I feel like this book was purposely written for me and only me. Or me and all my friends who randomly say “essence” in a very particular way. This book was also written for all those who do the magic dance with the goblins, who ride Falkor, or for those who search for the Red Bull. This is for the Jim Henson dark era loving adults who’ve been craving more. We have a creator named Bob. He created this movie that is now cult. Involving puppets and a shadow glass and its own world. Unfortunately, in modern times Bob has passed away and his son Jack it is left with his home and various movie memorabilia. Not all of Jack’s memories are as happy as mine are. All Jack wants to do is sell the original puppets and get the money to get himself out of debt. A life that is not to be as the puppets come alive and a war starts. These puppets aren’t stuffed they bleed. They leave slime and they are determined to find the shadow glass. For who controls the shadow glass controls the world. This book was semi perfect. Between a fanboy named Toby (if you know, you Know) and all the action and craziness and how alive storybook worlds become to people; this book with everything it had me living in my feels day after day. I took way too long to read this because I found myself having to go back over parts again and again. I, like the fans of the Shadow Glass, want more adventures. I want to know more lives of these various creatures, their species and their heroes. I was once told by somebody that nobody reads this book but when people find it, they love it. They were right I love it, and you will too. 

 This is a pretty typical romance novel. I did listen to this as an audiobook and will say that I did not care for the reader. They grew on me, but if it wasn’t for the topic of book banning in the very beginning, I might not have finished this book. In it, we have Artemis Jones who is a school teacher. She’s also a spinster and firmly on the shelf at 29. She doesn’t want to get married. She instead wants to start a college and educate young women. She’s also an author of gothic romance novels. She quite literally run into Dominic Winters, the Duke of Dartmore in the rain and they share a moment. The story progresses from there. Much of the story is predictable. Not 100% predictable but still predictable. And while overall, the story was exactly what one wants when they pick up a book like this there were some annoyances that give romance novels a bad name. First off, the euphemisms. I never again want to hear about a love truncheon. The author spends so much time on cliché language and euphemisms that this book is too long. This audiobook was 12 hours long and could have easily been nine or 10. A lot of that time was taken up with these clichés and euphemisms that didn’t need to be there. The author could also do with a little less description. One or two ways to describe things are fine. We don’t need a giant list. This is the first book in a series, and it feels like a first book. Overall, the book was decent and good, but the author needs a bit more help. I do want to read, whichever book is next in the series, but I am happy to be taking a break. 

 This suicide mystery started off with a bang, but ended with a fizzle. Trigger warning the very first thing that happens in this book is a suicide. At the side of the person who dies is left a notebook that says the thrasher. The thrasher happens to be a group of five students who are led by Zachary Thrasher. They’re more collection of friends than any type of organized group. For our wealthy one is not. It is well known that to be thrashed is to be brought into their group to experience the high life just to be burned out and left for ashes at the end. Well, that habit is coming back to bite them as one person killed themselves over being thrashed. Our main character Jody is the one character without money. She was Zachary Thrasher, best friends and second grade and so she gets to stay with the group. You can tell she has a thing for Zack even though for Zack, this is all platonic. When the story gets started, it’s a few months after the suicide a journal has been found and now all of the thrashers are under investigation for causing the suicide. What follows is both a forward and a backwards timeline of what did happen what’s happening now. We introduced to each of the quirks of the characters what makes them tick what makes them likely to have done something. And also what makes Jody different besides the money thing. This book was addicting. It was very easy to keep listening once it got started. For me the final wrap up in the last hour was kind of like that’s it but at the same time that’s kind of how life is. I do like the epilogue. There is a bit of a supernatural element wound throughout this book and you’re constantly wondering if this is supposed to be a sci-fi book or if the kids are just freaking out. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. If you are a fan of Karen McManus or Eli Lockhart, you would probably enjoy this book so pick it up and make up your mind. 

 This is interesting. We have a world with emperors and princesses and knights. A world at war. We have a princess who becomes the emperor and decides that if the men can have concubines and multiple consorts, why can’t she. And we read what took place before when she was a princess up to and through her becoming the emperor and starting her court. This is full of intrigue and a mystery. It’s part Game of Thrones without all the blood. Very approachable and very interesting. I await volume two to see where it goes from here. 

 Wow, this is not a boys town press it kind of reads like one. Where you’re given a problem and ways to deal with it. The refrain in this book is worry worry go away. I don’t have time for you today. And that actually really works especially with the examples that are given , and that the reaction isn’t always the same as long as you take time to think about it and know that you can be better. Over all this book works. Is it the best book in the world but it’s the one that’s readable and enjoyable and that lots of checkouts at your local library. 

 Celebrity author, books are one thing but when they use their life to tell a fake story, it doesn’t always work. This book very much reads like Alex Rodriguez is sharing the glory days of his youth. It’s overly long and tad bit tripe and feels like a giant fish story. I do think the illustrations are great and I love how in the end they included real pictures and Ted bits about Alex Rodriguez’s life. I think that is more interesting than the book is a hole. 

 This book is a reminder that you can do anything. A little girl and her baby doll named Qai loved to dance. And they look forward to dancing but worried they might not be good enough. But Qai Qai reminds baby girl that as long as you do your best, that’s all anybody’s asking for. This book is lovely. A tad bit obnoxious with always saying baby girl and not giving the child a name. But overall, it was a joy to read little girls are going to like it. 

 Complete vanity project. First off, this book is massively too wordy for a picture book. And it’s about little Mariah; Mariah Carey when she was younger. She even talks to herself in the form of a letter at the beginning of a book. It is also not an adverb or an adjective that I think this woman has forgotten about. Everything must have three to four, sometimes five adjectives to describe it. And things are constantly told to the reader over and over and over again. While this book does have a co-writer I don’t know what the job of the co-writer was. Because this does sound like Mariah Carey, but it is also so over the top. The illustrations are wonderful. I give credit or credit is due. But as for this book, no it’s not worth the time it takes to read it. Which is a shame. Giving a celebrity a vanity picture just to grab the money of readers. At least make a better book. Part of me wonders what Mariah‘s family, particularly her mom and her grandmother, might say about how her early beginnings are described and illustrated in this book. It makes me sad for them even though I don’t know them or anything about them. 

 This book is very creative. There are no pictures. The book tells the reader that whoever is reading this to you must say every word because with no pictures there’s no way to skip. This sounds like something someone mad at their librarian and would say. Because we are known to skip sentences or pages when story time getting a little out of hand. But I say this with love and affection with a smirk on my face. I love this book. For something that seems so simple this was probably really hard. But it’s also really successful and I see this staying on library shelves for decades. 

 The best thing I can say about this book is, I’m not sure I understand it. Our character in her buttercream yellow swimsuit knows the world is blue. She’s depressed and crying and her tears won’t stop until she sweeps herself down the drain of the pool. She comes back from either the other side or a world of make believe. I’m not quite sure. There are so many different things this could be. This could be a child’s depression and trying to find the light. It could be suicidal thoughts and children, which I really hope it’s not. Wow I’m not the biggest fan of the words in the book because I’m not sure I understand them. I will say the artwork is top-notch and beautiful.