Bibbidi Bobbidi Academy

Sometimes I just need childrens' books to read. It's like decompression for me. 

I spotted this series on Amazon and bought all five that are currently out. 

The plot is simple: it's an academy for fairy godmothers and godfathers-in-training. 

They're pretty much picture books. Not a ton of text, though not the most basic text either. The art is gorgeous. 

The plots are simple but fun. Rory here has trouble with spelling. Not s-p-e-l-l-i-n-g, which she does frequently in her book, but casting spells. They come out just a little bit off. But she's different in that she grew up in the human world, so she finds a way to use that to help her through her studies. 

Mai's issue is that she always thinks more is best. She's likeable but very over the top. 

So what does she do when her need for more transforms her project partner into a unicorn? 

I LOVE OPHELIA. 

Hands down my favorite. I wish there were dolls and plush of this series, because I want an Ophelia soft doll. 

Her flaw is focusing too much on helping others and not enough time to do what she needs to for herself. She's from Atlantica. Yes, that Atlantica. This is Disney, after all. On a class trip, she runs into her cousin Octavia, who's a sea witch-in-training. Octavia distracts Ophelia all day under the guise of needing help. It's up to Ophelia to finally put her fin down and do what she wanted to accomplish on her trip. 

Cyrus, the one fairy godfather-in-training we meet, is afraid of everything. They have an assignment where they need to conjure up a pet for someone who wished for one. Annnnnnnd his wisher wants a dragon. Cyrus is terrified, even though the dragon is just adorable and does nothing scary. So he has to work past his fear to solve the problem and complete the assignment. 

And finally, we have Tatia. Tatia is the one who tries too hard because she's spent her life in her sister's shadow. She always wants to be first at everything. 

The class is going on a camping trip and she's using an old book written by the Fairy Godmother (yes, from Cinderella) as a guide. Only absolutely nothing is going as planned. 

This is the one I liked least, mostly because it felt rushed. I hate to spoil anything, but there are pages where the art switched Octavia for Ophelia and it was really annoying. The story is okay though. 

I'm not sure if this will be the last book. They could easily do a sixth for Octavia and this one did only just come out on April 2nd. 

It's a fun little series. 

Daughters of Shadow & Blood 1

Oh, man, this book did not disappoint!

The Daughters of Shadow and Blood trilogy is about the three brides of Dracula. 

Side note: Is it me or are there SO MANY books with titles that go "_____ of ____ and _____" lately? 

 Anyway, I absolutely loved this. 

I do want to note that the chapters can be short and it jumps all over the place in timeline and setting, but each chapter is very clearly marked at the beginning. I found it very easy to follow along, but if you like linear storytelling, this series is not for you. 

The semi-main character of the series is a historian named Adam Mire, who specializes in Eastern European history. As the second bride, Elena, says in the beginning of her book, he speaks nine languages, has published four books, and is one of the world's leading experts on Middle Ages Eastern Europe. And he's not even forty. He's likeable though. 

The book's present day is 1999. It also jumps back to a few days before the actual present day in the book to track the path of Adam's journey toward where he is now: in a room with Yasamin, the eldest of Dracula's three brides. 

Yasamin tells her story, which is mostly set in 1599 in Buda, Hungary. She's the daughter of an Ottoman diplomat who was arranged to be married to the current pasha's son. Or maybe both of the pasha's sons are also pashas? I can't recall the terminology. But she's living in the haremlik (not the same as a harem) and dealing with a lot of your standard palace intrigue. And maybe some not so standard, as in one of the earliest chapters, she's almost drowned. She's married to the second son, who's your kind of boring, stick in the mud type, while his brother is the exciting one, but there's no drama involved there. When her new husband ignores her, Yasamin spends her time trying to solve a mystery in the haremlik. Bodies keep turning up. Drained of blood. A janissary named Iskander befriends and then seduces her, but she realizes as time passes that he's more linked to the deaths than she expected. 

Also, he's totally Dracula. 

Not a spoiler. You know it right away from the descriptions. And you also see chapters of him in the present as he follows right behind Adam, killing people along the way.

So we've got Adam on the hunt for Dracula's medallion in the present day, which has him caught up in all this intrigue. Two separate groups of dangerous people are after him because they also want the medallion. He's got a tragic past that's explained more as the book goes on. And for a lot of it, he's in a standoff with Yasamin, as she tells him her story. 

There are many chapters that are interviews or portions of books that Adam is reading. They expand on the history and show just how involved Dracula was in certain historical events. 

I'm not a scholar of Ottoman history at all, but I've read reviews of this that say the author did an excellent job. 

For me, Yasamin's chapters were the best. Both her in the present day interacting with Adam and her flashbacks. I love her. 

The book is full of both history and action. I've seen reviews call this "Dracula meets DaVinci Code," but the history here feels closer. In DaVinci Code, it's mostly Langdon explaining things. This shows people living what is now history. 

I highly recommend this if you like action, thrillers, history and vampires. Or even just one or two of those things. It's a really fun read. 

Natalie Richards 1

I've had this author in my Amazon cart for months and finally got the urge to buy one of her books. This is the one I chose, and then I got two Paperback Swap credits that I turned into another two. After finishing this book, I ended up ordering another handful from Amazon. They're pretty cheap and they had their 3 for 2 promo going on. I'm always a sucker for that. 

Anyway, now that I've finished two of these books, I can say that they remind me of the old 90s Point Horror, but longer and less cheesy. They're not the best things ever, but they're fun. 

Gone Too Far is about Piper, the school photographer, who finds a notebook on the steps leading into her high school. The notebook contains all sorts of dirty little secrets about the students. Later the same day, popular girl Stella is being harassed by three of the popular boys. Sounds like something about a sex tape. Piper's locker is near Stella's so she overhears. Not long after, that said video ends up on the school website. Next thing we know, Stella is dead. She walked out in front of a train. On purpose? Maybe. It's never cleared up. 

At Stella's funeral, Piper begins getting texts from a mystery person who wants to get revenge on the bad kids in school. This person pressures Piper into giving them a name and she names the worst of the popular boys who teased Stella. A greatest asshole hits video of him ends up showing on the school TVs, leading him to lose sports privileges. The mean girl shoplifter ends up covered in her own stolen clothing at an assembly. A cheating scandal is outed. 

Piper starts to feel more threatened by the mystery vigilante and tries to back out, but the person threatens to reveal a secret of her father's, then ends up going after another girl in her friend circle. 

It's a fun book with Piper trying to figure out just who the vigilante is. Couple red herrings thrown in. Typical mystery. 

One Was Lost ups the ante quite a bit. On a senior school hiking/camping trip, the group of students is separated trying to cross a river during a sudden storm. Two girls and the new agey female teacher remain on the original side of the river. On the farther side are the protagonist (Sera), a quiet girl (Emily), a rich musician (Jude), the school bad boy (Lucas), and their teacher, who knows the most about camping. 

They go to sleep in their tents, figuring they'd come up with a solution the next day, but they wake up feeling the aftereffects of being drugged and soon find all their belongings destroyed. The teacher is laid up far sicker than any of the kids and they begin to try to solve the mystery of what's happening to them. They begin by realizing someone wrote words on their arms. Sera is Darling, Lucas Dangerous, Emily Damaged, and Jude Deceptive.  

Things escalate pretty quickly once the severed finger of the female teacher is found and there is no sign of the two girls across the river. The students struggle with hunger, dehydration, and mostly with each other, as they're all very different people. 

I really liked this one. The cast is more likeable than the first book and the situation is far more interesting than some jumped up high school drama. I'd recommend it over Gone Too Far.