Tag: fantasy

Book Review

Moon Reads: The Invisible Man & His Soon-to-Be Wife

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The Invisible Man & His Soon-to-Be Wife by Iwatobineko

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.

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.

Book Review

Moon Reads: The Last Unicorn

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The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

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.

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.

Subscription Boxes

Moon Hauls: Anit-Hero Illumicrate

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Subscription box: Illumicrate

Theme/Month: Anit-Hero, November 2023

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.

Book Review

Moon Reads: Galaxy The Prettiest Star

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Galaxy The Prettiest Star by Jadzia Axelrod and Jess Taylor

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.

This was one of those recommended books by Storygraph and Goodreads on due to whatever I had been reading, and so I liked the artwork and decided to go for it.

The artwork is absolutely love, very colourful! It is a wonderful palette of colours and it is vibrant and very alive, telling the story well. It also has a corgi sidekick/nanny which is adorable and drawn so well!

As for the story, we follow Taylor, who looks like a perfect boy with good grades, a loving family, sports going well, and yet he is unhappy. Because he is not actually human but the princess from an alien planet and one of the few survivors from a horrible war.

Enter Katherine, Kat, who is incredibly confident just being her own self, and suddenly Taylor seems to be seeing a different way of life, and maybe it isn’t worth to keep hiding her own identity and be human, is it so bad to be her own self and a princess?

Obviously this whole thing is a dangerous thing, because she is a survivor and a princess and well, there’s a reason for hiding her, but the story does this well and the relationships, with heir strains, their impact and the feelings everyone has are conveyed in a lovely way that makes it a heartfelt narrative.

An overall entertaining read even if not absolutely life changing, but I could see it being a light for others when they read it, and as such I think it is a worthwhile read.

Book Review

Moon Reads: Greenteeth

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Greenteeth by Molly O’Neill

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.

This is one of the books of this year for me (even if I read it last year).

If you like T. Kingfisher, or similar chaotic fantasy, then this is a great book.

Let’s start with the narrator, Jenny Greenteeth. She is your average swamp monster living in her lake with sharp teeth, a love for fish and a healthy lake. So when the villagers suddenly decide to throw in a witch instead of useful things that Jenny can enjoy, she does not expect to end up in a huge adventure.

Temperance knows the old ways and has been helpful to her village, until the new pastor starts poisoning the minds of the villagers against her and claiming she is a bad influence and a witch. So when she gets thrown in the lake, she can’t do much, except maybe convince the Jenny that rescued her to help her make things right.

Now, without spoiling this, I will say that in the first few chapters I thought “oh this is going to be x” and that guess was indeed true, even if, by the time you get to it, it doesn’t spoil or make it worse, it was actually satisfying to think “oh hell yeah, I was right”.

The story is well done, partly monstrous tale, partly a fairy tale, huge adventure and a lot of chaos with not the normal trope of characters. You get Jenny who is a lake monster, and you get Temperance who despite being thrown in the lake just wants to get back to how her village used to be and her husband and family, and you also get a few other monstrous creatures in the mix to aid in the adventure including even a bit of Fae in it.

It grabs all that myth and legend from Britain, from old school stories, from Fae and gives you a wonderful monster of an adventure that will leave you wanting more, and also, extremely satisfied with the ending and the overall adventure. It comes packed with interesting characters, a horrible evil that will be ending the world (or as close as possible), impossible quests that are yet somehow possible, a lot of fun and a heap of old magic just for good measure.

The perfect recipe (and maybe Jenny will share her fish recipe with you).

Highly recommended if you love old magic and chaos and a fresh new take on myths, legends and magic.

10/10 would happily join Jenny and Temperance in the lake and their adventure.

Subscription Boxes

Moon Hauls: Fairytale Forests Illumicrate

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Subscription box: Illumicrate

Theme/Month: Fairytale Forests, October 2023

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 beautifully set box with a lovely theme for October. Let’s start on the leaflet and go clockwise:

  • Theme leaflet and contents.
  • Underneath, a delightful deskpad with a vrow and keys and perfect purple tones. Love it!
  • Nightfell replica dagger, not sure which book it is from as I don’t really collect them, but it is pretty.
  • Finding Dreams notebook, and it is a gorgeous one which feels too good to use (but will be used, it is on the notebooks shelf waiting its turn).
  • The featured book was After the Forest by Kell Woods, another one still on my list but unread.
  • And finally, we have some woodland and witch page tabs for little notes or to highlight specifics. I admit I am not someone who does this type of thing except for drawing reference, but I still like them and can appreciate them.

A good box overall, that deskpad takes the winner out of it because it is so pretty. I am never super keen on dagger replica boxes because it is just a thing that I don’t know what to do with. So it isn’t the best box, but not the worst either.

Book Review

Moon Reads: The Last Hour Between Worlds

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The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso

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.

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.

Just to add to the disclaimer above, I did get a free copy from Orbit, but I also had a purchased copy and one from Illumicrate, so apparently this was a book I just needed to read. The copy in the picture is the one from the publisher because it is the one I actually took everywhere (you can see it, woops) and read.

The review before today’s was for Diary of a Void, which is about faking a pregnancy, and well, this book is not about pregnancy in itself, but rather about a main character who has given birth recently and is just trying to enjoy herself rather than work on an end of year party. It felt to me like these two books had to be next to each other because they approach a part of life that isn’t always included in books beyond a side note, and in both, it is an important part of it.

I also want to highlight that our main character is not a young adult, which was refreshing as was seeing that she is trying to balance motherhood and her return to work post birth. I need more books that just include it in the plot and where it is relevant in how it colours the decisions and thoughts of the character but not as a “plot” point exclusively. It was done masterfully here.

Now, to the actual proper plot, which is a crazy multidimensional mystery and trying to stop people from dying and close to the end of the world for the people involved, but in reality is more of a power game between higher entities.

Kembral is trying to enjoy herself at the end of the year party but the party just won’t let her as people start dying and then time seems to “rewind” and it starts all over, but moving between dimensions. As to why she seems to be one of the only ones to notice this, part fo the overall mystery.

Thankfully, she ends up joining forces (reluctantly) with her personal and professional nemesis, Rika. As they try to work on their own personal/professional tangle and at the same time, survive and save the world(s), chaos ensues.

There is a lot going on in the book, which is normally overwhelming, but the various threads of plot and pieces do tie each other nicely as it progresses. We learn more about why Rika and Kembral have such a relationship and what each side thinks, plus what they are seeing or kept hidden from each other. We also get, as mentioned the impact of her motherhood into the story, and her own professional relationships and morals as she tries to resolve what is happening. Then we have the various dimensions and worlds, which is chaotic and wonderful worldbuilding. Then we have the rituals/murders that keep happening each time and in each dimension. And the question is how to make it stop and save everyone, how do you solve a game and ritual that is at the level of higher beings and not you?

I had to stay up reading this book and really wanted to keep going, it was incredibly well written, kept me hooked and I wanted to know more on all points. I can’t wait for the next book.

Subscription Boxes

Moon Hauls: My Last Breath Illumicrate

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Subscription box: Illumicrate

Theme/Month: My Last Breath, September 2023

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 very Evanescence box, because all I can think of when I see that is the song, and therefore I am judging on that, but ti does match it nicely. So let’s see what was in it, starting top left:

  • The usual leaflet of contents.
  • The featured book which is A Study in Drowning, I still haven’t read it, but it looks good and is still on my list.
  • Gothic Romance book pot, a bit too pink for my taste, but it is still gorgeous.
  • If we were villains jigsaw, and I like jigaws and they look like books so it’s a win for me.
  • One of my favourite things but that isn’t included much in the boxes, bowl cosy! In gorgeous fabrics.
  • There is also a magnet in a window, which is now permanently holding my recipe for banana bread on my fridge (it gets moved to the microwave when I am making it).
  • And finally a Queen of hearts card that I am not sure what it refers to, but I like the artwork.

Overall I liked the contents, even if some styles weren’t for me (the bookpot, but I do like book pots and have a few around the house, I am just picky on the specifics). The items are still in use, so also quite good given this is from 2023. Shame on me about not yet reading the book, woops.

Book Review

Moon Reads: Leina and the Lord of the Toadstools

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Leina and the Lord of the Toadstools

Written by Myriam Dahman & Nicolas Digard. Illustrated by Júlia Sardà

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.

I have p[previously reviewed The Wolf’s Secret, which had stunning art and a wonderful story that was the reason as soon as I saw this book was coming out, I had to order it. I have no regrets.

Júlia has a perfectly fitting art style that makes the book flow beautifully to the story. It perfectly matches authors and artists, and I loved it.

Our story follows Leina who has the only boat in towna dn therefore helps ferry people to the forest so they can gather supplies like wood and hunt in the woods. But the forest is scary and therefore it is known that not everyone comes back from it.

So, when one of her friends doesn’t make it out, she decided to go looking for him, because why not? As she moves through he forest, she meets the Lord of the Toastools, who seems a bit magical and very strange, so Leina has an inkling that he might know where her friend is.

She is then invited for dinner in the palace fo the Lord of the Toadstools and because she wants to find her friend, she accepts, which then brings us to a few discoveries in the palace and why people disappear int he forest.

This one was less cosy than The Wolf’s Secret, but it was still in the same mysterious and cosy but slightly scary territory as the previous one and I don’t know, for me that combination is just perfect, like a modern type of fairy tale that one wants to keep reading more of.

Subscription Boxes

Moon Hauls: Hidden Magic Illumicrate

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Subscription box: Illumicrate

Theme/Month: Hidden Magic, August 2023

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 very magical box this time, let’s start on the top left and go clockwise:

  • Bookmark set (I rarely ever care for character faces bookmarks, so these are usually a miss).
  • Washi tape, which is super adorable and cute and I’ve used some for decorating little pages or envelopes or similar.
  • Mug inspired by The Priory of the Orange Tree, as usual a win for me, very sturdy and my daily favourites.
  • A book tin for “The Book of Eyes”, also winners in general because they are useful tins to save stuff in.
  • The monthly leaflet for the theme
  • The book, which has a two types of view, with the cover showing Guardians of the Dawn “Zhara” but underneath it is “The Maiden who was Loved by Death”.

Overall a cute box, could’ve done without the bookmarks, but not a bad content and I am still to read the book, woops. But it is on my list and was before the box came out, just bad at actually reading through my TBR.