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#gottacatchemall
review
kwmg40
The Wolf and the Watchman | Niklas Natt och Dag
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Pickpick

This historical mystery set in 1793 Sweden was utterly gripping, though very disturbing as well. I'd definitely recommend it if you can stomach graphic violence.

#gottacatchemall (Tauros: first book in a series)

review
kwmg40
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Pickpick

A good start to a new high-fantasy comic series, featuring humans and orcs, previously enemies, teaming up to face a common enemy.

#gottacatchemall (Pikipek: instrument on the cover) @PuddleJumper

PuddleJumper Looks fun! 3h
28 likes1 comment
review
Zuhkeeyah
Shield of Sparrows | Devney Perry
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Pickpick

Huge fan of this world and the characters. A princess I could actually relate to. Odessa isn't super clever or a skilled fighter. She's a normal girl (plus a crown) who likes to read. Yes, the guardian is attractive and rude, but his back story was unique, so still points for breaking the romantasy mold. I will absolutely be reading the next book. I might even go wild and pre-order it.

#gottacatchemall: set somewhere dangerous

review
kwmg40
The Dead Zone | Stephen King
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Pickpick

I didn't care for James Franco's narration of the audiobook, but otherwise I loved the story. It's hard not to think about today's politics when reading this book, though it was written over 45 years ago.

#52bookclub (more than a million copies sold)
#gottacatchemall (Smeargle: graffiti style font)

39 likes2 comments
blurb
PuddleJumper
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That‘s pretty much a wrap on May! How are we all doing? #GottaCatchemAll

I think I‘ve hit all my easy prompts and now I‘m looking for books to fill them 😅

I know a couple of you haven‘t been logging month by month (which is fine) so I‘ll do a mid-year post in June and see how many books have been logged overall

TheAromaofBooks Logging books for this challenge has been on my to-do list for a while 😂 I have so many to catch up!! 2w
Faranae I meant to catch up with my logging, but this month has been.... a month. 2w
See All 6 Comments
SunnieK I‘ll make sure I go logbook 7d
kwmg40 Just realized I never posted my update here. It's been a busy few weeks and I'm just catching up with Litsy. My big accomplishment for May was catching Pikipek so that I can now work on evolving to Trumbeak. 20h
PuddleJumper @kwmg40 🙌 Well done! 3h
31 likes6 comments
review
TheAromaofBooks
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Pickpick

I had mixed feelings about this one. It was super engaging and I could hardly put it down while I was reading it. But the whole explanation/plot twist at the end just didn't really work for me. I don't know what I wanted, but it wasn't what I got 😂 A soft pick. I liked it, but don't see myself rereading it later.

TheAromaofBooks PS The most unbelievable part was that they got a truck running right away that had been sitting for ~3 years. At a minimum, the battery would have been dead. Probably the tires would have also been flat. And it was sitting in the woods! So many critters would have nested in it and chewed wires. Just. Seriously people. 😅 2w
PuddleJumper Wahoo! 2w
DieAReader Excellent!! 2w
65 likes4 comments
review
TheAromaofBooks
The Hound of Florence | Felix Salten
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Panpan

I actually really love the book Bambi and have read it and its sequel (Bambi's Children) several times. So I was excited to randomly come across another reprint of one of Salten's works. I had never heard of this one, although by reading GR reviews I discovered that it was apparently the (incredibly loose) inspiration for DIsney's The Shaggy Dog. Sadly, this book was a huge disappointment. First off, it's plain boring. Set during the Renaissance ⬇

TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) Lucas, presumably in his late teens, has been left orphaned in Vienna and yearns to get to Florence so he can become an artist. Through a bit of magic/wishing, he ends up being transformed into the dog who belongs to a rich aristocrat who is traveling to Florence. However, he's only the dog every other day. On the other days, he's himself, but the dog just disappears, which literally made no sense to me. In this way he makes his way to ⬇ 3w
TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) Florence in what has to be the most boring road trip to read about ever. On his dog days he's beaten and mistreated. On his human days, he's starving and cold. So it was boring AND depressing. We're told from the beginning how the spell/curse can be broken, but Lucas himself doesn't know and also weirdly doesn't seem to really care or spend a lot of time trying to figure it out. He just goes with the flow. The flow eventually gets him to⬇ 3w
TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) Florence where he becomes an art student (every other day, of course). There, he falls in love with a courtesan. Which brings me to another point - this book is billed as a children's story and it is NOT remotely a children's book. Besides the animal/human cruelty, Lucas has sex a few times and then yes falls in love with a courtesan who is very proud of sleeping with rich and powerful men. In an absolutely BIZARRE scene that had NOTHING⬇ 3w
See All 9 Comments
TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) to do with the rest of the story, the pimp who “discovered“ the courtesan that Lucas is in love with brings another girl to show off to some men (who are all artists/art students). She's described as “a little girl“ and “a child“ and we're told that she “might have been twelve or thirteen years of age.“ She then proceeds to strip naked and dance for the men while the pimp reminds the men of all the other “Aphrodite's favorites“ he's ⬇ 3w
TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) discovered because he “never descends to common prostitutes.“ He describes her beauties and potential for being an artistic model, including pointing out her “firm little breasts.“ This scene was absolutely appalling and also literally had nothing to do with the rest of the story. I can't imagine handing this book to the middle grader it's supposedly aimed towards!

Lucas never develops as a character and wasn't particularly likable. ⬇
3w
TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) This book felt like it had no point, purpose, or direction. The ending is bizarre and vague. All in all, incredibly disappointing considering how much I've enjoyed a couple of Salten's other books.

#Roll100 #GottaCatchEmAll - Artist central character @PuddleJumper
#Read2025 - 30/100 TBR books read @DieAReader
#ISpyBingo - &, Author in Blue Letters
#BookSpinBingo
3w
DieAReader 👋🏻👋🏻 #Next 3w
AnnCrystal Horribly horrifying 🥺...great review, I would have believed this was a cozy read by the cover alone. 3w
Clare-Dragonfly Wow!!! I wonder why this book was even reprinted. 3w
59 likes9 comments
review
TheAromaofBooks
The Big Blue Soldier | Grace Livingston Hill
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Pickpick

Now that I'm down to only a handful of years to read to complete the #192025 challenge, I've turned to my shelves to see if I can fill any gaps. This slim story by Grace Livingston Hill checked of 1946, plus got an unread book off my shelf!! It's a perfect pleasant little story - Aunt Marilla is adorable - but too short to really build any kind of tension or actual romance between the two main characters. A soft pick, but one I won't reread.

Librarybelle Yay!!! 3w
merelybookish That's exciting! I am also down to a handful of years! 3w
Bookwormjillk Nice!! 3w
DieAReader 🥳🥳🥳 3w
60 likes5 comments
review
kwmg40
Rilla of Ingleside | L.M. Montgomery
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Pickpick

The story of Anne's daughter, this novel describes in realistic detail the lives of Canadians during WWI. Despite the heavy themes, this story still has plenty of charm and humour. I especially liked reading about the 1917 federal election as we were going through the 2025 federal election.

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread @BarbaraJean
#52bookclub25 (Has a moon on the cover)
#gottacatchemall (Emolga: cute character) @PuddleJumper

PuddleJumper I didn't know there were that many books in that series 3w
50 likes1 stack add1 comment
review
kwmg40
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Pickpick

Nominated for the 2025 #hugoawards Best Novella, this story is about a scientist whose digitized consciousness is uploaded into a mammoth, brought back from extinction. An indubitably weird but intriguing concept.

#52bookclub25 (climate fiction)
#gottacatchemall (Goodra: character discovers they have powers) @PuddleJumper

PuddleJumper 🙌 🙌 3w
50 likes1 stack add1 comment