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review 2020-02-13 20:20
The Sandman: The Story of Sanderson Mansnoozie (Guardians of Childhood, #2) by William Joyce
The Sandman: The Story of Sanderson Mansnoozie - William Joyce

And continuing on with this amazing series is the sequel, The Sandman: The Story of Sanderson Mansnoozie. This book is just as amazing as the first. The artwork is stunning as always. The story captures the reader with its whimsy and the characters have you intrigued about where they come from and how they came to be. I love this book. It's so beautiful.

 

I love that we are getting to see more and more of Pitch Black. You can't help but wonder why he is doing this. What is he getting out of bringing Nightmares to children? We'll just have to continue reading to find out! 

Sandy is a precious being, I love how he cares so much that he himself starts to lose sleep when he is not sure as to how he's going to bring sweet dreams to children. He's just a lovable being.

 

If you love stories about fairy tales and whimsy, if you love a different take about all the characters you've come to know whilst growing up, then read these books. They only get better and better as you keep reading. Highly recommend them! 

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review 2020-02-13 19:51
The Man in the Moon (Guardians of Childhood, #1) by William Joyce
The Man in the Moon (Guardians of Childhood) - William Joyce

 Wow... it's been a while, hasn't it? It's been a long time since I sat down to read and review a book. Last year was a BIG year for me. I move across the country with my partner and puppo and it's been challenging to settle into a new way of life. Still, I am glad to be back and, hopefully, I will be able to read at a much more steady pace.

 

Anyway, you're not here to read about my life. You're here to find out what I thought about this book. Well, I love it!

 

I've been a fan of the Rise of the Guardians movie since it came out back in 2012. I thought the animation was stunning, the story fascinating, and the characters charming. My one complaint about the movie was the ending. I always thought it was rushed and did a complete 180 of what the story, up to that point, was trying to tell. Still, I loved the movie enough to check out the books. 

 

So a couple of years ago, I read all the books that were released at that time. The only ones I didn't get to were the two Jack Frost related ones (but I will be getting to them once I reread the previous ones). And reading those books all those years ago, when I was going through a very difficult period in my life, brought me much happiness. And the same thing could be said now.

 

Although I am in a much happier place now, I didn't enjoy this book any less. I love all the books in the  Guardians of Childhood series. This one starts it all! The artwork is gorgeous, the story whimsical, and the characters endearing. I love them all, especially Pitch Black. I adore Jack, too. I consider him to be a very close friend of mine. But he's not in this book... or is he? *Smirks*

 

I highly recommend you read this entire series. It's a beautiful told fairy tale that anyone, not matter the age, can enjoy! :)

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review 2019-12-12 05:05
Save the Date by Monica Murphy
Save The Date (Dating #1) - Monica Murphy

Caroline Abbott works at a high end stationary store that sells a lot of wedding-related stuff, like save the date cards, wedding invitations, and thank you cards. She's used to dealing with bridezillas, so her newest customer, Tiffany, doesn't throw her much, but the identity of Tiffany's fiance does. It turns out that Tiffany is getting married to Alex Wilder, Caroline's first crush. The last time they saw each other was when she was 12 and he was 14. He gave her her first kiss and then disappeared.

It's a shock to see Alex again, especially like this. When she was a kid, Caroline never realized that Alex came from a wealthy family. It's a bit strange that he's getting married so quickly, only a month or so after meeting Tiffany, and he doesn't even seem to like her much. But Caroline tries to be professional, do her job, and not ogle Alex, who is definitely no longer the gawky boy he used to be. Then she accidentally discovers that Tiffany is cheating on Alex, and things become even more complicated.

This was one of my Book Bonanza purchases. I tend to be drawn to illustrated covers, and this looked cute and fun. I went into this expecting a zany romantic comedy in which Caroline and Alex would awkwardly try to reconnect while dodging Tiffany's probably over-the-top attempts at getting revenge against Caroline and/or Alex. Instead, the writing style made me question what genre I was dealing with - Caroline's first person present tense POV felt more chick lit than romantic comedy, to me - and Caroline and Alex's early flirtation, prior to Caroline discovering that Alex was one of her newest customers, had me wondering whether it was actually going to be Alex who cheated first rather than Tiffany.

While Caroline and Alex didn't kiss or even spend much time together until after Alex learned about Tiffany's cheating and ended their engagement, it still felt uncomfortably like Tiffany was set up for failure. She was horrible and annoying and, even so, I felt a bit sorry for her. From the sounds of things, after the initial shine of their relationship wore off, Alex basically stopped paying much attention to Tiffany, spent most of his time at work, and procrastinated on getting her an engagement ring. Yeah, Tiffany was a gold digger who rushed him into a wedding, but he let himself be rushed. It was like he just couldn't be bothered to break up with her and was going to marry her because it was easier than telling her "no."

Which, honestly, didn't make him an appealing romantic hero. The parts of the book from his POV came across as wooden and boring, and my impression of him only worsened after he and Caroline decided to succumb to their attraction to each other. I think readers were supposed to see them as a better, more solid couple than Alex and Tiffany, but instead I saw Caroline as Alex's Tiffany 2.0. Just like with Tiffany, their relationship started off with lots of bouts of fantastic sex (fantastic for them - I considered the first person present tense sex scenes to be gross and stilted). When things got tough just before the end of the book, though, and Alex had to make a decision between trusting and supporting Caroline or doubting her, he chose the latter. It emphasized that these two characters still didn't really know or trust each other, and the happy ending, after Alex did a bit of groveling, felt hollow.

Also, this was a very small part of the book, but I still wanted to bring it up: I didn't like the way the author used Alex's younger brother, James. Alex had two siblings, his sister Meredith and his younger brother James. James was autistic. It was mentioned that he worked as an accountant in the family business and seemed to be pretty good at it. At one point, Alex thought about how James had told him that he felt like their parents were babying him (he still lived with their parents, and it sounded like they were very protective). Alex privately agreed with James...but also expected that James would one day move in with either Meredith or him, so I didn't really see how he was any different from their parents, not even entertaining the idea that James might want more independence. It also bugged me that, while Meredith got a small speaking role in the book, James didn't. For someone who was supposedly so important to Alex, he had almost no presence.

Caroline had a group of friends who all gave off "future heroine in this series" vibes. However, none of them particularly drew me in, and after the issues I had with Save the Date, I have no intention of trying another one of this author's books.

 

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

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review 2019-11-28 08:49
The Outsiders
The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton

Here's a link to a review I wrote back in 2012.

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review 2019-06-30 02:16
The value of the dollar was VERY different in the 1940s
The Saturdays - Elizabeth Enright

The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright was one of the titles mentioned in the Excellent Books for Early and Eager Readers that I reviewed not too long ago and one of the first from my holds list that I picked up to read. Firstly, even though this book was written in the 1940s it's still very readable for a contemporary middle grade (or adult in my case) audience. The book follows the 4 Melendy children (Mona, Rush, Randy, and Oliver) who are described (and drawn) with loving detail by the author along with their father, Cuffy the housekeeper, and Willy Sloper the handyman. The basic premise of the book (which is the first in a 4 part series by the way) is that the four children form a club to stave off their boredom wherein they pool their weekly allowances so that every Saturday they can each afford to go on solo adventures and do something that they really want to do (but which will likely not appeal to anyone else). Their interests much like their personalities were realistic for the time period in which the book was written although they feel somewhat far-fetched in comparison to today's children (one of the kids is obsessed with opera). Each of their Saturday adventures comes complete with peril (of the lightest variety) and life lessons learned so that there are built-in morals (sometimes heavy-handed) built into the narrative. I liked it but it's probably not going to be the first book I think of to recommend...unless the kid really digs the opera in which case I am ready. 6/10

 

What's Up Next: Lumberjanes Vol 1: Beware the Kitten Holy by Noelle Stevenson (might be a masterpost with more volumes included)

 

What I'm Currently Reading: The Umbrella Academy, Volume 1: Apocalypse Suite by Gerard Way & Gabriel Ba

Source: readingfortheheckofit.blogspot.com
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