Good morning, fave peeps of the world! Welcome to my review for The Supernatural Petsitter, first book in The Magic Thief series by Diana Moat =D I received my copy from Silver Dagger Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. THANK YOU, GUYS! This is the moment!
Every animal can talk to you. You just have to know how to listen.
Pepper Neely is better at this than most, especially because she is in charge of pet sitting all the familiars in her neighborhood. A familiar is a pet magically linked to a witch or warlock. As a gnome, Pepper is no stranger to spells and sorcery. She also knows that, despite their special name, familiars aren’t all that different from regular animals. They get anxious when separated from their people, so Pepper uses her special gnome powers to calm them down. She watches Cranky the high-strung ferret, Frank the laid-back parrot, King Arthur the elderly tortoise, and many others.
Then, something terrible begins happening to the familiars. Someone is stealing their magic! It not only prevents Pepper from communicating with them but breaks their magical connection with their people. When King Arthur’s magic is stolen, his owner’s powers stop working too. Pepper can sense that the tortoise is very scared.
In order to protect the animal’s magic, Pepper decides to track down the culprit. With the help of her best friend, Luna, and her brother, Jax, Pepper fights to protect all of the special pets.
Hii, guys! THIS REVIEW IS SO OMG SPECIAL FOR ME!! First, because it’s a manga review and I can’t even say when was the last time I wrote one of those. Second, because this manga was my first ever received book through Edelweiss! SO EXCITING!
I’m talking about Hatsune Miku: Mikubon, by Ontama! As you may have guessed, I received my copy from Dark Horse Manga through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review and here we go! THANK YOU, GUYS!! You rock!
Hatsune Miku and her friends Rin, Len, and Luka are not only back in manga…they’re back to school, enrolling at the St. Diva Academy for Vocaloids! They’re going to give it their best at St. Diva, as a wonderland of friendship, determination, and even love unfolds! But can they stay out of trouble, especially when the mad professor of the Hachune Miku Research Lab is nearby…?
Hellooooo, world! Good Monday to you and, for a change, I do have a review up on the blog! Miracles do happen here and there, haha! ;D Today I’ll ravish talk about the first book in the North Pole, Minnesota series, from Julie Hammerle: Any Boy But You! ❤ I received this book from Chapter by Chapter in exchange for an honest review and this is the moment. Thanks so much, guys!
Elena Chestnut has been chatting with an anonymous boy late into the night. It’s a very You’ve Got Mail situation, and she has no idea who he is. He can’t be Oliver Prince, hot-and-bashful son of the family running the rival sporting goods store. Their fancy sales strategies are driving Elena’s family out of business. Elena’s mystery boy has teamed up with her in their latest sales strategy, an augmented reality game, to help her win the grand-prize plane tickets. Money’s so tight Elena’s going to miss senior year spring break with her friends if she can’t win this game.
The girl Oliver’s fallen head-over-heels for online had better not be Elena Chestnut. She’s his angry, vindictive Latin tutor, the daughter of his dad’s business rival, and the one girl he’d never even think of kissing. She’s definitely not his online crush, because that girl is funny, sweet, and perfect.
When Oliver asks to reveal their names at the Valentine’s Day dance, their IRL relationship will either ruin what they have online, or they’ll discover just how thin the line between love and hate really is.
Good night, cookers! What’s up? Okay, if you’re not a cooker, good night to you too – I’m not much of a chef myself, so who am I to judge, right? Haha!
Nonsense aside, today I’ll talk about a cozy woozy sugared romance I’ve received from Hidden Gems in exchange for an honest review – thanks, guys! It’s Order Up, from Declan Rhodes!
Food, sex, and romance.
Anthony Hunt is expert at the first two, but his track record is poor on the third. A recent top-of-the-class culinary school graduate, he owns one of the hottest, trendy food trucks in town. Impressed by Anthony’s good looks and appeal to the camera in a losing cause on a TV competition show, New York producers are looking to sign him for a food truck reality show. The only catch…they want him to have a personal life as appealing as his body and face.
Bryan Pierce is a rising young executive. He loves his success and he loves food, but he’s never really loved a man. He has plenty of experience in bed and on dates, but he has set aside relationship entanglements as a casualty of the corporate climb…for now.
One taste of the seductive, spicy shrimp from Anthony’s truck the Pampered Prawn is all that Bryan needs to want to know more about the chef…much more. Bryan is also just the kind of man that would look great on camera at Anthony’s side. It’s a romance of convenience that works like a charm…until real love intervenes.
Hi, there! Hope your Saturday ended 🙂 Following my goal of one manga review per day until I catch up with myself, today I present you a review for a title with a peculiar background with me: Calling, from Miu Otsuki. Yes, we are back to yaoi mangas.
Before introducing you formally to this title, I’d like to share our story. Last week, I was at a street bookshop and saw this title. I hated the art on the spot, it’s not my style at all. I didn’t want to buy it, but there are only three manga publishers on Brazil. Two very large and a medium one; the last was responsible for The Calling publishing and the other two publishers pretend that gay, pornographic and horror titles don’t exist. So, when I saw the smaller publisher bringing to us a gay title, I knew I had to get it to support them and show them that people would buy different titles, despite all the prejudice that they suffer on my country.
So, with a heavy heart, I went home and decided that, as I had already purchased the volume, it wouldn’t hurt to read it. Boy, I’m so glad I did. You shall find out why on the following lines of the review, but I really felt rewarded for helping out this particular publisher, haha!
The Story
Kazuaki is a regular salary man without a drop of excitement on his existence. That is, until one day when he literally stumbles on a porn recording session in the park that he always passed on his way home from work.
Kira is a porn star and leads a very carefree life. That is, until Kazuaki literally stumbles on him and his co-worker after a shooting at a park. On that moment, something shifted inside Kira; he had fallen for the clumsy and scared boy of the park and would do everything to see him again.
At first, Kazuaki is very eerie of Kira, as Kira was pushy and obviously too skilled, if you get my drift, but as they see each other and spend time together, Kazuaki starts to believe that maybe this is what he has been missing on his life: true love.
The Analysis
Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂
As I said, I had a lovely surprise with this title. Despite the ugly art, the story blew my mind! It was so different and original! Not even the insta-love on Kira’s part bothered me. It was all too natural, too cute and, behold, innocent. Yes, there are some mature scenes, but without any hint of vulgarity to them ❤ I wish the art wasn’t so bothersome, as it made the title lose two stars 😦
Anyway, the narrative pace is steady and we follow the story mostly from Kazuaki’s point of view. There are some pieces from Kira in the end, but not knowing what he is really thinking is part of the fun on The Calling, haha!
The plot is pretty simple, full filed with human complexes. Kazuaki is an insecure guy, socially awkward, never knows what to do or to say around people. He doesn’t care about his job and highly admires that Kira is so in love with his profession. You saw what I did, didn’t you?
All the while, Kira intends to conquer Kazuaki’s heart, but Kazuaki himself understands that he needs to trust Kira in order to be his true friend, never mind the amorous relationship that comes tagging along. Serious, it is beautiful.
The characters were a blast in personality and I laughed a lot with Kira. He is that goofy type of male, but without being clumsy. That was Kazuaki, haha! They really matched as a couple and I caught myself awing for them more than I should, oops!
As it is typical of yaoi titles, we aren’t introduced to many other characters in the story and, as always, I’m fine with that. Kira’s work colleague, this very beautiful girl whose name I can’t remember to save my life, was the perfect side kick for their situation: light and funny, spilling a secret or two about Kira to Kazuaki ❤ Kazuaki’s work colleagues also were cool.
Now, the art. Omg, the art. I’ve read several reviews highlighting the beauty of Otsuki-sensei’s work, but I can’t bring myself to agree. It was totally not my type, sorry.
from left to right: Kira and Kazuaki 🙂
Just no. I simply can’t bring myself to like this*.
Overall, I still think that it was a worth buy and a pleasant surprise. Otsuki-sensei knows her way very well in plot and character construction 🙂 If you like daily life stories, a touch of drama, romance and laughs, this title may be what you’re looking for!
Thank you for reading! Sorry for the lateness of this review, I had a full day packing up for my trip tomorrow morning, haha!
The Book Adventures of Annelise Lestrange 