en-US Mon, 28 Apr 2025 19:00:11 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review7514025146 Mon, 28 Apr 2025 19:00:11 -0700 /review/show/7514025146 Kristen gave 4 stars to The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword (ebook) by Dewey Conway
bookshelves: spfbox


This is the Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword! Though, it is kind of more the story of Galdifort Quillpen, an up and coming apprentice Chronicler, who is telling Tanna's story.

Galdifort's aunt was Chronicler for one of the most famous adventurers ever, and so he dreams to be just like her, whereas Tanna dreams of being one of the great adventurer that he writes about. 

Tanna was a fun character to follow, as she goes into everything with her whole self, whether it's dangerous or not, often leaving Galdifort as the only person stopping her from getting into all kinds of shenanigans. She's a lot, and Galdifort is a sort of balance for the a-lot-ness. There are some neat side characters as well, such as Peggs, the peg-legged rooster and 'guide'. 

This was a short and easy read, as you would imagine from a middle-grade book. I enjoyed it well enough, but nothing jumped out at my in particular except the absolutely adorable illustrations that were peppered through the story. They seemed to appear every time I was flagging a little bit or finding myself getting distracted. 

All told, I'd recommend this book to anyone who is into middle grade reads, or... anyone who is... perhaps a middle schooler? ^_^ I had 7/10 stars of fun with Tanna the Tendersword.  ]]> Review7513981784 Wed, 23 Apr 2025 19:37:29 -0700 /review/show/7513981784 Kristen gave 4 stars to Gates of Hope (Aulirean Gates, #1) by J.E. Hannaford
bookshelves: spfbox


Gates of Hope follows the story of three different characters in a really unique world. First, as depicted on the cover, we have Darin (and his newly bonded moonhound, Star), who has recently travelled to the Black Palace to train to be a guard, only to find out that he is meant for greater things. Next is Suriin, a girl whose father has been injured and they have had to travel as quickly as possible to the Black Palace for help, and finally Elissa, who is a girl who lives on Tebein, one of the moons of the planet Lieus. Elissa's magical powers are starting to wake, and that could get her and everyone she loves killed.

This is a world of one planet (Lieus) and two moons (Tebein and Mythos) that used to be connected by magical gates, which were destroyed long ago by The Watcher to end a war between humans and an immortal species known as the awldrin. I thought that was an interesting and unique dynamic for a fantasy world. It has a setting that sounds sci-fi AF, but still somehow isn't at all. 

I wasn't sure if I was going to like this one. I actually picked it up as one of the first of the finalists to read and ended up putting it down again because I couldn't get into it at the time. This just proves that sometimes you just need to put a book down for a bit and reevaluate it later, because once I picked it up this second time, I ended up liking it a lot more than I had thought. 

I liked Darin as a character. He's the first man in quite a few years that has bonded with a moonhound, something that is much more common for women. Him learning to communicate with Star, and learning to control his magic was interesting. I enjoyed Suriin and Elissa's stories well enough, but Darin and him finding his tribe, so to speak, won the day for me. 

This book was really well written, paced well, and I cared about what happened to the characters. I will definitely attempt to read the next book in the series to see what happens to these guys. The events of the last half of this one left me wondering what is going to happen with the awldrin.

If you like a unique setting with characters that are easy to cheer for, you might just like Gates of Hope. I had 7.5/10 stars of a good time with it.  ]]> Review7415948897 Fri, 11 Apr 2025 12:22:28 -0700 /review/show/7415948897 Kristen gave 4 stars to The Humane Society for Creatures & Cryptids (Teraglossa, #1) by Stephanie A. Gillis
bookshelves: spfbox
The Humane Society for Creatures and Cryptids is the story of 3 sisters named Calliope, Melpomene, and Thalia who live in the town of Pandora, Colorado (which is a real place and not super far from where I live, as the three-legged crow flies). 

The people of the town of Pandora don't trust the Lambros sisters, and assume that they are witches. They do live in the middle of a secret forest that nobody is allowed to enter. In reality, their house is a refuge for several mysterious creatures, including Bigfoot (whose name is Harriet). Their mother is out and about finding new creatures for their sanctuary and has sent back a couple of her associates to help a new one settle in. Shenanigans ensue, of course!

I liked this one, but I thought that it was trying to do a bit too much at times. Each sister has their own POV chapters, and their own love interests, and combined with the shenanigans going on with the creatures, and the baddies, and their own personal problems, it was a lot to digest at times. Perhaps this is just a me problem. That's entirely possible. There are a total of 4 POV characters here, one of which is a love interest for one of the other 3, so I thought that the love interests for the other two sisters were kind of tacked on as an afterthought at times. 

I did like the characters, especially Thalia, the youngest Lambros sister, and Asha Singh, who is the daughter of the owners of the new resort in Pandora. She and Thalia's relationship was cute and I cheered for them to have a happily ever after. 

The creatures themselves were interesting and I thought that they added a lot to the story. My favorite was Strige, the owl demon who speaks in riddles and can see the future. He 1000% lives in my brain as The Great Owl from The Secret of NIMH and I will not be disabused of this notion. 

I liked the writing, the characters were easy to cheer for, the creatures were interesting and unique. The big baddies were a little mustache-twirly for my liking, but I still had a good time with this one all told. I'd read more in this series, and may read more from this author in the future.

]]> ReadStatus9209790902 Thu, 20 Mar 2025 08:18:20 -0700 /review/show/4331456154 Kristen started reading Bastion by Phil Tucker
]]> Review7382691117 Thu, 20 Mar 2025 08:17:04 -0700 /review/show/7382691117 Kristen gave 4 stars to Siege of Shadows (The Keeper Chronicles, #3) by J.A. Andrews
bookshelves: audiobooks
An enjoyable series. Audiobook was narrated well and was easy to listen to for hours. Will definitely continue with further Keeper tales. ]]> ReadStatus9204704871 Tue, 18 Mar 2025 22:22:50 -0700 /review/show/7415948897 Kristen is currently reading The Humane Society for Creatures & Cryptids by Stephanie A. Gillis
]]> Review7271201648 Tue, 18 Mar 2025 22:07:59 -0700 /review/show/7271201648 Kristen gave 3 stars to The Oathsworn Legacy (Paperback) by K.R. Gangi
bookshelves: spfbox
The Oathsworn Legacy is the story of brothers Rawley and Baelin Terricaut, who are... hmm mercenaries doesn't quite cover it. They are more like monster hunters. They travel around the world hunting and killing anything evil, and lately they seem to have found a secret evil plot that started eons ago that might just be ready to resolve itself in their own time, and they and the (sometimes odd) friends they've made along the way are all that stands between them and the end of the world.

The Oathsworn Legacy is told in chapters, but each chapter seems to be somewhat like a short story about the Terricaut brothers. They don't really stand alone though, in the end. Each chapter does add to an overall story, and they are in a chronological order. Admittedly this sort of... time-skipping along the storyline was off-putting to me, especially at first. I got used to it eventually, but it was always something I had to adjust to at the start of each chapter. 

I found Rawley mostly annoying but I did like Baelin. My favorite character was Simon, who is one of the somewhat odd but interesting friends that the brothers make along the way. He is also a pretty important character. I also really liked Helgatha, Keal, and Damian. Everyone but Rawley, basically, lol...

All told, I thought this was a somewhat long but ultimately interesting read, with characters that grew on me and a story that I found myself liking more and more as it went on. I had 6/10 stars of fun with Oathsworn Legacy. I'd recommend it to someone who likes an epic fantasy with an emphasis on friends made along the way. 

]]> ReadStatus9156880403 Thu, 06 Mar 2025 23:29:07 -0800 /review/show/7382691117 Kristen started reading Siege of Shadows by J.A. Andrews
]]> Review7370721108 Thu, 06 Mar 2025 23:29:03 -0800 /review/show/7370721108 Kristen gave 4 stars to Pursuit of Shadows (The Keeper Chronicles, #2) by J.A. Andrews
bookshelves: audiobooks
]]> Review7359648400 Sun, 02 Mar 2025 21:38:12 -0800 /review/show/7359648400 Kristen gave 4 stars to A Threat of Shadows (The Keeper Chronicles, #1) by J.A. Andrews
bookshelves: audiobooks
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