Mini Reviews Wrap Up December 2022

 

Here at Chapter Break, we don’t always write a full review of every book we read. Well, now we decided to do these monthly wrap-up posts with roundups of our reviews this month and mini-reviews to fill in the gaps. Enjoy!

Mini Book Reviews

As I will be traveling, I may not be able to add mini-reviews until after my return. Enjoy the full reviews listed later in this post though!

 

 

Unlike Julie, I’m not going anywhere this month!

Top Ten Clues You’re Clueless:

1. NOT available as audio. -.5 star
2. Chloe is NOT responsible when it comes to her diabetes. Clearly I am with her mom on this front! But it does lead to a poignant scene in the book. So I guess it was needed!
3. Breakfast Club meets Scooby Doo gang. Cute plot where all the characters work at a grocery store and are stuck inside on Christmas Eve.
4. Low expectations led to actual enjoyment!
5. As a list maker, I can get behind Chloe’s lists! As you can see by this review. 😉

The Lost Plot (Invisible Library #4): More dragons / dragon court intrigue and a very satisfying ending! I appreciated learning more about Irene, especially that her curiosity leads her to a number of dangerous situations! My only complaint here is Vale’s absence. I did enjoy the 1092’s mobsters. Though the narration between them was too similar to distinguish. Overall an enjoyable continuation of this series!

Will Save the Galaxy for Food: I can’t recommend this book enough. HILARIOUS. Sarcastic. Space Pirates. Action AND Adventure. All this and narrated by the author. Which really provides an extra boost to how fun this was to read. I also really enjoyed the math terms being used as curse words. I have often cursed at math! There were some continuity eyebrow raising moments where I wondered how people in that far into the future knew about some rather more recent pop culture references. But I’ll forgive those moments for the overall tone of the book.

The Upside Down Christmas: Free ✔️Short ✔️I can empathize with Marlo and her disinterest in Christmas during summer in Australia. It took me a while to get used to warm weather and Christmas as well. I also can appreciate how Alex shows Marlo that Christmas can also be nice when it’s warm out! Somewhat emotional due to spoilers. Overall a nice holiday romance audiobook.

Deadly Dram: I was doing a random Audible search of books looking for something different to listen to and remembered this series. I’m always struck how in cozy mysteries the characters run into A LOT more dead bodies than normal people. Or at least me! This series is also a good advertisement for the Scottish tourism board. Whiskey. Castle converted to a hotel. Rollicking dogs. And this time, a falconry class. Generally what you would expect from a cozy mystery. This time around, there are plenty of red herrings but I figured out the culprit a lot earlier than Abby. I did struggle a bit with the narration, as there wasn’t a lot of distinction between all the different characters. Or maybe it’s the accent that makes it difficult to distinguish?

Drama King: It was fine? I don’t have any strong feelings either way. IRL, Cyrus would not be the type of guy I fall for. Sure, he’s nice to look at and all. But the touchy-feely, impatient, man-child is not my thing. I will say as a character, he does show some growth by the end of the novel. I also appreciated the all-female security squad. That’s not something we see all the time!

     

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Books we reviewed this month:

• [11 Dec] L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 38 by L. Ron Hubbard, Rebecca E. Treasure, J.A. Becker, Michael Panter, Lazaraus Black, Desmond Astaire ★★★★
• [13 Dec] The Story of Ukraine: An Anthem of Glory and Freedom by Olena Kharchenko, Michael Sampson, Polina Doroshenko ★★★★½

 

 

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