Glass Town by Isabel Greenberg

Title: Glass Town

Author: Isabel Greenberg

Publisher: Abrams ComicArts 2020

Genre: Graphic Novel

Pages: 220

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love

Glass Town is an original graphic novel by Isabel Greenberg that encompasses the eccentric childhoods of the four Brontë children—Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne. The story begins in 1825, with the deaths of Maria and Elizabeth, the eldest siblings. It is in response to this loss that the four remaining Brontë children set pen to paper and created the fictional world that became known as Glass Town. This world and its cast of characters would come to be the Brontës’ escape from the realities of their lives. Within Glass Town the siblings experienced love, friendship, war, triumph, and heartbreak. Through a combination of quotes from the stories originally penned by the Brontës, biographical information about them, and Greenberg’s vivid comic book illustrations, readers will find themselves enraptured by this fascinating imaginary world.

I absolutely loved Greenberg’s other work, The One Hundred Nights of Hero, and was hoping for something similar. This is a reimagining of the make-believe world from the real life Bronte siblings. I am not the biggest fan of the Brontes, but dove into the volume anyway. Enjoyed the pieces focused on Glass Town. I did not enjoy the pieces focused on the real life characters. At times, the storytelling framing got in the way of the good stories. I wanted more Glass Town, less Brontes.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Witch King by Martha Wells

Title: Witch King

Author: Martha Wells

Publisher: Tordotcom 2023

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 415

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: COYER

After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kai’s magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well.

But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence?

Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions.

He’s not going to like the answers.

I finally picked this one up and unfortunately, it was a disappointment. I adore Wells’s Muderbot series and was hoping for more intriguing characters and adventures. This one is very lackluster in comparison. Kai was okay, but I didn’t really get his appeal throughout the book. There’s a lot of telling us that he’s very charming and charismatic, but we just don’t see it. He’s a morose, moping witch king throughout most of this book. The side characters are much more interesting, but we see precious little of some of them. The characters I could deal with. What ended up tanking this one for me was the complicated world building. Wells dumps the read straight in without much explanation. Okay, I can deal with that. But then proceeds to never really explain anything. The most clear explanations we get are when the child Kai rescues asks a direct question. Otherwise, we’re really left in the dark. I had trouble even visualizing a lot of what was going on throughout the chapters. I never really felt like I was immersed in this world. I felt like I was thrown in without a life raft. Not my cup of tea.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Poison by Sarah Pinborough

Title: Poison (Tales from the Kingdom #1)

Author: Sarah Pinborough

Publisher: Titan Books 2013

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 181

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Fairy Tale - Snow White; Library Love

Meet handsome prince, the jealous queen, and the beautiful girl as you’ve never seen them before . . . Sarah Pinborough’s charming, provocative, and adult spin on Snow White will captivate fans of the classic fairy tale all over again.

Poison is the first of Sarah Pinborough’s three sexy, contemporary retellings of classic fairy tales featuring the heroes and villains we all love.

Such a disappointment! I love a good fairy tale retelling and this was not it. The book tries to make a more risqué Snow White story, but ends up getting confused about what it wants to be. At times, we get a very immature story of a young girl (who’s incredibly annoying I might add). At other times, we get a story of a misunderstood woman rebelling against the bounds of society. And at other times, we get a spicy romance. None of it quite works together for a cohesive narrator. I have incredibly disappointed and left with so many questions. Given my feelings with this volume, I will not be attempting to get those answers in the rest of the series.

Tales from the Kingdom

#1 Poison
#2 Charm
#3 Beauty

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Next up on the TBR pile:

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #1)

Author: Laini Taylor

Publisher: Little, Brown Books 2011

Genre: YA Fantasy

Pages: 418

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Everyone But Me; Library Love

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Oof that was not a book for me. I was expecting a great fantasy adventure story with world building and great characters. To be fair, the story started out great. I loved the setting in Prague. We get some great atmosphere throughout the first section of the book. I loved following Karou around on her errands and dealing with her everyday life. I was very intrigued by the mystery of Karous’ family and what was through the other door. I wanted to explore the mystery of the conflict between the angels and the others. But the book took a turn about 50% of the way through and become a whiny young adult romance. From there, every chapter was a bunch of angsty romance. When the big twist was revealed (seriously who didn’t see that coming?), I completely threw the book down. I will not be continuing with this story at all.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

#1 Daughter of Smoke and Bone
#1.5 Night of Cake and Puppets
#2 Days of Blood and Starlight
#3 Dreams of Gods and Monsters

Next up on the TBR pile:

A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall

Title: A Letter to the Luminous Deep (The Sunken Archive #1)

Author: Sylvie Cathrall

Publisher: Orbit 2024

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 432

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: COYER; 52 Book Club - Title “L”

A beautiful discovery outside the window of her underwater home prompts the reclusive E. to begin a correspondence with renowned scholar Henerey Clel. The letters they share are filled with passion, at first for their mutual interests, and then, inevitably, for each other.

Together, they uncover a mystery from the unknown depths, destined to transform the underwater world they both equally fear and love. But by no mere coincidence, a seaquake destroys E.'s home, and she and Henerey vanish.

A year later, E.'s sister Sophy, and Henerey's brother Vyerin, are left to solve the mystery, piecing together the letters, sketches and field notes left behind—and learn what their siblings’ disappearance might mean for life as they know it.

I absolutely loved and disliked this book… let me explain. I absolutely adored the lush atmospheric tone to this book. We get a lot of mentions of the environment. Hearing E and Henerey discuss their environments was amazing. I loved the slow burn of the mystery. We know something happened and they didn’t just die, but exactly what happened? I loved unraveling the mystery along with Sophy and Vyerin. The epistolary structure was a delight. Overall I really really enjoyed this book. And then we get to the ending and I was highly annoyed. This book ends very abruptly with a big cliffhanger. I was not expecting that at all and it really threw me off. Now I have to wait who knows how long until the author completes the next in the series. I am sad about that aspect. Otherwise this is definitely my kind of book.

The Sunken Archive

#1 A Letter to the Luminous Deep
#2 TBD

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Eye of the Bedlam Bride by Matt Dinniman

Title: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Dungeon Crawler Carl #6)

Author: Matt Dinniman

Publisher: Dandy House 2023

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 694

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges:

A pantheon of forgotten gods. An old grudge between a talk show host, an heiress, and the man they shattered along the way. A rapidly deteriorating AI system. An inconvenient tiara upon the head of a friend.

It is bedlam on the eighth floor.

As management reels from the unexpected conclusion of the seventh level, the surviving crawlers stumble onto the eighth and find themselves scattered. It’s a map based on Earth’s final days before the collapse, where ethereal, intangible ghosts of humanity go about their lives, oblivious of the impending doom. Living amongst these ghosts are monsters based in Earth lore. “Legendary” creatures tied to the geographical location they inhabit.

Each team of crawlers is given a task: find and capture six of these beasts. The captured monsters will be turned into cards. Cards that can be summoned into battle again and again. The stronger, the deadlier, the better.

At the end of the floor, the bad guys will also have decks, and they will have some of the most powerful cards available. So it’s crucial to assemble the toughest squad possible.

But, like always, there is a catch. There’s always a catch.

As Carl and Donut know all too well, just because someone is captured, it doesn’t mean they have been tamed.

Her name is Shi Maria. She’s easily the most powerful monster in their area. If they want to survive, they must capture her. But she is no ordinary beast. She’s intelligent. She was once married to a god, a god who is now missing. Her special attack is known to drive one insane. They call her the Bedlam Bride.

“Beware, beware. Beware the Eye of the Bedlam Bride”

Holy cow! I knew this one was going to knock me back and it certainly did. We see Carl, Donut, and all our favorite crawlers navigate the very puzzle laden 8th floor. After the events at the end of the last floor, I was hoping for a bit of a quiet moment. No such luck. We jump into this floor and don’t stop until the end. My favorite part is always the crazy plans that Carl comes up with. This book highlighted some of his crazier plans. Loved it so much! I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Dungeon Crawler Carl

Next up on the TBR pile:

Lore Olympus Vol. 5 by Rachel Smythe

Title: Lore Olympus Volume 5

Author: Rachel Smythe

Publisher: Del Rey 2023

Genre: Fantasy Comic

Pages: 400

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges:

“You want to know about The Bringer of Death.”

It is Persephone’s birthday, and she receives the ultimate gift: Hades confesses his desire for her, leading to their first kiss. But that doesn’t necessarily make things easier for the goddess of spring, who is still in over her head in gossip-driven Olympus. Persephone feels intense guilt over the official breakup between Hades and Minthe, she is struggling to find her footing in her fast-paced job, and—worst of all—the shades of her past are slowly coming to light.

After an unexpected encounter with Apollo, Persephone flees into the depths of the Underworld. Concerned for her safety and determined to find her, Hades must team up with Artemis, Eros, and Hera, but they’re working against a ticking clock. Zeus knows about the bloody secret in Persephone’s past, and now the furious king of the gods will stop at nothing to bring her to justice.

This edition of Smythe’s original Eisner Award–winning webcomic Lore Olympus features exclusive behind-the-scenes content and brings the Greek pantheon into the modern age in a sharply perceptive and romantic graphic novel.

I still really love this series, but it’s hitting a bit of a low point I think. The will-they-won’t-they portion is feeling a bit tired. And I’m not very happy with just how naive Persephone is. Her keeping secrets is starting to annoy me. I really want to see where this story goes, but things better get moving a bit in the next volume.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

Title: Bride

Author: Ali Hazelwood

Publisher: Berkley 2024

Genre: Romantasy

Pages: 400

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Includes a Wedding; She Reads Romance - Arranged Marriage

Spice Rating: 5

Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast—again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and she sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange—again...

Weres are ruthless and unpredictable, and their Alpha, Lowe Moreland, is no exception. He rules his pack with absolute authority, but not without justice. And, unlike the Vampyre Council, not without feeling. It’s clear from the way he tracks Misery’s every movement that he doesn’t trust her. If only he knew how right he was….

Because Misery has her own reasons to agree to this marriage of convenience, reasons that have nothing to do with politics or alliances, and everything to do with the only thing she's ever cared about. And she is willing to do whatever it takes to get back what’s hers, even if it means a life alone in Were territory…alone with the wolf.

I picked up another Ali Hazelwood romance. Every time I have finished one of her previous books, I have enjoyed, but it’s hasn’t been something I recommend to all friends. Enjoyable, but nothing groundbreaking. I think I feel the same way about this one. I liked it. The plot and characters kept me interested and turning the pages, but I wasn’t raving about it at the end. I will admit that Hazelwood is great at writing sexual tension. All of her books contain a lot of tension. But, I’m not as excited about the after. Misery has a snarky side that I did really enjoy. And I eventually did buy a relationship between her and Lowe. It just took awhile for me to get there. So overall an enjoyable romantasy for my week.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

Title: Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands (Emily Wilde #2)

Author: Heather Fawcett

Publisher: Del Rey 2024

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 342

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Published in 2024; Library Love

Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore—she just wrote the world’s first comprehensive of encylopaedia of faeries. She’s learned many of the secrets of the Hidden Folk on her adventures . . . and also from her fellow scholar and former rival, Wendell Bambleby.

Because Bambleby is more than infuriatingly charming. He’s an exiled faerie king on the run from his murderous mother, and in search of a door back to his realm. So despite Emily’s feelings for Bambleby, she’s not ready to accept his proposal of marriage: Loving one of the Fair Folk comes with secrets and danger.

And she also has a new project to focus on: a map of the realms of faerie. While she is preparing her research, Bambleby lands her in trouble yet again, when assassins sent by Bambleby’s mother invade Cambridge. Now Bambleby and Emily are on another adventure, this time to the picturesque Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to Bambley’s realm, and the key to freeing him from his family’s dark plans.

But with new relationships for the prickly Emily to navigate and dangerous Folk lurking in every forest and hollow, Emily must unravel the mysterious workings of faerie doors, and of her own heart.

Another amazing story featuring the adventures of Emily and Wendell. We get to change the setting and explore new worlds and new creatures. I loved seeing how Emily’s story progresses as she learns to trust her instincts and stand up for herself. And we get to see her interact with new characters in Wendell’s search for his door. I absolutely adored the reappearance of Poe and the introduction of Snowbell. At times this is a quiet story. We get small moments between the characters. And then the plot really amps up and barrels ahead. I cannot wait until the next book in this series.

Emily Wilde

#1 Encyclopaedia of Faeries
#2 Map of the Otherlands
#3 Compendium of Lost Tales

Next up on the TBR pile:

A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft

Title: A Fragile Enchantment

Author: Allison Saft

Publisher: Wednesday Books 2024

Genre: YA Romantasy

Pages: 373

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: She Reads Romance - New Adult Romance; Library Love

Niamh Ó Conchobhair has never let herself long for more. The magic in her blood that lets her stitch emotions and memories into fabric is the same magic that will eventually kill her. Determined to spend the little time she has left guaranteeing a better life for her family, Niamh jumps at the chance to design the wardrobe for a royal wedding in the neighboring kingdom of Avaland.

But Avaland is far from the fairytale that she imagined. While young nobles attend candlelit balls and elegant garden parties, unrest brews amid the working class. The groom himself, Kit Carmine, is prickly, abrasive, and begrudgingly being dragged to the altar as a political pawn. But when Niamh and Kit grow closer, an unlikely friendship blossoms into something more—until an anonymous gossip columnist starts buzzing about their chemistry, promising to leave them alone only if Niamh helps to uncover the royal family’s secrets. The rot at the heart of Avaland runs deep, but exposing it could risk a future she never let herself dream of, and a love she never thought possible..

I’m not exactly sure why I picked this one up to read. I had previously read another of Saft’s books and was pretty disappointed in it. In fact, my biggest complaint was that “We get a YA fantasy set in a fictional world but with parallels to the religious divides in our own world. All through the book I was confused as to why were were coding the different groups with fictionalized words and practices instead of just making a direct comparison.” This one isn’t about religious divides but instead nationalistic divides. Niamh is clearly from British controlled Ireland with Kit being of the British royal family. Infanta Rosa is clearly from Spain and a rival power to England. Instead of setting this in an alternate Europe, Saft “creates” a fictional magical world. But why? I was very disappointed in the unnecessary complications. Further more, I really disliked the romance. I wasn’t swoon, it was downright cringy. Everyone claims that Kit hates everyone but Niamh, but in my mind, he still really dislikes Niamh. We don’t ever really see a probably softer side of Kit. I wanted more for Niamh, but she is completely enamored with his terrible attitude and behavior. I really need to put Saft on my “no” list.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire

Title: Mislaid in Parts Half-Known(Wayward Children #9)

Author: Seanan McGuire

Publisher: Tordotcom 2024

Genre: Fantasy

Pages:146

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - No People on the Cover; Library Love

Antsy is the latest student to pass through the doors at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children.

When the school’s (literally irresistible) mean girl realizes that Antsy's talent for finding absolutely anything may extend to doors, Antsy is forced to flee in the company of a small group of friends, looking for a way back to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go to be sure that Vineta and Hudson are keeping their promise.

Along the way, they will travel from a world which hides painful memories that cut as sharply as its beauty, to a land that time wasn’t yet old enough to forget―and more than one student's life will change forever.

“People who’ve been hurt often think they have some sort of right tot go around hurting other people,” said Sumi. “They think trauma’s a toy to keep handing down forever. Bu the fact that someone hurt you and tied you up in knots doesn’t give you the right to it to anybody else.” Pg. 94

That quote right there sums up the entire series and literally had me in tears. Beautiful story about a collection of characters struggling to find their places in the world (or multiple worlds). This volume is most definitely directly continues the story in the previous volume. We get a concise story of Antsy finding her way back and helping other characters on the way. I felt something akin to catharsis when I reached the final page. One of the best feelings.

Wayward Children

Next up on the TBR pile:

Hunt on Dark Water by Katee Robert

Title: Hunt on Dark Waters (Crimson Sails #1)

Author: Katee Robert

Publisher: Berkley 2023

Genre: Romance

Pages: 320

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: She Reads Romance - Witch Romance; Library Love

Evelyn is a witch with a perfect storm of impulses: terrible taste in bed partners, sticky fingers, and a lust for danger. After she steals from her vampire ex and falls through a portal to another realm, she’s fished out of the waters by a band of seafarers and their telekinetic captain. She’s immediately given a choice—join their ship’s crew or die.

Bowen has no memory of his life before he became one of the Cŵn Annwn. He and his band of pirates are bound by vow to patrol through Threshold, the magical sea in between realms, keeping the portals to other worlds safe. When he rescues Evelyn, he doesn’t expect to be attracted to the unflappably brassy pickpocket. The longer he spends in her presence, the more he begins to question if his heart is the next thing she’ll steal.

But as tension heats up between Bowen and Evelyn, the danger at sea escalates as well. Because Evelyn has no intention of keeping her vows to the Cŵn Annwn, and if she betrays the crew, both she and Bowen will pay the ultimate price....

I finally picked up another one of Katee Robert’s series. And it wasn’t quite as good as the Dark Olympus series, but I did enjoy it. We get a portal jumping witch who finds herself involved in the Wild Hunt. But things are not quite as they seem and she becomes an agent of change as well as finding romance. Bowen and Evelyn aren’t my favorite couple but they grew on me as the book progressed. I was very intrigued by all the other characters and the background storyline. I do enjoy Robert’s storytelling and romance, so I imagine that I will be reading the rest of this series.

Crimson Sails

#1 Hunt on Dark Waters
#2 Blood on the Tide
#3 Pirates

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Butcher's Masquerade by Matt Dinniman

Title: The Butcher’s Masquerade (Dungeon Crawler Carl #5)

Author: Matt Dinniman

Publisher: Dandy House 2022

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 726

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Apostrophe in the Title

Attention. Attention. The gates are down. The hunters are loose.
Run, Run, Run.

A lush jungle teeming with danger. Savage dinosaurs seeking blood. A fallen princess intent on vengeance. A mysterious, end-of-floor celebration for the top crawlers, dubbed “The Butcher’s Masquerade.”

The sixth floor. The Hunting Grounds.

As the remaining crawlers battle for their lives, a new, terrible threat looms. Outside tourists are finally allowed to enter the game, and they are here and ready to hunt. Among them is Vrah, a famed and veteran hunter, intent on collecting the biggest trophy of her career.

But their prey is far from harmless, and this season they are fighting back.

I finally made it through this giant chunker of a book. And holy cow was it a ride! I cannot believe every thing that happened in these pages. Carl and Donut are put in more impossible situations that they then have to concoct ridiculous plans to get out of. I don’t want to spoil the events, but I will say that there are some real emotional moments in this one. I am going to take a short break before diving into the next book. As much as I love Carl and Donut, I need to process this one for awhile.

Dungeon Crawler Carl

Next up on the TBR pile:

Thirty Nights with a Highland Husband by Melissa Maybe

Title: Thirty Nights with a Highland Husband (Daughters of the Glen #1)

Author: Melissa Mayhue

Publisher: Pocket Books 2007

Genre: Romance

Pages: 356

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf; 52 Books - Hybrid Genre

Scotland, 1272. Connor MacKiernan, a descendant of the Fae Prince, is a warrior who lives only for honor and duty. Though he’s vowed never to marry, that’s exactly what he must do to save his sister. Enter a little Faerie magic, and the search for a bride is on.

Denver, 2007. Caitlyn Coryell is having a really bad day—she just discovered that her fiancé is cheating on her, marrying her only for her family’s money and influence. Imagine her surprise when she puts on an antique pendant and Connor suddenly appears in her bedroom, begging for her help. He offers an outrageous adventure: travel to his time, marry him for a short time, and return home.

But nothing goes as planned. Cate’s trapped in the 13th century, the wedding’s delayed, and someone’s trying to kill her. And in the middle of all this, she realizes that she’s falling in love with a man who can only be her husband for thirty nights. It will take more than the magic of the Fae to help them now. It will require the most powerful magic of all—the magic of true love.

This book has been sitting on my Unread Shelf for years so I finally picked it up. The book should probably have been left on the shelf. This is a poor imitation of Outlander with a weird time travel bent to the romance. I didn’t quite buy the whole time travel and Fey angle to the story. It' seemed a little too hooky. The romance itself was also pretty lackluster. I didn’t love Cate and Connor and didn’t really buy their relationship. My biggest complaint has to do with the gender dynamics. Connor plays the alpha crap and Cate decides that the way tot play the relationship is to use her feminine wiles. It’s cliched and super annoying. Not a fan. I perused the rest of the series and it looks like we are going to get the same types of relationships. I think I will not be continuing to read this series.

Daughters of the Glen

#1 Thirty Nights with a Highland Husband
#2 Highland Guardian
#3 Soul of a Highlander
#4 A Highlander of Her Own
#5 A Highlander’s Destiny
#6 A Highlander’s Homecoming
#7 Healing the Highlander
#8 Highlander’s Curse

Next up on the TBR pile:

Haunted Holiday by Kiersten White

Title: Haunted Holiday (The Sinister Summer #5)

Author: Kiersten White

Publisher: Delacorte Press 2024

Genre: Middle Grade Horror

Pages: 272

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Revenge Story; Lifetime - Child Protagonist

Trapped in Aunt Saffronia’s spectral house, Theo and Alexander must work together to escape, stop their newfound nemesis Essa and her henchman Edgaren’t, save Wil and their friends, find their parents, and maybe, just maybe, get things back to normal.

Following the clues left behind, the twins find themselves at Siren’s Song Seaside Amusement Park. Old faces and new surprises await them in a park that was built to lure in visitors…and their secrets.

As they get closer to answers, the twins are left with the biggest question of all: Who is Essa really, and why is she so determined to find their parents?

And we come to the end of the Sinister Summer series! And it was utterly delightful! I loved this play on A Series of Unfortunate Events with references to classic horror stories. In this volume, everything and everybody finally comes together for a happy ending. We get to see the family reunited as they solve the last mystery of the summer. I especially loved the setting of the amusement park in this one. The kraken and robot battle at the end was the cherry on top of the sundae. Definitely a recommendation for most of my friends.

The Sinister Summer

Next up on the TBR pile:

Confetti Realms

Title: Confetti Realms

Author: Nadia Shammas, Karnessa

Publisher: Maverick 2023

Genre: YA Graphic Novel

Pages: 196

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love

Follow the story of four New Jersey teens who, after breaking into a cemetery on Halloween, get transported to a strange and fantastical world by a mysterious automaton named Tom. When Tom sends them on a quest to gain him entry to a party at the end of the world, our unlikely (and mostly unwilling) heroes will have to navigate murderous frogs, an insect orchestra, and the cracks in their own friendships.

Found this slim graphic novel on a library list for Fairy Tale books. I grabbed it and sped through in an afternoon. This is a beautiful little story about finding your joy and accepting who you are. We get four friends (well, almost friends) who are navigating identity and community. They get thrown into another world which heightens all their feelings. I loved the magical take on finding yourself. And some the side character are utterly delightful.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt Dinniman

Title: The Gate of the Feral Gods (Dungeon Crawler Carl #4)

Author: Matt Dinniman

Publisher: Dandy House 2021

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 632

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges:

New Achievement! Total, Utter Failure.

You failed a quest less than five minutes after you received it. Now that’s talent.

A floating fortress occupied by warrior gnomes. A castle made of sand. A derelict submarine guarded by malfunctioning machines. A haunted crypt surrounded by lethal traps.

It was supposed to be easy. One bubble. Four castles. Fifteen days. Capture each one, and the stairwell is unlocked.

Here's the thing. It's never easy. Carl and his team can't go it alone. Not this time. They must rely on the help of the low-level, I-can't-believe-these-idiots-are-still-alive crawlers trapped in the bubble with them. But can they be trusted?

Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the fifth floor of the dungeon.

Yet another amazing Carl book in which I gasped out loud no fewer than 10 times. The level got a little convoluted in itself, but the characters shine through to really make this book. It was lovely to see more scenes involving other crawlers and the larger storyline at play. We get some epic action scenes and some great adversaries. Denise, the feral goose, was absolutely amazing! Hands-down my favorite boss in the series. Once we got to the last two hours of the book, I couldn’t put it down. Shit hit the fan and I had to keep reading to find out how Carl and Donut were going to survive this one! Cannot wait to read to the next one in the series.

Dungeon Crawler Carl

#1 Dungeon Crawler Carl
#2 Carl’s Doomsday Scenario
#3 The Dungeon' Anarchist’s Cookbook
#4 The Gate of the Feral Gods
#5 The Butcher’s Masquerade
#6 The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Next up on the TBR pile:

Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson

Title: Strands of Bronze and Gold

Author: Jane Nickerson

Publisher: Random House 2013

Genre: YA Fantasy

Pages: 352

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Fairy Tales - Bluebeard; Library Love

When seventeen-year-old Sophia Petheram’s beloved father dies, she receives an unexpected letter. An invitation—on fine ivory paper, in bold black handwriting—from the mysterious Monsieur Bernard de Cressac, her godfather. With no money and fewer options, Sophie accepts, leaving her humble childhood home for the astonishingly lavish Wyndriven Abbey, in the heart of Mississippi.

Sophie has always longed for a comfortable life, and she finds herself both attracted to and shocked by the charm and easy manners of her overgenerous guardian. But as she begins to piece together the mystery of his past, it’s as if, thread by thread, a silken net is tightening around her. And as she gathers stories and catches whispers of his former wives—all with hair as red as her own—in the forgotten corners of the abbey, Sophie knows she’s trapped in the passion and danger of de Cressac’s intoxicating world.

Glowing strands of romance, mystery, and suspense are woven into this breathtaking debut—a thrilling retelling of the “Bluebeard” fairy tale.

Last year I read a great Bluebeard retelling (T. Kingfisher’s The Seventh Bride), so I had to go looking for another one. I found a ton of short stories in collections, but I wanted a full length story. I finally found this book and snapped it from the library. Overall, I thought this was really good. Sophia sufficiently grows and changes throughout the novel. Enough so that I could actually appreciate her has a character. From there, we get some great side characters with enough of their agency to make full people instead of tools for Sophia’s story. In fact the only characters that I didn’t love were Sophia’s family. But I get ultimately she has to be left all alone to face her fears and take her agency back. I loved the slow reveal of the mystery and the past, but I do wish that it happened slightly faster and more time was spent with Sophia wrestling with what to do with the information. Ultimately, this was a good readable entertaining retelling of the Bluebeard story.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook by Matt Dinniman

Title: The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook (Dungeon Crawler Carl #3)

Author: Matt Dinniman

Publisher: Dandy House 2021

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 534

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges:

Welcome to the Gun Show!

The top ten list is populated. The sponsorship program is open. The difficulty is ramping up. The first three floors were nothing compared to what Carl and Donut now face.

The Iron Tangle. An impossibly-complicated subway system built out of the world's subterranean railway systems, all combined and then tied together into a knot. Up is down. Down is up. Close is far. The cars are filled with monsters, the railway stations are less than safe, and the exit is always just a few stops away.

But there is hope. For the first time, the crawlers are all working together. The loot is better than ever. And the secret to unraveling it all may be hidden in the pages of a seemingly-useless book. Welcome, crawlers. Welcome to the fourth floor of the dungeon.

Oh yes! Another crazy adventure starring Carl and Donut! This time, the floor is all about a messed-up train system complete with multiple lines, different mobs, and a larger mystery of the construction itself. I loved seeing how our character navigated this one and finally figured out that they need to make more connections amongst the other crawlers. Brandy the fire demon was a lovely addition to their encounters. And I always love the appearance of mimics (not when actually playing Dungeons & Dragons, I hate them then). But the best part of this book was the acquisition of the title object. I cannot wait to see how Carl uses the information within on future levels. As always, the audiobook is the only way to go for this book!

Dungeon Crawler Carl

#1 Dungeon Crawler Carl
#2 Carl’s Doomsday Scenario
#3 The Dungeon' Anarchist’s Cookbooks
#4 The Gate of the Feral Gods
#5 The Butcher’s Masquerade
#6 The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Next up on the TBR pile:

Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman

Title: Carl’s Doomsday Scenario (Dungeon Crawler Carl #2)

Author: Matt Dinniman

Publisher: Dandy House 2021

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 364

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges:

"The training levels have concluded. Now the games may truly begin."

The ratings and views are off the chart. The fans just can't get enough. The dungeon gets more dangerous each day. But in a grinder designed to chew up and spit out crawlers by the millions, Carl and Princess Donut need to work harder than ever just to survive.

They call it the Over City. A sprawling, once-thriving metropolis devastated by a mysterious calamity. But these streets are far from abandoned. An undead circus trawls the ruins. Murdered prostitutes rain from the sky. An ancient spell is finally ready to reveal its dark purpose.

Carl still has no pants.

They call it Dungeon Crawler World. For Carl and Donut, it's anything but a game..

I think that I am officially obsessed with this series now. I can’t wait until I can sneak in another hour or two of listening to the adventures of Carl and Donut. The audio is fantastic, full of energy and personality. For this book, the game really begins with the Third Floor. We get to meet some new characters, perhaps new allies, and new enemies. The circus portions were delightfully creepy. I loved the Lovecraftian take on the horrors of the Over City. The reveal of the titular Doomsday Scenario was a great addition to leave you wondering about the next adventure. I cannot wait to see what happens on the Fourth Floor!

Dungeon Crawler Carl

#1 Dungeon Crawler Carl
#2 Carl’s Doomsday Scenario
#3 The Dungeon' Anarchist’s Cookbooks
#4 The Gate of the Feral Gods
#5 The Butcher’s Masquerade
#6 The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Next up on the TBR pile: