Review: The Mandalorian Manga Volume 1 by Yusuke Osawa

 

I am obsessed with Star Wars and I love The Mandalorian. Grogu is my love and I can not wait to see the movie later this month. I was at a library event with my kids and they saw volume 3 on the shelf and they wanted to read it. I requested this one and it is basically the first episode of the first season.

We see Mando going into a bar and saving the target of the bounty. We see him put the guy in carbonite on the epic Razor Crest. If you haven't watched the first season, watch it and then read this because it will help you remember names and all that. 

This is definitely targeted towards children, but I likw seeing the cutie illustrations of Grogu.

Review: This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page

 

This was a book that I read for a Goodreads reading challenge and the reviews that I heard and watched for this told me that I would be crying my eyes out the whole time.

The first two chapters had me sobbing and hugging Cayce super tight. Then I finished and gave this book a two star. I did not cry anymore, just a couple of sniffles but nothing else. This book became so relatable and not in the good way. I did hug my hubby a couple more times, but there was a part with the mother in law and that gave me anxiety because I do not have a good relationship with mine... its basically non existent and there is a lot of tension and no contact for a reason.

I thought that the mother in law would want to have a talk about money and that is a big red flag and if you couldn't tell, that is the whole problem with mine. So while reading, I was dreading getting to the conversation but thankfully it did not go in that direction. 

The other thing I predicted about a 1/3 of the way in and it is one of my biggest pet peeves. I hate when a spouse dies and the other moves on a year or two later. I am not a fan and I would not get with anyone else if something like this happened and it is very obvious from the beginning who the love interest will be.

The last thing that hit me in a hard way and I just could not give this a 5 star is that Alfie, the bookstore owner took over after his dad passed away.... FROM PANCREATIC CANCER. 

It is like this book was written with all of the trauma that is currently affecting my life because my mom has pancreatic cancer. I read that part and I immediately threw the book down. I just could not deal with this book anymore and I did not even care about the books that was left behind for Tilly. 

Review: The Dustin Experiment by J.L. D'Amato

 

One of my new favorite Stranger Things books. This has made it to my top three because the author made Dustin have experiences without retelling an episode of the show, like some of the previous Stranger Things books,  ie Runaway Max. 

I also really loved Eddie in this book and found him to be written better than his own book Flight of Icarus. 

I have been waiting since last year to read this, before the fifth season started actually and my library took forever in ordering it and then someone requested it and kept it longer than the three week limit. 

Anyways, Dustin has always been my favorite character and the events in this book take place during the beginning of season 4.

The boys have just started high school and they are missing Will and El. Max is absent and we learn why in the show. Dustin is trying to keep the group together, but Lucas is joining the basketball team and hanging out with the enemies. Mike and Dustin join the Hellfire Club and honestly, I can't sing Eddie's praises enough.

Dustin wants to enter the science fair with the guys, but they are not in it. Dustin fixes Eddie's amp and walkman and he gets an idea for his project. Eddie introduces him to the heavy metal music that makes Eddie Eddie. 

Dustin asks Eddie to take him to the science fair and they go. We learn that Eddie is afraid of ducks because one of the participants has a duck named Frodo Quackins and he can do tricks. I love that we got some Lord of the Rings refrences because it is fitting. 

Dustin goes on a side quest while at the science fair to figure out who is sabotaging projects. He figures it out and makes some new friends along the way. He also has to figure out what he wants to do because he gets a once in a lifetime opportunity to attend an elite science school. He has to choose between his passion and his friends.

This book is my 2nd favorite out of all of the Stranger Things books that I have read. Nothing will beat the first book where we learn the origin of Eleven and her birth parents. My third favorite is Hopper's book. 

Review: Accidentally Yours by Christina Lauren

 

still reading the little short stories when my kids have library events. This one took me a month to read, not because it sucked but didn't have time to sit and read on my phone. I did give this a 4 star because I really enjoyed it and it was memorable. 

This is about Veronica who just left her dude bro job because she was not appreciated enough and one day she joins this zoom meeting that is not hers. She secretly stays and watched the presentation and she is apalled by how bad the marketing is. She lets the people know that this company will sink and how bad their marketing scheme is, and then she dips out.

Jude, the CEO of this company tracks her down and emails her offering her a month retainer to help them gets the project off the ground. She refuses and eventually she agrees when she is offered 7000 a month, along with a new desk chair... which made me giggle.

What both of these people don't know is that they have interacted before... on multiple occasions in a specific place where they have a love for their mailman Larry. 

The progression of the relationship was cute and I loved their banter. A good romance book with banter will always be a win for me. This short also solidifies my love for Christina Lauren writing, even if this is my second reading of their work.

Review: Attack on Titan volume 1 by Hajime Isayama

 

I do not need to be starting another Manga series, but my kids want to read it with me. To be honest the cover does nothing for me and makes me not interested. 

The very beginning was very confusing because it throws you straight into the story. We follow a boy named Eren and his sister. Eren is talking about the titans with the gate guards and they are just chilling and living life. Eren says that he wants to leave the walled city and he wants to join the survey corps because he hates being caged. 

Eren tells his parents that he wants to join the survey corps and they lose their minds. He runs off after his mom forbids him to join and then they see a titan that is over 50 meters tall, which is the height of the wall around the city.

The titan punches a hole in the wall and all of the little titans get in and start eating the people. Eren's mom is trapped unfer the rubble of the house and the kids are trying to save her and they get picked up by a neighbor who rushes them to safety leaving the mom behind. We see a titan pick her up and maybe snap her spine and then throws her into it's mouth, which was graphic as hell.

We learn that the colossus titan made it through the outer wall and now all of the survivors are behind the second inner wall close to the center. Eren vows to end every last titan on Earth. We are then shown a group or batallion size of people listening to a instructor. He then calls out 10 people who will be on the front line and be expected to give up their lives if the colossus titan attacks again. The first person is Eren's sister and then Eren gets called. 

The ten get the opportunity to join between three sections. The one that the top ten is exclusive to is the military police where they will be next to the king and be comfortable and not have much to do. Jean and Eren get into a fist fight because Jean is talking about how he can relax when he becomes an MP and Eren is pissed because he thinks that is the reason why so many people died in the attack because they were lazy and not prepared because of the relaxed mindeset. 

I am curious as to what Eren's father injected him with after his mother died. It gives him splitting headaches. I am betting that Eren's dad has something to do with the titans because he wanted to show Eren something in the basement before the colossus titan appeared.

The colossus titan shows back up and punches through the second gate. Eren finds out that he is intelligent. He goes to attack and thinks he does but realizes that the titan has vanished. I am getting bored because I am not interested in the same coversations and scenes. 

After the attack, the commanders go back to splitting up the garrison to where they are needed and Eren is wondering about the origins of the titans. We learn that they have no sexual organs and that they have survived over 100 years without eating, so they eat people purely for killing purposes. They also regenerate their heads if they get cut off. 

Once again there is another attack and the top ten students get descimated. Eren gets his leg bitten off an we see a flashback of when he was little and he was shown a book by Armin about the outside world and the sea and salt and deserts. Eren gets eaten and it is implied that he does it on purpose because he wants to see the outside world.

The volume ends there and I can safely say that I will not be continuing this series because I was bored. 

Review: Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

 My second hockey romance of the month and I am officially in my hockey romance era because I have a couple more on my TBR that I want to get to. I bought this special edition last year and it has been sitting in a pile and I have been staring at it because of the beautiful sprayed edges.

My hubby bought the second book for me from a library book sale and I honestly cannot wait to pick it up because I am in love with these characters, well mostly the secondary characters. I was flying through this and it is a 4 star read. I did get bored with the smut scenes because they were so similar every time, but the characters are what made me keep going.

I love Henry and JJ. They are my two favorites and I will fight for them if it came to it. This book follows a figure skater named Anastasia and a hockey player named Nate. They go to the same college and one day, the hockey team finds out that there rink has been sabotaged and is completely  melted. They then have to share a rink with the figure skaters, which causes tension. 

The coaches decide to have an icebreaker, like a speed dating session where figure skaters and hockey players meet and talk for three minutes to "break the ice". Anastasia is against it at first because it messes with her planner which she is a sticklet for and hates losing control. She ends up really enjoying learning about each hockey player. 

There were a couple things that I really disliked about this and that was the constant state of drunkenness that Anastasia was in. Every social function, she got black out drunk and I was just over it because growing up with a mean alocoholic parent, I was not interested. I didn't mind the first few times she got drunk, but when it cane to everytime I was concerned. 

I also HATE the walking red flag that is Aaron who is Anastasias figure skating partner. He is so controlling and manipulative. I was agreeing with Nate the entire time with the meal plan, the moving back into the apartment and the therapy sessions. 

But I did have times where I was laughing my ass off. The first was at the beginning when the figure skating coach was being compared to a Russian because she was bossy. I also laughed at every scene with JJ, especially when Nate was buying flowers and JJ was against the fact that a man is expected to buy flowers everytime and he just wants a hot man to buy him some flowers.... so Nate ends up getting JJ and bouquet as well. JJ also calls butter chicken the basic white girl favorite of Indian food. 

My favorite character overall is Henry because he is the sweetest cinnamon roll. He has no filter and just says what is on his mind and he tells it like it is. He also becoms besties with Anastasia and he worries about her when she almost drowns while skating on a frozen lake. 

I am excited to get to book three because it has Henry as the main character, but I don't know about book two because the main male character is a character that is known as muffin in this book, but he is kind of mysterious. 

Review: Lore by Alexandra Bracken

 

I bought this book back in 2020 when it was released because I really liked the Darkest Minds series bu Alexandra Bracken. This also fulfilled a goodreads reading challenge. I find this to be OK because the premise sounded great. The original olympians are turned mortal every seven years and they are hunted by the bloodlines to be killed for their power.

Our main character Lore is from the House of Perseus and she is the last of her bloodline. Her parents and little sisters were murdered because she thinks it is what she did as a young girl. Lore is found while fighting for money. She is an amazing fighter. The person that finds her is from her past and she believed that he died of cancer.

Lore refuses to be brought back into the hunt and wants to stay hidden for the next week while the gods are being hunted because she is also being hunted as well. The hunt is called the Agon and it was created by Zeus as a punishment to the olympic Gods. 

This is where I started getting confused with the bloodlines and who was who and why there were enemies and the whole spoils of war deals. I do think this was a little long and that it could have been cut about 75 pages because it was very repetitive. I did get the shock factor once or twice because I was not expecting it. There is a rape scene which I was not expecting and I was confused because it was implied that Lore killed him, but he is was still alive later. 

I also think the ending was a cop out because she just prayed to be left alone and she feels a difference and she doesn't vanish. Like I highly doubt that Zeus would let that happen.