Indra

This is less of a “how to draw” book and more of a cute behind-the-scenes look at the webcomic Boyfriends. The book is organized into seven sections that can be grouped into three larger ones: 1) introducing the series and characters, 2) drawing basics and simple step-by-step instructions for drawing the boyfriends, and 3) a brief overview of WEBTOON and creating webcomics. 

Even though I haven't read Boyfriends. yet, I love refrainbow's art style and have followed him for a while on Twitter, so I was excited to take a peek behind the curtain. This book is layed out clearly and attractively, and refrainbow's art pops on the page. The text is simple and doesn't go into much detail, which is why I say this isn't really a book that'll teach you how to draw. It's more aimed at fans of the series who already have some drawing skills and want to get a few tips for drawing the boyfriends. I especially liked the inclusion of the character and series color palettes with hex codes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Walter Foster Publishing for the opportunity to review this book.

This was a cute story with lovely illustrations about an airplane named Charlie who has to move from his current rickety hangar to a new one. I appreciated the illustrated diagrams at the back that explain the different parts of a plane and other terminology. I think children who are interested in airplanes would enjoy this short story. 

Thank you to NetGalley and SilverWood Books for the opportunity to review this book. 

How I Met My Soulmate is a lovely college-aged romance following Yuuki, a university student from the countryside with a dream of finding her soulmate. She meets Iori, an intimidating and handsome dental student, in a club. After hearing about Yuuki's dream, he becomes determined to help her find her perfect match. 

The art is soft and sweet, reminding me of shoujo manga I read when I was young, and the characters are all unique with their own personal motivations. I'm definitely invested in Yuuki's pursuit of love and will be picking up volume 2.

Always There is a wonderful book for children about dealing with grief after the death of a loved one. The art is rich and colorful, and the characters are expressive, especially the main character as she processes her grief, moving from denial to anger to acceptance. The language is simple and heartfelt and easy to read.

Though the book focuses on the death of a human loved one, I think the message and guidance would work for the death of a pet as well. Thankfully I don't have any children in my life who need this right now, but I will be buying a copy for my best friend to keep just in case her kids could benefit from it in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the free copy in return for my honest review.

Wacky Witches and Their Peculiar Familiars is a wonderful picture book. Every animal familiar is unique and performs different tasks suited to their witch. The art is charming and colorful with lots of details to pick out. And the rhymes are quite clever. I'll definitely be getting a copy for my niece and nephew (and maybe myself 😉).

Thank you to NetGalley and NorthSouth Books for the opportunity to review this book.

He's Expecting answers the question: what if cis men could get pregnant?

The story follows men and women who are affected by this new phenomenon. From a single salaryman who suddenly finds himself pregnant to a high school boy forced to get an abortion to a woman whose husband is pregnant for the first time with their second child. Each character struggles with this confusing and unprecedented change to society, and I enjoyed seeing how they tackled their different challenges. 

Note: this is not presented from a queer lens and contains a few homophobic comments.

The Cat Who Couldn't Be Bothered is a cute picture book about a black and white cat who doesn't want to do anything, no matter what his friends suggest. The art is simple and charming, with block colors and few lines. The handwritten text adds character to the book and emphasizes the cat's depressed feelings. I like the message that it's okay to do nothing sometimes, and a cat is the perfect animal to communicate this. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Frances Lincoln Children's Books for the free copy in return for my honest review. 

Before the Coffee Gets Cold follows the comings and goings of a little basement café that's rumored to be able to send you to the past. However, there are specific rules you need to abide by, and the most important one is to drink the coffee before it gets cold. 

There are four stories, each one centered around a pair of people who've been to or are associated with the café. Three of them made me cry 😭 Even so, I highly recommend this book if you enjoy slice-of-life stories, magical realism, and human relationships. The writing is simple yet poignant and captures the realities of love, loss, life, and death.

I never thought I'd find dinosaur erotica wholesome but here we are. This was a quick, funny, cute read. Many of the metaphors and similes made me chuckle, and the dialogue was dramatic in an amusing way. There was only one sex scene, so if you're looking for a lot of dinosaur sex, then this isn't the book for you. It focuses more on Holly and her emotional journey, from realizing her current boyfriend, Thad, is an asshole, to rediscovering her love for her old high school feathered friend, Rocky the Utahraptor. 

Don't get me wrong, this isn't high literature, but I didn't see any grammar mistakes, and the whole world is creative in an amusingly unserious way, so I say pick it up if it piques your interest. 

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the opportunity to review this book.

She's My Knight is a cute high school romance manga that switches up the traditional roles of shoujo couples. Instead of the short, blushing girl and the tall, charming boy, Mogami Yuki and Ichinose Haruma are the exact opposite. She's tall, handsome, effortlessly charming and popular with all the girls, and while he's also handsome and popular, when he's around Yuki he turns into a flustered, blushing mess.

Simple and lighthearted with adorable art, this manga was fun to read. I found myself smiling every time Haruma and Yuki re-enacted shoujo tropes, like watching a scary movie or pushing the other to the ground to avoid being hit by a ball. It was cute to see Haruma struggle with his words around Yuki and to imagine himself taller than her in his daydreams. There's not a lot of plot beyond the romance and the tropes, but I enjoyed reading about their awkward interactions and “not-a-date” dates.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kodansha for the free copy in return for my honest review.

I went into this expecting just porn with some flimsy worldbuilding but was pleasantly surprised. The demon realm with its territories and various demonic species is well thought out and interesting. I liked learning about the dragons' customs and how the bargainer demons gained leverage over the other territories when the portals between realms disappeared. 

The characterization could use some work—Briar is very quick to feel safe around and have sex with Sol, especially for a woman who just escaped an abusive and controlling marriage—but I didn't expect too much depth from an erotica anyway. 

Midnight is the Darkest Hour is advertised as a thriller but really it's a drama with an unhinged romance and a bit of mystery. I loved the creepy, humid, cloistered feeling of Bottom Springs in southern Louisiana. Winstead really created an isolated and moody atmosphere with her prose. 

Ruth and Everett, though town outcasts, are just as strange as the other residents—in their own special way. Neither of them are likable characters, but I lived for the tension between them and their codependent romance. 

The mystery surrounds the dead bodies showing up in the swamp and the secret lives of the zealously religious residents. It wasn't too complex but still kept me interested. 

P.S. Yes, there are numerous Twilight references. If you hate the series or don't like the idea of a repressed, neglected teen finding solace in a mediocre vampire romance story, then this book isn't for you. 

I loved the first half of this book. Beautiful prose, a rich fantasy world with angels and chimaera, and an interesting cast of characters—human and chimaera alike. Karou's relationship with Brimstone and the other chimaera had promise, as did the errands she did for him. I also enjoyed the sections in Prague with her human friends and would've liked to see more with them.

Unfortunately, the introduction of Akiva derailed that part of the story. Karou was obsessed with him almost immediately and their relationship is clearly instalove, a trope I'm not fond of. The reveal of Karou's background didn't change that, and only further showed how their love is based almost solely on physical attraction.

Despite this change in the story, I still plan on reading the second book as I've heard the rest of the series focuses more on the war and less on the romance.

I enjoyed the premise of Bound by Honey — a young librarian working in a magical library befriends a gargoyle and then goes on a quest to cure a prince's curse — as well as the concept of gargoyles being cursed mages who've overexerted their powers. And I liked the idea introduced near the end of the story that dragons are intelligent beings who communicate telepathically via images and emotions rather than words. Unfortunately that's where my enjoyment ends because this book feels like a rough draft and not a polished, fleshed out, published novel.

The prose is okay but frequently lacks detail in character description and setting. All of the male characters are sharp and handsome, the female characters are hardly described beyond their clothes and hair color, and most of the characters have the same bland personality and feel interchangeable, especially the Charming Four. They live on a group of floating islands connected by rope bridges, but nothing is done with this other than providing a moment for Sage to trip and Prince Finn to catch her. 

The setting with the most description is the healing guild's secret garden, which features statues of gods and goddesses (who are never mentioned prior or after this scene — what are they gods of? are they deities from our world, like Greek or Egyptian gods? I'd like to know more about them and their importance to Sage and the other inhabitants) and flowering plants for the bees to pollinate. The rest of the world, like the city and other buildings, is vague and has no character, nothing to distinguish it from any other fantasy setting with forests, villages, and a palace.

I can forgive the pace of the story because it's so short, but the transitions between scenes are jarring. Often Sage would begin to do something or go to sleep and then the scene would jump to her in a new area crossing a bridge or waking in an unknown tent. These location jumps serve the plot but hinder character and setting development. What did the land between the flooded village and the rope bridge look like? Did they have to cross a desert or mountains? What villages did they pass through or animals did they see? Where did they stay the night and how did they pass the time? Did Sage get closer to Prince Finn on this journey by playing a card game, taking a walk, or having a conversation with him?

Spending more time on the journey could help the characters' relationships feel more real. As it is, all the character interactions feel forced and unnatural, especially the romance supposedly forming between Sage and Prince Finn. The Charming Four immediately warm up to Sage and we're told they've formed a protective bond with her, but this is never shown. Just as we are told that Sage and Prince Finn are now in love but we're never shown them falling in love. In fact, they hardly ever speak to each other.

Telling too much and not showing enough is a theme throughout the book. We're told Sage has always liked books instead of shown memories of her mother reading to her as a child or her first trip to the library to check out a magical tome. We're told Sage is swept up in the excitement of the underground guild battle but not shown her heartbeat quickening or her body tensing in anticipation. We're told there's too much history between Sage and Will for her to consider him as a love interest but not shown any events from their childhood that would explain that.

There's also a lack of emotional nuance displayed by the characters. Sage is furious with Prince Finn for taking a book from the restricted section of the library without checking it out, even after learning he's part of the royal family who owns said library. And she continues to hate him for this event despite him returning the book and bearing no ill will towards her. When they reach the flooded village to render aid, Sage notes that “[w]hile this was a devastating moment, she saw smiles on most of the peoples' faces”. To lose your home and your possessions and possible family or pets in the disaster of a flood is horrible and those people would not be smiling. Most likely they'd be tired, hungry, sad, and yes, grateful for the aid, but not cheerful like this line implies.

Though there are many issues with the writing, I do think this could be a good longer fantasy with a lot of revision and help from an editor. Unfortunately I can't recommend it in its unfinished state.

I received a free advanced review copy via BookSirens in return for my honest review.

This was a very cute, lighthearted romance between two people who've had a rough time of relationships in their lives. Chloe's humor is perfectly sarcastic and deadpan, and her tendency to go silent and sharp when she's in pain is relatable. Red is a sweetheart with deep creativity and a loving relationship with his mom, as well as a sick motorbike. Though they don't like each other at first due to their own incorrect assumptions about the other, Chloe and Red fall in love with very few bumps along the way. Hibbert doesn't draw out the angst of misunderstandings for long, and it's nice to read a romance with better communication between the love interests. There's a few well written spicy scenes, but most of the book is very sweet and fun. 

This was a delight to read and left me wanting more of Nimona and Blackheart and their adventures. Stevenson's art is vibrant and expressive and I love the mix of medieval and modern fashion and technology. Nimona, though violent and childish on the surface, is really just looking to be loved. Her banter with Blackheart is funny and I love her chaotic energy. Blackheart is a very upstanding villain and I like how he focuses on harming the Institution and not civilians. Of course the dragons are wonderful 😎 and the world seems like it has a rich background. I'd be interested in learning more about the Institution and how it came to be.

With monster girls, a pure prince, and a lavish winter party season, The Midnight Girls is a devilish delight. This isn't a sweet sapphic YA romance between high school girls or warrior princesses. It's a fiery, whirlwind battle of a romance between two rival witch's servants: Marynka and Zosia, or Midday and Midnight. I loved all the characters, but especially the three monster girls. The complementary dynamic of their powers was written so beautifully and I could easily envision the colors and forms of their magic. I also loved that there was no taming of the monster girls in this; they killed with relish and basked in their power over humans. But monster or not, they can still find love. 

Formatted as a series of journal entries across eight notebooks, Notes of A Crocodile follows an unnamed lesbian university student as she struggles with forming and maintaining relationships with others while she goes to school in Taipei, Taiwan. Alongside these entries about her friendships and love life are sections about the country's obsession with crocodiles—elusive creatures that wear human suits to blend in. Though I'm still unclear on what exactly crocodiles are meant to represent, it's clear they are related to the experiences of queer people in 1987 Taiwan.

Miaojin's prose is an interesting combination of straightforward and poetic, and rather beautifully captures the confusion, heartache, and drama of the college years. This is a book I'd love to read again, as I'm sure I've missed much of the nuance in the dialogue and setting. 

I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone, but I enjoyed reading it and learned more about what it's been like for young people to be queer around the world. I think having a deeper understanding of the state of Taipei in the late ‘80s would be beneficial in reaching a better understanding of this novel. 

This is a great way to question arbitrary gender norms, especially for middle grade readers. I loved the use of different types of magic to separate men and women. So many things in our lives are gender coded: dolls vs. trucks, pink vs. blue, skirts vs. pants, softball vs. baseball, etc. There's no real reason why people can't play, wear, or do whatever they want. Aster's story shows that it can be harmful to deny children their interests just because of their gender. And parents don't have to understand it to love and care for their children as they are.