There is an entire world of books that are being published in foreign languages. So little of them actually reach us, that it always makes me sad. I grew up speaking Dutch and I still feel a little bit surprised whenever I see a Dutch work in English translation, so I know what it is like.

Simantov was originally published in Israel and written in Hebrew. In my challenge to read more diverse, I was really looking forward to reading this. However, I do not know whether it was the translation so much or the cultural differences but this book lost me.

There is a lot in here. Angels, mythology, a detective story and a squad of paranormal detectives. But is was all crammed together and in the end, I ended up not caring about basically anyone or anything in the book. Maybe it was just not the book for me, or not the book for me at this time, but I was a little bit disappointed with it.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Thalia is a stage magician with her show as Lady of The Lake. When her livelihood is threatened she will start a cascade of events which will eventually allow her to learn her true self and her true powers.

There was a lot in this novel. Besides Thalia being a stage magician and pretty emancipated around the start of the 20th century, there is a whole magic world related to it. You see, real magic and stage magic combined. Thalia believes she is a simple Solitaire, as opposed to Traders (shapeshifters who for some reasons make up the crème de la crème of New York society) and Sylvestri (nature people who are never really well explained but must have some kind of power also). Add to this the gruesome Manticores, who hunt unexperienced Traders in order to suck their magic out of them, and a murder charge, and it is quite a lot.

However, it was an interesting read and while I had hoped that some parts of the worldbuilding would have been explained a bit better without turning it into an infodump, I liked this version of New York. I was a bit worried in the beginning that by throwing all these things at the reader the story would feel overcrowded, but it didn’t really. Still, I had the feeling it was missing a little something that I can’t really put in words.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This was so cute! I enjoyed it a lot!

Canto is a small clockwork slave, who is not even supposed to have a name, let alone friends. When one of these is mortally wounded he embarks on an adventure to find replacement parts, but will also learn more about himself and the world in the process.

Like I said, I enjoyed the story and also thought the drawings were very nice.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The Eyre Affair came up during discussion in book club when we were reading Rebecca (which is similar to Jane Eyre, which is in the title of this book. It was promoted as being a book about a literary police force tasked with keeping the stories of the books we know as they have always been.

How could I not be intrigued by this. I mean, I am always up for books about books and time travel, so the combination just sounded great.

However, it was even more than that, because quite unexpectedly there was a whole alternative history that was very interesting as well. And dodos for pets! Need I say more?!

All in all, I was very pleasantly surprised with the Eyre Affair and definitely plan to read the rest of the series!

The Spirit Thief was another random pick from the TBR. And it was a nice surprise.

The magic systems is an interplay between the magicians and the spirits they bond with and obey them. It was quite original. The ploys were not overly intricate, but that can be nice for a change.

It was a very easy read, a bit like a YA but without the seemingly mandatory romance (another plus). I am very curious to see where this series is going next.