Personal Rating: 3.5 Stars Goodreads Rating at time of review: 3.62 Stars Content Rating: Light PG-13 Trigger Warnings: Fantasy substance abuse, anxiety, depression, absent parent, some body horror (people growing flowers out of skin, chest, lungs, etc.) Clara’s magic has always been wild. But it’s never been dangerous. Then a simple touch causes poisonous flowers to bloom in her father’s chest. The only way to heal him is to cast an extremely difficult spell that requires perfect control. And the only person willing to help is her former best friend, Xavier, who’s grown from a sweet, shy child into a mysterious and distant young man. Xavier names a terrible price in return, knowing Clara will give anything to save her father. As she struggles to reconcile the new Xavier with the boy she once loved, she discovers their bargain is only one of the heavy secrets he’s hiding. And as she hunts for the truth, she instead finds the root of a terrible darkness that’s taken hold in the queendom—a darkness only Clara’s magic is powerful enough to stop. (goodreads.com) The copy of this book that I own is the Fae Crate exclusive edition, so if you’d like to see what that cover looks like, scroll on down to the bottom of this review! Both are magnificent covers, so please take a moment to appreciate the beauty! Alright, obligatory pretty cover comment out of the way, let’s get into the actual review. I was so, so, so excited for this book! A cottagecore fantasy with flower magic and a bit of romance? Sounds lovely, sign me up! And it was lovely, it was also just a twinge disappointing. I think part of that was because I set my hopes unattainably high and did not prepare for anything less than exactly what I wanted. It was still a fun book, it just wasn't the warm cottagecore hug I was hoping for. My first disappointment with it was the world building. Well, the lack of world building. And I know world building in a cozy fantasy is not always a top priority, and generally not all important to the plot, but I still would have liked a bit more. The reader is dropped into a world and told there are magic users, that those magic users have a council of some sort, and that young magicians are apprenticed to older magicians. All of which is relevant to the plot and great. However, there isn’t really much expansion on that information. We get small details about what the magician’s code of ethics is like and how they use their magic, but not much else. And the rest of the world is never explored. We know it’s a queendom, which sounds really cool and interesting, but I don’t recall them mentioning any information about the queen or what the queendom looks like outside of Clara’s small town and Xavier’s family home. My default guess for books like this that feature cottages and manors, is that the world is inspired by the English countryside, but there aren’t many clues confirming that, so that imagined world only fits because of my own background in reading fantasy. There also isn’t really a “set time period”. Obviously, this is not set in our world so no time period would line up with it exactly, but most fantasy worlds are inspired, at least with fashion and technology, by a point in our world’s history. Lord of the Rings, for example, has some decidedly medieval aesthetics going on. Based on the dress Clara wears on the cover, I’d guess Flowerheart is supposed to be late Victorian or early Edwardian, but hardly anything in the actual book points to that. The Victorian/Edwardian eras have some great technology that would have been a fun way to set the mood, like a gramophone or mention of trains or maybe even something with an Industrial Revolution nod. Again, it’s not vital to the plot that we have an exact picture of the world the story takes place in, but it would have been nice to be able to visualize it a little better. Apart from that, it really would have been cool to know more about how magic works in their world. Are the magicians the only difference from their world and ours or are there other things? Magical creatures? Odd geography? Legends of magic? Deities? I’m not saying not knowing these things makes it a bad story, but I, personally, would have enjoyed it more with more context. What little the reader does get to know about the fantasy world this is set in reminds me a little of Ingary, the place where Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones is set. Which was fun, but again, I'm drawing from my own reading experiences and not being given anything new from this book. I did like the plot. I mostly liked the writing style (I’m a bit exhausted of first person perspective, but that’s a me problem). The flower descriptions were so fun and I loved that we got to see some “language of the flowers” action. I would adore it if more books used the language of the flowers, ever since I read the Enola Holmes books by Nancy Springer I’ve been interested and Flowerheart has rekindled the obsession. I thought the characters were lovely. Albert Lucas, Clara’s father, was adorably sweet. The various magicians Clara met with were interesting and I would have loved to hear more about them. And I liked that Xavier felt realistic for a teenager burdened with large responsibilities. He acted mature and formal much of the time, but there were little instances of bashfulness and awkwardness that made him seem genuine. The book was easy to get into and be drawn into, but there were points that lagged for me. The pacing was not quite right. There were moments when it seemed like it was trying really hard to be a slow, cozy read, but then other moments when everything was happening at the speed of light and all of a sudden there are new problems, or old problems are solved in the blink of an eye. And the slow, cozy moments were not always well connected to the rest of the story, which is why I had to set it down several times. I kept thinking “why are we focused on this right now? Clara’s dad is dying!”, or “okay, things are calm, now would be a good time for some cute warm scenes--oh, nevermind people have dandelions growing out of their faces”. However, as a whole, I did like this book, I just didn’t love it. Not as much as I was hoping to anyway. Still, I could see myself picking up a sequel if there is one (most of the dilemmas were tied up, but there were enough openings that a sequel is possible) for a quick fantasy read. If you like diverse, mid-stakes (I don’t want to say “low-stakes” because her father was dying, but it doesn’t feel like incredibly “high-stakes” either because I was never too worried about the guy), cottagecore, teenage romances, you should check out Flowerheart. If you don’t… well, okay, I dunno, check out another one of my reviews and see if you can find something you like, I guess. Thank you for reading, I am off to check the magical cabinet that has delicious treats in it. Until next time! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61319750-flowerheart
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Personal Rating: 3 Stars Goodreads rating at time of review: 4.18 Stars Content Rating: Light PG-13 Trigger Warnings: Racism, misogyny, character has panic attacks Floss is most definitely NOT marrying the Goblin King, even if it saves her a trip through the labyrinth. Floss, an aspiring law student, has enough troubles to ruffle anyone’s bustle. Her school of choice won’t let her in because of her gender, her equal rights league is hopelessly ineffective, and there aren’t enough calming tonics in the world to stave off her panic attacks. Now her niece is missing, the roguish Goblin King keeps proposing, and sinister forces threaten Floss’s city. She’ll have to brave a dangerous labyrinth and question everything she believes in to save not only her family, but an entire kingdom down below. If only the Goblin King wasn’t quite so distracting, she might actually be able to do it. (goodreads.com) As always, we must take a moment to behold a pretty cover. I love the pink! It sort of makes me think of the covers of old Barbie movies, which is a spectacular vibe. Now, if you read the description and if you’ve ever seen Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, you may be noticing some similarities between this book and that movie. And I think this book was inspired by Labyrinth (though I can find no information to back that up) or perhaps started as a fanfiction, but I can assure you the vibes are fairly distinct from one another. Though, I suppose they are the same enough that it would still interest someone who might be looking for a book “like Labyrinth”. As we get into this review, I fear that I might have several negative things to say, so I want to start out by saying that I did really enjoy reading it. Easy to get into, interesting world building, cute romance, female friendships, a dashing goblin king—all very fun to read and I liked it quite a bit. However, no matter how much of a good time I had while reading it, I also felt a persistent feeling of “hmm… that doesn’t seem quite right”. As well as a few other little things that bothered me. Let’s get into it, shall we? First off, the romance. It was cute. It was fun. The male main character was the king of a magical realm and a gentleman with a penchant for mischief. What could possibly go wrong with that? Well, for the most part the king was completely fine as a love interest (I was not expecting him to turn into a giant green creature that I could only picture as the Hulk, but you know, some people are into that so whatevs). It was Floss that I took most issue with. Floss was so… law abiding. Literally that’s one of her main character traits. She wants to be a lawyer and follow the law precisely. Which is fine, but it also meant that she was sort of naïve and ignorant of problems in her world. She is part of a group that protests for equal rights for women and magical creatures, but she is woefully uneducated about the plights of those magical creatures. It’s frustrating because she wants to do what is right, but she also won’t acknowledge when she is not doing what’s right. It reminds me very much of a well meaning woman of privilege who only sees her own problems and is insensitive to the injustices against minorities even as she speaks up for them. Like, she’s fighting for her equal rights and since she’s friends with magical creatures, she’ll tag their rights on too. That was another thing that bothered me. Equating magical creatures to real life minorities who are facing injustice is always a tricky thing to write. Because much of the time it starts to feel like mockery of real people, or saying that real people who face discrimination are “not human”. I’m just not sure that it’s the best idea to say that historically people of color faced the same problems as fairies. I suppose there are instances where it can be done well, but this book’s attempt at handling “magical social justice” left me feeling uncomfortable. Another irritation I have with Floss was that her motive for being such a rule follower was because of something bad she’d done in her past. And I don’t want to invalidate anyone’s trauma, but when you find out what the horribly wicked thing is that she did… it’s not really all that bad. I don’t even really understand why she did it apart from the fact that she was a child and children do stupid things. And when this big horrible thing is revealed to her sister, who was affected by the big horrible thing, Floss is immediately forgiven and faces no consequences, making me feel that it wasn’t really necessary to the plot. It seemed like it was put in as background information about Floss, supposedly telling us why she wants to be a lawyer. But the thing is, the reader is already told at the very beginning of the book what her motivations are and they seem perfectly believable. So I don’t really know why a second reason was necessary. I don’t want to spoil too much of the book or harp on it endlessly, but I also just want to mention that the conflict is resolved astoundingly easily. Sure, there is a whole journey through a labyrinth to get through, but once that is done then everything sort of just falls into place with minimal bumps in the road. The antagonist causes a little bit of drama, but other than that, everything is worked out super easily. This would have been fine, because by the end of the book I was more interested to see the resolution to the romance. However, a redundant amount of time was spent on sorting out the main conflict instead (which, as mentioned, practically solved itself anyway). The romance is sorted out with a teeny tiny epilogue that felt somewhat unsatisfactory. I liked Floss and the goblin king as a couple, I wanted to see more of their relationship once the labyrinth business was sorted. Also, brief note: one of the goblin kingdom’s major problems was solved by the tourism industry. The problem created by imperialism was solved with tourism. And that just seems… I don’t know, maybe too close to real history for many places. Especially because the citizens of the goblin kingdom seem quite averse to outsiders (which Floss knows when she suggests the “solution” of tourism) and they don’t really want further intrusion from the oppressive empire. You probably wouldn’t believe it from all of the critiques I just mentioned, but I did genuinely enjoy reading this book. The magic was fun, the writing voice was comedic, but not overly so, the characters were, for the most part, interesting. There were just certain aspects that I felt were not as good as they could have been. It is hard to praise the features of the book that I really liked when they are so entangled with potentially problematic pieces. All of that being said, I do want to read the next book in this series when it is released as well as the novella (only available as an ebook currently) that is already out. If I do, I will try to post another review and we’ll see if things improve for the world of “Lady Primrose Presents”. Thank you for reading this review, I’m off to run the labyrinth to get my cat back. I’m sure that’s where she goes when I can’t find her. TTFN! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60210872-how-to-train-your-goblin-king Huzzah for a new unboxing! I heard about Fae Crate on Instagram and I was so excited to see that their March box fit my interests so well! I love a good nature magic/cottagecore theme and this box did not disappoint! Plus, the book cover is beautiful! Check out the spoilers below the video. Spoilers for True Nature box:
❀Book: Flowerheart by Catherine Bakewell ❀Tea spoon inspired by The Nature of Witches ❀Coaster set inspired by A Lesson in Vengence ❀Ankle socks inspired by Only a Monster ❀Enamel mug from Strike the Zither ❀Polaroid print from Three Dark Crowns ❀Art print from Flowerheart Here we go with chapter three! This chapter mixes things up a little bit, introducing us to a character who is not like the other four. And also an elf. Please excuse my terrible accents, I needed a way to audibly distinguish between the characters, so you're just going to have to put up with it. My apologies. Also, I did include a very short blooper in this video because I hadn't read the chapter before reading and I was taken aback by a very random scene involving pudding. 8th grade me thought she had a great sense of humor. I'm not sure I agree. If you haven't listened to the first two chapters yet you can check out Chapter 1 here and Chapter 2 here. As always, you can read along in the text below the video. Chapter 3: Felix
What a great day. Felix Royal thought. Royal IS a weird last name. That is because it comes with the job Felix has. You’ll see what I mean in a moment. Felix couldn’t believe what an unbelievably good day he was having. It was so good that Felix started to hum an old nursery tune. This was rare for Felix because his family had to worry about every dangerous creature in the world attacking anyone in the kingdom and he was rarely giddy enough to sing. Felix sang to himself as he carried a basket of unicorn food. Why in the world would he need unicorn food you ask? That is also part of the boy’s job. Yes, I am talking of the same mystical creature you’re thinking of. The thing is Felix lives in a different world than us. In his world there are unicorns, dragons, and elves. Oh elves, the sneaky little creatures, not the same kind that help Santa Clause. These little fellows love to play pranks and cause mischief. They are about one foot tall and wear all purple, even their hair is purple! All right, let’s get back to Felix. He was carrying unicorn food to the unicorn’s stall at the back of the stables. Now you are probably wondering what job would cause you to change your last name and make you feed unicorns. The answer is simple, Felix is the prince. I hope I gave you enough time to recover from your shock; it is SO irritating when you faint in the middle of a story. Felix has the last name Royal because he is royalty. He has to feed the unicorns because only princes can handle unicorns. I know this is a lot to take in. Oh well, you’ll get it eventually. Felix dumped the slop into the feed trough. He whistled and the kingdom’s three best unicorns came running to him. He brushed their manes and stroked their sides. After Felix had taken care of his unicorns he went inside the well-lit castle. The sun fell on the tapestries that hung on the ancient brick walls. Felix wandered, dawdling so to keep him away from other people. He hated running into people that he didn’t know personally, they always bowed and made a big deal about him being prince. Do you know how annoying it is to be right in the middle of walking your dog and someone comes up and says “How is your health your majesty?”? It is quite bothersome Felix can assure you. Perhaps people wouldn’t recognize me if I took off my crown… The boy took his golden band off his cranium. A few seconds later two big, burly fellows ran up to him and picked him up! “Hey! What’s the big idea?!” Felix hissed into one of the men’s ear. The two paid no mind to the teenager’s questions, but instead they tore through the halls of the castle. They, unlike Abby and James, looked where they were going and ended up exactly where they wanted to be, the throne room. Inside the throne room Felix’s parents sat upon their regal chairs. The queen dashed over to her son and ordered the men to put him down. The gents looked to the king, who nodded. The fellows put Felix down and stepped back from the mother and son. “Felix! Are you alright? We sent guards to you as soon as your crown was taken off your head.” The Queen said, inspecting her son. “H-how did you know w-where I was and that I had t-taken off my c-crown? I, I didn’t tell anyone w-where I was.” Felix stuttered after he recovered from his shock. The Queen sighed. “Can I tell him darling?” The Queen asked the King. “I suppose he can know.” The King sighed melodramatically. “Know what?” Felix pursued. “Felix,” his mother began, “Before you were born I made a deal with an elf that had an amazing talent, spinning straw into gold. My father needed money, so he claimed that I had this talent as well. YOUR father heard of this and offered to marry me if I could spin three rooms full of straw into gold. The first room was filled to the brim and I knew that I would be executed for not doing as the king told. Then the elf appeared. He promised to do it for me in exchange for a bracelet that I had.” The Queen took a breath and continued, “I told him that I’d give it to him if he saved me from what my father had gotten me into. He helped me with the first and second rooms of straw. On the third room I ran out of jewelry.” Felix scowled as the Queen continued, “I ran out of jewelry and I promised the first royal child.” The Queen looked as if she could cry, “As you know that is you.” Felix nodded. “Go on.” He requested grimly. “When I became queen it was the last thing on my mind. Shortly after you were born I didn’t even remember, until the elf showed up. He said that if I could guess his name he would let me keep you. I thought, ‘How hard can it be to guess his name?’ So I got a list of all the names that anyone had ever named anyone. I kind of forgot to get the list of elfin names. So the little man thought he had won. Then one day one of the kingdom’s best spies spotted the elf in the woods. The elf was chanting ‘They’ll never guess my name! Rumplestitskin’s won the game!’ The spy came back to the castle and told me immediately what he had seen.” Felix nodded but didn’t understand fully. “So what does this have to do with me being found when my crown is taken off?” “Honey, you’re not going to like this, but Rumplestiltskin, the elf, is still after you. Because of this we put a tracking spell in your crown. It tells us where the crown is no matter what happens to it. This way Stiltskin couldn’t take you without us knowing where you are, unless, of course you take your crown off. So the crown also tells us when you take it off.” Felix was mad, angry, and maybe even furious. His parents had been tracking him every day of his life, and he hadn’t even known it! What else were they keeping from him? Felix threw the crown on his head down. “I’m not going to wear this anymore! You can’t make me either!” He roared, leaving the room. Later that day Felix felt bad about yelling at his mother. He also felt bad about making the castle wizard work so hard trying to make his crown stop beeping because it wasn’t on Felix anymore. So the teen walked out of his chamber that his father had sent him to after the outrage in the throne room. As he exited the castle and headed to the gazebo where his mother sometimes went to think, Felix noticed a dark shape creeping around the court yard. What is that, I wonder? Felix thought. The shape crept around corners and snaked towards Felix. What was it? As it came nearer Felix saw that it had the shape of a man, but much smaller. It was only about a foot tall. It had dark clothing on and its hair was dark too. An elf? Felix guessed catching a glint of purple in the dim moonlight. But why would an elf be sneaking around the court yard? Felix didn’t get it. Most creatures were allowed in the palace, with the exceptions of trolls and ogres. Felix then made the mistake of going up to the elf. “Excuse me sir,” he started courteously. Before the boy could finish, the short man in front of him jumped at Felix. The young prince took a step backwards so the elf missed him. The elf grunted as he landed on the hard ground. Dust flew everywhere; it got in Felix’s eyes and all over the elf, coating his purple hair in dirt. The prince coughed and the elf took it as an advantage. Leaping onto the unprepared boy he knocked them both to the ground causing even more dust to fly into the air. (It hadn’t rained for a while.) The two struggled for about five minutes until the experienced elf wore out Felix. The elf knocked the prince unconscious and carried him away. You are probably wondering if I have forgotten about Jeff, Rosie, James, and Abby. As you can see by reading this page, I haven’t forgotten our friends from our world. Well if you are from the same world as Felix, then I haven’t forgotten our friends from my world. So if you keep reading you will eventually see why I have included Felix in the story. So read more if you can’t stand not knowing what is going on. When Felix awoke he was lying on his back. The sight he saw was a clear, blue morning sky, outlined by incredibly tall pine trees. Felix turned over onto his side and saw the elf that had attacked him, cooking bacon in a child sized frying pan. “Pardon me sir, but where have you taken me?” Felix said, trying to be polite to someone who had just kidnapped him. “Oh, so you’re awake are you?” The elf said in a sassy tone, “Well I suppose that you’ll want breakfast too, what do I have to do? Treat you like royalty!” Felix noticed that the elf’s voice was gruffer than most elves. “Um, sir, I didn’t ask you for anything except where I am.” The boy commented. “I guess you didn’t, did you? I hate you sassy teenagers, you always think you’re right.” The elf mumbled this to himself so that Felix could scarcely hear it. “Um, sir, might I ask who you are?” “Guess. I bet you can’t figure it out.” The elf snickered rudely. “Let me think, oh, I don’t know, could it be Rumplestiltskin?” Felix said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Rumplestiltskin chuckled. “I like you kid. You’ve got a good sense of humor. Here I have you tied up good and tight, and you are making cute little witty remarks!” Felix glanced down at his arms, he WAS tied up. How was he going to get away now? His crown! His crown had a tracking spell on it, maybe he could just knock it off and the whole army would come! Oh, but wait, Felix had taken off his crown at the castle yesterday! It was back to the drawing board then. Minutes later the elf that was Rumplestiltskin came over and fed Felix bacon, or he tried. Felix refused to eat the stuff, wondering if it was poisoned. The elf sighed, “Come on Felix, you can trust me, I’m like your uncle or something.” Felix still didn’t eat the bacon. Uncle Stiltskin was a scary thought. Later that day, Rumplestiltskin left Felix alone because the small man needed to look around in case of royal soldiers. When he came back he picked up the young prince. The elf was surprisingly strong for his size. “Hey! Put me down! I CAN walk you know!” Felix demanded. Rumplestiltskin set him down and looked him in the eye. “Alright Felix, I’ll tell you why I borrowed you.” Borrowed, ha! That’s a laugh. “Okay Stiltskin, tell me why you KIDNAPPED me.” “Your mother has no doubt told you about our past of you, me, and her. She tried to break our deal; she guessed my name, blah, blah, and blah. I needed you those fourteen years ago. You see, when I make a deal with someone, it doesn’t usually turn out so good for me. I lose my power to spin straw into gold. It gets passed on to the person I made a deal with. So why did I help your mother? Because I felt bad for the girl, that’s why. Now I need my power back.” Rumplestiltskin said dramatically. “So how does this involve me?” Felix asked dubiously. “Well when I found I didn’t have my powers anymore I decided that there was only one thing left to do. First I gave your mother some gold that I had stored away. Then in return I asked for you. Since the powers get passed on I figured the talent would go to you. The power did go to you and you were as good as mine. Until of course the Queen guessed my name. Do you know how devastated I was?” Felix shook his head. “I need some gold. You want to know why?” The elf moaned. The prince shook his head. “Well there is this lady I know who I owe some money, she gave me until you were old enough to spin and now she wants her money. I didn’t think your parents were going to let me have you and so I borrowed you.” Oh, I guess he did borrow Felix. The elf untied Felix and told him he could go free if he wanted. Felix, being a noble prince, told him that he would help. Rumplestiltskin took Felix to the nearest spinning wheel, which happened to be at the elf’s cottage. The boy tried and tried to learn to spin, but the wheel just wouldn’t work for Felix. Stiltskin groaned. “No, no Felix, the wheel goes the other direction!” It took a while for them to figure out that Felix should just make a deal with Rumplestiltskin. “What kind of deal should we make?” Felix asked. “How about if I give you a sandwich if you sweep my floor.” Felix nodded but remembered that being a prince; he didn’t know how to sweep. He told Rumplestiltskin this. So they decided that Felix would get a sandwich if he wiped the pudding off of Rumplestiltskin. What pudding you ask? The pudding Felix “accidently” spilled on Rumplestiltskin. When Felix cleaned off Stiltskin they immediately tried his powers. The power to spin straw into gold, didn’t work. “Maybe I should get that sandwich for you now.” Rumplestiltskin grunted. So he got Felix a sandwich and they tried again. The power to spin straw into gold worked! The two shook hands and shared the sandwich. “If you ever need anything, let me know, no cost for that.” Stiltskin stated kindly. Felix nodded smiling. They were friends now that they understood each other. As Rumplestiltskin walked Felix home the two noticed that the woods were eerily quiet. “Wow, it sure is quiet.” Felix observed. When the two reached the Enchanted Creek, they were ambushed! Royal soldiers jumped from the trees and tied up Rumplestiltskin. Felix was picked up and set down on a large, white horse. “Hey! What is going on?” Felix demanded, but then he remembered that Stiltskin was still public enemy number one. “Leave him alone! He isn’t all that bad!” The captain of the royal guard sent Felix a look that shut the prince up immediately. Felix gasped as the soldiers tossed the elf into the creek. “He’ll drown!” Felix exclaimed. “That is the point, uh, Your Highness.” Captain said with a hint of hatred. All the boy could do was watch as his new friend struggled in the deep, magical waters. But, hey, Felix was the prince! The captain had to obey him right? “Captain, as your future king, I command you to release that elf!” The captain looked confused that a child was telling all three hundred pounds of muscle that was Captain, what to do! Felix looked at the soldier with an unwavering face. “Hurry up before he drowns.” Then a gear in the large man’s slow brain clicked, and he realized that this small teenager would be his boss someday. So Captain pulled Rumplestiltskin out of the creek and set the elf before Prince Felix. Felix winked at Rumplestiltskin, who, in turn, winked backed. “Set him behind me, Captain.” Felix ordered. So Felix led the troop’s home on his white stallion. Stiltskin frequently turned around and stuck his tongue out at Captain. Now Felix’s only problem was his parents and explaining what had really happened. Personal Rating: 3.5 Stars Goodreads rating at time of review: 3.87 Stars Content Rating: PG-13 Earth may be a nightmarish landscape, but that's no reason to stop the music. Post-apocalyptic life ain’t all doom and gloom for Sebastian Yun. The eighteen-year-old lives for broadcasting his music to the end-of-world-weary masses from behind the wheel of his sweeeeet, double-decker ride. But when making a pit stop at a small, dusty town, the self-made radio DJ runs into a shady old nemesis who totally kills his good vibes. This seasoned flimflam woman claims she can send the bloodthirsty creatures that prey on mankind back to hell. When Sebastian’s completely-not-selfish attempts to unmask the phony hit the wrong note, the very real danger is cranked all the way up to 11. Will Sebastian live to share more of his dope tunes, or will it be dead air from here on out? (synopsis from amazon.com) Normally, I am not one for post-apocalyptic books. Occasionally, I’ll watch a movie of this variety, but rarely will I read a book about the end of the world. I came across this one because I follow the author on TikTok and I thought the premise sounded really fun. A DJ driving around the world in a double decker bus, playing music from pre-apocalypse? Sounds like a good time! Plus, this is so short, I figured I wasn’t investing that much time if I didn’t end up liking it. But, I really liked this book! It was a weird, fast-paced little snippet of some end of the world shenanigans. I will say that because it was so short, I felt like I was missing so much information. Of course, I suspect much of this information will be revealed in volumes two and three, but it still would have been nice to have a bit more set up for the character and the world they live in. Also, because of the length of the book, there weren’t really any good stopping places, so it’s really a book that you just need to take an hour or two to sit down and read in one sitting if you can. Enough about how short it was, let’s talk about the actual story. The characters were fun and interesting, but I didn’t feel like I got to know them very well. I look forward to spending more time with Sebastian and Meza in the sequel and even the conwoman, Chancy freakin’ Freeman. The humor was goofy and I liked that there was a running joke throughout about how the town they were staying in was too small to actually be called a town and so Sebastian, despite being in the middle of a crazy situation, keeps trying to figure out a better word to use to refer to the town, such as “village” or “hamlet”. It’s just a silly gag that keeps on going and is resolved at the same time the action is, which was a fun way to wrap things up. As far as the plot goes… there’s not a whole lot to it, but that’s okay. I think the best way I can think to describe this book is that it feels like the pilot episode of a TV show. We’re not sure what is happening really, or who these people are, but it’s fun to watch them fight monsters and listen to music. It’s like watching an episode of some show you randomly find on your preferred streaming service or at the library and you watch it. And maybe you don’t fully vibe with it at first, but it catches your attention, it captures your interest, and you think to yourself “hmm, I want to see where this goes”. Now, I haven’t read the next book in the series, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I’m going to get sucked in and start to get way too attached to these characters. And I’m excited for that to happen. I loved the music choices for this book as well. Since Sebastian is a DJ, there were several songs mentioned that I thought went well with the scenes and added a layer to the atmosphere created in the book.I especially enjoyed the song at the very end and loved picturing everyone at the end singing along to it. What’s fun about this being set in the distant (or maybe not so distant) future is that any song could be used. It’s not just classic rock, or older songs. Since we don’t know how far in the future this is, it is not limited to the music of yesteryear, the series can mention music that’s coming out this year and it will still be “old music” to the characters. I think there’s also a Spotify code on the first page, but I couldn’t get my phone to scan it, so I’m not sure if that’s actually what it was or not. If anyone else was able to get it to work, let me know! I recommend this book to anyone who likes post-apocalyptic stories with a little flair, or people who enjoy fun music. As I said, I am eager to read the next book in the series and will be ordering it shortly. Well, I’m off to hide from the giant booger monsters of the future. Thanks for reading! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60616050-so-you-survived-the-end-of-the-world Drinking game: take a shot every time I say "vibes" in this video. Actually don't. It is probably dangerous to your health. And I don't condone excessive drinking in this here corner of the internet. I still have almost three months until the Renaissance Festival in my area, but I am already exceedingly pumped for it. I get giddy just thinking about it and always love to have books to read that give me the same warm fuzzy feeling that the Ren Faire does. So, I thought I would share some great books to read if you would also liked to be excited for Renaissance Faire season with me! Feast thine eyes on my latest YouTube video and let the merriment begin! (Yes that's me in the thumbnail... no I did not hit the target.) I finally took a bit of time to sit down and record Chapter 2! And it's just as bizarre as I remember it being. Remember this was written by an 8th grader who had limited access to the internet and had no idea how public school worked. Science? We don't know her. Middle school classes? Most of my middle school education was on the computer on these stupid CD-ROMs that I hated. Realistic children? Don't count on it. But it's all fun anyway! At least I think so. Just like last time, the text version of this chapter is below the video if you feel like reading along! Enjoy! (Or cringe and turn away in horror.) Chapter 2: James and Abby
The football went flying towards his head as James stopped to ponder a science question. I can’t tell you what it was about because I know nothing about science, with the exception of the rule: What goes up must come down. That is exactly what happened in this football practice. The coach threw the ball and it hit James square in the face, well, then again, footballs are oval, so it hit James oval in the face. We’ll just stick to square, because it sounds a lot better. Anyway, James got hit in the face and plummeted to the ground. That also portrayed my rule from above, what goes up must come down. James scuttled to his feet and looked down, yuck, a tooth had fallen out! James bent to pick it up and went to hear the Coach’s complaints. “What were you thinking Kingston?!” Coach barked, “You have to look up to catch the ball! This is the ninth time this WEEK that you haven’t been paying attention!” All the other boys chortled behind their hands. “Sorry Coach, I was thinking about a science question, problem forty-four, ‘is it possible to create worm holes or portals to other worlds.’” James explained, “I think it’s a matter of opinion, but you know scientists these days, always coming up with a new theory.” The Coach actually growled at this. “Kingston, we aren’t the science club! If you like science stuff SO much, go and join the scientists! You’ll have plenty of time for it; you are suspended from the team for four weeks!” James was shocked. How could he be suspended from the team? He was their best player! What would they do in the big Thanksgiving game without him? There was only one thing to do, find Rosie Stone and get his revenge. Abby Gail wasn’t having any better of a day; in fact it might have been worse! She couldn’t decide whether to fry her teacher or roast her, either way would be simply divine. The deliciousness of Ms. Rottencandy would soon be-- whoops, wrong story, again. As I said before nothing too bad happens to anyone. Anyway, Abby was having a horrible day because her advice column in the paper had totally been wrecked because Jeff had come in and seen who was running the column when it was supposed be secret! What if he told? No one would want to tell her their problems anymore! Her dreams of being like Oprah were dwindling! The horror! The horror! (Yes, I did just repeat myself, get over it.) Abby had to find Jeff and make him swear not to tell any person on this earth that she was the Abby of Dear Abby! She rushed down the halls of the school, looking to see if Jeff was still there. When you run fast, looking for something or someone you rarely notice anything or anyone. This is precisely what happened to Abby. She was running so fast that she didn’t see James running quickly at her. James went into the school to see if he could find Rosie because she had been interviewing him in science causing him to miss question forty-four! So now he had a bone to pick with her because she got him suspended from the football team! As he rushed through the school he didn’t notice Abby rushing towards him because as I explained before, you can’t see too well when you are rushing through the halls of your school. Since James couldn’t see Abby running at him and Abby couldn’t see James running towards her, the two applied the law of gravity that I explained earlier. Since those two were standing up, those two must be knocked down, it’s really quite simple, and I just can’t believe you can’t remember it! So James collided with Abby and Abby collided with James. Ouch. When the two arose they were even angrier than they had been--which might not be possible. “Why did you run into me?!” The two said at the same time, “I didn’t run into you! You ran into me!” Again they said it at the same time. “No!” same time again, “I,” same time, “Hey!” this was becoming comical. “Listen,” wow, same exact time, “Stop it!” Finally, James said it this time, “Stop saying the same thing as me at the same time! I’m looking for Rosie Stone; she works on the paper with you, right?” Abby nodded. “She does.” “I have a bone to pick with her,” The muscular child growled. “I’m busy looking for Jeff, that guy whose desk you sit on all the time, I need to find him before…” Abby paused. James looked quizzically at her. “Before what?” “Something bad happens.” “Well I saw Jeff hanging around Rosie; maybe they’re at one of their houses. We can go together and pick their bones at the same time.” James concluded sensibly. So the two enraged children stomped to Jeff’s house. Then upon finding the other two children not there the two left for Rosie’s apartment building. They found them there, watching the news. The two seething kids rejoiced at their find. After the rejoicing stopped they got all malicious and impolite to Jeff and Rosie. “How could you get me suspended from the football team and not know what I’m talking about?” James said mid-way into the conversation, although he was beginning to understand that Rosie had unintentionally got him suspended. But he couldn’t lighten up now that he was angry. “And you Jeffrey, if that IS your real name, how could you not have seen me reading people’s problems? It was right in front of you!” Jeff looked at Rosie and Rosie looked at Jeff, very suspicious if you ask me, but of course, they didn’t ask me, I am, after all, only the author. Later, after a whole lot of arguing you don’t want to hear, all four children had somehow ended up at James house. I believe they got there like this: Jeff started fighting with Abby and James with Rosie, but Mr. Stone got a head ache and told them to play outside. So they all went outside and started walking around. Then, suddenly, James suggested they go to his house because his mom had made apple pie. After that they all stopped arguing because Mrs. Kingston’s delicious pie was crammed in their mouths. The pie was so yummy it caused them to chat good naturedly with each other and become friends. (That must have been some good pie.) The quartet went outside and sat on the lush grass of the Kingston lawn. The neighbors (the next door lady in particular) all looked skeptically at them through their windows because the children talked and laughed so much. The kids had a great time until James’ grandfather emerged from the old outhouse in the corner of the yard. The smell that emanated from the small structure could have killed an elephant! It stank so bad that the kids had to hold their noses in hopes that they wouldn’t lose their sense of smell all together. “Must have been those beans I had for lunch, I’ve been in that hut for about an hour.” Grandpa said, walking inside. The four children on the lawn groaned and ran to close the outhouse door. Whew! The outhouse would bother them no longer. The children started to giggle at the horrid smell, I don’t get what is so funny about almost losing your sense of smell but these kids are quite odd. “Wow! That is one putrid smell!” James said. “Ugh, I can barely breathe!” Jeff gasped. “Why does your grandfather even have an outhouse?” Abby moaned. “Because he thinks that indoor plumbing is too ‘new-fangled’ and ‘it was good enough for the people when I was a boy’.” James mocked while holding his nose, “I know it’s odd but Mom thinks that since it was his house to begin with he should get to do his, uh, ‘business’ where he pleases.” I’m going to stop writing about this rancid smell and skip to what happened next. The four kids started to play ball in James’ smelly backyard. It was so fun that they hardly noticed when the yard started to smell bad again. I have promised you I will not go into that, so the smell’s mention stops here. The long afternoon had the children worn out by the time they had to go home. That night their parents rejoiced, because the kids slept like rocks. In the morning James met Abby, Jeff, and Rosie before school. “Hey you guys want to come over to my house again after school?” James asked. “Yeah, sure.” Was the collective reply. “Cool, meet you there!” James said, leaving for his first class with Jeff trailing behind. In school James was caught off guard by his first class. His science teacher told his class that the biannual science fair was happening in two weeks. James hadn’t even begun to think of a project! What was he going to do? Then he got an idea, a brilliant idea. An idea that this whole story is modeled upon. The only questions he had for his teacher were these: “Can I with work with partners?” he inquired. “Yes James, as long as at least one of them does this class with you. You know, so someone else on your team knows what you’ve been studying as well. ” The teacher explained. “And also, Mr. Smellfoot, what is the correct answer to problem forty-four?” “From the practice we did yesterday?” James nodded. “Well, Mr. Kingston, I believe the answer to that problem is yes. I have always believed that travel to an alternate world is possible with the right equipment, the right people, and imagination.” “Thank you Mr. Smellfoot.” James grinned. Now you and I know that no real science teacher would ever tell a kid to “imagine” something, but Mr. Smellfoot was no ordinary science teacher. Mr. Smellfoot was a science teacher who had also been a substitute Creative Writing teacher, and so he learned that anything is possible with a little imagination. He learned this lesson as Chad, the Creative Writing bully, had stuffed a pencil up Mr. Smellfoot’s nose. James went home happy and started his science fair project. The frame of the thing was done, as were the blueprints. Now he just needed to have a little help from his friends. Until then he decided to hide the thing in the most unusual of places. Later, at James’ house, the four friends sat on the lawn, chatting. The girls were talking about something in the newspaper and Jeff tried to get James to talk about some story that he had read earlier. James didn’t really listen to any of it, mostly because he was trying to get his own two cents in. That means he was trying to tell them something himself, but the others were busy putting at least ten cents in. A loud rupture caused them all to stop talking and stare at the outhouse. “What was that?” Abby demanded. “I don’t know. Whatever it was it came from the outhouse.” James said with a mysterious smirk. The other three kids snuck over to the outhouse to see what had made the loud noise. James remained seated on the grass, snickering silently. You, “dear” reader may be expecting it was the Grandfather of James that caused the loud noise of the outhouse, but you, reader, are wrong. It was not a gas leak from the Grandpa that caused this “boom” in the outhouse, but a machine frame. The kids saw this as James pried the walls off the old privy. The kids gasped and asked about a million questions at once, mainly, “What is it, and how did it make that noise?” James “shushed” them with a wave of his hands. “Come on people! Not so many questions at once! This is what I like to call the M.T.M.” The rest of the kids looked just as confused as they had before, then James explained, “Magical (even though it isn’t magic) Transport Machine.” The kids appeared to be perplexed so James continued, “When it is finished it should be able to take us to a different world! And it probably just made that noise because I left it turned on.” As the gang grasped this information they all started to talk again. “You mean we can go to a different world?!” “How is that possible?” “When will it be finished?” Blah, blah, blah, they were really enthusiastic. James did his best to explain everything but the questions were too many. “Um, it will be finished sooner if you help me with it, and I really need you guys’ help.” The questions stopped for a second, but then everyone wanted to know how they could help. “Well, Jeff has two jobs, first he just needs to stay in science class with me so that I can have you guys’ help. Secondly, Jeff needs to not lose his memory of fairytales, we’ll need that. Abby needs to get us costumes. Your mom owns a medieval themed restaurant right?” Abby nodded, her mother owned the coolest restaurant ever, and it had waitresses dressed as damsels and waiters dressed as pages. NOT the paper kind. “Good, we’ll need you to get us some old costumes that your mom doesn’t need anymore. Rosie, you have one of the most important jobs. You have helped your dad fix his car wash before and I will need that mechanical help because I have no idea how to work tools.” James’ friends nodded and smiled, they got to help build one of the most amazing machines of all time! The kids could not wait. Before I told you that it wasn’t a story about kids who go on cutesy adventures. It still isn’t, don’t worry all you dark readers, it won’t get cute, just like I promised. BUT I didn’t promise I wouldn’t add more characters. Personal Rating: 4 Stars Goodreads rating at time of review: 3.96 Content Rating: Light PG-13 (some violence) What if you had one year to save everything you loved? ONE PRINCESS. Merida of DunBroch needs a change. She loves her family—jovial King Fergus, proper Queen Elinor, the mischievous triplets— and her peaceful kingdom. But she’s frustrated by its sluggishness; each day, the same. Merida longs for adventure, purpose, challenge – maybe even, someday, love. TWO GODS. But the fiery Princess never expects her disquiet to manifest by way of Feradach, an uncanny supernatural being tasked with rooting out rot and stagnation, who appears in DunBroch on Christmas Eve with the intent to demolish the realm – and everyone within. Only the intervention of the Cailleach, an ancient entity of creation, gives Merida a shred of hope: convince her family to change within the year – or suffer the eternal consequences. THREE VOYAGES. Under the watchful eyes of the gods, Merida leads a series of epic journeys to kingdoms near and far in an attempt to inspire revolution within her family. But in her efforts to save those she loves from ruin, has Merida lost sight of the Clan member grown most stagnant of all – herself? FOUR SEASONS TO SAVE DUNBROCH – OR SEE IT DESTROYED, FOREVER. (goodreads.com) Beware, I'm about to get kind of personal in this review. I just have a lot of feelings, okay? Full disclosure, Brave is one of my all time favorite movies. Not just Pixar, not just Disney—one of my favorite movies out of all the movies I’ve seen in my life. So I went into this book feeling rather nervous. I have read and watched sequels to movies before where all of the character development from the original movie is undone. Sometimes there are massive continuity errors or character deaths that are completely unnecessary. I was so worried that something like that would happen in this book and that I would hate it. And guess what… some of those things I mentioned did happen (to a much lesser extent than I was expecting, thankfully) but I absolutely loved the majority of this book. Without any further ado, let’s get right into this, shall we? I have many thoughts and I don’t want this review to turn into a full blown book in its own right. First off, the bad. (My least favorite part of this book I will create a spoiler section for. I have severely mixed feelings about it and need to rant to someone, but it is from the very end of the book and I don’t want to spoil things for anyone who doesn’t want to be spoiled. But if you don’t care or have read the book already, go right ahead and jump to that spoiler section.) One thing that is very minor, but irritated me about this book is how they treated Merida’s animal companion. She is technically a Disney Princess and in being such, obviously has an animal companion. Hers is Angus, a massive draft horse who is, for all intents and purposes, a good boy. He’s also not very old. I mean, they never say how old he is in the movie, but he doesn’t seem that old. My sister who works with horses regularly, also agrees that he doesn’t seem that old. However, in the book they keep referring to him as ancient and said that he had to come out of retirement for a road trip they were taking. They acted like he was fragile and decrepit. And this book, as far as I can tell, takes place about four or five years after the movie, but horses can live up to thirty years so he shouldn’t be ancient just yet. Angus is such a minor part of this story that it’s really not important, but it bothered me and I’m in charge of this blog so I get to talk about whatever I want. Another thing I didn’t like about this book was the relationship between Merida and her mother, Queen Elinor. Now, if you’ve seen the movie, you know that they have had a rocky relationship in the past and that the movie was about mending that relationship. And sure, not everything is going to be perfect after one magical adventure where the queen gets turned into a bear, but I feel like the lessons they learned when the queen gets turned into a bear would be pretty memorable and that they would keep trying to fix their relationship. And it is better in this book than it was at the start of the movie, but it also feels like Elinor isn’t actually trying to make it better, she’s just not arguing with Merida. It almost feels like she’s afraid of her daughter turning her into a bear again. Which was an accident (sort of) in the first place! By the end of the book I felt things were a bit better, but I still wasn’t satisfied with Merida and Elinor’s behavior toward one another. I will say that Elinor was in the book little enough that this relationship did not truly affect how I felt about the rest of the story. So, again, not a major problem, just a little irritation. One more nitpick-y thing and then I’ll get to the parts of the book that I enjoyed (which were most of them). Merida, you may recall, has three much younger brothers: Hubert, Hamish, and Harris. In the movie, they are indistinguishable from each other and they don’t speak. Mostly because they aren’t hugely important to the film apart from causing shenanigans and sometimes helping Merida. In this book, however, they play a much more important role, which is great. I will say that I was anxious about what their dialogue would be like, since they don’t talk in the movie and they don’t have distinct personalities either, but it was well done. It started off with them not speaking, or making gestures like in the movie, then they would all speak as one for a while, and slowly we are eased into the triplets being independent of one another and getting to know their personalities and how their personalities and Merida’s view of them evolve over the course of the story. That’s not the part I have complaints with. The part I have complaints with is, again, super minor and not hugely important, but irritated me. At one point, Merida questions whether her brothers know about the secret passages all throughout Castle DunBroch. And, thankfully, later, two of the three triplets assure her that they’ve already seen the passages. But it bothers me that Merida doesn’t know that because it is one of the triplet’s biggest roles in the movie. They are constantly crawling through secret tunnels and popping up at other ends of the castle. It’s a whole thing during a scene where they have to lead King Fergus on a wild goose bear hunt through the castle. And it’s ALL THREE OF THEM. Not just Hubert and Harris. Hamish knows the secret passages too! In the book he says the secret tunnels sound scary, like he’s never been there or something. And though Merida doesn’t really see the boys use the passages in the movie, I just feel like she would know that they do. Because it’s their whole thing. And maybe in the book, it’s supposed to show us that Merida doesn’t always think of others, or how she has a set view of the people around her that needs to be updated and changed, which fits with the themes of the book. But still. I’m just a bit salty about it. Okay, enough ranting about tiny details. Let’s get to what I actually liked. Maggie Stiefvater is a wizard with words and plots. She wrote The Raven Boys series (which I did review on this blog, but I can’t find where I put it so I can’t link it) which didn’t end up being a good series for me personally, but let me give you a quote about how I felt about the writing: “THE GOSH DARNED WRITING WAS JUST SO GOSH DARNED GOOD AND THE CHARACTERS WERE WELL WRITTEN AND WELL DEVELOPED AND THE PLOT WAS INSANE AND INCREDIBLE.” So even when I don’t like the themes of Maggie Stiefvater’s books, I still am shocked and astounded by her writing. It’s unbelievably phenomenal and I was pleased to find that this was also the case with Bravely. I mean, the first chapter starts with a lengthy description of bread. I freaking love bread. The descriptions of food in general were just the epitome of “chef’s kiss”, actually. It sort of reminded me of the Redwall series by Brian Jacques. Descriptions of everything were grand. The descriptions of the settings were vivid, the descriptions of people were spot on and helpful, and the descriptions of daily castle life were realistic without being too gross (because we all know medieval times were nasty and it’s nice to no have to focus on that). The prose of this book wrapped me in a big hug every time I picked it up.
This book made me feel so comfortable reading it, but it also made me uncomfortable--in a good way! This book is all about change, but not change for the sake of doing something different. It’s about avoiding stagnation. Breaking out of your bubble of safety. Learning more about the world and people around you. It does a great job of actually changing the characters too, because rather than taking the easy route and saying “let’s just make this character experience the opposite of what their normal personality is like and call that change” it introduced them to aspects of their life that they needed to improve and their development felt organic. Lately, in my own life, I have been feeling a bit afraid of change. I’ve gotten comfortable in my house, with my cat, reading, writing, watching videos in the embrace of my blankets and big changes are scary. Part of this is probably because it is winter and winter makes it so difficult to do anything. (You can’t just leave the house, you have to bundle up, check road conditions, be prepared for it to get dark early, and experience the biting cold when you actually do get outside. It’s hard to be moving when all the sensible creatures are hibernating.) But big changes are scary for me right now too because there are tangible momentous things upcoming in the near future. Career adjustments, friends getting married, siblings graduating college or heading out on their own, the possibility of going back to school myself--all big exciting and terrifying things that spook me into inactivity. So, with the whole plot of this book being that Merida needs to find a way to help her family, friends, and home get out of their stagnant state within a year, it made me dwell on some of the ways my own life is moving ever onward and how I’ve been resistant to that lately. And even though that’s not exactly comfortable or easy, it is important. I think I read this book at the exact right time and I am grateful for it. Good books always help me process the world. Okay, enough goopy sentimentality. Another thing I like about this book is that it can stand on its own even if you haven’t read the movie. In fact, I might have almost liked it better if it weren’t connected to Brave, but I can’t quite say that with complete honesty. I think, because I have always felt a bit of connection with Merida, it made me feel more at home and invested in the happenings of this story. If it had been some other princess that is new to me, I probably wouldn’t have cared about what was going on. However, I still think others who haven’t seen the movie would really enjoy this book. The stakes are high in this book, but the edge-of-your-seat-action is at a minimum (there is one really intense scene with a fire and another with some battle, but that’s about it), so it reads like a cozy fantasy (the multiple feasts help with that). There isn’t a ton of magic in it either, so if you like more historical fiction type stories, this nearly falls under that category too. As I said before, I have a least favorite part of this book that is very much a spoiler. So I have included a spoiler section down below if you would like to see the reason why I knocked off one star from what would have been a five star read for me otherwise. This part of the review, however, we shall leave on a happy note. I wish there were more to this book so that I could keep reading it. I love the theme of change and the way this book handled it with its characters. And, as I’ve said before, Maggie Stiefvater’s writing style is incredible and even though I wasn’t a fan of The Raven Boys, I seriously need to check out some of her other work. Thanks for reading, I’m off to turn my mom into a bear (jk, jk, I would never do that… on purpose). I’ll see you in the next review! Click on “Read More” in the bottom right corner to see the spoiler section! Personal Rating: 3.5 Stars Goodreads rating at time of review: 4.71 Stars Content Rating: PG-13 (violence, romance, death) Trigger warnings: Death of parents, murder, sick baby (who is healed) In the woods where human lands meet fae, an ancient king born before the history of men finds a dying baby. Iohmar will take in the child and care for him until a suitable home in the human realm is found. But best laid plans often go awry in the lands of Látwill, where winds carry fae across the star-strewn sky, the woods ensnare the weak-minded with their sinister song, and even Iohmar, King Beneath the Earth, is susceptible to the will of the immortal mountains. Magic long tethered to Iohmar’s soul will crumble. Unknown shadows and monsters of mirrored glass will encroach upon the borders of their land. And memories thousands of years lost will unravel as Iohmar struggles not only to properly rule his fair folk, but protect the fragile human son he never should have saved in the first place. (goodreads.com) As usual, we must start with a round of applause for the gorgeous cover art. And before you finish your ooohs and aaaahs about that jacket, allow me to show you a picture of what the hardcover version looks like under the jacket: Stunning, right? I believe the author designed the artwork herself! And, to sell you further on the beauty of this book, let me tell you that it also features: a map, chapter heading illustrations, and a table of contents (wooo table of contents!).
I heard about this book from the author on TikTok. Her username is @emilymccosh if you want to check her out! The concept of an ancient fae king finding and adopting a human baby sounded so wonderful and adorable to me that I had to buy it as soon as it was released. Of course, as is the case with all books I’m excited for, it was released in November, which is the one month out of the year when I try not to read any books because I’m doing NaNoWriMo. So then I waited all the way until the start of this month to begin reading. Right off the bat, I’m going to tell you that this book was not exactly what I was expecting, which is always a bit disappointing, but if I had gone into it knowing what it was actually going to be like then I still would have enjoyed it. See, I was expecting it to be more of a cozy, sort of slice-of-life-y father/son bonding book about the trials of raising a baby. However, this book is actually an intricate, lyrical, description of nature and love and magic. So, if you are looking for a cutesy, raising a baby story, this is not what you are looking for. But if you are looking to be swept away in magical descriptions with unique fae creatures and cradled in flowery language, then this is exactly what you need. This story is very much a fairy tale in its telling; it gave off similar vibes as the writings of the Brothers Grimm, but with more attachment to the characters and less bloody violence. As far as the characters go, I really liked the main character, Iohmar, and the other fae ruler, Queen Rúnda. They had interesting magical abilities, such as being able to summon the winds to ride or teleport using rays of sunlight. In fact, every one of the magical folk had interesting abilities, though they weren’t always shown as much as I would have liked. There is a mystery element to this book that I wasn’t expecting, but quite liked. There are spooky shadows that keep appearing to Iohmar, seeming to want something from him, but not communicating what that is. And then there the ripplings, shimmering creatures that were long ago enemies and are now popping up again, much to Iohmar’s horror. The actual raising of the human baby might have been, sadly, my least favorite part of the story. It was sweet, sure, but I think it would have been better if the baby had behaved a bit more like an actual baby. At first, he did cry and seemed more like a real child, but became remarkably well behaved after Iohmar decided to keep him forever. I won’t say too much as to why, because that’s a bit of a spoiler, but personally, I would have liked it if Iohmar had to struggle a bit with raising a kid. Instead, it was just the perfect parts of parenting, which made me feel like the adorable parts between Iohmar and his baby weren’t really earned. Which sounds weird, but that’s the only way I can think of to phrase it. Though there was a mystery element to the story, the stakes did not feel very high. This really contributed to its fairy tale-ness, because when you read a fairy tale or fable, you usually know that good people have a good ending. So, it was kind of relaxing in that way. You don’t have to constantly be worrying about the whole world crashing and burning around them really and I liked that. As I said before, the wording of this book is just absolutely stellar. Everything is described so beautifully and if you close your eyes, you can picture yourself in the magical forest, you can almost smell the earth in the underground scenes, or feel the heat of the sand in the desert. I’ve never read Tolkien (yes, I know, I'm the worst), but from what I’ve heard, this story and his writings share lengthy nature descriptions. So if you are in the mood for that, then this would be a great read for you. The living forest aspect of it also reminded me somewhat of Narnia (which I have read... some of). Honestly, this is the perfect book to curl up outside or by a fire. When you want to be engaged in the act of reading and soaking in words, but also soaking in the environment around you. So glad that I came across this book, and while it wasn’t exactly what I hoped it would be, I still enjoyed reading it before bed and feeling extra cozy with it. Well, I’m off to catch a ride on the wind! Thanks for reading, until next time! Cover image source: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/61419513 I have to admit, this one was a little bit of a let down, but there was still some fun stuff. Also, I wanted to note that, since I've made this video, LitJoy Crate has announced the end of their YA subscription box as it is now. They will be changing it so that you can personalize your box and it will be called To Bee Read (the logo is really cool). They don't have much public information about it at this time and I only know because I get their newsletters, but if that is something that sounds interesting to you, keep an eye on their website! Spoilers for Steampunk and Petticoats box: 🕰️Book: My Imaginary Mary by Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows, and Cynthia Hand 🕰️Android Repair office supply kit from Cinder by Marissa Meyer 🕰️Frankenstein book tin designed by @carellafra_art 🕰️Discovery of Witches storybook key 🕰️Through the Wardrobe bookplates inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis 🕰️Peter Pan "Big Ben" pin designed by @carellafra_art 🕰️Adventure card from The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazaelwood designed by @sophia_volovik 🕰️Mystery signed book plate? |
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