rainbowbrarian's Reviews (1.85k)

Becoming Ted is the story of a middle class man in England learning to put himself first after a lifetime of dimming his shine for other people.  After his husband leaves him for another (younger) man he’s forced to reevaluate what he always thought was a happy relationship.  He’s been working for his family’s ice cream business his entire life and he doesn’t even like ice cream!  He decides to follow a dream he’s always kept locked in his heart, he decides to set out to become a drag queen.  He also meets Oskar, a Polish immigrant and aspiring designer who moved to England for a better life.  Maybe having his husband leave him could be a change for the better?

This story was sweet and perhaps a little bit too simple.  I liked Ted, and liked Oskar even more, but some of the conflict felt a little contrived, and then the resolutions came a little too easily.  Watching Oscar and Ted falling for each other was the best part of this story, I loved how caring they were with each other and how respectful they were with each other’s sore spots.  Loved the story line with Oskar’s father, but I was disappointed with a kind of forced third act breakup.  Also Ted’s ex husband got off WAY too easily, he was emotionally manipulative and when he came crawling back he was let off way too easily.  Also I don’t think someone that was that crappy during a 20 year marriage and subsequent affair is going to have such impressive emotional growth in that short a time. 

Favorite Parts - Ted and Oskar having a date on the beach, them sharing about their families

A murder mystery set in the tent of the Great British Bake Off.  That’s really all you need to know.  This was a fun little story with fantastic character designs and some hilarious send up of all your favorite tropes from GBBO.

Favorite Parts - I loved the extremely expressive faces of the characters and the way you could absolutely recognize various character types and past contestants in the characters in this comics.  The Prue and Paul characters were so fun and I loved the cat co-host too.

Read This If You - Want a fluffy little romp through baking and attempted murder. 

 The marriage of Empress In-yo was a political one.  A way to keep the Northern territories under the emperor’s control, after her father and all her brothers had been killed.  But the Emperor doesn’t need to keep his new wife around once she’s provided him with an heir.  In-yo finds herself exiled to a remote province, kept in a state of constant summer by the empire’s mages.  Her young hand maiden, Rabbit, recalls that the Empress was perhaps not as helpless as everyone had hoped.

I had a little bit of a struggle when I started this book.  There are a number of fantasy creatures and terms that the reader is just given without any explanation.  I had to figure out, oh, that’s some kind of sentient talking bird... and this must be some kind of magic thing.  But the story is WELL worth it.  Don’t let that small amount of front loading put you off.  

A cleric of the Singing Hills Monastery is sent to catalog the exiled home of the late empress and record it’s contents for the archive.  Cleric Chih meets Rabbit there and as they discuss the contents of the house we learn the story of what really happened during In-yo’s brilliantly orchestrated rise to power.  It’s a wonderful tale of what happens when you try to crush powerful women.