Philippa Rice

Reignclowd Palace is a whimsical cozy fantasy novel from Philippa Rice.

Orphaned by a freak storm that consumed her village when she was a child, Evnie Treedle has spent eleven years in the care of Granya, the proprietor of The Magpie’s Nest. Hidden in the backstreets of Quagton, the shop sells all kinds of unusual items and when she isn’t busy in the store, Evnie enjoys creating unique useful pieces for Granya to sell, tweaked with the magic she’s taught herself. It’s one of these show more items that earns Evnie an invitation to become an apprentice Spellsmith at the Reignclowd Palace, home to the rulers of the Kingdom.

Once in the Palace Evnie must contend with a comatose master, an enigmatic Oracle, a duplicitous Prince, and a few nasty peers, but she also makes friends, falls in love, saves a Princess, and eventually learns the truth about what happened to her family. Unfortunately I didn’t grow particularly fond of Evnie, I found her to be a bit passive and often negative. I did like her friends though.

Evnie’s adventure alternates with the voice of a mysterious chorus that provides much of the context for Rice’s imagined world. I liked the combination of magic, steampunk, and myth, which has cozy anime vibes, and some of the more creative elements.

The setting, scenes and characters are all easy to visualise, which isn’t a surprise given the author is an artist experienced in comic creation and animation. It might have been fun for the author to include some small sketches at the beginning of some chapters.

A quirky, imaginative novel, I did enjoy Reignclowd Palace, but not as much as I hoped. show less

A passably funny collection of hit-or-miss short gags about two sisters who spend waaaay to much time together. They also spend way to much time smelling each as Rice indulges more than a little a bit of gross-out and potty humor.

This amusingly candid look at sisterhood is a little snarky and a lot whiny. It might be best digested in small doses as I (or the book) seemed to flag in the second half.

I have to admit, a book with the title of “Soppy,” isn’t that I would normally pick up and read. Especially when the colors of the book are red, black, and white...it’s like an overgrown valentine’s day card or something! And the book description is all about Philippa Rice’s slice of life comics with her real life boyfriend. From grocery shopping to goofy arguments to snuggling together...I mean normally, normally I’d say “bleach” and move on, because its so...so sappy.

But show more this book? Yeah, sap galore, but there’s something more to it. While Philippa’s style is cute and somewhat sappy, it also captures those slice of life moments that we can all recognize, whether we’re in relationship or not we can connect to her and her boyfriend as things that we would do, or find funny, or sad. Because Philippa isn’t drawing the Hollywood style of sappy and cute, she’s drawing the real world style, and that is relatable and enjoyable.

The other thing that I connect with in this book, is the artwork. Simple shapes and colors, but Philippa draws herself as average young woman. Not horribly thin or anything, just herself. An average young woman that we can say “hey I actually know someone that looks just like that.” Her boyfriend is drawn as tall and thin and somewhat awkward and gangly if I’m going to be honest, which makes him relatable. The backgrounds are simple and easy for us to put ourselves into and picture ourselves in the same situation. In short, she’s done what so many cartoonists have strived for and failed horribly at, by creating a world that we can easily place ourselves into without much effort.

Yes this is a sappy book, but it’s an enjoyable one and well worth the read. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

ARC provided by NetGalley show less

The cutesy art of these one-page cartoon shows the mildly humorous and very familiar moments of a couple meeting, dating, and moving in together. It's heartfelt, but does little to distinguish itself in a very crowded field.