The Hazel Wood
Rating: 3/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!
Alice has spent most of her life on the road, always one step ahead of the strange bad luck biting at her heels. But when Alice's grandmother, the reclusive author of a book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her isolate estate - the Hazel Wood - Alice discovers how bad her luck can really get.
Her own mother is stolen away - by a figure who claims to come from the supernatural world where the fairy tales are set. Alice's only clue is the message left behind:
STAY AWAY FROM
THE HAZEL WOOD.
To rescue her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother's tales began...
I picked up an ARC of this at YALC and recently got a finished copy in Fairy Loot and so I finally got around to picking it up and I thought I'd do a quick review for it! I've seen a lot of people loving this book and raving about it but I'm honestly kind of on the fence about it.
On the plus side, this book was so very creepy, and there where plenty of plot twists throughout the book. I also really loved the way the stories where woven throughout the main plot. I really liked Finch too, but he wasn't enough to make up for my issues with the book.
Aside from the time I spent confused and feeling kind of dumb, to be honest, I really didn't get on with the MC Alice. I just didn't like her. I thought she was kind of a cow to be honest, and I really didn't care what was happening to her. I get why she was like that because it's explained at the end of the book, but she was really very horrible, particularly to Finch who was going out of his way to help her. I can't really blame him for what he did to be honest.
I also found the book to be quite slow and I pretty much forced myself to get through it because everyone had been raving about it and I felt dumb for not loving the book yet, and it made me feel like I didn't get it. However, once I'd finished the book....I still didn't really love the book. The plot just never fully drew me in, and while the writing was flowery, it was also kind of....pretentious. I didn't actually think this was a YA book at first to be honest. Overall it left me feeling underwhelmed and slightly stupid.
Days of Goddess
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!
While adventurers crawl the Dungeon, the gods and goddesses of Orario are always working hard behind the scenes for their beloved children! The deities who remain on the surface might not brave the labyrinth's depths, but they're just as busy--all of them occupied with duties like managing their familia's business, striking deals, gathering information, or going shopping, stuffing their faces, lounging about not doing much of anythi--adventures! So many adventures! Who can really say what happens in the sometimes precious, occasionally chaotic day-to-day lives of this charming pantheon?
I've been waiting for this volume with baited breath because I completely love Hestia, so I've been excited to see her in the spotlight and see some more of her finally!
The art is so freaking cute, I'm not going to lie! I seriously love it! The intro to Orario did get a wee bit repetitive but they cut it out after a couple of the shorts. The little shorts themselves where hilarious, and we got to see more of Hestia's everyday life and what she gets up to! Her interactions and relationships with the other gods and goddesses where shown more too which I love! Some of them are like a bickering family. Plenty of familiar faces pop up throughout the volume, not just gods and goddesses! I think Miachi might be one of my favourites now too! I can't quite decide on Loki, but we do get to see a lot of her! We also see Bete like we've never seen him before...it genuinely can't be unseen and will haunt me whenever I read the main series!
Some of the lines they used cracked me up so much, "Is it wrong to try and work in a dungeon" and so on. I fully cackled. We also get treated to drunk Hestia, Miachi, and Eina and it is freaking hilarious. I'm going to be needing more of that!
I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this spin off, but it ended up being hugely entertaining and had me laughing so much! I also wasn't expecting the shorts to be quite so connected, I guess because of how it was described as four panels I assumed it was going to be separate stories for each of the shorts! I really enjoyed seeing more of Hestia and learning more about her and the other gods and goddesses because I've been so curious about them and how they interact! The interactions between Lilly, Welf, Hestia, Bell and Aiz where hilarious too!
Days of Goddess is genuinely so funny, and it's not afraid to make fun of itself if all the "is it wrong to *insert word here* in a dungeon" gags are anything to go by! I actually really enjoyed this, like I knew I was going to enjoy it anyway, but it was even better than I was expecting! I look forward to more!
Forbidden Scrollery Vol 2
Rating: 3/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!
In the mystic realm of Gensokyo, library worker Kosuzuna awakens to her ability to read demon books. This volume crosses over with the games Double Dealing Character and Hopeless Masquerade of the Japanese hit franchise, Touhou!
The art is quite simply, freaking gorgeous and I love it! The stories are brimming with yokai and myth and legend and sprinkles of our world. The characters are entertaining and intriguing and while the stories are separate, each one is fun and has a lot of depth and detail to it, which I find a pleasant surprise! Although I did wonder if this volume might start to form a plot, with each chapter being linked and so on, but the stories cover one chapter, two at most and remain separate. But like I said...surprisingly they have a lot of detail to them!
I feel like this volume lets us get to know the characters and their personalities more than the previous volume, and I'm more and more intrigued by them. I'm a sucker for myths and legends too...not to mention yokai so I eagerly read each chapter, let alone volume! The stories themselves continue to be entertaining and colourful too!
Love and Lies Vol 4
Rating: 3/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!
The system of governmentally-arranged marriage is supposed to make everyone's life easier, but it's not working for Yukari Nejima. His class is staging a production of Romeo and Juliet for the school festival--and the girl he loves, Misaki, is playing Romeo! Opposite her as Juliet is Yukari's best friend, the perpetually-misunderstood Yusuke. With Yukari working backstage and his governmentally-assigned partner Lilina in the audience, the class play is going to have more star-cross'd lovers than anyone bargained for!
Yukari asks for advice from the shady government dude (Yajima) from before who could prove to be an interesting character, judging from the snapshot of his backstory that we got, I'm actually hoping to see more of him. I don't think he's entirely down with the notices. Anyways, Yukari opts to follow his feelings, which are kinda complicated right now because he's caught feelings for Lilina methinks.
Interestingly Yusuke's dad makes an appearance and we finally get to know Yusuke a bit more, which I've been waiting for. The more volumes I read, the more and more certain I am that my suspicions about Yusuke are correct, it's just whether or not the manga is actually going to address that. It'll add an interesting development to the love triangle...square...thing. Whatever you want to call it, it's certainly deepening.
Some new faces appear and things might finally be getting interesting as I feel things have been quite slow for the past volume or so, and it appears someone may have messed with the government notices, which is yet another interesting development that this volume hits us with! It's added a nice mystery element that's caught my curiosity.
Clockwork Planet Vol 7
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!
Amid all the conspiracies and plots, the government is forced to come to a stalemate. When threats from mysterious parties and all-powerful weapons seem impossible to overcome, the leader of the military coup starts calling the shots. What's more, the leader's intent behind the coup is more dangerous to humanity than any could have imagined. Japan's national crisis has hit its peak, and Naoto and his friends stand at the core!
The latest volume of Clockwork Planet is action packed from the start, I loved how the whole attack was drawn, with Naoto and his phases and so on, and the contrast between Ryuzu and Anchor as they attack. Vermouth fully has me cackling too. Volume 7 has a completely hilarious opening chapter!
The volume is moving things along when it comes to the plot, we have Halter making his return finally, and Marie appears to maybe have a cool power? Or is she just a genius? Or both? Who knows. But Naoto and co swiftly enter the palace and we meet HRH Hoshi. They finally introduce themselves as basically the second Y and present themselves as an enemy to all of Japan, therefore giving the army something to work together on and forget the infighting.
However, our bad guy is fully gunning for Naoto. He's revealed to be Hirayama and we get a load of backstory on him and what his issue is. Not only that but things are looking pretty dire towards the end of the volume and Anchor runs off to try and save the day while Marie and Naoto have a bit of a bicker.
Volume 7 brings in a new character who's going to be interesting for sure, and I'm intrigued to see what part they're going to play. The world itself is expanded upon, and we get a lot of backstory and motivations for other characters that we've been curious about. I'm still not entirely sure where this story is going as a whole, but the current arc is definitely shaping up to be pretty epic!
The Bitter Twins
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!
The Ninth Rain has fallen, the Jure'lia have returned, and with Ebora a shadow of its former self, the old enemy are closer to conquering Sarn than ever.
Tormalin the Oathless and the Fell-Witch Noon have their hands full dealing with the first war-beasts to be born in Ebora for nearly three hundred years. But these are not the great mythological warriors of old; hatched too early and with no link to their past lives, the war-beasts have no memory of the many battles they have fought and won, and no concept of how they can possibly do it again. The key to uniting them, according to the scholar Vintage, may lie in a part of Sarn no one really believes exists, but finding it will mean a dangerous journey at a time of war...
Meanwhile, Hestillion is trapped on board the corpse moon, forced into a strange and uneasy alliance with the Jure'lia queen. Something terrifying is growing up there, in the heart of the Behemoth, and the people of Sarn will have no defence against these new monsters.
I've been waiting for this book eagerly, because the previous book, The Ninth Rain, had some mind blowing plot twists and blew me away and the end certainly left me wanting for more. One of my favourite things about this book is the lack of a lengthy recap going back over everything. We get glimpses of the war beasts via some different POV's, and then we're back with Tor and the crew and everything comes flooding back, with a brief reminder here and there.
The POV's switch up as our group split up and head off on different missions. Tor and Noon head off on a search for something mentioned in the previous book, while Bern and Aldasair have a job of their own to do at Bern's home, and Vintage holds down the fort. Not to mention Hestellion's POV. I'm not going to lie, I really didn't like her in the first book and I still can't quite make my mind up about her in this book, I spend a lot of time side eyeing her and towards the end I was kind of mentally berating Tor for not killing her when he had the chance. I just can't decide if I like her. Having said that, it's interesting watching her character develop throughout this book, and I'm interested to see where she's going.
On the subject of familiar faces, Tor has Kirune, his war beast, to bond with...and it's an interesting relationship in the start. Kirune basically ignored everything he said. Funnily enough I did get where Kirune was coming from and Vostok was irritating me too so I feel ya dude. I liked seeing Tor and Kirune bond and come together in this book, their bickering was pretty funny too. Tor finds out an interesting revelation that he has to deal with. I do want to smack Tor sometimes but he's one of my favourite characters. I feel like we start to bond with him and the other existing characters more in this book as we get to explore their characters more.
Noon....I don't know why, but at points in this book she really was beginning to bug me, she and Vostok both. I really liked her in the previous book, but this book...she was just annoying me a lot of the time, which I was kind of disappointed with. Although the final scene with her...I was cheering because finally! I'm so ready to see that scene! I have to mention Aldasair and Bern briefly because I freaking love them and I was so happy with developments for them in this book...well most. Something unpleasant happens to Bern that had me screaming, but he and Aldasair..HELL YES! I feel like we get to know both of them so much more this book and I loved seeing them come in to their own.
Vintage continues to freaking crack me up, she's got such a potty mouth and it has me in fits of giggles. I'd repeat some of her lines here but she has a lot of F-bombs. I really felt for her when certain things went down, it was something I didn't see coming, although I was shouting at her and Eri both because I knew full well what was going to happen and they where so blind to it! Eri is one of the new characters we meet in this book and I was kind of side eyeing him at the beginning, but I ended up really loving him, and he broke my heart in the end! The bickering war beasts where a highlight too, I'm not going to lie and it was interesting watching them grow closer with their respective warriors.
The world building is truly brilliant, and the battle scenes are written so vividly. We take to the skies more for battles in this book because you know...war beasts! Which was an interesting change to the kind of battle scenes I usually see in books. There's so much freaking heartbreak and betrayal in this book, but also humour and action and just general epicness! There's some more mad plot twists throughout this book, and we get hit with some huge reveals as what we thought we knew is turned upside down and expanded upon.
And ya know...once again we're left wanting for more! This is such an original and intriguing series!
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