Tag: diverse

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy Review

January 10, 2021

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee

“I do not need reasons to exist. I do not need to justify the space I take up in this world.”

The-Lady's-Guide-to-PetticoatsWe return this week to the second book in the historical fantasy series of novels with very long titles. Although I would never read a series out of order the first time around (I’m too much attached to chronological orders and backstories), this second book of the series is absolutely my favorite, due in no small part to its main character. I already spent a paragraph in my previous review expressing my affection for her, and now that she’s our leading lady I will no doubt spend this entire review rhapsodizing about her. (Also maybe the dragons. I always love books with dragons.) You have been warned.

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The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue Review

December 20, 2020

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

“It’s beginning to feel like he’s shuffling his way through the seven deadly sins, in ascending order of my favourites.“

The-Gentleman's-Guide-to-ViceI have returned after my month long hiatus! Between NaNo (which I failed), the holidays, and working on my printing press, I spaced off doing reviews for…quite a while. I am finally back though, and will try to keep up with at least biweekly reviews. Despite my not finding time to write reviews, my reading hasn’t slowed much so I have a fair number of books to do reviews on in the coming weeks. Now without further ado, I should get on with this week’s actual review.

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Hot Dog Girl Review

October 24, 2020

Hot Dog Girl by Jennifer Dugan

“I swear to god everything here is about as whimsical as it is rusty.”

Hot-Dog-GirlIt may be dawning on me that I read more contemporary YA than I originally thought, as here again we have a story devoid of fantasy–except the ones acted out by the characters working at Magic Castle Playland. (It may also be dawning on me that this first paragraph will be composed of only two sentences. And no, I haven’t been reading any Charles Dickens lately.)

Hot Dog Girl was, along with being contemporary, what I believe would be classified as a YA rom-com. Though I don’t really read enough rom-coms to innately know what does and doesn’t classify as one. In any case, the plot does starts out with Lou’s attempt to get her crush to notice her, despite the fact he kind of has a girlfriend. Oh, drama! The end of that particular plot line has a few twists in store, just like the other major plot line revolving around Magic Castle Playland, where Lou and her friends spend their summers working.

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Only Mostly Devastated Review

October 18, 2020

Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales

“I was fairly sure Lara buying me a present was listed as an end of times sign in the Bible, between false prophets and stars falling from the sky.”

Only-Mostly-DevastatedShifting away from fantasy again, I have another contemporary YA on the review list today. This one, according to some of the synopsis I’ve read of it, does have an interesting back history though. It seems this book is a retelling of Grease, which was a 1978 movie, which was a retelling of a 1971 play of the same name.

Now, I should say that while I’ve seen the movie version of Grease, it was a long time ago and my memory of it is pretty sketchy. Possibly this is why I only saw a few general, overarching themes in this book that appeared to hearken back to the movie. (Assuming the movie version was, in fact, the Grease this book retells.) Or perhaps that’s just the way the book is–after all, a retelling is supposed to be original in its own right, not a verbatim reiteration of the work that inspired it. In any case, I must admit I found Only Mostly Devastated more to my liking than I found Grease, for many reasons.

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