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
Why The Water Is Sweet Where The River Meets The Sea: Why the Water is Sweet Where the River Meets the Sea is an interesting poetic story. It is a coming of age where a young girl says goodbye to her childhood friend, the River, on the last day of her childhood. Growing up is certainly bittersweet and this story definitely conveys that. Moving past the innocent days of playing in the river and basking in the sun, growing up includes that first time one realizes that dreams and wishes are not true in reality, that life has a specific order of things and the sea is always stronger than the river.
The illustrations were all made by AI, which is quite fascinating. Some were very lovely and some a bit bizarre, but it worked since the story is metaphoric and poetic. I would say it is a good read for older children, closer to their own coming of age, as this might be quite over the heads of younger elementary kids like my son.
Demon Hunter and Baby: Believe it or not I read this on my kindle as a free book that I once got and now I can’t find it on Amazon to pull the cover here. It started off so-so, kinda generic a bit, but it got way better. The kick-ass heroine (always a favorite character trope that I love about urban fantasy) keeps getting stronger and finding she might have something extra special about her, not just the demon hunting magic. Alone since the age of 16, she fights demons while raising a baby alone. Oh and on top of that, her greatest nemesis is none other than her deceased grandfather, now turned into a monster. Fun times. I enjoyed it, glad I gave it a try. Don’t know what happened to the book on Amazon.
Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus a Study in Mischief and Other Tales of Magical Shenanigans: A Lily Singer Adventures Short Story Collection (A Lily Singer Cozy Fantasy Adventure): This novella that’s somewhere already in the series was an entertaining but a bit confusing read. The story of how they met was cute but being told in back and forth flash backs and flash returns to current time took me out of the story being told. The story told was quick without a lot of interesting mystery but I’m hoping the full installments will have. And I want more of the smart kitty cat so I’m going to read the first book next.
Slayer: Ok as a Buffy fan, I was super excited to read this. But, I kept putting it down for LONG periods of time before picking it back up again. I don’t know if it was the audio that wasn’t moving at a pace that worked for me, or the story itself. I will say I was bored the first half but once it got going? Ooh I really enjoyed the twists and betrayals. The bombshells. And absolutely got a tickle from all the Buffy cameos and other character mentions. I really liked the main character – raised watcher, chosen as the last Slayer, making the difficult and painful decisions a Slayer is tasked with. I can spend more time with her. I guess I’ll be getting the second book on Audible.
An Unexpected Peril: This time around, Veronica and Stoker find themselves embroiled in political and royal intrigue. And Veronica gets a good look at what her life could have been if circumstances were different. Good mystery\intrigue. A definite progression of their relationship, which I enjoyed. Overall, a pleasant read!
We Are Inevitable: I went into this one with few expectations (set in a bookstore, enjoyed previous Gayle Forman books). My low expectations really helped enhance my enjoyment of this book. Character driven for sure. With even secondary characters being fully developed. While it appears this novel is marketed as a YA Romance, that plot is minor. More predominately, it’s about family and found family. Recovery from grief. And support from a small community. The bookstore setting lends itself to the chapter titles, which are all book titles. Reading this was curling up with a beverage, warm sweater, and new but favorite friends to discuss all the best books and the impact they have made on your life. I also got serious TJ Klune vibes from this book. I’m not really sure why? If you like Klune’s books, you’ll enjoy this one as well.
Twisted Twenty-Six: 26 books in and Stephanie is finally realizing her calling may not be bounty hunting. And she manages to rebuke Ranger’s advances, finally showing some maturity. This one features A LOT of Grandma Mazur; I loved it and spent so much time laughing! Grandma Mazur has some great bon mots and life lessons in this novel. I do wonder, though, what’s the actual timeline to this series. How much time has progressed for Stephanie and the group over the almost 20 years that this series has been published? That’s not really discussed much, which is fine. But how many cars can she blow up over the course of a year?
History of Wine in 10 Glasses: Look at me. Reading a non-fiction book. All for the bingo card! Narrated by the author, Paul Wagner, this is a very quick look at the history of wine and how wine has impacted history. Mr. Wagner does an amazing job with the narration including a lot of foreign\wine specialty words! Like most wine books I’ve read, 2/3 of this novel focuses on Old World\European wines. Turns out we owe a lot of thanks to those Roman soldiers planting vines everywhere the went! Interesting and fun facts! Germany is currently producing pinot noirs due to climate change! Mexico’s wine production is growing. Basic, informative, and entertaining, this wine history is a good start for any reading looking to learn more about wine. Complete with pairings for each region!
Books we reviewed this month:
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