stacyrenee's reviews
398 reviews

Adult
Fantasy
Retelling
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a Rumplestiltskin retelling about a young girl who takes up her family’s moneylending work and is soon rumored to be able to turn silver into gold, which attracts an ancient and powerful being that requires her to produce more gold than she’s ever seen before.

This was a great winter read, perfect for fans of ‘The Bear and the Nightingale’ and ‘Uprooted’.
I enjoyed the twist on a fairytale that doesn’t seem to get much love (although Rumplestiltskin has a prominent role in OUAT). This is also much more ‘fae’ than fairytale, so perfect for adult fantasy lovers!

Adult
Fantasy
🏳️‍🌈LGBTQIA
Romance
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Perfect for fans of Seanan McGuire’s ‘Wayward Children’ portal fantasy series!

The Lost Story is a Narnia-inspired tale of two boys who were lost in the wilderness together for six months and returned unscathed, one of which (Jeremy) grew up to professionally ‘track’ lost persons.
Emelie hires Jeremy to find her long missing sister from the same forest but Jeremy has been keeping a secret; that they were in a magical fantasy realm while missing! Did Emelie’s sister end up in the same place?

I LOVE the Wayward Children series for its ‘portal fantasy’ but they are all short novellas so I especially enjoyed the longer story and added plot presented in ‘The Lost Story’. The romance gave ‘Summer Sons’ vibes and the overall plot gave some King’s ‘Fairy Tale’ vibes but stayed true to the Narnia-esque adventure.

Adult
Nonfiction
Science / self-help

The author is a psychologist who moved above the Arctic Circle to study how the darkest season effects mental health only to find that the people who live in those northernmost regions actually look forward to and celebrate winter thanks to a simple change of mindset.

This one is all about positive mindset, celebration and traditions, and more, with a focus on behavioral science rather than spirituality, but includes some interesting chapters on the mental and physical benefits of ice dunks/swims and saunas.

Adult
Nonfiction
Nature, science, sociology 

My thoughts: This is a beautiful little book, both in its’ important and timely message as well as the illustrations. 
It is all about how nature provides and reciprocates when nurtured and how communities and gift economies (food pantries, LittleFreeLibraries, buy-nothing groups, etc) could change our world.
all in a short and informative little book! 

This is perfect for any nature lover! 

I’ve yet to read Braiding Sweetgrass (it’s forever checked out at my local library) but read this for a ‘Decolonize Your Shelves’ challenge.

MG 
Fantasy

Set in Bergen, Norway, with lots of traveling/adventuring over land and sea to La Rochelle, France, etc. 

Norse mythology + cartography 

Beaty and the Beast meets The Snow Queen even though this is a retelling of ‘East of the Sun, West of the Moon’.  

Very enjoyable! 
This started out with a large family that cares very much about the superstition of the direction a baby is born in, that attempts to keep their youngest daughter’s ‘north-ness’ from her, at least until another daughter becomes deathly ill and a talking white bear appears to take the youngest, Rose, to save the elder sibling. Very ‘Beauty and the Beast’.

He even takes her to a magic castle in France!

Then curiosity gets the best of her and he is whisked away to an ice castle in the far north by a pale queen (very ‘The Snow Queen’!) and Rose must attempt to save him.

Even though these themes are overly familiar to me, I really enjoyed this. It’s full of adventure, a bit of magic, a really slow-build love story, and a happy ending! 

I’m looking forward to the sequel; West! 

Adult
Nonfiction
Poetry collection 

4 stars

I’m not sure if I’ve ever read anything by Oates in my life and it’s a name I’ve seen on books and whatnot for decades but I didn’t know what I was going into with this one.

These poems include heinous bits of American history, some so disturbing that I had to put my e-reader down temporarily  to either look up the full story behind the poem or because the content was so shocking and discomforting that I needed a moment before continuing. Topics include psychological experiments with babies and animals, abortion, war, and more. 

Fantasy
Fairytale retelling 

A retelling of Beauty and the Beast minus the red flags of just about every other version of this story!

Very cottage core. 
There are chickens. And gardening. 😆

I had a hard time connecting to the plot or characters. 

MG
Fantasy

Set in Wales

The third book in the Magician Trilogy by Jenny Nimmo, starting with The Snow Spider & Emlyn's Moon.

I read The Snow Spider every year of elementary school but they did not have the sequels... but I'm in my 30's now and finally had the chance!

This was a fantastic ending to Gwyn's magical story, with more magic, magicians, and family reverie. It was a wonderful ending.