Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I ADORED this book. It was a lovely cozy sci-fi adventure, with fantastic autistic and poly representation to boot!

While the world was wonderful and so believable, the characters were what really shone through. Even the background characters clearly had their own lives and didn't seem to exist as just a backdrop for the story to take place.

I also REALLY appreciated the truthful representation of autism, particularly with Lane's character. Her autism was not represented by the extremes of infantilization or Savantism, but as a condition that makes some things about life difficult. I particularly loved the way her sensory issues and problems with social cues were highlighted without everyone around her only feeling pity. I also thought it was excellent that she responded to people in her life that infantilized her and treated her as less-than.

I also really enjoyed the representation of poly relationships. Not being poly myself, I certainly don't know all the intricacies of poly relationships, but I enjoyed that this book didn't only focus on the positives or the negatives, but rather a more realistic portrayal of both the highs and the lows in a poly relationship (also I absolutely adore the polycule in this book because they're all so good for each other ahhhh).

Truly a joy to read, and one I will happily reread and recommend to others!

Publication date: April 19, 2024

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed portions of this book, especially the recipes section and the beginning portion that went through the many different kinds of lavender and their uses. Overall, I felt like this was a very informative book about all sorts of ways to use lavender.

I do wish it provided more details on where to get ethically sourced/pure lavender essential oil since many of the crafts and recipes require lavender oil instead of dried lavender buds.

Publication date: May 28, 2024

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I anticipated this to be a Jurassic Park x Pirates of the Caribbean type adventure and it was more an ARK survival x Pirates of the Caribbean type adventure. This didn't phase me at all, just a note for other folks who are interested!

Now for the review: holy moly, I had a blast reading this book! It was a rollicking, occasionally gory and raunchy adventure with plenty of pirates and dinosaurs. Despite the fantastical events, the historical elements (namely pirate and dinosaur stuff) was clearly meticulously researched. I also found the characters to be very endearing despite their rough and tumble demeanor (I mean they're all pirates, so that's a given). I also found the villain quite complex! For an action/adventure romp, this book surprised me with both its great sense of humor and huge amount of heart.

My one complaint about the book was the storyline jumps at the beginning. These felt very theatrical and I think had this been a film, it would be clearer when the narrative dipped back into the past. As it is in written form, sometimes these shifts weren't very obvious from the get go and it took me a little too long to figure out that I was in flashback territory rather than a continuation of the present plot line. Other than this, it was a really heckin' good time.

Publication date: April 29, 2024

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this audiobook for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this YA romp through Celtic mythology. Eilean was a very compelling character to me. I grew quite attached to her throughout this story, and I loved her interactions with the other characters.

The story was a little slow to start, but once the setting shifted to the Celtic other world, I found myself more invested. I am intrigued to see what happens in the other books in the series, since I feel like this one only scratched the surface of Celtic mythology and all the different gods/goddesses involved. The narration of this audiobook was also spectacular. It was fun to have other sound effects and singing on occasion!

My one complaint, and the reason this is a four star review and not a five star one is the cringey chapter titles. They are almost all cheesy cliches or puns, and they honestly took me out of the story a little bit hearing each one. I would quite rather have no chapter titles at all than these ones that made me cringe so much.

Publication date: 22 September 2024