Maddy Again, Pamela Brown

Book Title: Maddy Again

Author: Pamela Brown

Series: Blue Door #5

Date Started: September 27th 2026

Date Completed: October 14th 2026

Genres: Adventure

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

Another childhood series complete! Pamela Brown always perfectly captures the excitement and magic of the performing arts, as well as the bizarre and amusing practicalities of how it's brought to life. I fell in love as a child with her portrayal of the stage, so how funny it is to now be working in TV and reach this final instalment, set at the inception of studio television production in the UK.

While I love Pamela Brown's perspective and, as you'd expect from a theatre person, her open-mindedness, her novels are definitely still artefacts of their time. While the representation of a Black woman in Maddy Again was pretty progressive on its release, there is still some language that is uncomfortable in the present day, which I think is important to note in a novel for children.

While predominantly without conflict, the thrill and payoff of this novel is the fact that you're involved in this new and unfathomable creative process - and if that's not an accurate depiction of what it's truly like to work in the screen industries, I don't know what is.

The Other Wind, Ursula le Guin

Book Title: The Other Wind

Author: Naomi Novik

Series: The Earthsea Cycle #6

Date Started: August 22nd 2026

Date Completed: September 27th 2026

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

Over the last few years, I've been consciously finishing book series, mostly for my neat completionist mode. I've reconnected with a bunch of stories I'd forgotten I'd enjoyed, as well as some that don't sparkle like they used to. But Earthsea, while a part of my rather long list, hasn't felt like finishing a book series. It feels timeless, ever-present and insightful even decades after its inception and placement in the canon of fantasy literature. Le Guin is referred to as the mother of modern fantasy for a reason.

I always take a moment to read le Guin's notes on her stories in the Complete Edition. Like so many masterful creators, she has a gentle and un-grand perspective on her books, on the tales that came from her fingertips but are, of course, on an evolution of their own outside of her control. The universal truth which she allows to lead her storytelling is what makes then so timely no matter the place or year you read them in.

It was particularly interesting to hear her thoughts on the Earthsea story not ending with the previous book, as planned, and the seeming finality of The Other Wind. Tales from Earthsea may have been a collection of shorter stories, but they felt like rather neat ends to le Guin's 'Cycle'. Yet there is a lingering 'what next' that comes after the acknowledgement and deliberate deconstruction of what came before. In the later stories, le Guin gives time to look at the inevitable darkness that comes alongside human nature even in a fantastical environment. The Other Wind is all about seeing that, accepting it, and carving the path ahead.

However much we loved it, Earthsea and its kingdoms and commoners and magic and wonder was flawed. Built, we come to realise, on a mistake, on violence and suffering unto others. To move forward, into the unwritten, we must choose the responsibility to end what someone else chose, even if it wasn't out doing and becomes our burden. As I say, ever-present, timely and relevant to the universal truth of being human - le Guin's stories feel just as important in this exact second in time as they did when they were first made.

The Summer War, Naomi Novik

Book Title: The Summer War

Author: Naomi Novik

Date Started: August 8th 2026

Date Completed: August 22nd 2026

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

The Summer War is a dreamy little book, with a little bit of everything you expect and a good measure of satisfying twists and tricks befitting a tale of the fae. It's short, but manages to pack a considerable punch, exciting and wholesome in equal measure.

I really enjoyed the pace and fairytale flow the shorter book allowed for. While there were still side-plots, worldbuilding and character development, it was woven in only where necessary to the story and didn't get distracted by indulgent tangents. This almost omnipotent perspective matched the folkloric themes perfectly, and didn't limit the emotional payoff by making it feel like a timeless legend instead.

I love everything Novik creates; her stories are inventive and rooted so firmly in an adoration of traditional fairytales, while enlivening them with contemporary temperaments few manage to execute without compromising some element of the narrative pleasure. They don't rely on retelling existing tales, but are instead original and strengthened by familiar mannerisms and motifs.

Threadneedle, Cari Thomas

Book Title: Threadneedle

Author: Cari Thomas

Series: The Language of Magic #1

Date Started: June 23rd  2026

Date Completed: July 2nd 2026

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Two Star

Final Rating: Two Stars

Review:

Another book on the did-not-finish pile. Had I been in a more patient mood, I might have gotten further than 130 pages in, but life's too short and this book wasn't for me.

I've never been a massive fan of school plotlines (magic or otherwise), and the Mean Girls set-up has never worked very well for me. But even without my personal preferences, I found the tone of Threadneedle confusing; it seems to take itself very seriously, then jumps into a teenage melodrama. The worldbuilding was disorientating too; without much description in the prose, it felt like a Victorian-esque gothic style, but then in crashes mentions of phones and school lockers.

I wasn't sure what I was picturing most of the time, from settings to characters to magic systems, and it all combined to just be a bit too messy for me to get enjoyment out of.

Fishbone Cinderella, Elizabeth Lim

Book Title: Fishbone Cinderella

Author: Elizabeth Lim

Date Started: May 30th  2026

Date Completed: June 23rd 2026

Genres: Historical, Fantasy

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

I've been a big fan of Lim since I first read Six Crimson Cranes, and I'm so excited to see her getting to do different things. Fishbone Cinderella wasn't my favourite, but ultimately just because it didn't feel particularly new or creative. I'm still very much eager to see this author's style and bibliography continue to develop.

The magical realist element of a matriarchal curse could've elevated this book beyond the familiar story (and was, I think, the intention), but its inclusion was a bit peculiar; you'd go through huge chunks forgetting it even exists, and then it would reappear and be working very hard to hold the story together. While magical realism allows flexibility in how present the fantasy elements are in the story until they can provide poetic license, I felt it never comfortably fit in the book, and so didn't give the narrative satisfaction at the end.

Similarly, the perspectives from different generations of women ends up being vital to the resolution, but inconsistent while reading. I almost wish the timeline had jumped about more so that by the end I was attached to all of them, rather than being slightly underwhelmed that what felt like a secondary character completed the narrative.

That being said, I adore the way the book pulls together its plot strings and the timelines, with a good dash of a Chinese fairy tale in there for good measure - it just felt like what came before was just setting that up rather than existing fully realised on its own.

The Fragile Threads of Power, V.E. Schwab

Book Title: The Fragile Threads of Power

Author: V.E. Schwab

Series: Threads of Power #1

Date Started: March 17th  2026

Date Completed: May 26th 2026

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

I, unfortunately, skim-read this book from 200 pages in (once those first 200 pages had taken me over a month to get through). If it wasn't V.E. Schwab, I would've given up entirely.

This book seems to set out with the intention of telling a new story, with an enormous amount of new characters (that I couldn't keep track of), but it just cannot let go of the references, guest appearances and nostalgia of the original trilogy. And it absolutely holds back what this story could have been. At some point, it feels like a continuation but at others it seems to completely forget the central story and goes on a complete tangent for seemingly no payoff.

The structuring in general was strange. We jump between now and 7 years ago (and I still don't see the need), sticking with one character for ages and then forgetting they exist for the rest of the book. I had no sense of how all their stories tied together, and my only assumption is that it's laying groundwork for the rest of the series, but it made this book a really confusing experience.

Overall, you could've cut at least 150 pages; there's so much description, reliving essentially the same scenes, really driving home the protagonists' tortured hero narrative. Less is more is something I thought over and over again reading this book, as we fell into this swirling repetition of prose, prose, prose for the sake of prose. Yes, we love this series for its worldbuilding, but if we're coming back for a sequel series, we'd appreciate a little more plot that isn't just the protagonists' angst. Nothing happened in the first 200 pages!

I'm honestly super disappointed. A Darker Shade of Magic is one of my favourite books and while I've not always gotten along with some of Schwab's other work, I was hoping this step back into the familiar would pay off, but alas. I've still given it three stars because, if you're more attached to the original, you may get more out of it. If this is what Red London is now, I think I'm ready to move on.

The Unicorn Hunters, Katherine Arden

Book Title: The Unicorn Hunters

Author: Katherine Arden

Date Started: May 4th  2026

Date Completed: May 20th 2026

Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Adventure, Romance

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

The Unicorn Hunters, in line with everything else Katherine Arden has ever written, is enchanting, adventurous and, most importantly, masses of fun. I loved how Arden's writing style leant into the medieval tone, feeling noticably distinct from her other work, but still had that shining spark of fairytale magic she injects into her stories.

I adore Arden's skill and palpable adoration for exploring real history, places and politics through the lens of fantasy. By changing just a few threads - Anne of Brittany is older when her father dies, and she is thrust onto the throne, the unicorns of lore are in fact real - a new tapestry so vivid is woven, something so cathartic and ambitious with escapism that it glitters.

This novel has the ultimate feel-good cast of characters, and I almost want a dozen prequels/sequels just for them; the endlessly savvy and exhausted queen, her scrappy headstrong younger sister, the protective but respectful illegitimate older brother (and his not-so-secret affair with one of her handmaidenes - more Margaret, please), the resourceful and streetwise urchin saved from the jaws of death, the valiant childhood friend turned forbidden love - and a cat called Butter who can walk between worlds, because of course.

My one note was that it felt like something was holding it back the whole way through, and that left the finale from truly resonating. Something somewhere was messing with the momentum and keeping it from five stars, but it was undeniably an addicting and magical read.