A Dance with Fate

Book Title: A Dance with Fate

Author: Juliet Marillier

Series: Warrior Bards #2

Date Started: November 23rd 2024

Date Completed: November 26th 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance, Historical, Mystery

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

I was in the mood for a quick read that was fun and just the right amount of dramatic in between what's sort of a reading sprint to finish a ton of books before the end of the year - and Juliet Marillier delivered.

The Warrior Bards series didn't start off as one of my favourites of Marillier's but now that the characters are on their paths there's more time for actual plot rather than just herding people into their places. I always love Marillier's balance of mystery and adventure (and the light touch romance that's always embedded within strong friendships). Her books do tend to be pretty plot-driven but with the characters becoming a very recognisable cast, it stays rooted in something special. This series leans more into the fae sub-plots than her others, which sometimes feel unnecessarily squeezed in to keep something relevant for later down the line, but it does always weave back into the central story eventually.

I'm always impressed how somewhat similar events across all of Marillier's books always feel new and exciting. The importance of setting and place for her stories is one of my favourite things to experience each time - especially as the characters tend to move around a lot, it really delivers on the fantastical journey storytelling tradition that informs so much of the stories. Always familiar, but always with something new around the next corner.

Marigold Mind Laundry

Book Title: Marigold Mind Laundry

Author: Jungeun Yun

Date Started: November 19th 2024

Date Completed: November 23rd 2024

Genres: Contemporary, Magicial Realism

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Two Star

Final Rating: Two Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

I honestly found the Marigold Mind Laungry a bit disappointing. I made it 53% of the way through before deciding it just wasn't for me. The sprinklings of magical realism could've elevated the story beyond its domestic setting, and the cast of characters could have been structured to build towards a resolution for the burnout everyone was feeling, but it decided to keep its cards pretty isolated for each person.

It feels quite reminiscent of the sub-genre I've seen a lot in Japanese literature where bookstores/libraries solve everyone's Capitalist twenty-first-century fatigue with life, right down the cyclical short-story structure. These sorts of stories always feel repetitive to me, and vary a lot in how emotionally intertwined the cast of characters are. Such nuance is needed for these books to pay off for me, and it just didn't quite catch it anywhere.

The translation does feel quite awkward, so might be the source of the challenge. I speak some Korean and can tell this is a very faithful translation, but creative license is so important to transpose stories into another language, literally and in spirit.

Ten Thousand Stitches

Book Title: Ten Thousand Stitches

Author: Olivia Atwater

Series: Regency Faerie Tales  #2

Date Started: November 17th  2024

Date Completed: November 19th 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Romance

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

I usually hate the 'X meets X' style taglines, but I have to say on this occasion that Bridgerton meets Howl's Moving Castle (original Dianna Wynne Jones version) is the perfect description for Olivia Atwater's book - just add a sprinkling of Cinderella and you know exactly what you're getting in for.

Ten Thousand Stitches was cute and fun, with enough of its own quirks to take seriously. Of course the logic of the class justice is half there for the commentary and half just to be convenient for the plot, but it works hard enough to characterise our heroine and ensemble to keep the suspension of disbelief. When you mix in a generous helping of faerie - and clearly a love of embroidery, which I massively enjoyed - it becomes really quite entertaining.

I do feel like the novel felt very short, more like a long fairy tale, which was a bit of a shame as you knew every beat before it really had a chance to happen. We move at such a pace through the whole story that suddenly it's over - and I could have happily read another 100 pages at least!

Nettle

Book Title: Nettle

Author: Bex Hogan

Date Started: November 16th 2024

Date Completed: November 17th 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

I'm on a bit of a readathon-style mission to review a bunch of NetGalley ARCs before the end of the year, and I'm pleasantly surprised to say it's made finding books like this one really enjoyable. Nettle took a couple of chapters for me to buy into the narration style, but once it got going I found it really fun.

This novel takes all those classic fragments of faerie stories and combines them into an exciting and alluring adventure. It does justice to those elements with the prose heightening everything to their full, magical potential, exploring the human side to being enchanted to dance forever, being tricked into eating faerie food, and finding the loopholes to solve impossible tasks.

While I spotted the twist right from the beginning (it's not particularly subtle), the way the plot threads were tied up was massively satisfying even if you've seen it coming for 200 pages. I would call this a children's book above YA honestly, and I would've adored it as a pre-teen as an introduction to this sub-genre.

Everything You Need is in the Library

Book Title: Everything You Need is in the Library

Author: Michiko Aoyama

Date Started: November 14th 2024

Date Completed: November 16th 2024

Genres: Contemporary

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

I realise it's sort of unfair how closely this novel feels to The Cat Who Saved Book, but I also can't see much beyond it. These little chapter stories about how books can mend the fissures between us, nurse our discontent with the modern world, and ease the lost parts of ourselves trying to be happy are always sweet, but not always distinctive.

These sorts of Japanese books read like short story anthologies - which aren't my favourite, but I do like the way they link seemingly separate stories with a common connection that makes us appreciative of the way all our lives intersect with one another. The Japanese temperament to find relief from mindless business and stress is enviably beautiful; one single, simple thing turns the modern world on its head and anchors us in what really matters.

The quiet slowness of this type of story - the soulful devotion to books and the effort of those who care for the roofs over their heads - is always special. They always seems to say, 'it's going to be okay. Keep trying, someone is listening and rooting for you.' Even if it's not the most original one out there, it's still a comfort to read.

Nettle & Bone

Book Title: Nettle & Bone

Author: T. Kingfisher

Date Started: November 5th 2024

Date Completed: November 14th 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

If you've been aware of my reviews for a while, you'll know I am a sucker for fairy tales and their retellings. Even if they're nothing new, I still love devouring their quests and riddles - Nettle & Bone is no exception, but sadly wasn't on the highest peaks of the pile.

My main challenge with this book was that there were no stakes, and thus not much momentum. Everything happens rather easily, and Marra (out protagonist) often doesn't have much to do with the resolutions. Even the darker themes of systemic domestic abuse and individual exposition - something that felt like it had the opportunity to nuance the plot - sadly didn't really turn up in the story itself. The whole thing felt rather TV, which was a bit of a shame given the 30-year-old protagonist.

I enjoyed the old-fashioned fairy tale world with its bone dancers, fairy forts, and angry ghosts. The best part was the first few chapters, where we are thrown right into the middle of Marra pursuing the impossible tasks she has been given. It felt creative and atmospheric, but unfortunately once we walked out of the mist (with Marra only completing two of the three tasks, no less), everything became quite straightforward.

Nettle & Bone was a pleasant enough read, but does it offer anything new to the fairy tale retelling craze? Not really.

The Bone Hunters

Book Title: The Bone Hunters

Author: Joanne Burn

Date Started: October 27th  2024

Date Completed: November 5th 2024

Genres: Historical

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

Fossils, fossil, fossils, what better thing to do than discover and fawn over them. I've been to Lyme once - very briefly on a film location recce - but reading this book I felt the sharp sea air again, the pebbles shifting underfoot. Staring up at the towering cliffs waiting to topple over themselves and onto you, and the white hot excitements of what exists within the stones surrounding you. It feels folkloric even then, and I suppose it is in a lot of ways, something that is even played with a lot in this novel.

The Bone Hunters is far more grim than its synopsis will have you suspect, but it's not keenly dramatic for the sake of it. Each beat has its place in the plot and in Ada's story, and creeps up a cliff small step by small step until you stand at the peak staring at the blackness below. In only 400 pages, an expansive tale unwinds itself with relationship morphing in new directions neither Ada nor I saw coming. (And some of my favourite representations of female/male friendships I've read in a long time.)

Ada's character was a significant highlight of the novel; the balance between headstrong determination and active awareness of her precarious situation was so well developed her quietness spoke volumes in every chapter. It's rare to find a character (let alone a woman) realistically shown to be confident and loyal to herself but still be fought with worry about her place in the world - yet so many of us are like this.

The Anning inspiration is very clear from the start, but I really like the creative license used to tell a slightly different story while paying homage to the mother of geology. I hadn't heard of Joanne Burn before this Netgalley arc but I will be looking up their books now - as is the magic and privilege of being a book reviewer.