Colby the Camel: The Tussle in the Castl...

The pirates have taken over the Castle of No-Bustle and imprisoned the king and queen. They are forcing the princess to marry one of the pirates. Their parrot goes out to find help but no one will help and he is so tired that he lands in a well where Colby the Camel finds him. Once the situation is explained to Colby, he journeys to the Castle and gathers compatriots along the way. They fight the pirates but who will win? Will Colby save the day?

This was so cute! It was a fun story. The rhyming was fun to listen to. The illustrations are bright and colorful. I could not wait to find out what happened. There's action and adventure galore here. Perfect for your 2-6 year old.

The Seven Wonders of the World, both human-made and natural continue to leave many surprised with their brilliance and beauty.

I came to this book by an NPR article discussing pandemic lit. It's a fictionalized tale of the real English town that, struck by plague in 1665, chose to sacrifice themselves by quarantining the town in hopes of preventing the spread of disease to their neighbors.

At least, that's the framework for the story, but the real story is its characters and how they respond to the crisis, how they endure or find strength or break as they lose their neighbors and loved ones. How for some, it's business and opportunism as usual as they use legal means to take a valuable mine from an orphaned child because her dead father can no longer work it or defend it, or price-gouging for grave-digging services when the church graveyard is full and there is a shortage of able-bodied men. How the taverns are always full and the fearful mob inevitably looks for witches to burn. 

But it's also the story of neighbors looking out for each other, of a mother rising above the grief of her lost children to care for the dying and deliver the new babies when the doctors flee the town, of the religious leaders look past their fundamental differences to provide leadership to people in need, how a pastor and his wife work tirelessly to minister to the whole town, good or evil of spirit, deserving and undeserving. 

There are some odd twists at the end that surprised and angered and disappointed me, but overall the story had me fascinated throughout. 

Audiobook via Overdrive, and I strongly recommend you do NOT do this one on audio, because it's read by the author who may be a very good writer but is a terrible narrator, and yet I was so engaged with the story that even her droning voice couldn't put me off.  

The narrator is terrible, but the story is very good in spite of it. I'm not sure who she is, because it's uncredited. Maybe it's read by the author? 

or at least it is as far as Jak and Leander are concerned...except when those dragons are being created to use as weapons in a war.

When Jak and Leander formed their partnership to create enchanted pets for people neither of them ever envisioned a dragon being among their creations but that's exactly what happened in "Mages & Mechanisms" book one of Devin Harnois's series "Jak & Leander" and now here in "Weapons & Wonders" Jak and Leander find themselves tied to a military contract to create not one but six enchanted, mechanical dragons and they also soon discover that not only do others want their plans for the dragons but the limits that they'll go to in order to stop Jak and Leander from creating them are not only dangerous but could be down right deadly.

I definitely enjoyed this second book in the 'Jak & Leander' series more than the previous book and I think for me it was due mostly to the fact that at times the story seemed to be a bit more focused on the mystery and intrigue surrounding the dragons that Jak and Leander have been contracted to create for the military and at this point in Jak & Leander's relationship having the focus off of their personal relationship for a bit just seemed right. I honestly felt like it would have been like watching a lot of gears spinning if this hadn't been the case...however, there were still times when the focus of the story clearly shifted to bring Jake and Leander back into the spotlight for a bit and I very much enjoyed those times as well, especially towards the end when the changes and growth that they were each making individually and as a couple was more evident.

Along with the intrigue of stolen dragon plans and sabotage to their workshop where they were creating the new dragons there were some minor plot lines that created a bit of additional interest in the story without taking the story over or making things unnecessarily confusing.

The dragons are definitely one of my favorite things in these stories. I admit it I'm quite enchanted with the idea of a magically enchanted, mechanical dragon and I really, really like how Jak goes about finding a spirit to enchant the dragon. This along with the glimpses of each dragon's unique personality...which I think would readily lend itself to a story or two that was maybe a bit more dragon focused...just a suggestion from a dragon loving reader.

So, while I may not be quite as enthusiastic about this series as I had expected to be. Neither am I anywhere close to wanting to give up. The writing is good and there are still so many things that could be explored in this steampunk world that I've got my fingers crossed that the author has at least one or two more stories planned for Jak & Leander.

After all I did like the first story and I've enjoyed this one even more so I'm thinking that things are getting better and it's too soon to give up on Jak and Leander or their  enchanted mechanical dragons...especially if there're more dragons to come.

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An ARC of " Weapons & Wonder" was graciously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.