I Suddenly Remembered My Charlemagne

I think one of the smartest things I did this year was remember to read Jen's books. She's so smart and her books are SO well constructed. They're just a delight to read.

This is the third book in the Naturals series (the fourth one's out, but I've come this far in trade paperbacks, so...), and the stakes are quite high. We also get a lot of fun new backstory, and development for the ensemble. I felt like there was a lot more teamwork in this one, but I think that might be a reflection of how the series' arc is coming together. Anyway, I really enjoyed it, and I can't WAIT for the final instalment.

This is the sequel to Madly/The Potion Diaries, which I read last year and really enjoyed. Basically, it's modern England/Europe, but with magic, so everything is slightly more complicated, as you do. It's a "light" fantasy, which means it's a fun read and there's not death and rape all over the place, which I also really appreciate.

Anyway, Sam, our heroine, continues to make potions and defend the crown princess. There's magic and science, friendship and romance, adventure and family legacy, allies and betrayal...all the good stuff, really. Alward's world-building is top notch, and the structure of the book is also excellent. I don't think the book suffers from 'second book' syndrome (the trilogy will end next year), which is also nice.

This comic is so good.

First of all: Poe, Jess, and Karé are NOT drawn with lighter skin AT ALL. Second, Jess and Karé get a TONNE of screen time (both independently AND as part of the team). So I was super happy on that front.

Also, the writing mirror's Oscar Isaac's actual delivery and cadence of speech, which is great.

Also, BB-8 has, like, a whole action sequence at one point, and it's BEAUTIFUL.

Also, despite having accidentally spoiled myself reading the Flight Log, the comic was really good. I enjoyed it immensely. It was gorgeously drawn and coloured, and the story was top notch. I hope they keep doing it (even though waiting a year for the volume in the first place r.o.u.g.h.).

ALSO, the scenes with Leia and Poe were AWESOME. Leia was also drawn fabulously, and I live for their relationship at this point. It's just awesome.

10/10 would recommend. (especially if you, like me, watched Rogue One and need something to warm your soul.)

I liked this one a lot. I think it's the first adult book I've read in...well, a while (not counting The Order of the Air, which are, like, DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR ME, I mean, kinda), and I was super worried I wouldn't like it, but then I did.

Anyway: crew of not-quite misfits on year-long journey in space, shenanigans ensue (or don't, as the case may be. This book had great use of pauses). They've all got secrets, they've all got pasts, some of them have super questionable romance options...it was really well done.

I also really like space operas where humans are not The Great Saviours Of The Galaxy, so that was super fun. And there was interesting intra-human politics, depending on when they left Earth which I ALSO really enjoyed. Basically, the world-building was excellent, regardless of which world Chambers was talking about.

I did read several reviews complaining about the pacing, but honestly I am not too fond of that method of critiquing a book. Usually I think that if you don't like the pacing, it means you and the author have different ideas of what's important to the story. In the case of PLANET, apparently I agree with Chambers, because I thought the pacing and construction was fine.

There's a second book which I will get to, but this book is really well contained, so I am not in a rush.

Highly recommend this.

So much backstory. So much backstory that I wished I was reading a novel instead, because I found it difficult to follow (with my eyes, I mean, not the actual plot. I remain, it turns out, terrible at reading graphic novels). But it was freaking beautiful and Coates is wonderful, and I'm going to keep reading them because 1) I want to know, and 2) I want Marvel to keep making them. So.

This is one of those books that I can totally recognize the brilliance of, from a craft perspective, even though it did absolutely nothing for me. It's a contemporary thriller, and I really liked several of the characters. Also, Kuehn's writing is absolutely stellar. Not liking the book is 100% on me, so if you like dark and twisty, you will probably like this one.

This series is called "Once Upon A Crime" and follows three families involved in the illegal organ transplant trade.

The first book is The Princess and the Pea, and follows a girl whose body does not produce platelets properly, which means she bruises at everything. Her parents keep her sheltered, but then disaster strikes, and she has to go out into the real world (i.e. New York City) for the first time.

The second book is The Princess and the Frog, and follows a girl from the other family. She's the opposite in most ways: hard, calculating, eager to take her place in the business.

As far as fairy-tale re-imaginings go, they were both on the "light" side when it came to details and themes and whatnot, which is totally fine with me. I enjoyed how Penelope and Magnolia came to an understand of each other's strengths and weaknesses, and the politics were moderately interesting. Also, moral questions and so on, and I don't feel the book was overly preachy, which was nice.

I kinda hope there's a third one called Rock Me Like A Hurricane, tbh. ;)

This is one of those books where I am impressed by the construction and writing and plotting and whatnot, even if the story itself didn't exactly land for me (there's a lot with grown-up pirates and it's tangential to the plot, but also important to the plot, and I just...drifted a bit?).

But anyway, there's a code built into the pages, and the world that Chee made is AMAZING, and I'm interested to see where it goes.

This was the first book I read after the election, so I was kind of a mess? And almost not in the mood for fake politics? But, man, Kate Elliot is so good, and this book is so good.

Hard conversations were had. Justice was given. Giant magi-mechanical spiders were driven. A not-great conspiracy was, well, that would be telling.

All in all, I really like this series a lot.

A NEW SERIES! It's the same general time as The Survivors' Club, but I don't know if it'll be in the same world (i.e. if there will be cameos. there weren't any so far), but anyway, SO NICE TO BE BACK HERE.

StL starts off with one of the most amazingly scandalous reveals I've ever seen, and then just barrels on from there. I love Balogh's ability to go for it, in terms of setting up her plots. Like, it could be completely ludicrous (and in a lot of ways, it really is), but it's so well written and the characters are so compelling that you really don't care.

I'm so glad there's a new series. I hope it hits me in all the ways the Survivors did. So far, so good!