This is a mystery a la Scooby Doo with four college aged adults on a road trip who stumble upon a small town festival. The book (novella, really) starts with a sighting of Oscar, the titular Beast of Busco, a giant turtle last spotted in the 1940’s.

I found the characters one dimensional. One’s entire personality is how much they can eat. Another’s is his appeal to the ladies, and the third’s is using they/them pronouns. The fourth one is from Chicago.

The plot had a mystery setup where they just happened to run into the seven or so people who had the most at stake or could be extraordinarily useful to them. Yawn. Having lived most of my life half an hour from Churubusco did not help as all the details the author got wrong about the town kept throwing me out of the story.

First, I love the title and the way the author works with it throughout the story. Second, this is an interesting historical and cultural study in addition to being an interesting story. I have a tendency to read everything as fantasy since, in a way, it is all fantasy since all fiction is made up. Thankfully, the author included a historical note at the end where I was happy to learn that much of this is based off of historical references and events. It made it even more interesting to see how he incorporated things into the story.

Synopsis: There are two main characters, Eshaal (he who wields the blade), and Kalime (she who was in the wrong place at the right time and the other viewpoint character. There are many chapters where you meet the characters and get backstory before they come together and you see the way the narrative begins to fit together better and better. I think this story offers a valuable perspective on things we have to be grateful for since for most of us, we won't have to deal with what the characters went through or the choices they faced.

I am interested to see how this writer grows and develops in their craft as well, given all the good I've seen in this story.

An absolutely lovely story. Adventure meets cozy fantasy in this new vampire novel from Katherine Villyard.

This was an easy read for me because I love vampire novels and seeing how authors make the genre their own. Katherine Villyard definitely makes it her own! If you think you know how vampire novels go, be ready to be surprised. Immortal Gifts does contain many of the reasons I love the genre - historical references, love of beauty, revisiting the past - and it also goes in a direction I've not seen taken before in a novel with vampires. This was a gentle paced novel to which I looked forward to returning.

Immortal Gifts focuses on the main characters' internal thoughts and struggles and on the day to day of navigating life as a vampire. There is also an antagonist who is present throughout and provides much of the driving force behind the action. I found his framing in the present day absolutely preposterous, but it was logically consistent with the rest of the story (which has admittedly thrown out a lot of logic) so it felt like part of the fantasy. Overall, I think the author asks some interesting questions and added some fun details to vampire lore.

Kristin Hannah did an excellent job with this book. The growth and struggle and discovery in this book was wonderful. As a female Veteran of OIF this was both familiar and unfamiliar, easy and difficult to read. Vietnam was a different time and yet many things are the same. Women's stories aren't told, women's service isn't as acknowledged, in many cases, women served in different ways than the men, because women are different.

Kristin Hannah does an excellent job of painting a picture with words that is vivid and helps you see and feel what was happening. So many parts of the story resonated, even with it being a different time, a different place, a different war. Frankie, our main character, also went through a lot of struggles with meaning and purpose that can resonate with anyone and at various stages.

Overall I found this book to be enjoyable, interesting, and introspective in an engaging and fun way. Nothing got too deep, but there was still a lot of good, real-life applicable content if you're someone who likes to think about how you engage with the world and challenge personal assumptions, in great part because that is what the main character does more and more as the book goes on. The main character, Dorothy, goes from surviving and fulfilling expectations to discovering who she is, what she wants, and what is possible.

The most fantastical elements of this book are her finding the place to stay in Dublin and that some of the characters are so chill with one another as certain things happen. I wish people were that level headed! That said, this is a fun escapist book that is fun and not too challenging. From the locations to the characters to the food, there's a lot to enjoy.