Book Review

Moon Reads: An Unlikely Coven

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An Unlikely Coven by Am Kvita

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px Grey

Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.

Disclaimer: Receiving a review copy from the publisher does not affect my opinion of the book. If you think I review it highly it is due to me knowing my taste well and therefore not requesting books I won’t enjoy. And I am not obligated to review the book if I do not like it, so you may not see bad reviews due to me preferring not to hype down a particular book. I only do reviews of books I disagreed with if I think it is worth bringing a topic or warning to light.

I got this book from the publishers and actually finished it reading in time for Halloween but the review didn’t get done until now.

I will start by saying that the story of someone who can’t cast magic and is a “useless” member of a magical family trying to help someone who has suddenly been granted powers and solve also a who did this and race against time was right up my street.

The book suffers a little with pacing and characters being introduced quite abruptly in the first third of the book, where at first we get a bit more exposition, more tell than show, and some weird incongruence with everyone highlighting how Joan is basically unemployed and still has so much money so she can just live like that, which felt a bit unnecessary and also condescending. Particularly since she technically leaves her job and all her life to come move back to be with her family, so making her aware she is dependent on her family feels pretty frustrating (and you would hope she has her own savings and her own life carved up).

Anyway, that was the parts I struggled with but then we get to meet her family and her friends, or what will become her “coven”. The book is really focused on acceptance of yourself, and seeing yourself from the eyes of others and the good that can be. We also have a big focus on found family over biological family which can sometimes take you for granted or make assumptions simply because you are part of the family.

The dynamics of the different magical groups were interesting though I would’ve liked to see more points of view or more about other beings other than CZ who is a vampire, and to get a better picture of why exactly witches dominate other than the little explanation we get on the dynamics, seeing them in action more would’ve helped.

But still, the overall story was interesting, and somehow it does wrap up most of the plot so you could have it be a stand alone and not need more, to you can take off from where it ends and create other stand alone books that still follow Joan and her little “coven” around, which I think would be very cute, particularly getting to know more of Astoria and Wren.

Overall, it was one of those books you can read in one sitting (or two in my case), easy fun read, leaves you feeling grateful for your community and found family, and wanting to spend time with them.

Subscription Boxes

Moon Hauls: Colours of Magic Illumicrate

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Subscription box: Illumicrate

Theme/Month: Colours of Magic, October 2024

Ownership: Subscribed on their 6 boxes option. If you are interested in purchasing an Illumicrate subscription, you can do it on their website.

Illumicrate is a book subscription box that usually features fantasy and sci-fi, and curates a wide range of books, including both young adult and adult fiction. It usually contains a new release and several bookish goodies.

Colours of Magic makes me think of Terry Pratchett, and so let’s see how the box did starting at the top left corner and going clockwise:

  • A Moth to Flame chain enamel pin set which I think is very cute and pretty.
  • I used to be obsessed with book covers, and I admit I prefer these that wrap around than the ones that are more like a sleeve, and this cute dragon one is gorgeous.
  • A bottle travel set, which I ended up gifting to someone who travels since I already have one, but this was utterly pretty and got lots of admiration.
  • Leftlet of the month
  • Washi tape, though I don’t remember the theme. I kinda like washi tape but forget to use it enough.
  • The featured book was Until We Shatter by Kate Dylan which is on my reading list but haven’t got to it yet.

Overall, definitely a magical box with lots of colours and different fandoms, which was pleasing. Nothing really unusable or gone to waste, so also a win there. I’d say it was pretty good for October even if I haven’t read the book yet.

Book Review

Moon Reads: The Moth Keeper

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The Moth Keeper by K. O’Neill

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px Grey

Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.

From the same author as The Tea Dragon Society, we have The Moth Keeper, so I know I like the art style and it was partly one of the reasons I chose this book. But the story itself was worth the read too.

In this book we follow Anya, who is training to be a Moth Keeper, a slightly lonely but crucial responsibility and a great honour. It is lonely because they are the protectors of lunar moths that allow a special flower to bloom once a year, which is needed for the village to thrive. This does mean you end up basically living at night and seeing mostly nights and very little sunshine and very few of your people.

Anya wants to prove her worth and take over the post, but it feels like a heavy cost to have to do less with friends. Then of course, Anya notices something that could cause harm to the moths and somehow breaks tradition to try to move forward.

The story is very sweet and gentle, it has an intricate nightly world initially, based around the moths and our little village, it is full of a fantastical and yet simple way of life. It is also about growing up, about making choices and pondering what thebeaten path brings, or if the choices you make, once you actually go through are exactly what you wanted. What if you want it, but also want to be able to do more, to engage in with your community?

Very sweet, lush and hopeful, worth a read for the lovely dreamy art, and for a sweet story.

Book Review

Moon Reads: The Isle in the Silver Sea

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The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px

Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.

Disclaimer: Receiving a review copy from the publisher does not affect my opinion of the book. If you think I review it highly it is due to me knowing my taste well and therefore not requesting books I won’t enjoy. And I am not obligated to review the book if I do not like it, so you may not see bad reviews due to me preferring not to hype down a particular book. I only do reviews of books I disagreed with if I think it is worth bringing a topic or warning to light.

If you are new here, let me start by saying that Tasha Suri is one of my absolute favourite authors, and therefore this book has been an anticipated read since I knew of it (back when Tasha was obsessed with The Green Knight film and all those posts of medieval books), so of course I asked Orbit for a review copy, I probably begged. And they kindly let my soul be happy and have it. This review is therefore fully about my love of Tasha’s writing and having a review copy doesn’t change my opinion of it (or make me rate it higher, go check all my reviews of her books from the past).

The Isle in the Silver Sea is a standalone fantasy book (I am surprised since Tasha likes trilogies and epic stories), which is still incredibly epic. It is like being wrapped in a medieval fairy tale, being transported to an old London and then to a set for Merlin or The Green Knight.

The story follows Simran and Vina, who are incarnates, reincarnations of characters from tales, that are destined to re-enact and live their tale to provide life to Britain. Fated to fall in love and then doom each other, over and over, through lifetimes.

But neither of them is ready to simply follow their tale, and even less to doom each other when they realise that an assassin is targeting tales and their incarnates, and they may be next. And so they need to find a way to survive, and ponder if fate can be changed, if tales can be rewritten.

As always, the cast of characters is a whole thing here, and we find a rich world for them to exist in, starting with our main tale for this story, “The Knight and the Witch”, which is a tale of doomed love. But as you read through the chapters (divided between the points of view of Simran and Vina), each one has a snippet of some writing that is related to the tales, so you get more of the world building (and honestly, I think on a second read they would be even more significant).

Tasha deftly builds a Britain and London that is rich in history and yet also completely different, wrapped in tales and lore. And yet, as you read, as you come closer to the end, the currents of what motivates some people here and makes them think they’re British or “English”, also run a current through the story here, parallels and yet, hope lives eternal.

This was my commute book, and oh how I regretted that, because I did not want to stop reading. I dreamt of Vina and Simran, of their world, their tale, their story. I yearned for them, fought with them, dreamt with them. This is a tale that is very much alive and absolutely worth reading. Tasha gets better with each new book, each new story is a craft honed even further.

I cried at it, I hoped, and desperately wanted things to be, for their tale to make it, for life to have a chance. And in the end, I absolutely loved it. I was speechless; I had no more to say or do because this book was perfect.

So all I can ask, is that you give this exquisite tale a chance to wrap itself around you.

Subscription Boxes

Moon Hauls: Darker Academia Illumicrate

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Subscription box: Illumicrate

Theme/Month: Darker Academia, September 2024

Ownership: Subscribed on their 6 boxes option. If you are interested in purchasing an Illumicrate subscription, you can do it on their website.

Illumicrate is a book subscription box that usually features fantasy and sci-fi, and curates a wide range of books, including both young adult and adult fiction. It usually contains a new release and several bookish goodies.

I have mixed feelings about Dark Academia but let’s go into this with open eyes, starting bottom left and going clockwise:

  • The Dark Academia Bookcase jigsaw puzzle. I love when they send jigsaws, because they’re very fun and I find it a nice activity to do, so this is already a win.
  • A task journal (interesting concept) with a gorgeous cover.
  • Reading prompt cards, not a concept for me particularly since I am a mood reader and being prompted or forced to choose something does not work, but I did like the idea behind it. It has genre suggestions but also things like “a book with dragons” and so forth, which is quite fun.
  • A satisfying closure glasses case, which I don’t use simply because I don’t use a glasses case for my all the time on glass except when I sleep.
  • The monthly leaflet as usual.
  • And the featured book which was A Dark and Drowning Tide, which is on my list to read and I haven’t got to it annoyingly. But still looking forward to it.

Overall a very dreamy box, which had some very good items and some less useful for me but still creative and useful for others. Visually it’s one of my favourites of the year and the book was also a big favourite.

Book Review

Moon Reads: Dark Fairies

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Dark Fairies Anthology

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px

Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.

I love Annalise Jensen’s art, and had already kickstarted and enjoyed her previous fairy anthology art book, so backing this one was going to happen.

This is an anthology that compiles art, comics, and short stories about fairies, transformation, and queer desire. It does have a dark theme overall, and I think it is a wonderful little collection of various artists in it (You can read the Kickstarter project here).

What can I say about it? I liked the previous one more, but this one had gorgeous artwork, some dark and creepy stories, some really good comics (some were not up to my taste or really my topics) and it is a great quality book.

It just makes me feel like I need to get back to creating art after going through this lovely anthology and which gives you art, comics, and one fo my favourite things was that the short stories had artwork or headers or side graphics which made it a stunning piece reminding me of old illustrated books. IT is a beautiful piece of art and very magical.

Book Review

Moon Reads: Moonflow

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Moonflow by Bitter Karella

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px Grey

Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.

Disclaimer: Receiving a review copy from the publisher does not affect my opinion of the book. If you think I review it highly it is due to me knowing my taste well and therefore not requesting books I won’t enjoy. And I am not obligated to review the book if I do not like it, so you may not see bad reviews due to me preferring not to hype down a particular book. I only do reviews of books I disagreed with if I think it is worth bringing a topic or warning to light.

Welcome to the first creepy post of October. I don’t know how much content have of this kind, but this felt fitting to be the first post for the month.

This sounded interesting in many ways when Orbit sent the monthly list of interesting books. Mushrooms, eldritch horror, a cult, and a lot of chaos, why not?

I think the best way I can describe this is that it was a trip! The story follows Sarah who studied to be a mycologist but didn’t finish and now grows mushrooms for people to consume and have a bit of fun. But life isn’t going great so when friend asks her to go on a trip to find spores for a new mushroom that gives the best trips when consumed, she agrees despite misgivings because she wants to try it again and also, the money will help her a lot to get back on track with life.

We also follow a few women who are part of the cult of the Green Lady, which is a feminist cult that exists in the Pamogo woods, that are meant to be difficult to navigate, shuffling themselves and known to belong to the Lord of the Forest. The cult is all about the feminine Green Lady and power to feminity, with lots of sexual power in it but only between women because apparently male energy is bad and corrupts.

Sarah makes it to outside of the woods where she meets her guide and then they start the trek, and Sarah starts getting weird messages that seem to be calling her deep into the woods. And you know, if you are already kinda lost, why not follow this random glitch message.

There’s a lot of chaos, some god events, a lot of sex and drugs, a lot about mushrooms (loved how they’d go all nerdy about things every now and then, which was funky), and a lot about what defines a woman and well, also cult behaviours and brain washing. As I said, it is a trip. But I laughed a lot, was terrified and the ending was just so creepy.

So it was horror well done, and very creepy. There is a lot I am sure on content warnings and I recommend you look for a list (I know there’s body horror, gore, killing, drugs, sex, transphobia, police brutality in a way, guns) because there’s loads going on, but it was a quick read, it just flowed and the ending felt fitting to the chaos ongoing in the Pamogo Woods.

Subscription Boxes

Moon Hauls: Look What You Made Me Do Illumicrate

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Subscription box: Illumicrate

Theme/Month: Look What You Made Me Do, August 2024

Ownership: Subscribed on their 6 boxes option. If you are interested in purchasing an Illumicrate subscription, you can do it on their website.

Illumicrate is a book subscription box, it usually features fantasy and sci-fi but not exclusively young adult, sometimes it features adult too. It usually contains a new release and several bookish goodies.

August box definitely had a distinct colour vibe going on here. So let’s go from the featured book and clockwise:

  • Mistress of Lies by K.M. Enright which I still have to read, I just haven’t felt particularly compelled to, and so I don’t know when I will get to it.
  • A weekly pill box inspired by Ruthless Remedy. I like this one but I had one in use already so haven’t used it yet.
  • Silver Under Nightfall inspired snack bowls. I love these and they are perfect for snack sizing. I generally love almost everything that is dishware they bring out.
  • Underneath it we have a black and a red packing cube, which I gifted out as I didn’t need any but these were gorgeous.
  • Then we have the usual monthly leaflet of contents
  • And finally a replica dagger from The Serpent and the Wings of Night which I didn’t read so no clue. I generally don’t keep these since they’re too heavy to use as hair pins (if they were good as hairsticks, then I’d be all over them, but they’re much too heavy) and I don’t have much reason to keep them otherwise.

Overall, it was definitely a box in theme but I didn’t keep much from it, even if the snack bowls were absolute winners (they are still a winner). Part of me wishes the collectible was more useful but I get the nice unique factor here for the replicas.

Book Review

Moon Reads: Ophelia After All

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Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px Grey

Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.

For the life of me I have no clue how I ended up with this book, but when I was doing my book clearing before the move I decided to get through this one because it didn’t feel too samey like others that had not made the cull.

Ophelia After All follows Ophelia who is known to be a little boy crazy and full of crushes, but also she has a good hand in growing roses, and a bit of a romantic heart.

So she is quite surprised when she is suddenly having the same kind of feelings she has for the many boys in her life, for a quiet and cute girl, Talia. This starts making her doubt herself and her own identity because everyone knows she’s boy-crazy. And as things start getting a bit out of control, including in her friends group partly due to her and to her friends figuring their own doubts out about things, she feels like life is spiralling out of control.

There were a few things I found quite refreshing about the book, which will put us into spoiler territory, so maybe skip this paragraph if it matters to you. One of them was that it isn’t all revolving around Ophelia, her group of friends has their own dramas and doubts and they in part fail her while she is full of doubts, but equally, she isn’t there for them either. And they all notice this slowly, specially as she shut them out while she was doubting herself. The other thing, which is the main spoiler here is that she does not end up with Talia. When she finally decides she wants to figure out things and invite Talia to prom, it turns out Talia wasn’t leading her on, but had a boyfriend and was simply glad to have a friendship with Ophelia. I like that her crush isn’t suddenly a happy ending all magical, but it shows that sometimes we get wrapped up on our own side of the feelings without considering what the other person may be thinking, and that they may not even be sending the “signals” we think are being sent, and are genuinely being friendly. Also, this was a girl to girl kind of oh no, not actually single thing, and Ophelia, well, she has to come to grips with that, and it was nice to see that here.

Overall, the book was fun to read, and it had a refreshing look at identity, figuring things out and romance, and I really enjoyed that.

Book Review

Moon Reads: Jupiter Nettle and the Seven Schools of Magic

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Jupiter Nettle and the Seven Schools of Magic by Sangu Mandanna. Illustrated by Pablo Ballesteros

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px Grey

Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.

I think I found this while searching for Sangu Mandanna’s new book which I couldn’t remember the title exactly, and then saw there was a cute graphic novel, and had to get it!

Jupiter Nettle and the Seven Schools of Magic does not disappoint. Jupiter has always dreamed of joining one of the Schools of Magic, so when she tries all the tests for all seven schools, feels like she has failed them all and then gets a visitor to say she has made it is not the School of Earth Magic, she does not know what to do.

She decides to go anyway, despite knowing that the School of Earth Magic is looked down by the rest of the students, doesn’t seem to involve any “cool” magic spells and her main tutor and teacher is too serious and demanding. She still sticks it out and somehow starts carving a place for herself in the school, but then an old enemy of the school and magic in general returns, testing Jupiter and her own magic.

IT is a lovely artwork and the story was adorable. I liked the view of the different schools which is a different approach to subjects or houses and here it is more about affinities, including ghosts (which if you are not a ghost, you can’t join). And Jupiter finding her place and figuring things out was also nice, and the way she almost gives up but then finds a way to find her own voice and magic was quite nice too.

Can recommend as a quick sweet read full of magic.