🐉 Dragons, 🐦‍⬛Avenging Birds, and 😐 Noobs

 

Book two of the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik takes place in China, where dragons are more commonplace than in England. I like how Novik thinks about several aspects of a world with dragons, like whether a country could raise enough food to support dragons and dragon bloodlines. Book two wasn't as exciting as book one, but the British and dragons are compelling. I plan to continue reading the series until I finish all nine books, though not urgently. The writing and plot are solid.

🐲🐉🗺️💨

  Lucy Foley excels at writing creepy, suspenseful stories full of broken, struggling people who hurt others and themselves. It gave me pause when I was deciding whether or not to read The Midnight Feast. I know I will go down the dark alleys of the human experience. She has unforeseen zigzags to the final page. There is no moment I can let my guard down because there is a plot twist to reveal. The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley is a suspenseful, bleak mystery that kept me guessing. Her characters are layers of light and shadow. The ending was immensely satisfying.

https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Paris+Apartment

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    Audible gave me a free listen to the Lit RPG The Mayor of Noobtown by Ryan Rimmel. This is an eight-book series, so if they hook me, it's to their financial advantage. It is a lightweight, fun book. The premise (like most Lit RPGs) is that a real person finds themselves in some sort of video game needing to survive by leveling up and defeating monsters. The humor is juvenile, so it made me smile. Having a pet or magical creature as a guide is a feature of all Lit RPGs. Jim, the main character, is stuck with an unreliable guide, a level one demon needing his help. It creates an interesting symbiotic relationship. The book ends on a cliffhanger. 

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🐲🌊🦄🦛🧌🐙 Help! I'm Caught in a Series Loop!

 

    I have read and enjoyed Naomi Novik's series Scholomance and several of her stand-alones like Uprooted and Spinning Silver. I am pleased she has another series, Temeraire, of which  His Majesty's Dragon is the start. I have been reluctant to read another series about dragons and the people who ride them. The book captivated me from the beginning, with an origin story set in the Napoleonic Wars, in which dragons fight for both sides. They are trained and treated like cavalry horses. However, Temeraire is different. Captain Will Lawrence fights on the sea for England. The ship he captains captures a French ship with valuable treasure: an unhatched dragon egg. It hatches early and bonds with Captain Lawrence, changing his life's trajectory. He must now join the Dragon Corp. Both dragon and rider must learn to fight as a team in a service that isn't well respected and is resentful of the newcomers. Novik paints vivid action scenes within the fast-paced plot. The characters are witty and likable. I'm hooked!

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    Where the Library Hides by Isabel Ibañez is the second in the duology, Secrets of the Nile.  I reviewed What the River Knows here: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/2025/02/books-with-magic-and-magical-food.html. I found Ibañez to be effusive in her descriptions.  The plot moved forward, but it occasionally gets bogged down in minutiae. The world she's built contains trace magic, but it is used as a get-out-of-jail-free card. Life-threatening injury? Surprise, the main character finds a healing potion. Need to communicate with someone far away? Oh, look, someone brought a magic teacup that makes that happen.  I didn't like how it ended. It reminded me of a Mission Impossible episode.  I would read more from Ibañez because she has clever ideas and creates interesting characters. I'm betting she will improve over time. 

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    I heard a quote recently, and I can't chase it down. Still, the gist was that people sought escape when anxious, like how movies boomed during the Great Depression. I have been into fantasy a great deal lately. Hmmm. I have read everything Matt Dinniman has published--at least according to GoodReads. The Hobgoblin Riot is the second book of his Dominion of Blades (DOM) series. He wrote it before his more famous series, Dungeon Crawler Carl.  I can see the seeds of characters and plot lines being explored in DOM. It is a fascinating peek behind the creative curtain. The book ends on a cliffhanger, and I'm curious if Dinniman plans to revisit the series.  I do like things tidily wrapped up.

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🔮🪐🌟🐸🦹‍♂️🐉Childhood Classic, Fantasy, Dystopian Future, and Historical Fiction

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle was the March pick for my book club. We are having a great time reading Newberry Award Winners. Not everyone is a fan of Sci-Fi/Fantasy, so I wanted to know how this book would land with some of the others. It is over 50 years old! It has held up well. I appreciate how genuine the characters are portrayed: an angry fifteen-year-old girl, a popular athlete with a tough home life, and, of course, the beings from outer space. L'Engle has universal themes about the pain of growing up, being caught between good and evil, and the importance of love. What makes the book endure is that these topics are not dealt with tritely but sincerely and with great compassion. It's a winner.

🔮🪐🌟

 

    Apprentice to a Villain is the second in a series by Hannah Nicole  Maehrer. Fun fact: The series grew out of TikToks Maehrer, which was made around the idea of what it would be like to be an assistant to a villain whose job involves torture and general evilness. Here is a link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDoN6GpjTb8&t=187s

    The second book continues the story with some problems solved and others cropping up. Maehrer developed her characters, which grew and changed. There are many nascent romances. She leans heavily on the frenemies-to-lovers trope. I found it annoying that the main characters, The Villain and Evie, his former assistant and now apprentice, refuse to admit they love each other, but I'm also amused at the ways the author finds for them to "have to" kiss.

I'm looking forward to the next book.

🐸🦹‍♂️🐉

    I have seen several ads for the movie The Wild Robot and decided to read the book before watching it. It is YA fiction. The Wild Robot by Peter Brown is about a robot from a shipment stranded on an unpopulated island. The Robot, Ros, is anthropomorphized, having feelings and forming relationships. I listened to the audiobook but understood the physical book has fantastic illustrations by Peter Brown. There are more books in the series. I would file this book under heartwarming.

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    A friend recommended The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff. It is historical fiction about British female spies who aided the French Resistance in World War II. They trained for functions but primarily worked as covert radio operators. I am somewhat burnt out on World War II books, but I tried it. The story is told by three different women: two women in 1944 and a war widow in 1946. The story of the women clumsily fit around the story of actual events and felt forced, but it was still enjoyable and compelling. I'm glad I read it. 

🕵️‍♀️🔘🌇

💀🌇🚀 A Week Where I Read Lots of Books

 

    How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler was recommended because I've read some LITRPG (Literary Role Playing Game) and liked it. This was a similar plot type of a human gamer, Davi, who has been caught in a fantasy game for about a thousand years. On this restart, instead of trying to lead the good guys to victory, she chooses to try and become the Dark Lord because that's who has won every time so far. Here is a motto I occasionally tell myself when making decisions, especially about a reoccurring issue: If you want something different, try something different. I liked the setup and the feisty lead character. The further I went, the less I liked it. The main character thinks about sex frequently--the reader is party to her thoughts-- and it took away from the story for me. What was the author's point? The story or the sex? My conclusion is the sex. I found the story anemic.

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    It has been a while since I've read a memoir. I listen to Kara Swisher's podcast, Pivot, and she frequently refers to Burn Book: A Tech Love Story. Tech business is something I know little about, so I was lost at times by the events and people she mentions. Swisher is a feisty person reporting on Tech personalities and the businesses they've started from its earliest days. I learned things.

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    The Restaurant of Lost Recipes in The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai, translated by Jesse Kirkwood. I read the first of the series and enjoyed it. There is a thread of magical realism that runs throughout the book. A remembered meal can restore the heart. There are compelling reasons customers come to the detectives to have them recreate meals from the past. Kashiwai describes his food so well that I come away hungry. I looked up unfamiliar dishes to see what was in them and what they looked like. Each chapter contains an entire story, making the book easy to pick up and put down. There are more in the series awaiting translation. Hurray!

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    I was not a fan of Call Me Home: A Memoir by Alexancra Auder. Auder was raised by her mother in New York's Chelsea Hotel, famous for its bohemian guests and residents. Recounting her childhood is intercut with her current life as a mother. The mother/daughter relationship is a strong theme. Viva Supreme was a Warhol model. As a mother, she vacillated between permissive and despotic. Auder relates her story with painful honesty. She recounts her struggles as a mother to a teenage daughter while still managing her mother's wild mood swings. I wanted a tidier story that showed triumph in the face of tragedy. Auder is wise to show the messiness of relationships. 

🌇🫣🎭🏨🎥

    Matt Dinniman is the author of the Dungeon Crawler Carl(DCC) series, which I have enjoyed, so I'm reading his backlist. Dominion of Blades predates DCC. It contains seeds of ideas that have fuller expression in the DCC. The characters aren't as flamboyant as those he later creates, but he still has a group of unlikely heroes who fight for one another. If you want more Matt Dinniman, this is almost OK.

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🫐😘⛪️ Fantasy and Romance AND Theology!

 

    I have fallen hard for the romantasy genre. The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst is a solid writer of the marriage between fantasy and romance. This book is appropriate for anyone--grandma to tweener--not too spicy but interesting with likable, honorable characters; a confident and surprising plot; and a delightful mish-mash of creatures.

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    A writer I've especially enjoyed lately is Katherine Center, defender of the Romance genre. I am working through her backlist as they become available. This week's reading was Happiness for Beginners. I first watched the movie of this not knowing it was based on Center's book. A woman has gone through a recent divorce and decides to join an Outward Bound-type hiking trip to reset her priorities. She has never hiked before. Her much younger brother's good-looking friend is on the same journey. She is not pleased. What will happen? I've read enough of her work to detect a pattern: a woman in a life transition (i.e, divorce, career change, big opportunity), someone with a medical condition, past demons will be faced, and there will be kissing. It is a formula Center does well. 

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    To those who think I only read fiction, not only, just mostly. I didn't read John M. Frame's Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief, a book of 1220 pages, in a week or even a year. It took me three years to get completely through it, listening off and on to the audiobook. It is intended more as a reference book than a straight read-through. It covers theology like the Doctrine of God, Man, the Church, and more. Frame's work is balanced and understandable. It has an excellent index (I also own a hardcover copy for looking up topics). Frame is a Reformed theologian (if you know, you know), but he fairly examines all sides. I did not understand everything he discussed, but it has expanded my understanding of the basics of Christianity. It is a solid resource, and if you're ambitious, you could read the entirety of it, like me.

✝️ ⛪️ ☦️

🪄🐊🪼 🍱 Books with Magic and Magical Food

 

Enjoyed the spirit and intent of the book. Lovely characters. Worthy quest. Fun magic.

    Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong is a book about being transplanted from your native soil to a new home. Tao discovers she has the gift of seeing the future, and many want her to use it for them. She chooses to travel alone and tell small fortunes but finds she can't escape the pull of human connection. I liked this lovely YA book. It's a good story, well told, no matter your age.

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    What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez rides the line between fantasy and magical realism. There is magic in the world, but it is unacknowledged and ignored. The magic is fading away and resides in ancient objects. Inez Olivera receives a magic ring from her father in Egypt. This is followed by news of the death of her parents, making Inez the recipient of their considerable fortune and the ward of her mother's mysterious uncle, an Egyptian Archeologist at the height of the age of discovery in the late 19th century. She travels by ship from her home in Buenos Aries to Egypt to find answers but is thwarted by her uncle's handsome assistant. This book reminded me of adventure stories like The Mummy, with lots of twists and turns, kidnapping, and dark secrets held by almost everyone.

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    Like many people, I enjoyed Matt Haig's book The Midnight Library and eagerly looked forward to his next book, The Life Impossible. A strength of Haig is his ability to create fantastic premises to give his characters unique opportunities to confront their pasts. The Life Impossible is the story of 72-year-old Grace Winters, a retired math teacher who is done with life. She unexpectedly receives the gift of a house on the island of Ibiza in Spain. Some books are quirky, and some are weird. This book is a weird one. The plot is a little too crazy to feel coherent, but I found it interesting because weird is my jam.

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    I have discovered a type of genre from Japan that is whimsical and poignant, like Toshikazu Kawaguchi's Before the Coffee Gets Cold, We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida, What You Are Looking For is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama, and The Cat Who Saved Books by Susuke Matsukawa. I was talking with friends about how much I liked those books, and they recommended The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai. Here is the premise: a retired, widowed police detective runs an obscure, hard-to-find diner with a thirty-year-old daughter. They also run a food detective agency helping customers find the recipe that holds a significant place in their heart- the soup their dead mother made, a restaurant meal from when a lost love proposed, or a special dish enjoyed with a grandfather who now has dementia. These recipes are like keys to unlock a better understanding of the past that, in turn, makes the future brighter. This book will make you hungry!

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🦖😺🦶Another Week of Fantasy and Romance--Win!

 

    I'm obsessed with the Dungeon Crawler Carl Series and was ecstatic that book #7 dropped this week on Audible. This Inevitable Ruin, written by Matt Dinniman and read by Jeff Hayes, is a fantastic series. I always worry. I just do; I'm a worrier. But I especially worry that the next book in any series will disappoint. Book #7 is a terrific addition. Dinniman continues to expand the story beyond the dungeon without losing sight of the book's heart: Carl and Donut's relationship--the Frodo and Sam of this universe. Crawlers have reached the 9th floor of the dungeon, where they face mega-rich aliens from around the galaxy who pay for the sport of killing crawlers. This time it's different. Carl convinces the AI running the dungeon to remove the safeties that keep the warlords from dying for real. The stakes are high for everyone.  

🦖🧚‍♀️🧌🐉😺🦶

    I was surprised to find that What You Wish For is the fifth book by Katherine Center that I've read. At the core, her books are romance novels, but she infuses them with joy and triumph, making them brighten my day whenever I read one. Her main characters, Samantha and Duncan, have past traumas that are currently influencing their present lives. Center paced the novel well, dropping revelations in a timely way that kept me engaged. 

  Other reviews of books by Katherine Center: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Katherine+Center

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💘🎶👽Romance and Sci-Fi

    This week, I read The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center. It is an excellent example of the Romance genre. Emma Wheeler desires to be a screenwriter and has the chops to do it, but family tragedy prevents her. Her agent secures her a job writing with her idol in the screenwriting universe, Charlie Yates. She took the bold step of going to LA to find out that her agent hadn'hadn't her everything. Like, Charlie Yates didn't know she was coming. The book is humorous and sparkly, with highs and lows that made me wonder how it would all work out. Delightful.

I listened to The Rom-Commers on audio, and at the end, Katherine Center made a passionate case for the benefits of Romance books. She cited several scientific studies and a TED Talk. I have been a Romance Snob and long ago repented. A romance book usually involves challenging events and obstacles that must be overcome. Because it's instance, the reader is promised a happy ending—justice is served, true love is discovered, and rifts are mended.

I'm looking forward to reading more from Center.

💘🎞✍

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente is a weird book that lives up to its title. Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes, a washed-up band no longer, together become the unwilling representatives for Earth in the universe's version of Eurovision/Hunger Games. The bottom line is that if they don't place high enough, Earth will be destroyed. The book had a fun concept but it went on many wordy tangents that slowed the pace waaaaaay down so it got to be a slog. I almost gave it up but persevered. If you liked The Hitchhiker to the Universe, you will like this. It feels very British in its humor and plot.

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🐉🧌 🏞️ 🏰 So Much Reading!

 

    There was a lot of reading this week--mostly fantasy, but also literary. I was fortunate to get a copy of Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros. It came out last Tuesday and is the third in a planned five books in a popular series called The Empyrean. Yarros keeps the story moving about Violet Sorrengal and the many, many others. Having a character list to refer to would have been helpful, but I focused on the main characters and rode out the rest. Yarros does a fantastic job of solving some problems and raising new ones. It's an exciting read. A final boss battle gives the book a feeling of an ending but also drops a huge plot point that makes me wish the next book was written and waiting. 

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    Honestly, I will enjoy almost anything written by T. Kingfisher (AKA Ursula Vernon). Nine Goblins is the tale of an unlikely protagonist, a female goblin captain who gets accidentally transported behind enemy lines with her squad. She must get her band of none-too-bright goblins through a magical forest inhabited by enemy elves, deadly wizards, and hungry predators. It isn't as easy as it sounds.

🧌🧝‍♂️🦴🦄

    Elizabeth Strout is a strong writer, able to evoke deep, unsettling emotions, bring them out, and critically examine them. Her latest book, Tell Me Everything, continues the narration of the life of Lucy Barton and connects her with Olive Kitteridge. I find this book challenging to describe. There are many plots and lives woven together. At the center is Lucy Barton. She tries to understand the why of life, especially lives that are blighted by the cruelty of others. Lucy and Olive tell each other stories of unrecorded lives and what they mean. It is thoughtful, gentle, and winsome. Strout well deserves her Pulitzer Prize.

Reviews of other Strout books: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Strout

🏞️🍁🌱❄️☀️

    Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis reminds me of T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon--a compliment! A dark lord--evil sorcerer--finds himself in his burning workroom, minus his memories. A goblin minion is knocking at the door, asking if he needs help. He does, but who is trustworthy? Once, Dread Lord Gavrax, who now thinks of himself as Gav, must decide who he will be--good or evil or somewhere in between-- but he doesn't have much time before the scariest Dread Lord of all arrives, his town is destroyed, his captured princess is sacrificed, and the heroes storm the castle. 

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💍🧽👯‍♀️😻 Historical Fiction and Cats!

 

    I started The Wife, The Maid, and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon, thinking it was a mystery book. It had the vibe with a detective, a cheating husband, fierce females, and ambition for miles. I googled Judge Joseph Crater and found him to be a real person who disappeared in 1930 and was never seen again. This historical fiction spins a tale told by three significant women in his life. The narration passes back and forth between them, painting a picture of Judge Crater, the corrupt times in which they live, and what seemingly powerless women can do to change their circumstances. 

    This is the second Ariel Lawhon book I've read this year. She takes a germ of an event or person and writes a fantastic story around it.

https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/2025/01/three-5-star-books-and-weird-one.html

💍🧽👯‍♀️💸

    We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida, translated by E. Madison Shimoda, made me briefly ponder getting a cat. In five short stories, Ishida makes a case for the power of cats. Through word of mouth, different troubled individuals find their way to the Nakagyō Kokoro Clinic for the Soul, where the doctor prescribes them a cat. Things start to happen. Cat things. This was a cheering, lovely read, especially if you have a warm spot for cats in your heart.

😻😸😽😼

 

❤️💞Romance and 🦀YA

    Sophie Go's Lonely Hearts Club by Roselle Lim blends magical realism and romance. Sophie Go is almost a certified matchmaker. She moves back to her hometown and her problematic parents. There are many excellent descriptions of food. It is hard to read without getting hungry. Sophie works to bring her elderly bachelor neighbors suitable matches despite formidable obstacles. She tries so hard to be a good daughter, neighbor, and matchmaker but neglects herself. Will she find happiness?

🍱🍣🥭❤️🥢🍥🥮

    We are reading Newberry Award winners this book club season, and it has been great! The January book is Jacob Have I Loved by Katherin Paterson. There is so much life packed into this short book. Twin sisters. Caroline is golden and talented, and Louise feels unseen and neglected. The setting is Maryland's Chesapeake Bay area island. Patterson captures the tension and unsureness of being a teenager, not knowing your future when everyone else seems to have their known and planned. Adding the backdrop of World War II brings a life-and-death gravitas to the next steps. Excellent book.

    🌊🦀🛶

    Cara Basone's book Ready or Not is a modern romance set in New York. Eve Hatch finds herself unexpectedly pregnant from a one-night stand. She finds herself reevaluating her entire life. Her best friend struggles with infertility, the baby's father returns to his beloved girlfriend (They were on a break!), and an unsatisfying yet precarious job leaves her feeling adrift. As a contemporary romance, I knew a man wouldn't swoop in and save her. Eve learns to find her voice and courage to reach for her dreams in creative and novel ways. 

    As romances go, it has all the right elements. I found the characters to be two-dimensional. There aren't really any villains or even much personal growth. The plot carried the story.

🤰🏼🗽🌸💞