Tag: Reviews
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Review: Sprinkles and Sea Serpents by Danielle Garrett
Once upon a time, a mystery author woke up and said “You know what would work really well? Writing a cozy mystery about someone who bakes cookies and cakes and stuff. Women would totally get into the baking food porn-aspect while they watch the heroine solve the mystery.” At a different time (but not that…
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Review: The Unicorn
I should warn you in advance, there are no actual unicorns in this book. Disappointing, I know, but the title was what originally caught my attention. I could tell from the back cover copy that there wouldn’t be any real unicorns but I was curious just what about it was “unicornesque” enough to qualify for…
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Review: The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker

It’s probably just random luck, but I keep running into books where the main character happens to be a disillusioned academic who’s struggling with his or her dissertation. I find it amusing to think that this is the new normal for fiction. Maybe if I go back to school for my PhD, I too can…
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Review: Demons of Good and Evil by Kim Harrison (The Hollows #17)

I said last year when I reviewed Trouble With the Cursed that I was locked into this series for the long haul, warts and all. Even so, this book was frustrating to get through. Now, I am aware that the level of scrutiny I’m about to submit this book to is high, and I doubt…
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Review: The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish

This is probably the most random thing I have ever reviewed here. I went to the library looking for some books by some urban fantasy authors that I haven’t tried yet, only to find nothing by them on the shelves; this is unusual for my library, which is usually pretty well-stocked. I still wasn’t going…
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Finishing Up Food Wars! The Second Plate
(Originally Posted on October 1 on Otakusphere.com) I was a bad girl and didn’t keep up with blogging Food Wars! episodically for most of the season. Part of this was because I discovered Chef’s Table on Netflix, and I was so enraptured by the most pretentious cooking documentary I had ever seen that my quota of food television was…
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Food Wars! S2 Episode 3

(Originally posted on July 21, 2016 on Otakusphere.com) Well, I was wrong: I called the previous quarterfinal match for Megumi, only it was Ryo’s name that got written down with the Giant Brush of Gastronomic Victory. I really felt like the show was telegraphing that Ryo’s strong flavors were too palette-fatiguing and Megumi’s dish was…
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Food Wars!S2: Episode 2

(Originally posted on July 12, 2016 on Otakusphere.com) This episode features Battle Ramen, meaning the judges get to say “Umami!” about a million more times, just in case you didn’t get your fill of that during Battle Bento. Now I know umami is a cool flavor and all (and a point of national pride, since…
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What is First Love Monster?

(Originally posted on September 30, 2016 on Otakusphere.com) Normally, when I want to write about a show, I have something in mind that I’d like to say about it. This is the exception: I am writing about First Love Monster in the hopes that by writing about it, I will figure out what I just watched. Considering…