kailey_luminouslibro's reviews
3740 reviews

Princess Minna receives word that the Prince of a neighboring kingdom has been put under a sleeping curse. She must get past the guards, past the thorny bushes, and wake the prince before sundown or the curse will be permanent! On her way to the enchanted forest, she stops to help a swan with a hurt foot, an old lady who has dropped her groceries, and a sheep whose wool needs sheering. Will she make it to the castle before sundown? And how will she defeat the guards and get through the thorns and awaken the prince?

This chapter book is so hilarious and cute! I love the colorful illustrations on each page and the wild shenanigans and adventures. The story is really funny and clever, and Princess Minna is completely adorable!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. 

Princess Minna barely sleeps at night, and she knows something must be wrong with the kingdom. Princess Minna has some very special skills; she is good at taming unicorns, and kissing frogs, and fighting dragons. She goes out into the kingdom and finds that there is a unicorn emergency! A wild unicorn is trampling through the town. Princess Minna is so tired from getting no sleep that she gets all mixed up, and tries to fight the unicorn instead of tame it! When she is called on to kiss a frog, she gets mixed up and tries to tame the frog instead. What will happen if she sees a ferocious dragon? Will she try to kiss the dragon instead of fight it?

This chapter book is so hilarious and cute! I love the colorful illustrations on each page and the wild shenanigans and adventures. The story is really funny and clever, and Princess Minna is completely adorable!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review.

This book was boring and long-winded. Every chapter took forever to get to the point.
I also did not care for Dickens and Wilkie Collins as the main characters. They were not exactly nice people in real life and this book accurately reflects that. They both have mistresses/lovers who feature in the story, and there are some descriptions of less-than-savory venues like an opium den with whores. Since I was already bored, I just didn't want to read about all that.
I find it very strange that with all the content warning labels available on StoryGraph, "adultery" is not one of them. 

Percy and his friends are off on another quest, this time to save Annabeth, who disappeared when they were attacked by a manticore. Unfortunately, Percy has to team up with two of Artemis's hunters, and those maidens do NOT like boys. As they travel west, Percy and Grover and the maidens of Artemis encounter some strange signs that Pan might be awakening. But he's not the only old god who is moving again. Kronos is sure to have a trap set to entice any powerful half-bloods.

This book includes my favorite scene in the entire series, when they visit Hoover Dam and joke about the "dam snack bar." It's so silly, but it cracks me up every time!

Thalia has a major part to play in this book, and I loved the cautious dynamic between her and Percy. They are both so strong and powerful, and they are both leaders, so their friendship is always a little tenuous, but they make it work because they care about the same things. They put their rivalry aside for the greater good of their friends. This is also the book where we are introduced to Nico Di Angelo for the first time. I love his character, but he has some issues too.

I love the sass and the adventure and the old Greek legends! Percy Jackson is always a fun read!

Jacqueline is planning her wedding to her darling Christopher, but then the war comes. While he is at war, Jacqueline stays with her sister Mary, helping to care for her nieces and baby nephew. After the war is over, Mary needs Jacqueline more than ever. Christopher wants to be married at once, but Jacqueline feels that she must do her duty to her sister and nieces and nephew, so they agree to lengthen their engagement while Christopher goes to India on business. But can their love remain constant through all this time?

The writing is really dramatic! Everybody is either suffering utter misery or ecstatic with wild joy. The characters are all really emotional and they go through all these awful situations. The aftermath of the war has changed them and now they have to deal with the realities of life. It was a bit depressing in the middle, but worth all the suffering to reach a happy ending.

I liked Jacqueline's character, but I also got really annoyed with her for making her fiancé wait so long. She's a martyr to her family, and I wish that she had taken more definitive action to secure her own happiness. But it fits with her personality. She's completely unselfish, always putting others first, and she has a very high sense of honor and duty that would not allow her to turn her back on her sister's need. I admire that self-sacrifice at the same time that it frustrates me plot-wise.

I really enjoyed how the story explores all these different relationships in this family and analyzes why the behave certain ways and how they relate to each other. There are a lot of different layers in these relationships. Jacqueline and her fiancé Christopher have a very spiritual love that binds them together no matter how many miles may be between them. We explore Jacqueline's motherly relationship with her nieces and nephew as they grow up. We analyze the extremely close bond between Jacqueline and her sister Mary; they are so empathetic that they feel each other's pain. And then Jacqueline has to deal with the high-handed commands of her brother-in-law. It's fascinating to see this group of people interacting, and under the surface are all these layers of emotion.

Eff is a twin and the thirteenth child in her family. Her twin brother, Lan, is supposed to have great good luck and magical power because he is the seventh son and their father is also a seventh son, making Lan a double-seventh son, a powerful combination in magical numerology. But the thirteenth child is supposed to be a curse and full of bad luck and evil tendencies. Eff is discriminated against by the magical community, but her family and her twin brother stick up for her. When the family moves to the very edge of the frontier in the American West, Lan and Eff will face challenges and their magic will be tested to the utmost.

I really loved Eff's character development! The story follows her from the age of 5 until she is 16 years old, so we get to see as she matures and grows through the years. Being the thirteenth child hangs like a shadow over her life, but she works hard to prove that she is a good person. Still she fears that might bring bad luck to her family. She has to struggle past those fears and embrace her magic.

The magic system and world-building of the western frontier is really interesting! There are dragons in the mountains, and wooly mammoth creatures and weird little magical creatures all over the frontier. The settlements have trouble keeping out the dangerous animals, so they put up protective spells all around their little settlement towns, but some people are prejudiced against magic and they insist that the settlements would be better off with no magic at all.

I'm hoping that I can read the rest of this trilogy, but the other two books are really difficult to find.

Abigail Rook comes to a new city looking for adventure and finds a job as an assistant to free-lance detective Jackaby. Jackaby has a rare gift as a seer. He can see magical residue and detect magical creatures that are otherwise invisible. He tries to assist the police in a murder investigation, but the police chief doesn't believe in supernatural nonsense. Miss Rook tags along in the investigation, and she is intrigued by a young policeman named Charlie. The case becomes more and more dangerous until it is evident that they are tracking a serial killer with magical abilities of some kind.

I loved this book so much! I really liked the world-building and the way that the supernatural creatures and people are trying to mingle with ordinary humans. At first no one in their right mind believes in magical beings or creatures, but through the investigation, even the police chief starts to realize that magical things are happening right under their noses.

I especially loved Jackaby and Miss Rook and their detective partnership. They are both full of witty remarks and flippant little quips. Jackaby kind of reminded me of Doctor Who in the way that he carelessly meets danger with no plan and silly grin. Utterly delightful!

I loved Miss Rook's character! She is very introspective, analyzing the clues and analyzing her relationships with people. We get to see her emotional turmoil as she tries to adjust to her life in the big city. She goes on quite an inner journey to find the confidence to trust herself and be able to assist in the investigation. She is so spunky!

The writing style is excellent. The plot is mysterious and fun! The mystery really kept me guessing, and I loved all the strange clues. Because there are magical elements in play, it's difficult to tell what is just a normal clue or what is some weird supernatural power at work. There are a lot of moving parts in the plot, and characters with different abilities and secret knowledge. It becomes like this weird game of chess with red herrings all over the place, until you realize that the red herrings are actually the center of the mystery. Such great plot twists!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.

Vidya is 15 years old during WWII, and she worries that her family will arrange a marriage for her before she can finish school or go to college like she dreams. All around her, the world is in turmoil as British-occupied India fights on all sides, not only against Germany and Japan, but against the racism and political unrest in their own country. Vidya learns that not all British are racist, but also that the Indian people can be racist against their own people in the caste system.

When Vidya's family must move into her grandfather's house, Vidya loses the happy and free family life she used to enjoy. Now she is hampered by the traditions and rules of her strict Brahmin family. But she manages to sneak upstairs to the library and finds freedom and inspiration in books.

This was tough to read. There is so much racism and violence and bullying on all sides. It was just really difficult to stomach all of that, and it made me upset. But it was definitely interesting to see this window into history and learn about the traditions of the Indian culture at this time.

I really liked Vidya's complex character. She is spunky and strong with a very independent personality. But she also makes mistakes and does dumb things sometimes. It was interesting to see her character development as she grows up and decides for herself what kind of life she wants to lead.

If he wants to inherit his grandfather's estate, John Glenarm must stay at a country house in Indiana for at least a year without leaving. His grandfather did not approve of his grandson's wandering ways, so he devised this clause in the will to force his grandson to put down some roots. On his first night in the country house, John is shot at through the open window of the dining room. This begins an adventure that includes espionage, fugitives, hidden treasure, and a family secret that will change John's entire life. In the middle of all the mystery is Marian Devereux, who will inherit the entire estate if John fails to stay in the country for the entire year.

I loved this mystery adventure! There are so many layers to the mystery, and half the time nobody knows what is going on. There are a lot of shady characters in the background who are up to no good. A few of the characters are total mysteries, and we don't know whether they are good or bad until the very end. They might be allies to John, or they might be enemies, secretly working against him. I loved the suspense!

I liked the silly flirtations between Marian and John. They are a couple of wild characters and their mood swings certainly keep things interesting. I also really liked that Marian is a musician. That was a pleasant surprise, and gave the reader an insight into her character. Seeing John's reaction to her music also gives us a new layer to his personality.

I didn't really like John. He is always losing his temper, shouting and screaming at people, banging his fists on the table, threatening people, grabbing the butler by the collar and throwing him down on the floor. Learn some self-control, dude. Not my idea of a hero.

This devotional book gives you a small portion of the psalms to read each day, so that you can read the entire books of Psalms in one year. Each psalm includes a prayer that you can pray and a few paragraphs explaining something about the psalm and connecting it to the New Testament.

I really liked reading the Psalms through the perspective of the New Testament, and focusing on how Jesus is the fulfillment of every Old Testament promise. This was such a comfort to read each day. It brought me a lot of encouragement throughout the year!