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, a pin and several bookish goodies.
In which I discover that the tea towel I thought would be a super cute background ends up being a bad background, woops. But this was February’s box and let’s see what it had insidestarting from the leaflet and going clockwise:
Monthly Leaflet, detailing the contents and the photo challenge.
To Cage a God by Elizabeth May was the featured book, and I have actually read this one, go me, after so many unread ones.
Anohter fo the collectible daggers/swords. I always forget which one is which as I don’t really collect them.
A glass jar, these are meant to be user for drinking water or whatever or some storage, but I have only kept two since I only have so much space, sadly.
A fairytale keyring, very cute.
A plastic container bag thing. I assume it’s meant to be for like airport stuff or something, but I wasn’t too crazy about it.
Overall, not a bad box, with some cute items and some used less, but it was still nice.
Agent Harrier: Mission Impossib-hole by Ben Sanders
Rating:
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 am absolutely loving Agent Harrier (you should read my review of the previous one: You Only Spy Twice). And in case this wasn’t clear this was a requested book from the list the publisher sends (I love Little Tiger Books, they are awesome!), which they kindly sent me, and I love their books, here is my review.
Agent Harrier is a chaotic secret agent who somehow is very good and bad at his job and yet he always saves the day. The art is hilarious and breaks the fourth wall in funny ways and makes terrific use of the full page spread to play with the story and add to it. This is part of what makes the series so good, the art is spot on to the story.
There seems to be a lot fo holes going on in this third book, and not just any kind of holes, but PLOT holes, which are not helping the story go too well! They keep transferring Agent Harrier through various stories and realms to try to find the culprit behind all the holes that are interrupting this mission.
As always, it made me laugh and giggle and I felt it was too short but thoroughly enjoyed the book and recommend you read all three books if you haven’t yet!
I have no memory of how I ended up deciding to buy this book, but I did at some point and while packing books and trying to reduce them, I thought this was a bit of an odd choice (I’m not really someone who reads books with sport involved in them) but decided to give it a chance.
I am glad I did.
She Drives Me Crazy was a fun read. It was easy, flowed well, and I finished it in a day (one bit read while having breakfast, then the rest in the afternoon after having to do the boring adult stuff of the day).
I admit I do enjoy some fake dating, and it was an interesting one.
Scottie is heartbroken, a little obsessed and upset about her ex, who moved schools and is now playing in a different basketball team. And luck just seems to not be giving her a break when she ends up having to give her nemesis, Irene, a ride to school each morning.
Irene is the perfect cheerleader and popular, but Scottie remembers her as mean, and therefore they seem to not be getting along despite their forced proximity. But then, Scottie sees an opportunity to make her ex jealous and for Irene to keep chasing her own cheerleading dreams.
Shenanigans ensue. However, one of the things I liked a lot about the book was how it tackled the emotions after a breakup, the stages of grief it can bring, and how people can change and not recognise it. Scottie has a long journey of recovering from a breakup that had a hit to her confidence, and that was handled incredibly well, and it was very interesting to read the conversations and interactions about it, alongside seeing parents and family of both Irene and Scottie being part of the story and not helpful plot movers.
Both Irene and Scottie having supportive and interesting groups of friends was also nice rather a mean girls vibe it was more interactive and you can see the mixing of their groups as they continue with their fake dating that slowly becomes less fake and brings them to confront why they are dating and if there are feelings in between them.
Overall, quick read about high school, a bit of basketball and cheerleading, a bit of fake dating and just a fun time.
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, a pin and several bookish goodies.
A start of a new year of book boxes, so let’s see how well we do start a year. From the leaflet and going clockwise:
Murder Mystery leaflet
Voyage of the Damned is the featured read, and honestly this kinda escaped my radar at some point and it hasn’t really caught my attention much, so still unread and unsure of when it will be read.
The Best Stories fandom neutral reusable sticker book designed by Chatty Nora. Who doesn’t like a sticker book? I still have a Winnie the Pooh one I had as a kid, and a new one is never a bad thing.
Crescent City bookmarks. I know it is from this series, but generally do not care for character bookmarks.
Library stamp, which I did not keep since I have my own embosser.
Underneath it all, an apron with spooky tasty treats, also not keps since the sizing doesn’t work for me sadly.
In general, probably not the best box and not the best start (but then I am not comparing with other January boxes). I only really kept one item and the rest didn’t hit it with me, so it felt like a big miss overall, which is a shame.
Ghostly Things (Volumes 1, 2 & 3) by Ushio Shirotori
Rating:
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.
Welcome to a full series review because sometimes trying to review a single manga volume feels like I am vaguely triyng to not spoil the plot or some volumes are just hard to describe without a lot of references to previous volumes.
Ghostly Things was a whim purchase and after reading the first volume I immediately had to go buy the other two (or initially as many as there were in the story). So that already tells you it was very enjoyable.
The premise is that we meet Yachiho who is moving into her new house on her own because her father is overseas, and the house comes with a few quirks and hauntings. But this does not discourage our lovely gentle heroine, and instead she decides to brave things and keep searching, because she has her own motives to have moved in alone.
The volumes cover a few plot lines, one is the mystery of the house and what it hides, then there is the search Yachiho is doing for a Book of the Dead, we also have our usual school and friends side story, though this adds flavour and some extra adventures, and some antagonists to the mix, and allows the town to show as part of where our story develops.
There is also a little spirit that helps her and is trying to guide her to do the right thing, but the spirit has its own motives and secrets.
The overall story was cute and the creatures, characters and environment were nicely drawn in lots of detail and very fun. The story flows, even though as times it feels a little too short, and I did wish it had one or two more volumes to expand on some parts, but it was still done well in three volumes.
If you like stories about yokai, the spirit world and a few mysteries thrown into the mix, I can recommend this one as a quick read since it is only three volumes and goes by really quickly for an afternoon read if like me, you can’t wait to read the next one.
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 actually can’t remember how I came to have a proof copy for this book, since I know it was not one I requested, so it either came freely from publisher or through BlackCrow (who are awesome with proofs).
As you may have seen from the previous post, I also have a hardcover copy of it but I read it on the proof copy.
Now, this si one of my lowest-rated book reviews in a while, and the main reason for it is that this book needed more editing and more work. It is a book written during school by the author and then reworked, and it shows as you read through it. The characters are wishy-washy and feel shoehorned into making the prophecy work (the prophecy parts were probably the most interesting). They just seem to be carried forever by the plot to make the plot happen while trying to figure themselves out, and not in a good way.
The format of it, with the prophecy, the time travel, and the trying to make reason of the side plots, was interesting and had a lot of potential, but for me, it falls flat. I did not care for most of the characters except George, who felt like he had just been dragged into this nonsense and had no choice (see? Everything is very much an “I have no choice but to do this” all over the book), so our two main characters in themselves are flat and boring, plot puppets overall to fulfil a prophecy and you could swap them for other characters and still get the same story.
The premise is that there is this prophecy about 3 parts of a story, and you are having that slowly told (the people talking of the prophecy talk about the person who made it, and make notes on it and therefore this was the most interesting part and you could read just the bits of the prophecy and get a decent story, skipping more than half the book, way more enjoyable) but you also get several points of view by a variety of characters on how they are going to save the world, or maybe just themselves because they are selfish and want to live and yet they are cowards and nothing like what they are supposed to be.
The overall summary is that this had potential, had an interesting idea, and formatting and the “prophecy” part was pretty decent, but the execution fell flat and steamrolled through the characters just to fit the prophecy and “plot”, and it could have been done better. They deserved better.
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, a pin and several bookish goodies.
A box to end the year with a lot of items for the new year. Starting at the top left corner and going clockwise:
Theme leaflet
A money jar (or ideas) inspired by a quote from Addie LaRue.
A calendar with art for each month based on books, usually pretty nice.
Weekly planner with a habit tracker and space for each day. It is currently on my fridge and used somewhat for meal planning and notes.
The featured book which is The Pricniple of Moments by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, and surprisingly I’ve actually read the book (review coming soon!).
Finally, underneath all of it, a tea towel for space, quite nice design but the fabric is not particularly good at drying which is one of my biggest issues with it. It’s cool but useless.
Nice box to end the year, and I have used most of it except the towel which I tried to use, found it unusable and gave it away. I have this problem a lot with Illumicrate towels and tea-towels, they never dry enough and are pretty much useless for their intended purpose despite being very pretty which frustrates me because I would like to use them and have awesome towels. But the rest was cool!
The Invisible Man & His Soon-to-Be Wife by Iwatobineko
Rating:
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.
As you may already know, I have a soft spot for manga, and when this popped up on my recommendations (I can’t remember where) I had to try it out. The art style looked adorable and the premise too.
The series basically asks, what would happen if you had an invisible man and a blind woman work together and fall in love?
Yakou Shizuka, who is quiet, bashful and blind works at a detective agency as a secretary and assistant. Her boss, Tounome, is a gentleman and the main investigator, with the added talent of being invisible. This is particularly helpful for investigations, even if it can generally be a bit of a difficulty for relationships and other things, but this is not an issue at all for Yakou as she can sense him and know when he’s near.
The fact that Yakou can sense him makes Tounome interested even more on her and so it starts that he decides to invite her out for a date and woo her slowly. So you get a cute slow burn romance story, and you also get a few mysteries and detective agency plots to keep the overall story going. On top of that the agency has two more characters, a human who is super good at tech and a wonderful tracking beastwoman, who also do detective work, and who are quite invested in the developing relationship between Yakou and Tounome.
The first volume is utterly cute and very sweet, it is quite slow but will make you root for them and giggle while the story develops. The “chapters” are short and quick, but they still are fun to read and there is more plot than just their relationship, including the world building happening as the investigations happen, and learning more about the coworkers.
I would recommend it as a soft romance with a little bit of disability, and an interesting take on how to coexist with variety of differences. Very sweet overall.
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 read The Last Unicorn from an old battered paperback my mum had back when I was a young teenager, and by then had watched the film a few times, I was hooked (also terrified to death of the Red Bull, which to me means the film and book did a wonderful job creating the Bull). It has always been a favourite and a comfort watch and read, but I didn’t have my own copy so when Gollancz announced the special edition hardcover reprint, I had to have it.
Let me tell you, it is glorious and I have zero regrets. It is a beautiful and stunning edition and matches the colouring and vibes of the film in it’s design, and I absolutely love it.
But what about the story Moon? What do you think of it now that you’re read it again?
I still love it. The book and film have their differences and I like both versions, each has their nuances, the book in some ways feels slightly more philosophical than the film, but then the film can play with other elements. You all know the story of our unicorn who has been living happily in her forest and is unaware that she may be the last, until she overhears a conversation and then curiosity gets the best of her, throwing her into an adventure to find if she is really the last or not.
Turns out she may be last one living freely and that may not be for that long if she doesn’t find a way to save herself and the rest of the unicorns. There is a lot of magic, shenanigans, failures, pondering about humanity, identity and in some ways what we dream of and what we may truly find makes us happy that is not part of our “dreams of happiness” and it is a lovely interesting story to read which to this day still feels like a masterpiece.
A fantastical journey into a world that is fascinating and that will make you want to watch the film again.
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, a pin and several bookish goodies.
A dark and spooky box for Illumicrate with some interesting items. Starting at the top left and going clockwise:
Featured book, Starling House by Alix E. Harrow. I’ve read her books before so I expected to like and have yet to read it, woops. The reason it doesn’t look amazing in the pictures is because it has a see through slip cover and therefore really difficult to show in all its glory, but it’s pretty cool.
Theme leaflet.
A spooky tree ornament which I loved, to be fair I generally enjoy the tree ornaments Illumicrate sends and they end up on my Christmas tree.
I think this was a foldable bag (vaguely from memory) and I gifted it to someone who needed cool bags(I have a massive collection of tote bags to last me an eternity and that I do use for my shopping).
A classic mug from Illumicrate which is fun but not one I have currently in rotation.
Book ends, which I also do not have in use currently but I kept them because they are cool.
Overall, it was a box with lots of usable parts and that makes me happy, even if a few of them are not currently in use but that’s not because I don’t appreciate them. Nice little box and well themed I think.
