Ribbon

Manslaughter Park is the first in this series that I feel entirely improved upon the original. Fanny Price is meek at the beginning but still has more agency than her Austen counterpart. She grows over the course of the story and it's very satisfying to watch.

Fanny is bullied by her cousins and aunts, making the first third or so very hard to get through. Once the mystery and investigation really get underway, they're too proccupied with being terrible people in general to focus on being terrible to her.

I only read Mansfield Park once so I'm not sure how closely Manslaughter Park sticks to the narrative. Less than previous books in the series, I suspect.

Book contains a very good dog.

One anthology dares to ask “What if stepmoms aren't terrible?”

These stories feature heroic stepmothers, supportive stepmothers to heroic stepchildren, and heroic women who become stepmothers somewhere along the way. They're written for adults who grew up on anti-stepmom propaganda and are maybe stepmoms themselves, rather than meant to be read to/with stepkids.

Most of the stories are pretty short but the story “The Bird of Many Voices” is more novella length. It's about a bird in an abusive relationship. Some readers may want to skip that one, but it's very well done.

Many of the stories feature good disability rep.

The author has a very clear and detailed idea of how magic, crafting, and dungeons work in his world and will explain it all in painstaking detail. Unfortunately there is very little actual plot to go with it.

We meet Sophia when she is still a human, with two club hands and a loving and protective faster. She learns crafting wherever they go but cannot craft anything herself due to her disability. And then she's dead, two hundred years have passed, she's a dungeon core, and who cares. I know time skips are a common dungeon core trope but I still hate it.

As a dungeon core, Sophia levels, expands, and figures out how to craft various things. That's 80% of the book. She has an exposition fairy and eventually an outcast from a nearby village joins up. They all have the same personality, same voice.

If you want a detailed dungeon leveling system, Crafter's Dungeon is great. But that's about it.

Content Warning: Fantasy racism

A clever, socially deficient young Lady is befriended by a clever girl and form a secret detective agency because it seems interesting. There's also a clever boy, their tutor, and a clever boy who likes to read who make for useful accessories to their activities on occasion.

Wollstonecraft is one of those low-risk children's mystery series. Pleasant enough and tidy, with nearly everything resolved neatly and explained clearly by the end. Just enough loose ends to make a series.

Maomao tries to keep her head down as a servant in the inner court (the emperor's booty call compound) but her education level soon becomes apparent. Her knowledge is medicine and poison is the solution to some situations but superior reasoning skills are the solution annoyingly often. I would rather the focus stay on her specialized skill set.

A hot feminine guy (assumed eunuch but suspiciously not confirmed) acts as puppet master of the inner court. He keeps flirting with Maomao and she has no interest.

Art is pretty but the concubines are pretty interchangeable. The only characters with distinct appearances are Maomao, hot fem guy, and grumpy soldier guy. Maybe the next volume will reveal why this was deemed worthy of an anime adaptation.

If you ever wanted to be a sanitation worker in a fantasy world, this is the book for you. Clyde wants to be a Robin Hood type but fights a lot of mud and poo covered stuff along the way.

Clyde comes off as sarcastic and disinterested. The game system is disinterested and uses outdated slang, which comes off as sarcastic. Most other characters are disbelieving of Clyde's ignorance of the world... and express that with sarcasm.

The game system is my favorite character.

The fantasy sanitation system is actually pretty interesting but that's not exactly what I'm looking for in a book.

Dry but inoffensive. Every plot twist is obvious. The main character is that “big expressions” type, yet everything felt emotionless. Only worth reading if you want sapphic flirting with one woman in a maid outfit.

The exploration of dungeon fairy culture is really cool but once Tacca settles down into a permanent dungeon situation it gets a lot less interesting. The lists of progression options are painfully long and I found myself skipping ahead at times. This book doesn't have an ending to speak of, though it's not really a cliffhanger either. Full series is published as of this writing so that's not a huge problem but still worth noting to anyone who wants to take it one book at a time.

I don't think the audiobook narrator is a good match for this story. Some later chapters focus on some dwarven farmers near the dungeon and that's the only part I think the narrator really suits.

Cats and ravens are classics, but Unfamiliar Familiars offers some fun alternatives. Each animal has a color picture (often really friggin adorable), strengths and weaknesses, and a brief description. Also a few name ideas, like Boop Noodle for a ball python.

This is an ideal book to leave out for guests to flip through and have a giggle. It even has a page marking ribbon so they know you're high class as they flip to the page you marked (it's the Dik-Dik page, it's always the Dik-Dik page.)

Remember the countdown from the second book? It's back and with half the days! There's too many characters to juggle so they immediately split the party to find the three MacGuffins. Meaning Luce and Daniel find them in sequence with a smaller force to tackle the obstacles located around each one.

Rapture feels like it was created from checklists. A checklist of adversaries to resolve, a checklist of YA tropes to fulfill.

I can't really fault the deus ex machina ending because, well, duh. Who didn't think God was going to have a big role in resolving this?

Rapture is tedious but if you've made it this far, may as well finish the series.

Expect some familiar stories if you've ever dabbled in fairytale and mythology, but I found a surprising number I'd never read before. Many stories are simplified to fit on a single page, but maybe you'll be inspired to explore them further in more details books.

The art is gorgeous and this book may be worth it on that alone. The author also made a tarot deck with the art, so that's another way to enjoy the art.

Age of Victoria doesn't lean as hard into the Victorian era setting as I'd like but it's still good fun. The adventuring party is three very aggressive ladies and one man who must adapt to his role as a softboy healer. Everyone adapts to the GameLit Apocolypse really fast and while the “system” is influencing that change in personality and behavior, I wanted more of that inner conflict and societal conflict. Late in the book revisits those themes.

There is tons of fighting in this book, mostly against goblins. If you like a level grind this may be the book for you.

Content warnings: Brief scene of child abuse and an unpleasant scene involving a cat. Non-gory injuries and violence.

Through most of the book, Fanny could be substituted with a rag doll and it would have no effect on the story or action. The rest of the characters are lively enough.

The premise of Earth turning into a harsh game system world is really neat and new to me, at least. I didn't have high hopes for the main character at his introduction: a former professional basketball player and current tabletop and computer gamer. Also his name is Rocky. I grew to like him and his knowledge from both backgrounds is relevant to this new Earth.

The RPG system of this book is very focused on combat skills and classes. There's a lot of fight scenes, mostly very similar, and I found myself skimming over most of them. Noncombat skills exist but few have much relevance. Presumably skinning level 20 is faster than level 1, but it doesn't effect the story any. A kingdom building sort of system is touched upon but will probably be detailed more in future books.

Environmentalism: High
Horniness: Moderate
Power Trip: High, Physical
Testosterone: Occasionally obnoxious

This book could have used another round of edits but is otherwise good.

Audiobook is done by Luke Daniels, so the female lead sounds way older than she probably should, but otherwise all the characters sound okay.

Philosophizing is turned up to eleven. Subtlety is MIA. Tepid romance is apparently contagious.

The timeline in this book is really wacky. The narrative switches between characters as usual but one starts where the previous book left off, another a few months later, and another three full years later. The timelines synchronize eventually but effort of keeping it straight breaks immersion for the first half of the book at least.

Earlier books may have hinted about religious extremism and fascism but it's all over the place in this book. The actual characters often take a backseat to the philosophizing. There's even a border wall line, in case you didn't get that current events have gotten into the author's head.

I've complained about the Citra and Rowan pairing every book so it's no surprise it continues. However every other surviving character is implied to pair off with whoever they're standing near in the last chapter. Only one couple has the slightest hint of chemistry and it's still not great.

Not the worst YA series I've gotten through but I don't expect to revisit it ever.

Almost forgot: Citra and Rowan shouldn't remember the events of Scythe Island because the Thunderhead doesn't have access to make backups!!

Really good continuation of the series, but I'm left questioning the actions of my own PCs. Much as Russell's players do. Were there nonviolent solutions to some of those encounters? Did I really have to inflict lethal damage? I'm so conflicted...

I loved the first three books, but Dungeon Desolation is a disappointment. The storytelling is sacrificed in favor of a new end goal: transitioning into the Ritualist series. Most disappointing of all is the treatment of the female characters, especially Dani who goes into full shrill housewife mode.

Fiona's Lace is a picture book but it's not for little kids. Lots of prose on each page and lots of dialect, with very Irish terms that will challenge most readers. I'm not sure it's possible to read the dialog without falling into an Irish accent. It's delicious. There story goes through true events that happened to Irish immigrants and a lot of unpleasant things tended to happen to Irish families.

I think this book is best for an upper-elementary school kid (or older) who's taking an interest in their Irish heritage.

Fictionalized history, especially with military intrigue, can be fun. But this book has an awful lot of rape. Discussed or just “off camera” but a lot. Gang rape by conquering armies too. The good guys don't rape, they whore. Except the extra good main character who is totally faithful to his hot older wife (a former whore.) It's accurate to the time but still. Yikes. Several mentions of pedophilia as well.

The sci fi aspects of the series don't get fleshed out in this book. There's a magic sentient rock that tells the future.

The author goes off on so many tangents. Often we hear all about a character's life long-term, then go back to the present when none of that has happened. I guess it's the precognisent rock effect but it gets tedious.

My husband really likes this series, it's just not my cup of tea.

Nope nope nope. Horrible depressing things happening throughout but nope. Crossed a line. The dog dies.

Pakistan is a great setting for a modernized Pride and Prejudice. The values match up pretty well to Regency England. Even knowing where the story is going, Unmarriageable is an engrossing drama.

But I have trouble buying that an English literature teacher who teaches P&P to high school girls is not going to notice her family matches up to the Bennet family exactly.

The audiobook is read by the author, so you get the Pakistani accent adding to the story. Minor characters from P&P have more presence in this book and names range from close to original - “Darsee” instead of “Darcy” - to completely random - “Pinky” for Mrs Bennet. I got confused during the more crowded scenes.

The Twelve Dancing Princesses is hard to adapt, as it has way too many characters. House of Salt and Sorrows tries to eleviate the problem by killing off a third of the girls before the story even starts. It's not enough. Only three sisters matter (and one of the dead ones.) Trying to keep track of the rest is an exercise in frustration.

The worldbuilding is where this book shines. The story centers around islanders with ocean-centric religious practices. Humans don't have magic but their gods walk the earth and magic lingers some places.

Content warnings: Pregnancy and childbirth, lots of death, mild horror

The servants of the Bennet household have a pretty good idea what's going on upstairs, but they don't have time for that crap. They're busy laundering away menstrual blood, disposing of human and animal waste, picking at their blisters, and slogging through mud. Also having love triangles while trying not to get caught at fireable offenses.

Longbourn is quite enjoyable until two thirds of the way through, when it takes a flashback break. It could have conveyed the information by other means, but instead we get mood whiplash. Lots of childbirth (trigger warning!), war atrocities, torture, starvation, and injustice. I would have skipped past it but that's tricky with audiobooks.

I like the Fancy Nancy series for introducing big words to young readers. This particular book has lots of ballet terms. For a kid taking ballet, the pictures of positions and moves should help review vocabulary. There's a nice relationship shown between Nancy and her father, which is great for such a girly book.

Threadbare is the most Adorable golem you've ever met. He has so many levels in the Adorable skill, you might have to pass a Willpower check to not turn to mush in his presence.

Being a newly created toy golem, Threadbare cannot read the system prompts that invade his vision. He has no mouth so he cannot talk to his girl or anyone else to ask questions. Nodding in response to questions seems to make the little girl happy. Thinking “yes” makes the text disappear. Threadbare is the most agreeable little guy.

The premise is adorable but there is a lot of swearing in Stuff and Nonsense, so don't pick it up for young kids. It's more appropriate for teens and adults who want something cute but cheeky.

It's not all hugs and tea parties though. Threadbare has many adventures - on his own, with his girl, and even with the family's very large housecat.

Be cautioned this book ends on a cliffhanger. You'll want more but thankfully this is a complete series, at six books.