Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR: Sangu Mandanna SERIES: Vanya #1 GENRE: Middle-Grade Fantasy PUBLICATION DATE: March 11, 2025 RATING: 3.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A middle-grade fantasy with a neurodivergent lead and plenty of magic. Too many characters, not enough character development. Diverse mythical beings from global folklore, though they could have been used better. Great incorporation of the setting. Chosen One trope, which gets a bit annoying. First of a planned series. Cliffhanger ending. I liked it, but not as much as I had hoped. Plot Preview: Eleven-year-old Vanya, a British-Indian girl with ADHD, stays with her bookseller parents in a mostly-white part of England. She doesn’t know much about their past, nor does she know why some books in the alcove talk to her. When her family is attacked by a strange monster, Vanya discovers a couple of her parents’ secrets. For safety and protection, Vanya is whisked off to a magical school based in the Nilgiri mountains of South India. Named ‘Auramere’, this sc...

AUTHOR: Alix E. Harrow NARRATORS: Moira Quirk and Sid Sagar GENRE: Fantasy-Romance. PUBLICATION DATE: October 28, 2025 RATING: 3 stars. In a Nutshell: A standalone adult fantasy with an accurate tagline: ‘A Legend. A Lie. A Love Story’. Exceptional idea. Interesting but somewhat flat characters. An overly complex execution. Repetitive because of the POV choice. I adored the concept but wish the execution had worked better for me. Not my favourite Harrow novel, though I can see it working better for some readers, especially those who want more romance than fantasy. Plot Preview: Owen Mallory, a cowardly ex-soldier and a historian, has always been fascinated by the legend of Sir Una Everlasting, Dominion’s greatest knight whose legend lives on as one of the bravest servers of queen and country. Not much is known about her actual life except for what’s written in the ballads. When Owen finds a book that claims to know Una’s actual story, he doesn’t realise how much of her story is a part ...

AUTHOR: Sarah Beth Durst NARRATOR: Caitlin Davies SERIES: Spellshop #2 GENRE: Cozy Fantasy PUBLICATION DATE: July 17, 2025 RATING: 4 stars. In a Nutshell: A cozy fantasy linked to and continuing from the events in ‘The Spellshop’. Part of the same world, but works as a standalone. Despite being the same genre, the storyline isn't similar. The titular greenhouse is outstanding. The leads are nice, but the stars of the show are the talking plants. Though it has its flaws, I like this book better. A good option for those who enjoy cozy fantasies without much darkness. Plot Preview: Terlu Perna once worked as a junior librarian in the great Library of Alyssium. But when, in her loneliness, she broke the law and used magic to create a sentient spider plant for company, she was given a harsh punishment. Turned into a wooden statue, she has been tucked in a corner alcove of the library in her statue form since she doesn’t remember when. Then one day, Terlu suddenly wakes up, and finds her...

AUTHOR: Anna James ILLUSTRATOR: Matthew Land GENRE: Middle-grade Fantasy PUBLICATION DATE: January 6, 2026 RATING: 4 stars. In a Nutshell: A middle-grade fantasy offering a continuation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, albeit with another *Alyce*. Interesting characters (some old, some new), fun adventures and zingy one-liners. Not as nonsensical as the original, but still quite absurd. Quite clever as an unofficial sequel, but most of the jokes will click better if you know the Lewis Carroll work. Recommended. Plot Preview: 1919. England. After having lost her father during the Great War, Alyce – with a Y – lives with her grandmother, the original Alice who still speaks about her visit to Wonderland even though no one takes her seriously. When a mysterious invitation to a tea party hits Alyce (literally), she assumes that it’s for her. After all, many people confuse the spellings, and why would anyone invite her grandma to a tea party anyway? But soon, Alyce realises that her gran...

AUTHOR: H.G. Parry NARRATOR: Nathaniel Priestley GENRE: Historical Fantasy, Retelling PUBLICATION DATE: June 17, 2025 RATING: 3.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A standalone historical portal fantasy blending Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" with fae magic. Interesting characters and writing; average world-building. Somewhat slow. Excellent as a retelling but it might work better for those who know the original novel and those aware of the French revolution. The author is still among my favourites, but this book isn't my favourite of her works. Recommended but not to all. Plot Preview: (Offering just a barebones diluted version. Reasons below in main review.) London, 1780. Sydney Carton works for the fae but is looking for revenge against them. When he bumps into his lookalike Charles Darnay, he finally has that rare opportunity. It will take time, magic, and shrewdness, but Sydney is determined to do whatever it takes to rectify the injustice done to him. The story com...

AUTHOR: Laura Steven NARRATOR: Sofia Oxenham GENRE: Fantasy-Romance. PUBLICATION DATE: February 27, 2025 RATING: 2.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A YA Fantasy-Romance about a couple stuck in an endless loop of love and murder over thousands of years. Interesting story, but gets a bit tedious after a while. The time periods are nicely varied, but not explored much due to the restrictions of the plotline. The character development is almost non-existent. The reveal is disappointing. Might work better for YA readers as it does offer all the *feels* of young romance. Plot Preview: Evelyn remembers most of her lives, but not the earliest ones as they are hazy. However, one thing she knows for certain: in every life, Arden murders her just before her eighteenth birthday and that he too dies on the same day. Oh, and she also knows that she has strong romantic feelings for him despite his being her killer. ( Please picture middle-aged me rolling my eyes as I wrote this line. ) All these years, she ha...

AUTHOR: Robert Mgrdich Apelian GENRE: Graphic Novel PUBLICATION DATE: January 20, 2026 RATING: 2.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A YA-Fantasy graphic novel inspired partly by Armenian and Persian mythology. A complex storyline that takes some time to come together. Some unexplained plot points. Intricate artwork but monochrome colouring. This might work better if read through a physical copy. Plot Preview: Seventeen-year-old Katah has always felt like an outsider in his family because he’s the only one with no talent for cooking. Unlike his much older siblings, he is also too young to have known his late father who was a legendary Hye chef in the Pars empire. At present, Katah is the sole caregiver for his sick mother, so when his vision-like dreams lead him to find a powerful div, he hopes to use its magic to save his mother’s life. But magical deals are complex and never one-sided. As Katah attempts to meet the div’s condition with the help of his siblings, he realises that he might have wa...

AUTHOR: Elyssa S. Schwendy GENRE: Short story Collection, Retellings. PUBLICATION DATE: February 25, 2026 RATING: 3.2 stars. In a Nutshell: A fantasy story collection with known fairy tales in a different presentation. The stories ranged from decent to great, but the structuring of the individual tales and of the overall book didn't work for me, though this might be more a ME problem. This story collection contains eight main stories, each of which is supposed to be a modified version of a popular fairytale or folklore. I could recognise some of the source material, but wasn’t familiar with a couple of the titles. What I thought would make this collection stand out was the presentation framework - using a storyteller to tell us stories. The titular peddler, whose name is Verre, is the narrator of the tales. During a storm, she enters a tavern, feels that it's a "good night for telling stories", and sets up some exotic objects on a table. When curious customers walk to...

AUTHOR: Kelly Barnhill GENRE: Fantasy-horror. PUBLICATION DATE: February 28, 2023 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A horror-fantasy with elements of surrealism. Retelling of the Japanese folktale ‘The Crane Wife’. Set in an imagined dystopian near-future. Understated yet mindblowing. Love how it handles the characters, the folktale, and even the dark theme. Suspension of disbelief required. Much recommended, but not to those who steer clear of weird stories. Check the triggers listed below if needed. Plot Preview: A fifteen-year-old girl is forced to be the support of her family after the death of her father, taking care of the household as well as of her six-year-old brother Michael, while her mom, a talented but somewhat oblivious artist, weaves stunning tapestries to pay the bills. The mother randomly brought “guests” home, but none stayed for long. Until now. Her latest guest is a tall crane who seems to have captivated her heart even though the daughter finds him manipulative and...

AUTHOR: C.A. Wright NARRATOR: Olivia Darnley GENRE: Fantasy Retelling PUBLICATION DATE: November 1, 2024 RATING: 3.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A fantasy retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s short story, ‘The Nightingale’. A great concept that might have worked better at the hands of a more experienced writer. Good plot but the twists are guessable. Lyrical writing, cookie-cutter main characters, underdeveloped secondary characters. Recommended, but better suited to YA readers, though it’s not labelled as such. Plot Preview: Oriane is a skylark, the only one of her kind after the passing of her mother in childbirth. Every morning, she turns into a lark and sings the song that calls forth the dawn. But throughout her life, she has been so secluded by her overprotective father that she is lonely as well as curious about the larger world. One day, she goes against his wishes and flies beyond her usual boundaries, only to end up in the royal palace. Much to her surprise, at first she is trea...

AUTHOR: Hans Christian Andersen GENRE: Fairytale, Classic. PUBLICATION DATE: May 8, 1835 RATING: 2 stars. In a Nutshell: A classic fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. Hasn’t aged well, though the comic edition I read resolves many of the issues in the original story. I read this for nostalgia and came away questioning my younger self’s reading choices. 🤭 Reading ‘Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil’ reminded me of the existence of this story that I had read in my childhood. I didn’t recollect anything about the plot except that it had three dogs with huge eyes. So I decided to reread it again after all these years. Oh boy! Present-me is convinced that Past-me was so fascinated by the dogs that she ignored all the other red flags. 😏 This is the first story published by Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen in 1835, and it has some elements in common with Aladdin. Reading this tale made me realise why it is not more popular. It is not at all a happy story for anyone except the ...