Danielle Thamasa's Blog, page 12

Manga Review: Manga Classics – Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Nokman Poon, Stacy King, and Crystal S Chan

Hey all, Sam here.

Hello, and welcome back to another Manga Monday. It’s been a little while since I’ve done this regularly. I need to look at where I left off on some of my longer series reviews, so I can jump back into those (series like Black Clover, My Hero Academia, and One Piece). However, I’ve also been picking up these Manga Classics whenever I see them pop up on NetGalley, so I’ll have to see if there’s any more of them I can download and enjoy. (I did check and found Romeo & Juliet, so that’ll probably be a quick read I tackle next month.)

So, yes, thank you to UDON Entertainment, Morpheus Publishing, and NetGalley for granting me access to this book. I look forward to many more of these reads and reviews in future. As always, getting these books via NetGalley does not affect my rating or opinions at all.

Let’s get started.

Great Expectations has it all: romance, mystery, comedy, and unforgettable characters woven through a gripping rags-to-riches tale. Naive Pip, creepy Miss Haversham, beautifully cold Estella, terrifying Abel Magwitch, and the rest of Dicken’s fantastic cast are perfectly envisioned in this new adaptation in this 300-plus page volume featuring artwork by artist Nokman Poon. Manga Classics editions feature classic stories, faithfully adapted and illustrated in manga style, and available in both hardcover and softcover editions. Proudly presented by UDON Entertainment and Morpheus Publishing.

My Thoughts

Rating: 4 stars

Fun fact: though I have always been a big reader and I have a degree in Literature (so I read a lot of classics), I actually have never read Great Expectations. So honestly, that was one of the big determining factors for me picking up this Manga Classics edition. Most of the Manga Classics I’ve read and reviewed before this have been ones that I’d at least read the source material before.

I even tried looking up the movie and TV adaptations for this classic novel, and……nope, haven’t seen any of them.

So, basically I had no idea of the general plot or characters or anything of this story before going into it. And, let’s be honest, that summary tells you absolutely nothing about the content/plot of the story, except that it’s a rags-to-riches story.

I followed the story easily enough. Like with the other Manga Classics, there’s a nice blend of dialogue and exposition to tell you the things that can’t be explained visually with the fantastic manga-style art. There was a decent sized cast of characters in this story, and it felt like there was quite a bit happening, even as we had a few time skips to age Pip up from little boy to a younger adult.

I will continue to say that I’m increasingly glad for adaptations like Manga Classics or for film or mini-series adaptations of so many of these classics. With the evolution of storytelling, particularly in the last decade or so, I am increasingly aware of how absolutely dry reading most of these literary classics can be to a modern reader. Yes, there are many classics that I do still enjoy revisiting, but I think a certain amount of that is the nostalgia of it all, or because it is a shorter classic. A lot of Jane Austen is only a couple hundred pages long, whereas the original Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is over 500 pages, which is pretty long. Even more so when you consider that the font size used is typically smaller and some of those pages are chock full of big blocks of text.

It’s so much more palatable to read just 300 pages of a manga, which is a nice blend of art and text. Yes, these Manga Classics sometimes have more words on the page than most other manga I read, but compared to the original text, it is a lot less. It’s almost like getting an abridged version, cutting out all the lengthy descriptions of scenery or mundane activities.

Overall, I read this fairly quickly and liked it well enough. I honestly can’t say that I would go out of my way to check out the original novel or any of the other adaptations, but I’m glad I can say that I’m at least more familiar with the story than I was before this.

All right, that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

NetGalley Review: The Honey Witch by Sydney J Shields

Hey all, Sam here.

Oh yeah, the reviews just keep coming in, and I’m trying to focus on books that are releasing around now. But I do still have a nice backlog that I also need to get around to, and I’ll hopefully be able to do that a bit more in the next couple weeks. My hope is to have more of a balance between new and upcoming releases and my review backlog moving forward.

As you can probably tell by my monthly TBRs, I usually have 4-10 NetGalley releases each month, so once I’ve caught up a little bit, I should be able to balance current reads with backlog reads.

Anyway, today’s review is again another May book release, and it’s one that I actually finished reading at the end of last month. I was excited when my pre-order arrived so I could add this one to my shelves. Let’s dive on in.

The Honey Witch of Innisfree can never find true love. That is her curse to bear. But when a young woman who doesn’t believe in magic arrives on her island, sparks fly in this deliciously sweet debut novel of magic, hope, and love overcoming all.
 
Twenty-one-year-old Marigold Claude has always preferred the company of the spirits of the meadow to any of the suitors who’ve tried to woo her. So when her grandmother whisks her away to the family cottage on the tiny Isle of Innisfree with an offer to train her as the next Honey Witch, she accepts immediately. But her newfound magic and independence come with a No one can fall in love with the Honey Witch.
 
When Lottie Burke, a notoriously grumpy skeptic who doesn’t believe in magic, shows up on her doorstep, Marigold can’t resist the challenge to prove to her that magic is real. But soon, Marigold begins to care for Lottie in ways she never expected. And when darker magic awakens and threatens to destroy her home, she must fight for much more than her new home—at the risk of losing her magic and her heart.

My Thoughts

Rating: 5 stars

Okay, I’m going to say it…was this 5 stars because it was a good story that I had a rather fun time reading? Yes. Were there still plot points and twists that I saw come about 100 pages before they were revealed? Also, yes. But it still didn’t make the reading experience less enjoyable.

I think The Honey Witch is the perfect late spring/early summer read. Much like spring showers giving way to summer storms, this book has its light and cute moments balanced with those looming dark clouds that then just rush in and unleash their chaos over everything.

The characters were interesting, and I enjoyed getting to know them. I feel like we could have gotten a little more about the magic system. Now, this could be because I read a whole lot of fantasy and I’m used to rich, deep, intricate magic systems, but this one was only given a basic structure and the rest was more vague, so it’s definitely more of a soft magic system than a hard one. Which is fine, but I’m a greedy fantasy fan and I want to fully immerse myself in the magical world and learn how it all works. I’m not going to punish a book for not giving me all that information though, because I still really enjoyed it.

Also, honestly, I would have liked to get more with Marigold’s family (maybe a companion novel in the future?). I especially enjoyed her brother and wanted more about that. And, I would enjoy a prequel type story that goes more into her parents’ story, and even her grandmother’s tale.

I read this book very quickly, and though I could predict quite a few of the twists long before their reveal, I still was enveloped by the story and disappeared into it easily, flipping the digital pages rapidly, because I wanted to know what was going to happen next, and to see if my predictions would be correct. It was a fun reading time, and finishing it was a sad time, because it meant the story was over and I had to leave the world of honey witches and ash witches behind.

All right, that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

NetGalley Review: Attached at the Hip by Christine Riccio

Hey all, Sam here.

Blogging catch up continues. I have so many books that I’ve read this year (I’m at almost 70 books already) and I still need to review them. I can only blame myself for not getting the posts drafted and scheduled in a timely manner. Anyway, I’m trying to get myself focused so I can actually get more reviews up.

Honestly, for me, that means pulling out my spare keyboard and connecting it to my laptop. I bought this fun USB keyboard that makes delightful “click clack” noises when I type, and I don’t know y’all, but I just really enjoy listening to the melody of the keys when I type. It just hits my brain in a happy way. So if pulling out the extra keyboard is what will get me back to blogging more regularly, I suppose I’ll do that.

Let’s go ahead and jump into today’s review, featuring a recent book release, so you can definitely go grab your own copy if interested.

Survivor meets The Bachelor in Attached at the Hip, an irresistible, romantic adventure by New York Times bestselling author Christine Riccio.

Orie Lennox has spent her entire life prepping for her happily ever after — and now that she’s graduated, she’s low-key wondering, when the heck is it gonna hit. Her love life, her new job, her relationship with her sister: none of it is quite what she envisioned it to be.

One evening, on a whim, she applies for a reality show where she’ll be stranded on an island, with a bunch of strangers, to play a game of human chess for a shot at a million dollars. What better way to force herself to break up with the things that aren’t bringing her joy, than to abandon them all on short notice to live off the grid on a beach in the South Pacific!

Orie’s shocked when she ends up cast in an experimental romantic edition of the show: and even more surprised to find that her old high school crush, Remy, has been cast as well. Orie’s one of ten contestants, set to compete in formidable challenges, while speed dating, in the wilderness: without deodorant, toilets, shaving cream, or showers. (How!?)

She finds herself tied up — literally — in a game of risky alliances as she navigates ever-growing feelings for her one that got away, alongside an exciting array of budding new relationships.

My Thoughts

Rating: 4 stars

This is probably my favorite of Christine Riccio’s books, followed by her first book Again, But Better. I was drawn into the characters and the relationship dynamics and the story concept so quickly, and I just wanted to keep reading….which is why I have read my e-galley of this MONTHS before it is to be released. There were plenty of other galleys I should have prioritized, but the concept of Attached at the Hip just intrigued me so I couldn’t resist it as soon as I realized I had been approved for it on NetGalley.

Okay, so that was what I wrote as my brief thoughts on Goodreads when I finished reading this book at the end of January…yes, I read my e-galley of this book roughly four months before it was to be released.

And I want to say, in the moments after closing the file and opening up Goodreads to update my reading status, I definitely felt like this book was a 5 star read. So I want to explain why I only have it as a 4 star read now. I also want to state that this is just my personal thoughts on it, and I don’t expect this to apply to everyone else who reads it.

There is a scene where Orie is talking to a fellow contestant named Kennedi and talking about relationships and romance and desire, and Kennedi brings up Asexuality. Orie basically agrees that it’s something to consider and then….that’s it. Of course, we the reader can look back to the beginning of the book when Orie was still dating Wes and talking in the narration about how she wasn’t really attracted to him, and they were just together because it was expected or whatever. And I just….I was excited about the possibility of Orie looking more into Asexuality, perhaps after the show’s filming wrapped and she went home. But that didn’t happen. I don’t think it was intentional to be so queer-bait-like in this story, but that’s how it felt to me. And that is especially disappointing for me as an Ace person, because there is not a whole lot of Ace rep out there, not yet anyway, and it would have been great to have that representation gaining a bigger foothold for Young Adult/New Adult/Adult readers.

Aside from that, I honestly enjoyed the fun, chaotic, drama filled romantic-“Survivor” spin-off. There was the challenges and alliances and backstabbing that a fan of “Survivor” would expect from this kind of story.

While I have seen a number of other reviewers criticizing Orie’s decision/attempt to use the name Piccadilly on the show “in order to be more unique” when Orie is already a perfectly unique name, I understand that part of the reason Orie decides to do the show is because she’s trying to prove that she can do things without her sister or her family or her boyfriend…..and most know her online as Orie because of her social media work with her sister…so the attempt to be known as Piccadilly instead on the show is supposed to show that she’s trying to do it without the influence of being Orie. Or, at least, that’s how I view it.

I do think that certain sections of the story could have been drawn out a little more. It felt like the set-up took way longer to get through than the actual “Attached at the Hip” show filming portion.

But I read this very quickly, and it held my interest. I suppose I should say that I did miss some of the cameos of previous Christine Riccio character’s (like I noticed Shane’s cameo, but totally missed out on most of the characters from Better Together because I didn’t enjoy that book as much.

Anyway…it was an overall enjoyable story…and part of me hopes that Christine Riccio will address the Ace queerbaiting from her story, I doubt it will happen.

Perhaps this is just more reason for me to focus on getting my own Ace novels finished. I can’t say that my representation of the Ace community will be accurate for all on the Ace spectrum, but it will at least be accurate for my lived experience.

Well, that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

Weekend Writer: The Linchpin Writer: Crafting Your Novel’s Key Moments by John Matthew Fox

Hey all, Sam here.

Okay, so I know that I dropped the ball when it came to my Weekend Writer posts in the month of May. Obviously I didn’t manage to get a prompt post created, but I also didn’t share my writing from my prompts in April, so I’ll share that post next week, and then I’ll be back to having writing prompts for June.

Of course, thankfully I do still have time to talk about the writing craft book I had decided to focus on for the month of May, so that’s what we’re doing today. Thankfully I have already decided on my writing craft books for the rest of this year, and I’m really looking forward to discussing all of them. For June, I’ll be talking about Embrace Your Weird by Felicia Day. It’s a re-read for me, but I’m still really looking forward to discussing it with all of you.

All right….a lot of the books I’ve focused on so far this year have been a general guide to the whole process of writing, whether that is gentle writing advice or discussing plotting the entire book. For the month of May, I decided to read a writing craft book that’s been on my shelves for a couple years, one that targets those linchpin moments, those key moments in your story that can be make-it-or-break-it moments for your readers.

So let’s get started.

In every novel there are pivotal places that can make or break a book. Write them well, and you’ll have your readers begging for a sequel. Write them poorly, and your book will get scathing reviews and sell only a handful of copies. These pivotal places are “linchpin moments,” and in this book you’ll learn how to nail these moments.

Based on real advice from editing hundreds of novels, John Matthew Fox guides writers through the process of creating a novel that soars in the reader’s imagination. After reading this book, you’ll be a better storyteller, a better self-editor, and a better writer.

In this book you’ll learn how to:

Flood your readers with strong emotions
Create memorable beginnings and endings
Describe characters for the first time
Make readers swoon in romantic scenes
Kill off characters (without enraging your readers)
Harness the element of surprise

My Thoughts

Rating: 4 stars

As with most of the books that I’ve read for Weekend Writer, I have flagged a bunch of sections in this book. I’ll post a Weekend Writer photo on Instagram if you want to look at my collection of flags in writing craft books. So…I can’t annotate books. Unless it is a workbook, which is specifically designed for me to mark up and write in, I just can’t do it. No shade to anyone who does write or highlight in their books. If it works for you, that’s great. I just…I can’t do it. But I can definitely leave Post-It Flags to mark passages, and if I need to write anything down then I can write down what I need to (or note it on Storygraph or Goodreads or whatever).

Actually, I really like my Kindle Scribe for when I want to take notes in a book. I can highlight passages in an e-book, and the Kindle Scribe allows me to add a digital Post It and use the stylus pen to actually write a note or observation.

I think this book had some nice points to think about when it comes to storytelling. The first chapter was about when you became a writer, and I liked the thought process on it. You don’t become a writer when you get a book deal or publish or go on a tour or hit a bestseller list. You become a writer when you have that moment of creative awakening, when you decide to tell a story and have it written down.

I have been someone who delights in stories my whole life. I loved playing make believe running around on the playground or in my backyard or at the public pool. Whenever I could gather with a couple of friends and indulge in a few hours of coming up with characters and a story together…that was always just the best time.

I started wanting to write books when I was in junior high/middle school. My first novels were pretty short, honestly, probably only novellas based on word count. And they were certainly lacking when it comes to a depth of description. I started posting my stories on fictionpress when I was in high school and through most of college, and it was a great time. I learned a lot more about writing through those experiences. So, I’ve considered myself to be a writer for a long time, and just because I haven’t written as much lately, it doesn’t take away from the fact that I AM still a writer.

The different linchpin moments in this book: from first paragraphs to first descriptions of characters to a character’s first spoken words….and on to other areas, like utilizing emotions like sorrow, wonder, desire…or even how to end a chapter, end the story, or even end the life of a character, there are many impactful and important moments that are moments we need to focus on as writers so we can grab the interest of our readers and keep that interest.

I also liked that this book, like so many writing craft books I’ve picked up, has had writing exercises in each chapter. The exercises give ways to think about our characters and plot and story in ways that I think are to the benefit of our writing overall. I can’t believe it took me so long to pick this book up. Hopefully I’ll be able to work my way through some more writing craft books that have been sitting on my shelves for a while.

I feel like I’ve picked up different things from each writing book I pick up, and it gives me a new perspective on my stories, my worlds, my characters, my plots, and…overall it does make me feel like my writing is getting stronger in the long run. Of course, I could still stand to spend more time writing and a little less time simply studying the craft of writing.

All right, well that is all from me for today. I’m back to book reviews tomorrow, but Weekend Writer is back next Friday with sharing April’s writing based on the prompts (which you can find here in case you want to join in). Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

NetGalley Review: Queen of None by Natania Barron

Hey all, Sam here.

Apparently we’re going from a YA book that features an online game based on Arthurian legend to a fantasy romance that is a twist on Arthurian legend. So that’s fun. Anyway, I’m really trying to get some posts prepped and written and scheduled. No promises that we’ll be able to stay consistent longer than the next week, but I’m really hoping it happens.

Today’s book review is for a book just released on May 21st in the US, so you can snag your own copy now, which is very exciting. All right, let’s get started.

First in a sumptuous, female-led Arthurian Fantasy Romance trilogy

When Anna Pendragon was born, Merlin “Through all the ages, and in the hearts of men, you will be forgotten.”

Married at twelve, and a mother soon after, Anna – the famed King Arthur’s sister – did not live a young life full of promise, myth, and legend. She bore three strong sons and delivered the kingdom of Orkney to her brother by way of her marriage. She did as she was asked, invisible and useful for her name, her status, her dowry, and her womb.

Twenty years after she left her home, Anna returns to Carelon at Arthur’s bidding, carrying the crown of her now-dead husband, Lot of Orkney. Past her prime and confined to the castle itself, she finds herself yet again a pawn in greater machinations and seemingly helpless to do anything about it.

Anna must once again face the demons of her her sister Morgen, Elaine, and Morgause; Merlin and his scheming Avillion priests; and Bedevere, the man she once loved. To say nothing of new court visitors, like Lanceloch, or the trouble concerning her own sons.

Carelon, and all of Braetan, is changing, though, and Anna must change along with it. New threats, inside and out, lurk in the shadows, and a strange power begins to awaken in her. As she learns to reconcile her dark gift, and struggles to keep the power to herself, she must bargain her own strength, and family, against her ambition and thirst for revenge.

My Thoughts

Rating: 4 stars

After how quickly I read the book before this one, the pace for this one slowed me down immensely. I’m not saying that as a negative, but the overall pacing was considerably slower. Anna is an observer, being mostly on the outskirts of things for a good chunk of the book, and we get to see her thoughts and opinions and feelings towards not just the people around her but also the events of the court.

Honestly a lot of this book is thought and memory and planning. If you’re looking for an action-packed Arthurian adventure…this is not that book. But if you’re looking for a thoughtful, calculating, drawn-out introspection on a different viewpoint towards what you know about Arthurian legends and tales, then this is a nice book to enjoy for a few hours.

There is so much going on with all of the various characters and how the stories all intertwine and blend and either collide or drift apart.

Oh, and it should absolutely be pointed out that there is queer rep in this story as well. No definitive labels are given for the characters, but several could be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or possibly pansexual.

There are a LOT of characters in this story too, and many stories from the expansive Arthurian lore get mentioned or hinted at, so if you’re already a fan of these stories and characters, there’s plenty of little Easter eggs to keep you entertained.

Even with this being a slower paced story, I still did enjoy the reading experience, and I am very curious to see how the sequels play out. I like seeing this female-focused twist on Arthurian lore, where the women try to play the game in a world where men are seen to have the power. I like seeing how they manipulate the system to eke out whatever power and benefits they can.

This wasn’t the usual fantasy story I tend to read. Normally I read faster-paced stories, and ones that have a whole lot more action and adventure going on. So there was something wonderfully different about this one, about slowing down and being a little more introspective.

Not my favorite book ever, or even of this year, but still a very solid reading experience over all.

All right, well that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

NetGalley Review: Twelfth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth

Hey all, Sam here.

I am so far behind on all of my book reviewing, and my book writing….and just life in general it feels like. Perhaps I shouldn’t be so hard on myself, but I look back at the history of this blog to when I actually was posting like 10-12 posts each week and getting all sorts of views and likes and comments, and now I don’t really get anything (and yes, part of that is because I haven’t been as active with posting or with checking out other blogs). I just need to figure out a better balance with my life so I can get my reading and writing and blogging and housework/job/life all done.

Anyway, I have read quite a few awesome books in the last couple weeks and I really want to talk about them, so I’m sitting here while David plays some “Star Wars: Jedi Survivor” and trying to prep up a handful of posts to show up on the blog in the next week or so.

Today’s book review is for an upcoming release, coming out in the US on May 28th, so you can definitely pre-order it now.

From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Atlas Six (under the penname Olivie Blake) comes Twelfth Knight, a grumpy/sunshine YA romantic comedy and coming of age story about taking up space in the world and learning what it means to let others in.

Viola Reyes is annoyed.

Her painstakingly crafted tabletop game campaign was shot down, her best friend is suggesting she try being more “likable,” and school running back Jack Orsino is the most lackadaisical Student Body President she’s ever seen, which makes her job as VP that much harder. Vi’s favorite escape from the world is the MMORPG Twelfth Knight, but online spaces aren’t exactly kind to girls like her―girls who are extremely competent and have the swagger to prove it. So Vi creates a masculine alter ego, choosing to play as a knight named Cesario to create a safe haven for herself.

But when a football injury leads Jack Orsino to the world of Twelfth Knight, Vi is alarmed to discover their online alter egos―Cesario and Duke Orsino―are surprisingly well-matched.

As the long nights of game-play turn into discussions about life and love, Vi and Jack soon realise they’ve become more than just weapon-wielding characters in an online game. But Vi has been concealing her true identity from Jack, and Jack might just be falling for her offline…

My Thoughts

Rating: 5 stars

This book currently holds the place of my favorite read of the year, and honestly it is going to be tough to beat. I was so swept away by this story, finding the concept and the story and the characters to be so interesting and relatable (to me anyway–I love geeky protagonists).

First off…this is a Shakespeare reimagining. If you haven’t read “Twelfth Night,” you’ll still be able to follow, but it does follow the general story line of the play. If you haven’t read the Shakespeare, then if you’ve seen the movie “She’s The Man,” then you’ll still know the basic story overview.

Where this adaptation really gets me is all the inclusion of tabletop gaming and online gaming. So TTRPGs similar to D&D play a part in this story, but the main gaming inclusion is MMORPGs (the online game included in this story is based on Arthurian legend, which is also very cool).

Viola is such a relatable character for me. Seriously, I understood her viewpoint when it came to opinions on TTRPG gameplay and character decisions and…it actually hurt because it so resembled actual scenarios I have been through in previous gaming parties.

Jack and Viola and Olivia and Sebastian and…well, all of the characters felt so real and distinct, and I DID NOT want to stop reading about them, even with all their complicated teen drama as they go through so many staples of the end of high school and planning for what comes after.

I’ll also be completely honest: I have not been in as much of a YA mood lately. While there are still some YA releases that still sound rather intriguing to me, and that I really do want to read, for the most part, I’m migrating more to just adult fantasy reads. But, when I do still pick up YA, I never lower books for the supposed immaturity of characters…because the characters are teens; they aren’t meant to be mature, reasonable, rational, whatever adults. I expect them to be balls of emotion and hormones and drama.

I also realize that I am not the target audience. I am a 35 year old woman, so these books are meant for someone half my age…but since YA was still a newer section in bookstores and libraries when I was that age, I can still remember wanting books targeted for that audience, and I can allow my inner teen out to indulge in these stories that I wish I had back then.

I could seriously gush about this book for such a long time. I absolutely LOVED it, and I absolutely cannot wait to have a finished copy on my shelves. Honestly, I might actually end up reading it again when my hardcover arrives.

I can’t believe this is my first Alexene Farol Follmuth/Olivie Blake book. I own several Olivie Blake books but I haven’t read them yet. I need to move them up on my TBR, for sure.

As I said before the review, this book will be released in the US on May 28th. If it sounds interesting to you, then there’s still time to pre-order.

That is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

April Wrap-Up

Hey all, Sam here.

So I finished…10 books in April. That’s honestly not bad at all, although it is still lower than what I’m used to. When I was really dialed in to my reading and blogging, so around 2018-2019, I was reading something like 20 books each month, and posting something like 45 posts per month. It was amazing and ridiculous….and I ended up suffering some major blogging burnout. And I also had a nearly two year long reading slump…where I read around 80-90 books in a year as opposed to my normal 200+.

I’m still working on getting back to my old reading habits again, and I can feel that I’m improving…but I’m still really struggling with getting back into blogging like I used to. I had actually thought about migrating from this blog to a BookTok account, because it seems like there’s more activity over there…but then the whole TikTok ban law got passed, so now I don’t even know if it would be worth it to try and build something there when our access to the app could be gone in less than a year.

I don’t know.

Anyway, let’s do a quick run down of everything I read in April.

That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Human by Kimberly Lemming — 4 stars (review coming May 16)

Daindreth’s Assassin by Elizabeth Wheatley — 4 stars

Lady of Starfire by Melissa K Roehrich — 5 stars

Happy Place by Emily Henry — 3.5 stars

The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten — 4.5 stars

The Study of Magic by Maria V. Snyder — 5 stars (review coming May 23)

Geekomancy by Michael R Underwood — 4.5 stars

Evocation by S.T. Gibson — 4.5 stars (review coming May 7)

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X Chang — 4 stars

The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields — 5 stars

All right. Well, that is all from me for today. Let me know what all you read in April, because I’d love to talk books in the comments. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll hopefully be back soon with more geeky content.

Manga Review: Manga Classics – The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Crystal Chan, and SunNeko Lee

Hey all, Sam here.

All right…let’s see if I can get back on track with my review schedule, because I am falling more and more behind with every little hiatus I take, and that is not fun for me. It’s starting to get difficult to try and find a balance between my overdue reviews and my upcoming release reviews. If I could have a few days to just sit down and do nothing other than write up these review posts, then maybe I could start to catch up…even if it meant sometimes having two posts a day. Unfortunately I don’t like the idea of doing that because I’d be even more likely to burn myself out.

So…when I post my TBR for the month, I’m likely to read some or most of what is on that TBR, but I don’t know how likely I am to review those books in the month I read them or even the month after that. I’m still trying to figure things out.

On the plus side, I think I do technically have enough content in my backlog to have posts up every day for a couple months…so let’s see if I can start keeping a regular schedule here.

Anyway, hello, and welcome to Manga Monday. Let’s just dive right in.

A powerful tale of forbidden love, shame, and revenge comes to life in Manga The Scarlet Letter. Faithfully adapted by Crystal Chan from the original novel, this new edition features stunning artwork by SunNeko Lee (Manga Les Miserables) which will give old and new readers alike a fresh insight into the Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tragic saga of Puritan America.

Manga Classics editions feature classic stories, faithfully adapted and illustrated in manga style, and available in both hardcover and softcover editions. Proudly presented by UDON Entertainment and Morpheus Publishing.

My Thoughts

Rating: 4 stars

I’ve really enjoyed this Manga Classics series. As someone with a B.A. in English Literature, it’s nice to get to go back and experience some of these books that I read in my youth or during my studies. The fact is that while in school I had to read these stories analytically, dissecting them for purposes of discussions and exams. But with the adaptation to manga, it is so so much easier to just read these classics for enjoyment.

Even when the classic deals with horrors and traumas and less than happy lives or situations, they feel easier to digest when done with cutely styled character design. This is especially true since some of the lengthy descriptions of surroundings can be at least partly expressed with actual visuals, and internal monologues or even spoken dialogues can be broken up into several panels of text.

Plus, in true manga fashion, these read much faster than the classic novels they are adapted from.

The one thing I will say about Manga Classics: The Scarlet Letter is that I personally feel like I missed out on some of the clues towards the forbidden romance, and I think some of Hester’s musings about Pearl’s delightful oddities were not as overt….but I say this with the caveat that I have not read The Scarlet Letter since college (probably around 2008), so I’m probably not remembering things as clearly.

I also read this particular manga in January 2024, and am just now writing the review at the end of April, so I am sad to say that I don’t have a lot of specific things to say about this story, but it was a good adaptation (from what I remember, anyway). Maybe I should do proper classic re-reads? Nah, I have too many new and diverse reads to invest my time towards finishing.

I can’t believe I still don’t actually own any of the Manga Classics. I’ve read several of them now, and keep requesting them on NetGalley any time I come across them. I should probably start adding them to my manga collection.

All right, well that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

May TBR

Hey all, Sam here.

Well, as we reach the end of another month, it makes sense to start looking forward to what I’m hoping to read in the upcoming month. Now, this year has been a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to actually following through with the TBR, because I often get distracted by other books, or there’s other stuff going on and I don’t have as much free time to dedicate to reading as I would like.

Still, I’m hopeful that May will be a great month for reading, and I know there are some books that sound really interesting on my list (as there are every month), so we’ll see what happens. And I’ll have my April reading wrap-up coming probably May 2nd, so we’ll see how April’s reading went. As of writing this post, I still have like a week left to get more books from in-progress to completed.

Let’s get started. First up, my NetGalley reads.

The Dangerous Ones by Lauren Blackwood (May 14), Queen of None by Natania Barron (May 21), Twelfth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth (May 28), The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond (May 28)

Starting in mid-May and going towards the end of the month, I have five releases not already completed (because yes, I do have a May release or two I finished a couple months ago–so those reviews are coming very soon). I think all of these books sound really good, and I’m looking forward to reading them. Hopefully I’m able to complete them before or around their respective release dates.

I’ve been wanting to read more physical books lately, so it’s been harder for me to pick up these digital ARCs, which is pushing back my NetGalley progress…especially since I keep requesting and getting approved for more and more upcoming releases. I keep telling myself I should slow down on requests so I can catch up, but I don’t want to miss out on really cool books so I just keep requesting book after book. It’s a delightful problem to have.

Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis (May 28), The God and the Gumiho by Sophie Kim (June 4), Daughter of the Merciful Deep by Leslye Penelope (June 4), Tidal Creatures by Seanan McGuire (June 4)

And then I’m also looking towards the first week of June, because if I can get a few of those reads done this month, then it makes me feel productive ahead of time. I’d really like to get to a point where I can read and review most of my NetGalley books before their release dates, but I still think it’s going to be a little while before I can catch up to that. My backlist is ridiculous.

I’m probably most looking forward to Twelfth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth, Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis, and Tidal Creatures by Seanan McGuire in this month’s NetGalley reads, although I am still extremely excited about the rest of the books too.

Bound by Ravens by Jesikah Sundin, Raven Born by Bree Moore, The Raven and the Rush by Sarah M Cradit, Blackwing Volume 1 by C.M. Alongi

To round out this TBR, I have a small selection of some of my owned physical books. I have been buying up a lot of indie books lately, and I’m trying to have a nice focus on reading and then reviewing them, but I also know that the physical reads I choose this month are also going to be at least partly decided by my mood. Sometimes I can be a planned reader and stick to a reading schedule, but sometimes I’m just in the mood for something that has nothing to do with the TBR I’ve selected.

But for right now at least, all of these books are calling out to me (as well as a few others, but I don’t want to overwhelm my TBR). I think 12 books is a pretty solid TBR for a month, so we’ll see if I can stick to it or not.

All right, well that is all from me for today. Tell me in the comments about the books you’re hoping to read in May, because I’d love to hear all about them. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

WIP Wednesday – April 17, 2024

Hey all, Sam here.

Well, it has certainly been awhile since the last WIP Wednesday post popped up on this blog. I’m trying to work on getting back into a more consistent schedule, in terms of reading, writing, blogging, and just life in general. Obviously I can’t promise anything, but I’m trying to get things together.

For the most part though, I think the WIP Wednesdays will be pretty easy to post up consistently, because they don’t require as much time and planning to write up.

So anyway, hello, and welcome to WIP Wednesday. This series on the blog is a quick recap of everything I’ve been reading, watching, writing, and doing over the past week. Some weeks I get up to so much that these little recap posts help me keep track of things when I’m looking back at the month overall, the quarter, or even the year.

Let’s get started.

Reading: In the past week I have finished Lady of Starfire by Melissa K. Roehrich, Evocation by S.T. Gibson, The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten

Well…I actually did manage to do some solid reading this past week, which is really nice. But I’m still halfway through the month and I’ve only completed 5 books so far, so I feel like I’m a bit behind. However, considering I still have the rest of today and tomorrow off work….who knows? Maybe I can finish off a few more books.

I’m obviously not in the middle of all of these books at the moment, but they are my current and upcoming reads. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish and review The Hemlock Queen by Hannah Whitten, Necrobane by Daniel M. Ford, The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo, and To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X Chang soon. Honestly I’m hoping to have these done before next week’s WIP Wednesday, so we’ll see what happens.

Watching: Well, we finished up a re-watch of the animated “Avatar the Last Airbender” and then immediately started a re-watch of “The Legend of Korra.” We’re on Book Two now, and it’s just the show we throw on when we want something on while we eat, or when we don’t have enough time for an hour-long episode…well, either this or “X-Men” animated, because we’re trying to do a re-watch so we can finally watch “X-Men 97.” And for our longer watch right now, we’re trying to catch up on Campaign 3 of “Critical Role.” We have, I think 7 or 8 episodes to watch to be fully caught up, so it’s going to be a bit time-consuming.

Writing: I’ve thought about writing but I actually haven’t done any writing…which completely sucks. I want to write, so I just need to DO IT. Hopefully next week I’ll actually have something to talk about in this section.

Other: Let’s see…Wednesday we were in Ohio, and we visited a couple restaurants and a couple game shops that we’ve missed visiting. Thursday we had to load up the car and drive back to Iowa, but we made a pit stop in Lafayette, Indiana, so I could go to Main Street Books and see Kel’s Biggest Gayest Table, which was fun (and obviously I bought some books while I was there). Sunday we helped a friend load up her U-Haul so she could move a couple hours away from us, and then we went for our first game of miniature golf for the season.

All right, well that is all from me for today. Let me know what you’ve been up to recently, because I’d love to know. Thank you for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.