The metal virus is thrilling and all-consuming here. It’s so much fun to see a supernatural epidemic that’s not zombie-based. The stakes are high, and almost every action is bittersweet.

I’m still exhausted with people always showing their behinds to Amari. In every book, there is a new sphere of red-hot hatred directed towards her. But my girl prevails!

I still think the story doesn't know what to do with Jayden because he's written out fairly early. But Lara and a new character get more development. I think having VanQuish in the background allowed the other side characters to have more presence in the story.

I see what's happening. Alston is trying to get paid and rightfully so. He’s going after that my Miraculous Ladybug love square money. He just know his book deal is secured.

I’m always impressed with the amount of action in these. That ending was a DOOZY! Loose her, devil! I’m interested in reading more and still hoping that we get an adaptation for this soon. I need my sister to know peace at some point! She is too young to be fighting these demons.

A younger version of the previous Chi series. This moves into 4-koma style

This was witchy, fantastical, and a little hard to follow. A muted Ghibli vibe, too. The artwork and colors are very engaging; the pictures feel like finely woven quilted fabrics.

Won in a giveaway

Lighthearted with an emotional core. I enjoyed the narrative voice, though bro and bruh felt overused; it's a drinking game, guys. Get your Capri Sun ready.

lowkey, I think Nico got off a little easy. he was awfully mean.

Won in a giveaway!

This plot-driven, sci-fi story set in Ghana had an interesting premise. How strongly would you try to hold on to normalcy after aliens are revealed, or worse, after being abducted by them?

What makes this unique is Agora, the main character, is actively being abducted. She gotta clock in and out of her cell. It makes her the talk of the town in more than one way. No one knows what the strange aliens the Malcari are after. But a supernatural mushroom is the catalyst that changes everything.

I found myself enjoying the mystery and anxiety that surrounded the characters. There are some positively thrilling moments when Agora and her friends figure something out, or the Malcari become even more unsettling.

The story would benefit from more showing than telling. Some grammatical errors could have been tightened up in another draft or proofread, mostly tense changes, but nothing that hindered the story.

I was impressed by the McKenna plotline. At first, it feels like random information, but it did have meaning. I also feel like this may be foreshadowing something. Maybe a connection between Kwame and Agora? It's an awkward thing since Agora was her friend.

Racheal was mostly silent, but she and Indigo were my favorite characters.

Overall, I didn’t have a bad reading experience. I'm not sure if this was meant to have horror elements, but the ending was definitely sci-fi horror meets thriller.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Mice and other critters surviving in what seems to be a post-apocalyptic world with no humans. The threat of food scarcity is abundant, and there's in-fighting within the mice council.

I loved how capable Pict was as the female lead, and Wix's smart-aleck confidence. I'm excited for book two.

It's fun getting to relive a childhood series in a new format.

The disgusting factor goes up when Mulch arrives, but the illustrator manages not to make it a complete gross-out.

The style here is very loose, fantasy-like, not quite cartoony. It can be an acquired taste, but it adds character to the graphic adaption.

Well, it's entertaining, and the artwork is beautiful.

Some women love those scamming dudes down lol, so it already feels like it's leaning toward one guy.

There’s a bit of a story within a story here that works well. I like the distinctive style change from storybook illustrations to anime meets TMNT when Zicky is in the other world.

Our antagonist is reality just as much as the Rat King (and the evil doppelganger that shows up out of nowhere—it really feels like something out of a child’s imagination (in a good way).

The line work in this is excellent, but I wasn’t impressed by the story. Ginko is a goofy, bloodthirsty samurai looking to meet her end in a final, righteous battle, then she gets isekai’ed to a fantastical world where she can fight to her heart’s desire.

I already have volume 2 from the library, so I’ll see if it catches its footing.

I LOVED IT!

Glitter and Grim keeps tickling my enemies to lovers bone so much

I don’t think the writing style was for me, and the great loves Nella experienced weren’t very romantic. I was expecting more since I thought the story hinged on romance. :o I never felt the emotional payoff.

All of her relationships, a roulette of different men and one woman, had more telling than showing for me; they felt flat. The pacing of the relationships was breakneck fast. The loves would know her like two days tops and be ALL IN. I don’t know if it was Death’s doing or Nella just had it like that. William was my favorite of them all if I had to choose.

Nella’s original enslaved background didn’t seem to weigh on her or influence her perspective. I would understand this changing as her life grew longer, but in the beginning, it shocked me that she had no internal struggle dating a white man who actively managed a plantation.

Something the novel did well was Death’s fascination with Nella. With each meeting, his intrigue for her grows, and his worldview expands concerning humans.

The ending was the perfect bookend, but man, I found Sebastian the boriest of all the loves.

Won in a giveaway!

There’s a fun, quirky humor with the leads learning how to be heroes that gets muted by the sheer amount of gross-out humor (every bodily function is here: vomit, poop, and spit in graphic detail).

The frog leads are pretty fun, though. And the art style works well.

It’s not for me, but kids who like toilet humor and bugs might enjoy. If the next volume can be more tacful with the grossness, I see this being a great series.

"Nobody thinks they're the bad guy of their own story!"

I really enjoyed the focus on Steven, the expectations others had for him, and his own in trying to prove himself, his parents’ different approaches to parenting him, and navigating space as a wheelchair user. Something about how snarky the mom was was rubbing me the wrong way. She felt a little angry Black woman-ish without nuance, but I guess she came around.

Overall, this was good.

In the beginning, I thought it was a bit of a slow start - more plot-heavy than character-driven. At times, I didn’t mesh with the telling more than showing style. But ...

My God on today! It built intrigue so well. Everything is action-packed and thrilling. I felt the characters’ fear and held my breath when they held theirs. Then, there was court politics and political drama and so much doggone lying!

The characters aren't perfect and get downright frustrating. Lore cannot take no for an answer, and it keeps rightfully blowing up in her face.

I also enjoyed that the dead parent trope isn’t the typical one. Lore’s mother was a cunning social climber. Often, the dead mother character isn’t her own person and only acts as a figure. But Moremi wasn’t this strictly good or bad character. She had gray.

Also, I loved the ice (and draining) powers! Black characters with electric powers can feel overexposed, at times. So, this was refreshing.

This story hinges on love. Sometimes, the male lead showed his behind (albeit unintentionally or intentionally), but it was sweet. It’s a hard lesson to learn, but never stake your life on some man. Alawani showed Lore time and time again that he wasn’t super dependable. He’s more of a first love you think about fondly.

Remi was ready to ride for Lore, whom he barely knew. Maybe he was making flirty remarks, orrrrr we got a love triangle 👀


I got engulfed in the story! Felt like I was binge-watching a TV show.

Would read more show more from this author. I hope it gets a wider distribution. I’m ready for book two. show less

Kobayashi is endearing

The melodrama's going a bit overboard now.

But if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Not at all what I was expecting - but very fun!

The choose your own adventure bit really slowed things down for me, though

This manga really leans into its strengths, piano and cats. We get a new, money conscious pianist who used to be Kanda's son's childhood friend. Or, so he thought.

"I've never even had [a friend].

There's no hurry. You can take your time making them."

I've taken a long break from this series, waiting for the library to buy the subsequent volumes. It was a little jarring falling back into the cat baby talk and the melodramatic tone. But I still find it endearing despite all of that.

While the undying love between Essiya (Sylvia) and Arin was cheesy for how long they knew each other, I still liked this duolgy. Sefa and Marek come to the forefront a bit more, but they stay largely the same as before. We get the full picture of the Jasad kingdom's history, and magic madness is a ticking countdown in the background.

This is one of the few times I was happy for multi-POV in a story that basically had only one at the beginning, though, arguably, I found Sefa and Marek’s perspectives less interesting than Arin and Essiya’s. Vaida's sporadic moods to girl-bossery didn't really endear me.

Some loose ends get tied up, and there are mini recaps throughout for those who forgot book one. A lot of my predictions came true.

One of the fun things about Essiya’s character is the birthright-chosen-one reversal. She doesn’t have ANY leadership qualities, and it’s not a “she just has to rise to the occasion” type of thing. It’s not her gift, and it’s okay. You see other characters thrive with leadership, but it's just not in her wheelhouse.

In particular, the characters here and this story love to gas Arin up (I think the kiddies call it glazing these days). They are STANs you hear me. Yes, he is very capable and cunning, but you will never forget it. ‘What? Don’t you know Arin could disassemble a grown man with just his mere fingertips? The sheer beauty of this man. Don’t they foresee he alone is the honored one and they are plebeians?” You just show more hear Essiya in the background going “my man, my man, my man.”

Was there any real buildup between Sorn and Diya? Nah. But did I enjoy them all the same? Yeah, I would read a short/oneshot with these two.

Pet peeves aside, I’d read more from this author. One of my favorite parts is the long-awaited reunion between Essiya and Sefa (and Marek). Essiya’s touch aversion allowed Arin’s touch (so to speak), but now it extends to her bestie. Sefa was always such a sweetie pie.

Ending:

I'm glad Sefa didn't die. I just couldn't care that Marek did. Sorry, my guy, but we needed more time with him. He was funny, but he just popped in and out.

I liked the bittersweet. Essiya sacrificed herself (temporarily) and later came home like an army soldier to her husband in the end.

Did we just forget about Raya in the end?

I think in the end, it showed as much as Arin tried to uphold morals in Nizahl, he couldn't in the system - first of all, barely anyone was listening, and for all his efforts to treat the prisoners with respect, the jasadis were still being persecuted and slaughtered. It's like the good cop in a sea of corrupt cops; it starts at the top. The whole system is rigged. He had to use violence basically to get his way.

I called it book 1 that Arin had to have some Jasadi blood in him. It gets more twisted that his lover killed his mother/abusive mentor. show less

A very honest and vulnerable account of one sister's experience with an autistic sibling

The first story is the strongest of this bunch, and it acts as an origin story for Cat Ninja/Claude. How he met his owners and learned his fighting style.

I've never been interested in racing media or stories, so I was bored with the second story. I liked Octopunch's mini adventure, though.

"Kit ate three bananas in a row ... After Kit went home, Mom told me sometimes rude was just hungry. I thought rude was rude."

Excellent narrative voice! This acknowledges some of the messy bits of food insecurity, like not wanting to feel like a "charity case" or shame from people looking down on you; Great! from a kid's perspective and easy to digest for any age; lighthearted cat comics are dispersed throughout to break the tension

I think this especially relevant in today's current economy. Food prices are getting higher and higher and kids are affected by it, too.

Shout out to the parents who always offered food and recognized when a neighborhood kid or school friend needed it, even if they didn't have much themselves

I actually liked this series with its quirky space premise, but it needed one more volume to flesh it out. The pacing became very fast and abrupt these last two volumes.

While Exxo’s laidback brattiness was mildly entertaining, it felt very convenient. What’s even more convenient was Sylvan’s decision to do the right thing. Kneejerk moment or OOC? This is why I think another volume could have eased us into him making this decision.

There’s also no real resolution or acknowledgment between Lully and Lucas – not that there was anything serious on that front, but it seemed at least like a crush.

Overall, I liked the series and would read more from this author. The ending is very sweet.

I had a hunch Lucas was blasian in volume one

The perfect end to this series! I loved it.

I love that while the characters have developed in their personal arcs, they still retained their personalities, Squirrel being a worrier and an overplanner and Bird’s spontaneity. And Squirrel’s sweet little family went on the adventure with him this time – albeit to his disappointment.

Loved all the comebacks, too. As always, the artwork is bold, shapely, and fun. 5-star series!

serviceable

I thoroughly enjoyed the political intrigue, the enemies-to-lovers (though, I definitely believe Arin was quite smitten with her (Jasadi women seem to be his type), but realistically, she's fallen for a guy helping ethnically cleanse her people; I wonder if book two will confront this), the cast of characters, and Sylvia's internal struggles. I'm a little scared about book two - we're jumping headfirst into the chaos.

also, magical blue eyes still has authors in a chokehold

not for me - dnf pg 56

couldn't get into the banter; dude that kept making innuendos every 2 seconds was not as charming as he thought he was

I loved the bite-sized chapters and the sweet, fluffy feelings of new love in Tamani’s stories. Will definitely be an author I continue to read from.

Need this adapted and brought to FRUITION badly.