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This ending made me love the series more.

The Golden Enclaves (The Scholomance, #3) by Naomi Novik

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This was such a great series, and this book a great ending to it. I feel like I was waiting for sure to say that until I finished this book, and now I can say with certainty that The Scholomance is worth reading. It all just comes together SO WELL. I was happy with the story on the surface, I was happy with the characters and their arcs, and I was happy with what is going on underneath. This one picks up exactly where we […]

Grouping two more re-reads together, with no thematic connection

His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik

The Last Hellion by Loretta Chase

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Re-read, October 2022: I cannot fully explain why I had the need to re-read this novel, the start of a promising but eventually disappointing series of alt-history books that asked the question, what if Napoleonic wars but also dragons? A decent part was this intense desire to re-read the part of the novel where Laurence realizes that a number of dragons that the UK relies upon for its aerial might insist on having female captains, and is forced to reconcile that fact with his posh […]

Re-reads in anticipation of the last–Scholomance delivers

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

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Re-re-read in advance of The Golden Enclaves, September 2022 Knowing now what I know about how this book is actually a semi-subversive (and by which I mean not at all subversive, was I just under a rock this whole while?) pushback on JKR’s Wizarding World(TM), it’s doubly fascinating to re-re-enter the world of the Scholomance through the eyes of El, our crotchety crocheting evil enchantress in the making. I had read once that Novik wrote Scholomance in a response to the logical inconsistencies of the Potterverse, […]

Beauty and the Beast with no Stockholm syndrome and more magic

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

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In 2020 I read Naomi Novik’s, Spinning Silver, which I found to be an excellent reimaging of Rumpelstiltskin.  I finished the review with,  “Uprooted is going on my “wish list”.  Between then and now I got Uprooted in a Cannonball fundraiser but it has sat on the shelf.  I had this slated for the “Bird” square in Cannonball Bingo because of the bird on the cover.  However, I ran out of time and used Transmetropolitan volume 2: Lust for Life instead. I’ve long been a fan of […]

Harry Potter in the upside down

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

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I really wanted to love this but ended this more meh. It’s definitely trying to channel later instalment Harry Potter, but with more diversity and less heartwarming-ness. Our protagonist is El, short for Galadriel, who is in her next to last year school at the Scholomance, an international wizard high school. Unlike Hogwarts, the Scholomance is self- taught (no Dumbledores or Snapes) and brimming with danger day to day, mostly in the form of magical monsters (Mals, short for maleficaria). In this world, the surges […]

“Personally I felt I’d had far too many feelings lately and would have liked to repress a lot of them”. Bingo #5!

The Golden Enclaves: Lesson Three of the Scholomance by Naomi Novik

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CBR14 Bingo: “New” – The Golden Enclaves is the new book in the Scholomance trilogy. This is a spoiler free review.  What started in A Deadly Education, and continued in The Last Graduate, is now concluded in The Golden Enclaves.  This series immediately grabbed me from the get go.  Cantankerous El quickly found a place in my heart, along with her companions.  Their harrowing adventures had me constantly engaged.  I found the world setting and magic system fascinating.  Novik kept me continuously curious about the workings […]



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