoyed. It’s not that every novel needs to be gripping epic fantasy but even for my lighter reads, I just tended to want something that was a bit more fast paced. For this reason, I was slightly dreading this novel even […]
Among the Burning Flowers by Samantha Shannon
Even though I enjoy everything I have read by Samantha Shannon and pre-ordered this as soon as I heard about it, I then waited till this past week to read it. I think with this universe in particular, even though Shannon very much made these novels independent enough that they don’t require reading the others to get the story, I still worry about trying to remember and fit them in the larger context before I start reading. I really am overthinking it and creating my […]
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
There are a lot of Booktok videos where a person just holds up a book and says it’s fantastic, without providing any details to lure one into reading it. They love it so much they are at a loss for details. That is how I feel writing this review, but I have overcome my dazzle to set down the details of this marvelous book. Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo is the final book in the Six of Crows duology, the first book of which I […]
