First Line Friday: 11/29

Wow. This week has been an absolute doozy. If I wasn’t busy doing something for the holiday, I was stressed about the holiday. Either way I was busy Ruth something. So the blog was unfortunately a bit neglected.

But I managed to make time to participate in First Line Fridays this week. First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words, but I saw it over at One Book More.

What if instead of judging a book by the cover, author or most everything else, we judged it by its content? Its first lines?

If you want to join in, all you gotta do is:

📚 Take a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open it to the first page
📝 Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
📙 Finally… reveal the book!

Here’s the first line:

It was an ordinary day when Evie met The Villain.

Know what it is? If you don’t, here’s another couple of hints for you.

Still not know the book? Here are some lovely photos of books to admire while you consider it a bit more…

Annnd the book is… 🥁🥁 Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer!!

(Did you guess it?)

Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

SERIES: Assistant to the Villain #1

LENGTH: 340 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Romance, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Entangled: Red Tower Books

RELEASE DATE: 29 August 2023

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Once Upon a Time meets The Office in Hannah Maehrer’s laugh-out-loud viral TikTok series turned novel, about the sunshine assistant to an Evil Villain… and their unexpected romance.

ASSISTANT WANTED: Notorious, high-ranking villain seeks loyal, levelheaded assistant for unspecified office duties, supporting staff for random mayhem, terror, and other Dark Things In General. Discretion a must. Excellent benefits.

With ailing family to support, Evie Sage’s employment status isn’t just important, it’s vital. So when a mishap with Rennedawn’s most infamous Villain results in a job offer―naturally, she says yes. No job is perfect, of course, but even less so when you develop a teeny crush on your terrifying, temperamental, and undeniably hot boss. Don’t find evil so attractive, Evie.

But just when she’s getting used to severed heads suspended from the ceiling and the odd squish of an errant eyeball beneath her heel, Evie suspects this dungeon has a huge rat…and not just the literal kind. Because something rotten is growing in the kingdom of Rennedawn, and someone wants to take the Villain―and his entire nefarious empire―out.

Now Evie must not only resist drooling over her boss but also figure out exactly who is sabotaging his work…and ensure he makes them pay.

After all, a good job is hard to find.

What books have you been reading lately? What’s on your TBR that you’re currently the most excited about?

As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Snow Drowned by Jennifer D. Lyle | Book Review

Every small town has stories, and Fall Island is no exception.

Snow Drowned by Jennifer D. Lyle

LENGTH: 304 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Horror, YA, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Sourcebooks Fire

RELEASE DATE: 5 November 2024

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

There’s a saying on Fall Island: the snow will get you.

Gracie Hutchinson has lived here her whole life and knows there’s some truth to those words. Every few years someone dies in a snowstorm, or loses their mind, or disappears without a trace. Sometimes it seems like more than just New England weather. Now, a hundred-year-storm is approaching, and while most of the locals have taken the ferry to the mainland, Gracie must stay behind.

But she’s intrigued to find someone else her age has stayed too—Joseph Wescott, whose mysterious family lives in Wescott Manor, descendants of the legendary first settlers of Fall Island. Together, they stumble across something even more unsettling than the coming storm: the body of a stranger, murdered in a grim ritual. Someone on the island believes the old Fall superstitions have a dark power—and now, they have Gracie in their sights.

As the hours count down to the blizzard’s landfall, it seems the only safe place to go is Westcott Manor. But Gracie wonders if there’s another reason why she’s been brought there, one that has to do with Joseph. She’ll discover secrets that have been kept for generations, a hidden history, and the terrifying truth about Fall Island. Because even when the storm ends, there’s no escape from the horror beneath the snow.

My Review

It’s like snow just swallows them. The snow got ’em, say the old people. Snow drowned ’em but good.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a horror novel, and Snow Drowned didn’t disappoint. It was dark and unsettling, and there were several twists lurking beneath the surface. And no, it unfortunately wasn’t evil snow.

First off: the plot. I actually ended up really enjoying it for the most part, and there were several things about it that I didn’t immediately predict, which is always fun. This book had a lot of Harvest Home vibes, right down to a disconcerting old lady who’s in charge of the community, and the strange, perplexing mystery the protagonist slowly unravels throughout the novel. There was some unexpected eldritch horror referenced as well, and I was definitely not expecting to read another book with it this year – or for it to be this one.

Though I really liked the story as a while, as well as several individual scenes and chapters, I didn’t enjoy parts of the climax and most of the ending. And I can’t really say why because it’s a huge spoiler. Well actually, part of it was because there didn’t end up being evil snow that kills people, which I thought would’ve been a really cool concept, but part of it was that the actual stuff behind everything (revealed about 85% through the book) kinda disappointed me, for some reason. (I know why I didn’t really like it, but telling could ruin the story.) I also didn’t really care for the ending for this reason as well. But it’s also because the ending was darker and more open-ended than I expected it to be.

“It’s just shitty luck, being born here and being born first.”

Regarding the characters of Snow Drowned, I found I ended up liking them for the most part. Though I initially found 🌨️ Gracie Hutchinson to be a little annoying, she ended up being a fairly decent protagonist to follow. I ended up liking her curiousness and the fiery bits of her personality that emerged as the book went on. Our male lead, 🌊 Joseph Wescott, was also fairly interesting in that he ended up being more than just the nice rich heir to the island. I found his grandmother 🏔️ Marin Wesott and the old, mysterious nun, 📔 Sister
Francis, to be more interesting, as well as their and conflicts and history and secrets.

The family dynamics between characters and the mysterious history of Fall Island were also interesting. They were honestly the things that had my attention the most during the novel. I really wanted to know what was going on.

The writing of the book was also pretty good – both the prose and the dialogue. My only major problem (and it really is an issue) is how repetitive everything is in the first few chapters. Chapter 1 has a huge exposition dump that lasts a decent chunk of it. It honestly wasn’t that fun to read. I immediately thought that it would’ve been far more enjoyable to follow if it was integrated into the story proper via dialogue. Instead it was something that the main character was randomly thinking about for no real reason other than to feed us the plot.

Which… the novel actually does in chapters 2 and 3 which makes it even worse. Like, why are you bothering to front load all this at the very beginning if you’re just going to do it again in a better way just a little bit later. It was a decision I didn’t understand, and feel like it should have been changed in editing. But that’s just me. Other than that, though, the writing was fine.

“Because as long as there’s a mark bearer, they will always rise,” I remember.

So yeah, for the most part, Snow Drowned was pretty good. I enjoyed it well enough and I certainly recommend it. I think that people that enjoy stuff like The Wicker Man unironically, or books like Harvest Home or ones that feature eldritch horror but with a YA flavor, might enjoy this book.

As always, thanks to everyone for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful day/night!

See ya ~Mar

MY LINKS:

Goodreads

Instagram

One Piece (Pre-Time Skip) by Eiichiro Oda | Review (Part 1)

The titles of the first eight arcs of One Piece

One Piece by Eiichiro Oda

NUMBER OF VOLUMES: 110 (as of this review)

GENRES: Fantasy, Manga, Fiction

ENGLISH PUBLISHER: Viz Media

ORIGINAL RUN: 22 July 1997 – present

BOOK DESCRIPTION OF VOLUME #1:

Join Monkey D. Luffy and his swashbuckling crew in their search for the ultimate treasure, the One Piece.

As a child, Monkey D. Luffy dreamed of becoming King of the Pirates. But his life changed when he accidentally ate the Gum-Gum Fruit, an enchanted Devil Fruit that gave him the ability to stretch like rubber. Its only drawback? He’ll never be able to swim again—a serious handicap for an aspiring sea dog! Years later, Luffy sets off on his quest to find the “One Piece,” said to be the greatest treasure in the world…

Get Ready to Set Sail!

My Review

This review has been a long time coming. I’ve been buddy reading One Piece with my spouse for the past year – it’s so long that we take breaks every month or so (also so I can read stuff other than One Piece).

It’s also so long that I decided from the get go that I’d split it into three reviews. The first review: the Pre-Time Skip Arcs (aka: this one). The second review: the New World to Wano. And the third review: the Final Saga (this one I wouldn’t do until after One Piece is complete, which could be a couple more years).

So yeah, my spouse and I started reading it about a year ago. Which, wow, that’s a while. There’s a lot of ground to cover here (because of how freaking long this manga is), but I have surprisingly little to say. Or maybe I have too much to say about it and it’s too much, so my brain decided to automatically process the extraneous stuff out. I don’t really know. Either way, this might be a shorter review than you’d expect for such a long and long-running series as this.

The Characters

The characters are one of the things that keeps me coming back. I love the Straw Hats, they’re such a fun, eclectic crew with all kinds of quirks.

👒 Luffy: Ah, the crazy rubber man. He’s so ridiculous, funny and dumb. I know he’s a cookie-cutter shounen protagonist, but I love him. He’s so extra.

🗡️ Zoro: Zoro and Luffy are two peas in a pod. They’re both dumb and ridiculous and extra, but different kinds of dumb and ridiculous and extra. He’s the first person to join the crew, and he’s Luffy’s right hand man. I love the running gag about his complete lack of sense of direction.

🍊 Nami: The second one to join the Straw Hats, and the navigator. For so long, Nami held the single brain cell (until Robin). I love her attitude and how she keeps the group on track.

🏹 Usopp: Luffy’s ~~liar~~ – I mean sharpshooter. His arc in Water Seven changed how I saw him as a character – though his exaggerated cowardice alternatively irritates and amuses me.

🍲 Sanji: The ship’s cook. I like Sanji for the most part, but his pervy tendencies annoyed me sometimes. The anime pervert trope needs to go away for a bit, I’m kinda getting tired of it.

🦌 Chopper: The reindeer doctor. He’s so CUTE. 😍

📚 Robin: The sixth member to join the Straw Hats and an archeologist. I really enjoyed her – she’s got a great character arc and I like her dark humor.

🛠️ Franky: The Straw Hats’ shipwright. Also, a blue haired cyborg engineer powered by cola (yes, really). I didn’t expect to like him as much as I did, but I think he’s in my tip five Straw Hats.

💀 Brook: A skeleton and musician. He was the Straw Hat I was most excited to meet, partially because it took a bit to get to him (and also because he’s a singing skeleton who makes bad puns). He didn’t disappoint.

I loved a lot of the supporting characters that appeared in each arc as well, but there’s waayyy yo many to even mention here. My favorite characters that weren’t Straw Hats, though, were: Vivi, Buggy, Dr. Kureha, Chouchou the dog, Iceberg, Kokoro, and Ace.

The Plot

There’s. So. Much. Plot. Like, so much. This story just keeps going on and on. And I love it, even if it is incredibly long. Every arc in One Piece has something to love, even if I enjoy some a little bit more than others.

The setting itself is also really cool. I love the idea of a world that’s basically a giant ocean. It reminds me a lot of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. (And yes, I know One Piece predates this game by about five years and that Oda was working on it for years before it started being serialized. I just played this Zelda game first, many years before I started reading OP, in fact.) I love all the unique islands and biomes and how like sixteen different seasons technically exist. It’s also really interesting how even this early on, there’s some foreshadowing and implications that not everything about the way the world is currently is as it seems.

Impressively, nearly all the arcs have some relevancy to most of the major plot points that have come up as well. Even the ones that don’t really seem to affect it as much still have stuff to contribute to the world building. I’m also impressed with the consistency, despite the length and how long this series has been running.

But now for a brief review of all the arcs I’ve read so far:

🏴‍☠️ East Blue: Though some people have said that this is the weakest and one of the worst arcs compared to the rest of the story, the East Blue Arc is actually one of my favorites. I think it’s even in the Top Three. I found it to be a fast-paced, engaging and solid start. Most of the Straw Hats are introduced in this arc, and I loved reading them join the crew, and all the hijinks that occurred along the way.

🧭 Baroque Works: My favorite arc in the series so far. There’s just something about it that I really love. I gave nearly every part of it five stars. The crew finally venture out to the Grand Line here, and I loved seeing the crazy adventures turn up to eleven.

☁️ Skypiea: As much as I ended up loving the later parts of this arc, Skypiea definitely wasn’t my favorite. Let me be clear, I enjoyed this arc as I did all of the rest of One Piece. But… it’s probably my least favorite. It just doesn’t feel as connected to the rest of the story, and I think that’s part of what bothered me. (That, and the build up at the beginning felt a bit slow.) Here, the crew sail to an island in the sky.

🌊 Water Seven: I really liked this arc. Top Three (or Four) definitely. We get to learn a lot about some of the crew, and stuff really starts to build up for the stuff that leads to the time skip. There’s also a lot of world building that goes on here. In this arc, the Straw Hats seek a shipwright to help repair their shop, the Going Merry.

👻 Thriller Bark: Probably my second least favorite arc, actually. I love it to bits still, like Skypiea, but it isn’t quite up to par with the rest of the story for me. I really enjoyed the idea of a Halloween themed island (or ship I guess, technically), but parts of it just weren’t as interesting as other arcs. The crew are waylaid and sucked into the Florian Triangle in this arc.

🏝️ Sabaody / 🔐 Impel Down / 🔥 Marineford: I know, I know, these are technically three separate arcs. But they’re all so short and the events that occur throughout all three are highly related and really build off each other before culminating in the event that causes the time skip. So I’m grouping them together here. Anyway, this was another Top Three Arc for me; everything is all just so crazy and intense and it’s one event right after another. During these arcs the Straw Hats are separated and Luffy sets off to rescue someone close to him.

The Art

It would be remiss of me to review a manga without mentioning the art. Though I was initially put off by the art style – this was several years ago now when during my one and only attempt to watch the One Piece anime – I ended up liking it. It’s pretty goofy and unique.

The only thing kind of negative I gotta say about it is that there aren’t really unique female character designs. A lot of the women generally look the same. But other than that, I don’t really have anything unfavorable to say regarding the artwork.

Final Thoughts

I really, really enjoyed what I’ve read of One Piece so far, and am definitely looking forward to what is to come. I can’t wait to see what happens next! And the characters and story and world building and art are all just so good. I really do love almost everything about this magnum opus of Oda’s.

Unfortunately, as much as I adore this manga, I don’t really feel comfortable recommending it. Because of how insanely long it is. One Piece is definitely a commitment, and despite what OP manga superfans claim about this being the greatest manga ever (which I don’t think, just to be clear), probably not for everyone. If you are interested, however, this series is very accessible – there are a lot of different options to read and/or watch it. As of now, I rate what I’ve read as a whole:

But yeah, I’m possibly going to continue with this perhaps at the end of this month, but if not then hopefully next month in December. I wanna read what happens next, but I also want to read other books, too. So I have to manage my OP reading!

Anyway, as always, thank you so much to everyone for reading, and I hope you have a fantastic day/night!

See ya ~Mar

MY LINKS:

Goodreads

Instagram

First Line Friday: 11/9

Hey everybody, it’s been a while. Happy Friday! Jeez, I can’t believe it’s been over a month since the last time I posted one of these!

First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words, but I saw it over at One Book More.

What if instead of judging a book by the cover, author or most everything else, we judged it by its content? Its first lines?

If you want to join in, all you gotta do is:

Here’s the first line:

Jenna Grodonsky was terrified of the snow.

Any ideas? If not, here’s another hint or two for you…

Still don’t know? Here’s some awesome pictures of books to start at while you consider it…

Annnd the book is… 🥁🥁 Snow Drowned by Jennifer D. Lyle!!

(Did you guess it?)

Snow Drowned by Jennifer D. Lyle

LENGTH: 304 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Horror, YA, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Sourcebooks Fire

RELEASE DATE: 5 November 2024

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

There’s a saying on Fall Island: the snow will get you.

What books have you been reading lately? What’s on your TBR that you’re currently the most excited about?

As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Weekly Wrap-Up: 10/28 – 11/3

Bet you didn’t expect to ever see this post again. I think the last time I did this post was at the end of January this year. I did say I was going to discontinue it because it was becoming too much after all. But I’ve been giving it some thought for the past couple of months, and I’ve decided that I’d like to try keeping up with this post again.

I’ve been doing pretty well with my posting lately. At the very least, I’m happy with the last few weeks on the blog, which is honestly what I want the most out of this blog.

Anyway, let’s get on with the post! Here’s to the furry weekly wrap-up in almost a year! 🥂🍻

Monday 10/28: Fall 2024 Book Recs

Last Monday, I finally got around to posting my Fall Book Recommendations for 2024. Basically, it was a list post that consisted of books I liked that I thought had autumn and/or spooky vibes. I had about seven of them this time. Check out the full post if you’re interested in which books made the cut this year.

Best Books with Fall Vibes: Fall Book Recommendations of 2024

Tuesday 10/29: Top Ten Tuesday

On Tuesday, I participated in Top Ten Tuesday. The topic of last week was Halloween Freebie, and I went with a bit of a medley – a Creature Feature or monster mashup if you will.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community.

Top Ten Tuesday: Halloween Freebie

Wednesday 10/30: Can’t-Wait Wednesday

This past Wednesday, I participated in Can’t-Wait Wednesday again. It was the first time I’d done so in the past couple of weeks.

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme currently hosted by Tressa @ Wishful Endings. It focuses on books you’re looking forward to reading, usually new releases.

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Snow Drowned

Thursday 10/31: Halloween

And last Thursday was Halloween. Again, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloween!! 🎃👻🐈‍⬛🧹🦇🕸️ I hope that everyone enjoyed theirs.

Sunday 11/3: Sheets Series Review

Yesterday, I finally posted my review for the Sheets series. I had wanted to post it on Halloween, but it just didn’t work out, unfortunately. Oh well.

Sheets and its sequels, are a trilogy of cute graphic novels that feature ghosts that wear actual bedsheets. Yes, really. I enjoyed the series and ended up giving it a median rating of ★★★★☆.

My review of the Sheets Series

Books I Read Last Week

💖🎁 Wrapping It All Up 💖🎁

So yeah, it’s been awhile. I wasn’t ever sure if I ever planned on starting up this series of posts again, but I guess I have. We’ll see how long this lasts this time, haha. Hopefully I’ll keep it up? 🤞🍀

(Also, last week I officially crested 400 blog posts on the Blog That Nobody Knows! Yay! 🎉💖)

I’m generally pretty happy with what I ended up posting last week. Regarding this coming week, I’m planning on finally getting out my Monthly Reading Wrap-Up for October 2024, probably (hopefully) tomorrow. I also have another couple of posts I’m planning on doing, and am of course hoping to get another book review out.

As always, thank you to everyone for reading, and I hope you all have a great day/night!

See ya ~Mar

The Sheets Series by Brenna Thummler | Book Review

It’s difficult to list, in order, the things I hate. But I can say with no uncertainty that laundry and ghosts are currently tied for first.

Laundry because it’s much too real.

Ghosts because they’re not.
Sheets

The Sheets Series by Brenna Thummler

LENGTH OF SERIES: 928 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Supernatural, Middle Grade, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Oni Press

RELEASE DATES: 28 August 2018 – 5 September 2023

BOOK DESCRIPTION OF SHEETS:

A story of ghosts, family, loneliness, and laundromats.

Marjorie Glatt feels like a ghost. A practical thirteen-year-old in charge of the family laundry business, her daily routine features unforgiving customers, unbearable P.E. classes, and the fastidious Mr. Saubertuck who is committed to destroying everything she’s worked for. Wendell is a ghost. A boy who lost his life much too young, his daily routine features ineffective death therapy, a sheet-dependent identity, and a dangerous need to seek purpose in the forbidden human world. When their worlds collide, Marjorie is confronted by unexplainable disasters as Wendell transforms Glatt’s Laundry into his midnight playground, appearing as a mere sheet during the day. While Wendell attempts to create a new afterlife for himself, he unknowingly sabotages the life that Marjorie is struggling to maintain.

Sheets illustrates the determination of a young girl to fight, even when all parts of her world seem to be conspiring against her. It proves that second chances are possible whether life feels over or life is over. But above all, it is a story of the forgiveness and unlikely friendship that can only transpire inside a haunted laundromat.

My Review

Humans are delicate, too. The teensiest mistake can ruin them, even if you do everything else right. Just because mistakes seem small and insignificant, doesn’t mean they are.
Delicates

Ugh. I wanted to have this review out on Halloween. Clearly, that didn’t happen, lol. So much for that. (Here’s a belated Happy Halloween 🎃👻🐈‍⬛🧹🦇🕸️ to everyone, by the way.) But it’s here now, I guess. Anyway.

I decided to read the Sheets series because it looked cute, and… honestly, that’s kind of it. But I don’t think I really need to have another reason than that. I mean, that’s my initial reason for picking up most books – there’s something about them (usually their covers) that draws me to them. And this wasn’t any different.

Since there are actually three books in this series (it isn’t just the same book split into three volumes, like The Glass Scientists), and I felt differently about each one, this review is actually gonna be split into three mini reviews. So let’s start off where this series starts off – with the first book in this little series: Sheets.

Sheets

“But this place is home, baby. And once you have that, there’s nowhere you’d rather be.”
Sheets

I rather enjoyed Sheets. It was a solid start to this little series of graphic novels. My favorite thing about this installment – and I guess the rest of the books as well – was how nostalgic it made me feel.

If I put the pieces together correctly based on the information provided, and am remembering that correctly, this series starts in 1998. I was very young at that time, so I barely remember anything, but since a bunch of nineties stuff carried over a bit to the 2000s, it was enough to make me feel the nostalgia. The Gameboys, the lack of cell phones everywhere – all these things awoke ancient memories within me. It was so weird, but it was nice to look back on that time.

The thing that I loved the second most about these graphic novels was how ghosts’ forms come from bedsheets. I absolutely loved that idea – I thought that was so clever and adorable. The ghosts were also my favorite part of the art style.

The characters were also cute. I really liked Marjorie and Wendell’s friendship, but I wished we’d gotten to see them more as friends during the novel, instead of just becoming friends near the end.

Speaking of the ending, it was kind of… eh. Everything wrapped up just a little too neatly, and parts of it didn’t make sense. If being seen by humans is such a huge law in the ghost world, why is it suddenly okay at the end? But I recognized that this series is targeted towards middle grade and younger, so I kind of get why everything was wrapped up so quickly and efficiently.

Delicates

“Everyone has ghosts. I think we all need to learn that there’s no shame in letting them out.”
Delicates

Out of the three graphic novels in this little series, Delicates was unfortunately the one that I enjoyed the least. Don’t get me wrong – I still liked it, I just didn’t like it as much as the other two.

The main reason for this was definitely all the middle school drama. It just annoyed me to read about, likely because I already lived it. I didn’t enjoy middle school drama when I was in middle school and I don’t enjoy it now. And out of all three books in the Sheets series this one definitely deals with it the most, which is why it’s my least favorite. I think that actually kids in middle and primary school will enjoy it for this reason, though, because they’re probably going through this stuff right now.

I did enjoy the new main character introduced, however. Eliza was awkward and quiet, but she really rounded out our main trio in the best way. Unfortunately, like in Sheets, we didn’t get to see as much of this interaction as I’d have liked. We also didn’t get to see too much of Marjorie and Wendell just hanging out as I had expected either, which was also disappointing. Because most of Delicates was focused primarily on introducing Eliza and the aforementioned middle school drama.

I will say that the topics focused on in this installment are important for middle school aged kids, as well as sensitive, so reader discretion might be advised. (Depression and suicide ideation are very heavily implied.)

Lights

It’s much harder to create light than it is to extinguish it.
Lights

Lights was my favorite out of the Sheets trilogy, and it really isn’t that surprising. It was the most “action packed” of the three, and had the most interesting plot to me. It focused on the thing I was most curious about from the beginning: Wendell’s past before he died and the events leading up to it.

This is also the installment where we got to see the friendships play out between the trio that I’d wanted to see since Sheets and that I felt were a bit neglected in Delicates. We also got to see a lot of catharsis playing out regarding parts of the story and between characters, so that was also nice to read.

All in all, I don’t really want to say too much about this one, as it is the last book in this series. But I will mention that I really enjoyed it and that it definitely had a satisfying conclusion for the trilogy.

Final Thoughts

“There’s good and bad in everyone, you know?But the more friends you have in your life… well… the more, uh, brightness you’ll have overall.”
Lights

Regarding this series as a whole, I think the Sheets series is a solid little collection of middle grade graphic novels. I definitely recommend this to kids that age that like cute supernatural stories with a bit of a darker side.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure teenagers and adults might find something (or things) to enjoy about it, whether it be the art, the nostalgia or the ghost story aspect of it. But I definitely think kids will get the most enjoyment out of this trilogy out of everyone.

As always, thank you to everyone for reading, and I hope you have an excellent day/night! I hope everybody had a great Halloween, too!

See ya ~Mar

MY LINKS:

Goodreads

Instagram

Bloodguard by Cecy Robson | Book Review

Gone were the days of hearty meals and opportunities to heal and rest. And gone were the cheers for besting a competitor without a death blow. Decrepit and filthy conditions claim most of us now. The arena claims the rest.

Bloodguard by Cecy Robson

SERIES: Old Erth #1

LENGTH: 512 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Romance, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Entangled: Red Tower Books

RELEASE DATE: 21 October 2024

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

One hundred years. Tens of thousands of gladiators. And today, only one will rise…

Everything in the Kingdom of Arrow is a lie.

Leith of Grey thought coming to this new land and volunteering to fight in the gladiator arena―vicious, bloodthirsty tournaments where only the strongest survive―would earn him enough gold to save his dying sister. He thought there was nothing left to lose.

He was wrong―and they took everything. His hope. His freedom. His very humanity.

All Leith has left is his battle-scarred body, fueled by rage and hardened from years of fighting for the right to live another day.

Then Leith meets Maeve, an elven royal who is everything he despises. Everything he should hate. Until the alluring princess offers him the one thing he needs most: a chance to win the coveted title of Bloodguard―and his freedom.

But in a kingdom built on secrets and lies, hope doesn’t come cheap.

Nor will his ultimate revenge…

My Review

To hear the stories, they waited decades for the mythical bird to rise again after claiming victory over Arrow’s enemies and dying in the final battle. But it never did.

(Sooo… This review was meant to come out two days ago, on Thursday, but there was a family emergency. And I already had stuff going on yesterday that ended up taking much longer than planned. So yeah, this is a bit late. Sorry.)

(Anyway…)

Bloodguard had been on my radar for a long time. Since, like, a year and a half, I think? I originally saw the premise and the gorgeous sprayed edges sometime last year, and both really caught my eye. So I preordered it. Then the release got delayed.

And then the release got delayed again.

And then the release got delayed a third time.

So yeah, I kind of forgot about this book until Amazon reminded me earlier this month: “By the way, you have a preorder being delivered later this month.” And I was like: “Whoa, oh yeah.” – and – “They didn’t delay it again? Cool.” Which is why it wasn’t on my anticipated new books list for October, November and December 2024.

But because of all this, the hype for this book had kinda died down for me anyway, so I wasn’t as super excited to read it as I usually am for books I decide to read. Especially since it took so long to come out and didn’t have the benefit of being a sequel or whatever. So my expectations were already a bit lower than normal, but I still had decently high hopes for Bloodguard. Did it deliver?

Not really.

“Then tell me what you want,” I say with deadly calm.

She bites her bottom lip. Does she want me to tear this place apart? “Just tell me.”

“I want the throne, Leith. Do this, and I’ll become queen.” Her bright eyes challenge me. “You want revenge? You want to bring the arena down…be my king.”

Even though my anticipation for this new release was a bit lacking, I still wanted to like this book. But that didn’t really end up happening – I found the book mid at best.

I also wasn’t into Leith or Maeve – the main characters – and I also didn’t care about their romance. (And that’s never a good sign, lol.) Like, I found their instant attraction to each other to be extremely annoying. And a lot of their POVs consisted of them ruminating about how into one another they were, even when they didn’t know each other that well yet. It was irritating. Also, some of their inner monologues, as well as some dialogue with other characters, was cringe. Or worse. Like this:

Thank the phoenix that Maeve’s breasts are there to catch me when I fall forward.

Ugh. Just. Something about this sentence (and others) makes me hate it for whatever reason. It’s just. Bleh.

The book also got way darker than I had expected at a certain point and something happens that I wasn’t into at all. Click/Tap the tab at the very, very bottom of the review labeled ❗Spoiler-y Thoughts Section❗ if you don’t care about spoilers and want to see my rant about this novel. (I had trouble with the accordion show/hide thing – it kept hiding the rest of the text in this review, which is why it’s at the very bottom.)

However, I did enjoy some of the connections and interactions between characters. I loved the familial and found familial bonds that appeared throughout the book (which is why I felt so strongly about the stuff in my rant). Platonic relationships have always been just as interesting as romantic relationships to me, if not more so.

I catch Caelen’s smirk. “Something funny, elf?” I ask over the pounding melody of hooves.

He grins, an expression I’ve rarely seen on this soldier. “No. But it would have been if your horse hadn’t kept your ass in that saddle, gladiator,”

“It’s too late in the game to develop a personality,” I retort, forcing my features to still when Star skids along a sharp curve and all but kills us both.

Bloodguard was, admittedly, also generally well written, particularly compared to a few books I’ve read recently. (I’m looking at you The Girl With No Reflection. Grrr!) I did find the first quarter or so of the book to be slow, however. Which I did not enjoy.

I also didn’t completely despise the ending – and at the very least found it far more tolerable than the abominable section of the novel that consisted of the 50% mark to around the 80% mark. Good God did I hate that part of the book. I legitimately was this close to DNF-ing it. But yeah, back to my original point, the ending was fine – it was even a little bit satisfying, honestly.

But it wasn’t satisfying enough for me to overlook the parts of this book that I didn’t enjoy, so it gets a two and a half star rating. (Because I have read worse books.) I’m not gonna continue with this series, though. I’m done with Old Erth.

“I love you, Father.”

Sadness clouds his tired eyes, ringing the orbits with deep shadows. “And I will always love you, my dear, dear daughter.”

Since I didn’t really enjoy Bloodguard I’m finding it a bit difficult to recommend. But I guess people that enjoy insta-love and its assorted tropes, as well as generic fantasy romance and brutality and gladiator stuff (and those assorted tropes), then you’ll probably enjoy this book more than I did. My biggest problems with this novel likely stem from the fact that it wasn’t for me.

Anyway, as always, thank you so much for reading, and I hope that you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

MY LINKS:

Goodreads

Instagram

❗ Spoiler-y Thoughts Section ❗

I didn’t enjoy all the death that started happening around this point of the novel. Like, almost everyone who was related or considered family to Leith or Maeve was either murdered around 50% to 70% of the book, or they were revealed to be dead all along. And it all felt a little… senseless to me. Now, I understand that characters die, and that one she “kill their darlings” so to speak, especially in a fantasy novel like this one. But this was a freaking massacre. It just felt a bit ridiculous to me, and it made me mad.

Also, Maeve kind of turns into a bit of a girlboss at this point and took on and defeated a few foes that I found a little bit hard to believe sometime after the 80% point. Tut is an ogre that is several decades old with a bunch of experience that is much larger and stronger than Maeve. She manages to take him down in a big poofy dress that would make fighting extremely difficult (like it seems like something she wouldn’t be able to fight in, honestly), somehow evades him perfectly and doesn’t get any of his blood or guts on her unwieldy outfit, and then fights a mage that wasn’t as built up as she could’ve been.

Maeve then also summarily defeats this character and kills them, even though she’s never fought a mage before. Like Maeve wins just about every fight she’s in, expect for her training with Leith, who is better than her. And he’s also the bestest gladiator ever, which was also something that bothered me. Actually, there were a lot of The Savior’s Champion vibes going on, and I don’t think that was a good thing.

Two Years of Blogging About Books

So. Here we are. It’s been a year, but October 18th has once again come and gone.

Bet you guys were expecting a different post today – perhaps a Friday themed one?! Haha, surprise! It’s my anniversary! (No – really!)

Happy Blogging Birthday to me!! 🎂🎈🎁🎉 (Or anniversary, if you prefer!) I can’t believe it’s already been two years!

Like last year, I want to thank everyone who’s ever liked or commented on my posts here, or followed The Blog That Nobody Knows. Heck, even if you’ve ever just clicked on (or tapped on mobile) one of my posts and didn’t even finish reading it, I’m eternally grateful. It means a lot. Even those of you who aren’t human, lol.

I started this blog for fun two years ago, and I’m hoping to continue that. Sure, I wouldn’t mind making money off of it eventually, but having fun with it is my main priority here. When I created this blog, I did so with the goal of talking about books. And I think I’ve definitely succeeded with that, haha. I hope to spend many more years doing so here!

I guess the only other thing I can think of to say is, here’s to another year of books and book reviews! 🍻🥂

As always, thank you again so much for reading, and I hope you all have an absolutely perfect day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell | Book Review

“My road to hell isn’t paved with good intentions – or bad – it’s just my road.”

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

SERIES: Simon Snow #1

LENGTH: 521 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Romance, YA, LGBT+, Fiction

PUBLISHER: St. Martin’s Publishing Group

RELEASE DATE: 6 October 2015

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

#1 New York Times best seller
Booklist Editors’ Choice 2015 – Youth
Named a Best Book of 2015 by Time Magazine, School Library Journal, Barnes & Noble, NPR, PopSugar, The Millions, and The News & Observer

Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who’s ever been chosen.

That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right.

Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he starts something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around, wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here–it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up.

Carry On is a ghost story, a love story and a mystery. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story – but far, far more monsters.

My Review

“You have to pretend you get an endgame. You have to carry on like you will; otherwise, you can’t carry on at all.”

I know, I know. It’s been a bit since I’ve last posted a book review. But last week was a bit… eh. Anyway, I’m here now, and with a book I started reading ages ago at that.

So reading Carry On in its entirety has been a long time coming for me. Honestly, after I DNF-ed it like – three or four years ago? – yeah, I didn’t think I was ever gonna come back to it. And trust me, I gave it a good shot too – I was like 40% through the novel before I gave up!

He’s still looking in my eyes. Staring me down like he did that dragon, chin tilted and locked. “I’m not the Chosen One,” he says.

I meet his gaze and sneer. My arm is a steel band around his waist. “I choose you,” I say. “Simon Snow, I choose you.

But something made me want to give it another shot, so I did. And for better or worse, I’m glad about it. This was, overall, a pretty good book.

Don’t get me wrong! The first third of the novel is an absolute slog to get through – I definitely had the same problems reading it the second time that I did the first. But it was easier to get through this time ’cause I’d already read it before so I kinda… skimmed a little bit. And once the plot (finally) started to really get moving, I really enjoyed what I was reading and had a little trouble putting the book down.

I enjoyed the characters, even though most of them felt a little basic, archetype-wise. Which is probably why Penny was my favorite – she seemed to be the most interesting. I liked Simon and Baz well enough too, even though their relationship felt a little shallow. And their pining – particularly Simon’s oblivious pining, kind of got annoying. Yes Simon, why are you so obsessed with what Baz is up to, I wonder??? Most of the dialogue and character interactions were really good though.

“Do you ever not go for the lowest blow? Like, do you ever think, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t say the most cruel thing just now?'”

“I’m trying to be efficient.”

The plot of Carry On was a fun riff on the Chosen One trope, not to mention all the other dark academia and magic school tropes. (And Harry Potter tropes – like, Simon and Baz share just a few similarities with Harry and Malfoy, respectively.) And I like it when authors do it – it’s fun. The twists were also pretty decent (even though Rowell isn’t shy of showing her hand full of breadcrumbs leading to them – predictably, I figured them out pretty early on, lol).

The climax and the ending were probably my favorite parts of the book, both because of how action packed they were, and because the biggest twists on the tropes were either revealed here or occurred here. The POV changes did get somewhat out of hand at this point, which was kind of distracting and annoying, with some of them only being like a sentence long. But it was mostly okay.

“People who tell you that slamming and bashing into things won’t make you feel better haven’t slammed or bashed enough.”

Anyway, I enjoyed Carry On. It gets three quarters of a star off for the 30% slog of a beginning, however, as well as an additional three quarters of a star off for smaller things that bothered me about the novel. Otherwise, I generally liked it.

As always, thank you all so much for reading, and I hope that you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

MY LINKS:

Goodreads

Instagram

First Line Friday: 10/11

Happy Friday everybody!

First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words, but I saw it over at One Book More.

What if instead of judging a book by the cover, author or most everything else, we judged it by its content? Its first lines?

If you want to join in, all you gotta do is:

Here are the first lines:

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! I imagine myself saying from the pulpit in the pink sanctuary of our church. My name is Edgar Poe, and today, for reasons I don’t fully comprehend, I’m obsessed with the seventy-two bodies buried beneath us.

Any guesses? If you’re still having trouble, here’s another hint or two…

Still have no idea? Here’s some gorgeous pictures of books to stare at, while you think about it a bit longer…

Annnd the book is… 🥁🥁 The Raven’s Tale by Cat Winters!!

(Were you able to guess it?)

The Raven’s Tale by Cat Winters

LENGTH: 368 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Historical, YA, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Amulet Books

RELEASE DATE: 16 April 2019

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Seventeen-year-old Edgar Poe counts down the days until he can escape his foster family–the wealthy Allans of Richmond, Virginia. He hungers for his upcoming life as a student at the prestigious new university, almost as much as he longs to marry his beloved Elmira Royster. However, on the brink of his departure, all his plans go awry when a macabre Muse named Lenore appears to him. Muses are frightful creatures that lead Artists down a path of ruin and disgrace, and no respectable person could possibly understand or accept them. But Lenore steps out of the shadows with one request: “Let them see me “

What books have you been reading lately? What’s on your TBR that you’re currently the most excited about?

As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar