4.5/5

Less of a sequel and more of a world expansion, A Closed and Common Orbit takes a tangent from the first Wayfarer book and runs with it. AI Lovelace leaves the Wayfarer to spare its inhabitants further grief and begins life in an illegal body kit. With a new name and some guiding friends, she learns more about this strange world and her place within it. 

- The world-building in this book was incredible, better than The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. It's always in situ and never feels like an infodump. 

- For some of the book we switch back to the history of one of the other characters which was heartbreaking but inspiring. I enjoyed how Chambers tied it all up.

- One of the characters is of a species where some individuals change sex on a regular basis. This comes complete with pronoun change and EVERYONE RESPECTS THIS!!! It was nice to linger in a world where fluidity is normal and accepted.

This book made me cry (in a good way) and I look forward to continuing the emotional assault in book three.

4.5/5

E-ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for a fair review.

I read Legends & Lattes over the winter and adored it. So when the prequel became available in ARC form, how could I say no?! We follow a much younger Viv who has to convalescence in a sleepy seaside town following an injury. She finds friendship with the local bookseller and, as expected, chaos ensues.

- I loved seeing younger Viv who is fiesty and impatient and, even in the short period of time this book covers, watching her grow and learn.

- The side characters are all so fun and well suited to the setting. The town of Murk was so vivid in my mind and I love how Baldree has created this amazing setting. Also Potroast the Gryphet was so cute!

- This book is cosy but poignant. I love how the books Viv is given to read become more relevant and the last one... My heart! I wish these books were.real and I could read them.

A very worthy prequel. If you loved Legends & Lattes, you'll love this too.

4.5/5

Illustrated by Miralti Firmansyah.

Yan is struggling with self confidence. One day she joins a baking club and finds much more than bread and biscuits.

- The artwork is cute but the story is sincere and heartwarming. Anyone who's ever struggled with feeling good enough would relate to this story.

- Like many people, I came to know Kim-Joy through the Great British Bake Off. Turtle Bread gives off those comfy Bake Off vibes and makes for a nice cosy read.

- I love that the recipes for the bakes are included within the story itself. Fantastic idea.

Cosy, relatable and digging the Bake Off vibes. 

3.5/5

CW: depression & mental health

Having read Heart stopped last year I thought I'd delve into some of Oseman's other works. I'm very divided about this book. We follow Tori Spring through the beginning term of sixth form and her trials and tribulations.

- I cannot emphasize this enough. Go to Oseman's website or wherever and read the bloody content warnings. I'm an idiot who did not do this. I read this book at a time that was probably not the best. If you have experienced depression or intense periods of ill mental health I would highly recommend you feel in a good place before reading this book. It is much heavier than Hearts topper.

- First point aside, the book is probably one of the better portrayals I've seen of depression. The gaps, the sleepiness, the brain fog, the complete inability to give a damn about anything are all on point.

- I did like how various friendships and relationships Tori has played out and the way they did.

Not Heartstopper but a very raw and accurate account of poor mental health.

3.5/5

The sequel to Legendborn: Arthurian legend in modern day America mixed with traditional root magic. We follow Brianna as she struggles following the Scion of Arthur's awakening and learns more about her place and her powers.

- Honestly, I found a lot of this book confusing and didn't really get invested until about the 60% mark. There's lots of threads, lots of action and lots of reveals but sometimes they just didn't meld well in the prose.

- We learn more about the magic system within this series and how it works, not just within the order or for rootcrafters. It helped make sense of some of the things that occur.

- I really liked the scenes featuring Volition. I won't spoil it but the idea of Volition is fantastic and I love the author's note explaining that choice further.

If you liked Legendborn then Bloodmarked is worth a read, just a little hard to wade through at times. 

4/5

Audiobook narrated by Lauren Sweet.

A sapphic, hallmark, vaguely holiday-based rom-com. Darcy and Elle start out fake dating to appease respectively relatives but soon find there's more to their relationship than they first thought.

- Cheesy but in a good way. You have the sunshine, golden retriever who is a bit wild and the serious, broody  counterpart. You have enemies to lovers and obviously fake dating. Tropey as hell but enjoyably so.

- I enjoyed the romance and the building of the relationship. I particularly liked scenes where one partner stood up for the other.

- So, my pet hate and something I've noticed in a lot of millenial chick lit: Harry Potter references. Yes, we grew up with it and the nostalgia is strong. But can we move past referring to people by their Hogwarts houses and stuff. JKR is a scourge on this earth and as a nonbinary individual, I cannot help but cringe when people given her or her creations metaphorical screen time.

Fun, cheesy and enjoyable. Would be a fantastic, cosy Christmas read.

4.5/5

Cosy sci-fi is probably one of my new favourite genres. Following the crew of the Wayfarer, the reader comes to know and love them as they journey through the universe.

- The characters are the focus of the story and I enjoyed how different and faceted they were. Each one was different and distinct. I also really enjoyed the multispecies aspects and the physiological and cultural differences each had. My favourite part was finding out who Sissix's feather family were.

- The world-building was amazing and felt so real. I could spend literal years learning more about the universe in this book and never get bored.

- I loved the inclusivity of the book. Some was overt (love the default of xe/zyr pronouns when you don't know someone's) and others were just normal and unremarked upon.

I've already started A Closed and Common Orbit and am loving it already. For lovers of casual sci-fi and cosy immersive books.

2.5/5

I will describe this book in the same way I described it to a colleague one afternoon: Nazi Voodoo Vampires. The story is a weird mishmash of ridiculous pulp horror ideas with some attempt at serious story telling.

- Honestly, I didn't particularly care about any of the characters. The author attempts to give them backstories and purpose but it doesn't really fit together well. 

- I'll give The Night Boat some credit, there were some legitably creepy and scary bits but after the monsters are revealed it kinda became boring and disjointed.

- The audiobook redeems the material somewhat with excellent narration from Porter. He could read the dictionary and make it sound amazing.

If you like almost silly pulp horror, then maybe give this a try but I wouldn't say it's an essential read.

4.5/5

Audiobook narrated by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan.

Following on from Cosmos, I decided to listen to Pale Blue Dot and it was amazing. Whereas Cosmos was more focused on the nature of the universe, Pale Blue Dot explores humanities relationship with the universe and how we have and maybe will in the future venture forth from Terra Firma.

- I very much enjoyed the balance between known science and speculation in this book. Originally published in 1994, certain things have come to pass since then but Sagan acknowledges the known limitations at time of writing. Still, the book is conservatively hopeful and I really liked that.

- As a sci-fi fan, the discussions around human colonisation of other planets and other space entities was fascinating. Terraforming, travel, communication: lots of ideas are covered with accompanying scientific principles that inspired my mind to dream of new worlds. 

- The audiobook version I listened to was made up of a mix of the original tape recordings by Sagan and the missing portions reread by Druyan. To hear the wobble of analogue tape in Sagan's portions made my weird 90s kid brain happy. Despite the mix, the audio was well put together.

A wonderful follow up to Cosmos. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in human exploration and potential colonisation of space.

4.5/5

What is the Scooby Doo crew grew up and accidentally meddled too close to ancient lovecraftian monstrosities? That is essentially the premise of Meddling Kids, with some tweaks made to circumvent copyright laws.

- As a Scooby Doo-loving kid who grew up, I adored this book. The characters, dumb dog included, were brilliant and it was great getting to know them and see them deal with both more grown up challenges and mythical ones. I also loved the subtle references to the source material (Zoinx river anyone?).

- Oh my goodness, the sciencey bits were amazing. I loved the speculative biology of the monsters and how they function. Also Kerri (read Velma) the biologist was probably my favourite character for this exact reason.

- The horror side was cheesy scary. Like, you could hear the chase music in the background during certain scenes and in others I was too scared to read it in the dark. The balance was really well achieved.

I hope Cantero decides to make this book into a series because I loved this so much. If you like(d) Scooby Doo, tentacled horrors and a mix of science and magic, I highly recommend this.