To be honest, I was enjoying this book a lot more before the story actually started. There was that long, slow beginning about the amnesiac protagonist adjusting to a life that didn't feel like his own, and there were so many interesting, sometimes beautifully nebulous things hinted at. The mysterious "epilepsy" epidemics, the weird alternate England occupied by France. Finally, Joe's trip to that weird lighthouse on the frozen edge of the world, the tortoises in the tavern, the coming of winter from the sea. The lighthouse parts were my absolute favorite. I was looking forward to just reading an entire book about lighthouse weirdness.

But then the entire time traveling plot started unfolding, and it was all dimension hopping and murders and naval warfare and convoluted politics. The way it was all laid out, with the random switching of POVs and times, just made my head ache. On top of that, once all that action started, I realized there wasn't a single character I could root for. I simply disliked them all. Even Joe, who'd had my sympathy in the earlier chapters.

I guess The Half-Life of Valery K was a fluke, and Natasha Pulley really isn't an author for me...

This is exactly the book I was waiting for! Finally, a nice deep dive into Oliver's past, as well as the werewolf society, politics, history, and tradition. Totally worth the wait, too! The first two books of the series served as an awesome build-up to this perfect storm (in addition to, you know, simply being excellent reads on their own).

In many ways, this installment mirrors The Wolf at Bay, except this time it's Cooper heading to Oliver's childhood home to meet his family and not the other way around. And it's so clear that Cooper has truly learned his lessons from last book's debacle, except it doesn't prevent misunderstandings from happening because Oliver hasn't really been learning any lessons, until now. The late part of the previous book made it rather clear that underneath his perfect facade he's at least as fucked up as Cooper, and I was eager to learn what flavor of fucked-up it is. Not to give anything away, but it's a very interesting flavor, and I can't wait to pick up the next book and see where these two go from here. I have complete faith in their relationship, but I also have no doubt there's still a lot of compelling rockiness ahead.

The mystery here was more convoluted, I felt, than in the first two books, but no less entertaining, and when all the threads came together it all made sense. In the previous books, I was able to guess at least one important detail early on. In this case, there was only one time when I was faster grasping information than it was revealed, and it was only like by half a page. Which is fun! I love being surprised by mysteries like that. The final big twist in the investigation was served perfectly along with the final big twist in the relationship arc (speaking of that relationship arc twist? definitely can't wait to read the next book, OMG).

Adhara's writing keeps getting stronger with each installment. I mentioned in my reviews for the first two books that I had some stumbles with the prose here and there; in this one, there's absolutely none of that. The banter keeps getting cleverer and cleverer, the descriptions for settings and characters are so vivid and spot-on, and I loved how the author managed to make everyone in Oliver's pretty huge family stand out. Also, happy to see a minor trope (is it even a trope?) that I happen to love: the LI's ex being first introduced as a potential menace to relationship, but then the MC and the ex end up becoming friends/friendly. Speaking of the ex, Eli has such a fun and entertaining personality, I need more of him!

All in all, I had a wonderful time with this novel, and Big Bad Wolf is now officially my top favorite m/m supernatural mystery romance series.

This book turned out to be a perfect reminder of why I once fell in love with the fantasy genre. It has everything: the magic, the mystery, the adventure, the epic quest, the true love, and the good triumphing unequivocally over evil. Definitely a novel I'm going to re-read one day, probably once I eventually catch up with Brandon Sanderson's numerous Cosmere epics. Because I'm hopelessly behind and must have missed so many Easter eggs.

I fully expected the worldbuidling to be awe-inspiring and the plot to be clever, but what came as a super pleasant suprise was the prose. Sanderson's writing here is simply amazing: so whimsical and witty and wonderfully engrossing. I loved the narrator's voice, and I loved the moment the narrator actually walked into the plot. There was also something very special about how this narration delivered the twists and the big "whoa!" moments that I can't put a finger on yet. But I've written out enough quotes to pore over and eventually figure out how it works in terms of writing mechanics, so to speak.

More than anything, though, I loved Tress. She's now easily in my top-5 favorite characters of all time, thanks to her beautiful blend of kindness, ingenuity and common sense. She's the kind of character who makes me want to be a better person. Her arc throughout the story is awesome: so much subtle growth, and throughout all her trials she always retains her core values. She truly earned her happy ending. 

I could probably continue talking about this story for hours, but I would give away the entirety of the story in the process, so I'll better just stop here. Just... I really, really loved this, and I want more cozy, hope-filled fantasy stories just like this. ALL of them, please and thank you.

Such a nice quick read to pass a few hours with! I enjoyed this story about a prickly, bratty elven princess and her orc betrothed who's a veritable angel in the flesh. I admit that in the first half of the books, the two were really hard to ship because of Elketh's outrageous shenanigans. I kind of wanted to rescue Ruga from her instead. However, by the middle of the story, the chemistry between the two became so apparent it was hard not to get invested. I liked that Elketh had to face some actual consequences for her actions, but I also liked that, despite displaying some character growth and redeeming qualities, she still remained rash, prickly, and difficult, just in a more subdued way. It can be nice to see difficult people find love, too.

The worldbuilding here is fairly simplistic, with elves being just these long-living elves and orcs being just these long-living vikings, but there were a lot of cool small details that gradually made it feel more alive and original. I very much appreciated how delightfully queernorm the setting is. I also liked how ingrained into the setting the MCs were, especially Ruga since we spend most of the story in her home. All of her hobbies, her connections to the people around her, her habits, and also the way Elketh kept discovering and adjusting to all that—that definitely turned the setting into an immersive, lived-in place and not just a fantastical backdrop for the romance story.

The one thing that detracted from my enjoyment to an extent was the prose; I found it rather clunky, to the point that it often got in the way. There were times when I had to re-read a sentence a few times to figure out if it was missing a word or just very awkwardly structured, and there were also things like that one paragraph where the word 'letter' was used so many times it began to lose all meaning. Perhaps the novel could have benefitted from an extra round of editing. 

I'm a sucker for stories with cooking/baking-based magic, so I couldn't turn this one down (I did keep it on my TBR for way too long, but... eh, so many books, so little time, right? :D). This was a wonderful story with so much heart, full of relatable characters and a sense of self-discovery. While Syd goes on that external journey of writing a wrong—"the brownies I made after a painful break-up are making other people break up, too! quick, I need to fix this!"—the real internal journey is obviously about figuring out what relationships are even made of. And not just the romantic ones; friendships, familiar bonds, and relationships with self and gender and community are all pretty thoroughly explored.

I really loved the agender and genderfluid rep here, as well as the general portrayal of a big, supportive diverse community. That one part in the end made me tear up a little bit in the best way. Also, Capetta's prose never disappoints: I love how beautiful, poetic, and vivid their language is, and how it changes subtly form book to book, from protagonist to protagonist.

The reason this isn't a five-star book for me is because underneath all of these things that I've listed above and that I very sincerely adore, this was actually a fairly typical YA story of getting to know yourself and the world. While Syd's journey was beautifully executed, there were no real surprises. It was a bit like getting a really beautifully decorated muffin and then discovering that the best part of it is the icing while the insides aren't bad, but like... too predictable or something? I definitely don't mean it in a bad way, and I'm very happy I've read it, though!

Even better than book one! I am seriously in love with this series. There's such a perfect mix of romance development, a twisty small town mystery, and sorting out family secrets and old hurts. Each of those plotlines kind of moves at its own pace, and yet all of them intersect at precisely the perfect places to enhance each other and create an incredibly compelling whole.

The romance definitely takes center stage in this one, way more so than in the first installment. If the first book was about giving attraction a chance, this is the part where Cooper and Oliver get to build actual long-term trust, and I'm so here for it. Just as expected, Cooper messes up a lot, allows his past to drag him down, and prefers to deal with his feelings by hiding them. But inch by inch, he keeps learning and growing and working his way through all this, and no matter how messy things got in the book, I never doubted he and Oliver were going to pull through. Because even when they fought, they keep being there for each other, each in their own way, and it's so obvious at all times they just need to know, and also so understandable why they can't. Well, at least with Cooper it's understandable. With Oliver, it's like half understandable, in terms of his character, and also very mysterious in terms of his baggage. But he opens up about some of it, too, gradually, and I'm getting so, so curious about his family history, and the new tidbits of the werewolf lore.

Speaking of families, I loved Cooper's reconnection with his brother. Things with his father seem more complicated, as they always are when our parents hurt us by doing the best the can, and I'm kind of mad at Ed for being so set in his ways that he not only spoiled his own relationship with Cooper, but also stood in the way of Cooper and Dylan being there for each other throughout their lives. And at the same time, I really feel for him, what with all of the things that got revealed over the course of the story. I hope to see more of these characters, especially Dylan and his new family, and to see Cooper's relationship with them continue to evolve and reshape.

As for the mystery, it was absurdly well down and had all the best "small town with big secrets" vibes. There was precisely one important detail I guessed before Cooper recognized it; otherwise, I just sat back witnessing the puzzle pieces fall together in real time, and I actually gasped when the big reveal happened. That whole plot was exciting and full of suspense and I'm pretty sure some of the side details, like those FBI agents' involvement, may have interesting consequences further in the story.

I also want to note that the minor issues with prose and pacing that grated me a little in book 1 are pretty much all gone. There was maybe one scene close to the beginning where the writing felt slightly awkward for a bit, but not terribly so, and I quickly got distracted by what happened next. Honestly, I can barely remember what I even found awkward. I'm just sitting here in awe of this entire story, and the mystery, and the beautiful relationship development, and all the great banter. :)

I just can't get into it. The prose is unpleasantly convoluted, with too many run-on sentences, and it's been over 10 chapters of absolutely nothing happening.

Yet another one of those situations when I appreciate what the author was trying to do, but not the execution. It was incredibly hard to get into this graphic novel. The pacing was just so uneven, with events happening randomly with little build-up, and the characters never got properly introduced. It was like starting a tv show in the middle of a season. I feel like the story found its footing way in the second half, and the plot actually started getting interesting instead of vaguely promising, but it was kind of too late. I would suspect this had something to do with the fact the book started out as a webcomic, except I've read plenty of webcomics with stronger beginnings, better character arcs, and evenly spread out action, so this isn't a genre/format problem.

I would have been more lenient toward the weird plot/pacing issues if I liked any of the characters, but there was precisely one of them whose presence on the page I enjoyed, and even she was... well, I hardly got to know her. I hardly got to know anyone, to be honest, despite this being a pretty big book for a comic. In some cases, this was slightly remidied in the second half when the author added some backstory here and there. But in most cases, the focus kind of constantly was more on the situations the characters were in than the characters themselves, even in the parts that begged to be more character-driven. Maybe that's why it felt like the relationships didn't evolve organically; I have very little idea what drew the main characters together in the first place, and the way Tony's relationship with his father suddenly switch to a completely different pattern was baffling.

I did appreciate the trans rep and the chronical illness rep, and the artwork is lovely. There's a lot of cool stuff here in terms of wolrdbuilding, too, especially with the ghosts. I loved how the ghost-seeing ability was handled. 

This is such a difficult book to review, even though I loved it to bits. It feels more like an experience or a mood than a story even though it most definitely has a plot, and character arcs, and all the other things that make a sequence of events and feelings book-shaped. Somehow, it reminded me a lot of when I was the characters' age, even though I faced completely different emotions, struggles, and situations. I can't say I was ever like Violet, or Liv, or any of the characters, but I still got caught remembering how I was just as confused and struggling to make sense of life and trying to shuffle through versions of myself to find one that didn't suck. 

This is a story of families, and grief, and how it's not only the dead you can grieve for; of making sense of mental illness in the family and in your head; of learning to build connections; of letting go; of being a mess; of getting out of the mess you've made; of looking into the past to find the future; of shipwreck-hunting; of diving too deep and finding a way out. It's written in beautiful, beautiful prose, it contains some of the most hauntingly, viivdly engrossing snapshots of being by the sea I've encountered in literature since Ruthanna Emrys's Winter Tide, and a love triangle that actually makes sense.

It feels like being on the cusp of growing up: bittersweet and confusing and painful, and also full of wonder you don't immediately recognize. I wish I had books like this when I was that age.

I haven't read any BL manga in... approximately forever, and I clearly should get back into it, because this is an awesome way to relax and recharge. The story is hilarious in that "if I think about this too hard, this is actually mildly terrifying, but if I just look at this string of funny moments, it's so cute" kind of way. Normally, I'm not a fan of stalker romance, which this definitely qualifies for, but when the stalker is an over-cheerful ancient god who acts in full accordance with his nature, but also genuinely makes an effort to learn how to human to win his soulmate over... well, okay, I can suspend my disbelief and my squeamishness for the sake of fun. :D

I enjoyed the beautiful art, the general cozy small town vibe, the found family dynamics between Chiharu and his next-door neighbors/old friends, all the hints at the mysteries surrounding Chiharu's grandmother, and Rin's lessons in cleaning and grocery shopping. The ending of the volume was a bit abrupt—I wouldn't even fully call it a cliffhanger, it just stops—so that was a bit annoying. Then again, it's a good excuse to get the next volume for another couple of hours of mindless relaxation.