Fiona

Clear, concise and funny. Even the bits I already knew were entertaining.

A cute well-plotted adventure with brisk pacing that features some memorable supporting characters (especially Fen, the stick-in-the-mud who is completely charming) . The illustrations complement the story well enough but failed to blow me away. Ideal for kids who love animals and magical fiction.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for review.

That was lovely and I read it slowly so it would last longer. Mini is so non-judgemental and its a joy to hear about her life (although it's sad afterwards realizing that what she described has been destroyed and she's been forced into the Qallunaat way for all her adult life now which is probably why I didn't want it to end.)

Very cute but choppy; more style than substance.

That was a lovely romp, like Wodehouse turned up to 11.

Readable enough but I struggled to enjoy this book. The pacing is too slow, the conflict too tame, the setting too thin; overall I found myself bored. There's never anything At Stake for the narrator (whose voice is unremarkable) so I never found myself caring about what happened to him. Ultimately it reads like the first book in a series where its all just setting the scene for stories to follow. Cover art is pretty though.

I received a free copy of this book from Tundra Books for review.

This book seems to have been written for people who need it explained that pain is your body's way of letting you know there's a problem. DNF because it just gets more useless the further I read.

The second Fabled Stables tales is a charming allegory about gossip and tattling which would be a useful tool for creating discussions about such matters, for both groups and individual children. The writing and structure are both solid but the illustrations, while cute enough, don't flesh out the story significantly.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for review

Another solid historical novel from Penman; it's a very pleasant way to learn history but found some of it (mostly love scenes) too inventive for my taste. Bonus points for the thoroughness of the author's note though; she's wonderfully transparent about what's completely made up.

A quick read and fairly relatable. I was worried it was going to end in a way that pissed me off and relieved that it didn't.

Fascinating and very well written. Quinn's author's note is always so thorough and I really appreciate how forthcoming she is about which bits she has made up completely.

Uninspired. Harley comes across as a very flat character.

I'm just not feeling this. It reads less Wodehouse-ian than Schott's first effort and I skipped to the end about a third of the way in. It ended in a very sequel-y sort of way, which, if it comes to pass, I shall probably avoid.

A good little read about homelessness.

More entertaining than I expected. Sophocles is an intriguing subject but mostly I feel sorry for his wife (becoming a widow probably made her life better in many ways).

Overconfident Weenie and his sidekicks cranky Frank and rational Beans are a charming set of characters who had me laughing from the start. They live with thier human Bob but are fully independent of his influence and thier attempts to compensate Bob for the meatloaf Weenie eats are unexpected and creative. I can see this series being very popular.

Thank you to Tundra Books for the free review copy (which will be gifted to a delighted child this Xmas).

Readable but unremarkable. It is not uncommon for an author's first novel to be autobiographical but generally an effort is made to render it more exciting or interesting. This novel doesn't bother though; there's actually a chapter about life being boring and if the narrator is bored, that doesn't bode well for the reader. Consequently, its a quiet tale which has gender issues as background noise but no real conflict to drive the narrative forward.

I recieved a free copy of this book for review from the publisher.

I suspect this is one of those books where you read it a second time and go, “Ohhh!” but this first reading made me wonder if it deserved the hype.

It does make more sense the second time around. That was deeply philosophically beautiful.

As someone with severe dysbiosis, Davis' advice about probiotics is ignorant of the overwhelm8ng need to understand the existing ecosystem before you fuck with it. I don't recommend this at all, especially his ideas around commercial probiotic use.

Taut, propulsive storytelling. Mosley knows exactly how to convey the most information with the fewest words and I really need to read more of his stuff.

I have no idea why I requested this from the library. Readable, decent art, but I really find the endless parade of superheroes tiresome and I will go back to avoiding marvel and DC stuff methinks.

A fun adventure but not as engaging as the first one, tbh. It was all a bit predictable and I find Callan a boring character (for someone with his past, he's surprisingly well-adjusted). The pacing is good and the world-building solid. The ending is, unsurprisingly, set up for a sequel as the Dragoneye continues to pursue its own agenda.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for review.

This could easily have been a 4 star book if it had been better edited.

I appreciated the varied writing style for different tales but several of the stories were confusing or lacked a proper structure.

Interminable; the bally thing just goes on and on. Wodehouse would never have bored his readers with such tedious cricketing and fete performances and he most certainly would never task Jeeves with such unsolicited manipulation. No fan of Plum's would enjoy this and I'm tempted to throw it in the bin lest it waste the time of a fellow aficionado.