Ribbon

The story of Rapunzel retold with puppies. The beginning of the story is pretty faithful to the fairy tale, though I'm not sure why Mama Dog is fond of the rapunzel plant. I once had a dog who liked lettuce, so I guess it's not unreasonable. There's no prince in this story, rather the rest of Pupunzel's family trying to get her back. Cleverer than I expected by far but it gets dumb and cutesy in the end.

More faithful to the fairy tale than Tangled, at least!

The Shadows is packed with ancient Irish lore and it took probably a hundred pages before I felt like I was able to keep pace. I recommend reading the Wikipedia entry for “Fianna” before starting the book. It won't spoil anything and may help understand what's happening early on. The narrative fills everything in as it goes along but there's no single info dump.

By the mid-point, I could not put this book down. Lots of interesting characters, lots of interesting happenings. Unfortunately it's the first of a trilogy and the first book ends at a breather, not a resolution of any sort.

This is mostly a “laying the groundwork” book. It introduces the hierarchy of Easter, the bad guy group for which Ikuko is a low level member. It also introduces concepts that will come up frequently for the rest of the story. But not a whole lot actually happens. The Guardians bond. There's some innuendo that makes it clear why this manga about elementary school kids gets a “teen” rating. And there's a cliffhanger ending that indicates volume 3 is going to be a whole lot cooler (and you'll probably want it on hand so you can continue reading immediately.)

This is a pleasant enough cotton candy adventure romance. Alex and her friends are all rich, clever, and lovely, with attitudes and interests more suitable to a contemporary setting which sometimes get them into trouble. Their only other problem in life is an excess of suitors and a disinterest in marriage. The murder and intrigue adds a little spice to the formula, except it's all very predictable.

The Season hits most of the Regency romance cliches, but the only one that I found particularly annoying is the “characters love reading Jane Austen books in a Regency romance.” Even most of the men have read the novels and Alex has read P&P at least three times.

The ending sets up for an ongoing series but there is no sequel. Sad, I wanted more cotton candy.

Absurdity is certainly the main draw with a book like this. Unfortunately the humor did not hit with me. The humor is rooted in: absurdity, pop culture references, swearing, and innuendo. Three of which I do not care for.

Barry cannot move on his own and cannot do anything beyond talk and see for most of the book. He's also delicious.

Warning: Cliffhanger ending.

In this version of Sense and Sensibility, Mr Dashwood was a private investigator who dies unexpectedly in the night. Marianne is an aspiring private investigator, Elinor is a self-taught chemist, and Margaret reads and writes mysteries. All three sisters have an active role in figuring out what's going on.

Mr Brandon has been aged down to a twenty-something medical student. The two Elizas have been combined into a friend of his who unexpectedly died a year ago. These are the biggest changes to the characters.

The mystery isn't quite as tidy as the one in Pride and Premeditation. A few elements aren't quite subtle enough but others seem very abruptly thrown together. I still enjoy the book thoroughly.

In a world with four-element magic, street rat Pax awakens a forgotten fifth element in the government enforced RPG Class draft. He's shipped off to magic school, where any deviation from the norm is Very Bad News, and has to disguise his magic to keep from getting caught. His closest allies are a himbo fire mage and cautious water mage.

If you've been craving a magic school story that actually focuses on how magic works and what happens in classes, this is a great choice. Pax quickly learns to hide system notifications until he pulls them up, so the LitRPG elements don't interrupt scenes.
Students are sorted by their elements as well as combat and support based on their power levels. There's also a wide social/wealth range, so there are some scenes of bullying but not as much as many school based stories. Pax makes more friends than enemies.

There is some monster fighting throughout and the awesome cover art does eventually pay off.

A few gripes: The prologue chapters are heavy combat without context, which I found off-putting. Most character descriptions include what mix of human-elf-dwarf they appear to be, but this never really matters in this book. Some repetitive word/phrases. I look forward to reading future books in this series and from this author.

Book 2 picks up right were book 1 left off, with PvP about to be introduced and James scrambling to prepare. The dungeon war takes up the entirety of this installment, which is exhausting as someone who hates PvP. Some of the players on the enemy side seem fun but others are the typical PvP meanypants types. The real world bullying is resolved but the virtual world bullying gets more unhinged.

We meet more players on both sides of the conflict as James observes their experiences during the war. A lot of different gamer types and personalities are represented, plus we get to see more character build options. By the time the epic battles start, there is a rich cast for which to root.

If you can, try not to look to closely at the cover art before reading. It spoils one of the enemy monsters. The cover art warning continues going forward - if you want to be surprised with what James has to work with, avoid the cover art until later.

The events of Little House on the Prairie are retold from Ma's perspective. Corrections are made from Laura Ingles Wilder's story, using historical facts, maps, etc, so it doesn't match up exactly to Wilder's book. For instance, Caroline is pregnant with Carrie half the book and that effects a lot of interactions and struggles throughout. There is a childbirth scene but it's fairly vague in its description.

Descriptions fill in a lot of detail absent in Wilder's book. How things were done and what struggles were hidden from the children. Caroline's thoughts on the two girls are also interesting. No longer is Mary the pretty kill-joy. Laura is more than the loud tomboy. We also get to know why Caroline acted as she did due to things from her childhood. Why does she hate Native Americans? Why is she so much more anxious about everything than Charles?

Late in the book there are a couple supremely embarrassing sex scenes. For someone who grew up with “Ma” and “Pa”, it's like walking in on your parents.

The audiobook is very nice, with singing from both Caroline and Charles.

This is the slice of life breather book, after all the stress James has been dealing with lately. That makes it my favorite. Some light PVP, dungeon building, cool abilities and gear, real world social interactions, and James and Rue even get to experience DCO as players. It's a downright cozy video game experience!

This book feels more like one and a half books, and the increased length reflects it. James continues to develop his dungeon but also forms relationships beyond just Rue, both with characters introduced toward the end of book two and new ones. His new handler, Steve, is annoying as heck. The rest are good, especially the additions of some well rounded female characters.

James's real world life, and exploring the world that produced such a VR-centric society, gets a lot more attention. Readers who just want the VRMMORPG content won't be happy with the change, but those who like a balance between IRL and game will be pleased.

I love the main series but this is a very unnecessary spinoff. We hear Alex's side of events second hand in DCO, so the only things this book adds are a little detail about his family setting up the Dicken Shack and how crafting and gathering skills work in DCO. If the story was from the perspective of Alex's parents or even his little brother I'd be a lot more interested.

Qube has proven some level of sentience, so now the Chosen One and Developers want to see if the rest of the party can grow. There are more elemental temples to clear, character sidequests to unlock, and optional content to explore.

The lighthearted tone of the first book get weighed down by increasing existential crises as the story continues. It moves closer to making readers question the ethics of how they treat video game characters. Sexy Screaming Spider Lady's innuendo game gets stronger as she takes more control of her dialog. Still nothing too adult but more of it actually makes sense.

The grammar is rough in some places and the tone isn't terribly consistent. Sometimes it's slice of country life, sometimes goofy, and other times it drifts toward horror.

The ideas that Farrington Farms explore are great. What if you were trapped in a Harvest Moon world? But even more restricted because you can't even go into town? And actually it might be a Rune Factory world because you've just gained access to a dungeon.

Gory, cozy, and funny. Maud must learn what she is and adapt to her new unlife. She'd like to be left alone to work on new crafting projects that just happen to use body parts and blood as major materials. Unfortunately angry villagers and clergy would rather she not exist.

Maud is great but there aren't really any other well developed characters. Most folks don't survive long enough to leave an impression and her undead minions aren't exactly strong willed.

Content warning for lots of animal and human deaths, although many don't stay down for long.

Audiobook is delightful.

It's hard to find good books for the transition between picture books and chapter books. This is one of the good ones. There are full color pictures on every page. The chapters are short.

The characters are relatable - a shy pangolin, a dramatic sugar glider, and a calm “big sis” fox. I liked reading Bismark's dialog aloud. I have no idea if these three really live in the same areas but that's a good launching point for library research. There's a brief description of each animal on the last pages, and my daughter pretended to snore at those, though she perked up at the bit about pomelos so it couldn't be too bad!

Unfortunately all the other books related to these characters currently are real chapter books, the kind my daughter refuses to go near. Hopefully more are published at this level. Regardless we'll see these critters again in a few years.

Full disclosure: I got this book free from a Goodreads giveaway.

The cooking magic is very pretty but little time is spared for explaining how it works, which is disappointing. The diverse cast is great, though early on it feels like the author had a checklist of what to include. The romance is very cute and the only bullying is wealth/class related, which is a relief with all the diversity afoot.

Remember when kids books were about being the missing child of the good king and queen of a magic world? Swapping the parents for a Dark Lord changes surprisingly little. According to Tradition, Kayla should execute rivals and raid nearby villages for funds and supplies. She refuses and instead introduces pizza and hip-hop music to the world.

This is a very safe book. It's fine but won't have any long-term impact on anyone.

Rachel escaped the extremist sect for less than a day as a child but the wise woman and the orchard she encountered gave her the strength to escape again years later, the abused and pregnant wife of a preacher. Most of the book is told first person past tense from her perspective. She dreams of Siobhan, an Irish immigrant trapped in similar circumstances who planted that very orchard. Siobhan's chapters, and those of other characters, are third person and their name given at the start of each section.

Each character allied with the wildwood has some kind of craft or activity by which they work magic as well as having an animal companion. A lot of the magic is subtle, generally easy to explain away as coincidence or insight. Rachel embroiders. Others knit, sculpt, carve wood. Rachel's animal companion is anything but subtle. She lives by an orchard and has a green snake named Eve. I think Wildwood Magic will appeal to ex-Evangelicals but the biblical imagery is pretty obvious.

The story starts out cautiously, with Rachel finally becoming part of the community after hiding away for years. Then the sect comes along and stress levels ratchet up. The first chapter from the preacher's point of view gave me heartburn from the vitriol expressed. The audiobook switches to a male reader for the few male perspective chapters and this was the first one, so it threw me even further off balance. I'm going to need a cozy book palate cleanser next.

Content warnings: Domestic abuse, Vietnam war PTSD, bees, fire