The Neurospicy Bean

  Y’all I am absolutely obsessed with this series, and this book wraps everything up perfectly (although please?? More in this world?? Because there are hints that there’s more to come???). We get lovely flashes from Robin and Edwin and Violet and Maud, including a really heartwrenching sublot with Robin and Edwin. It also benefits hugely from Jack and Alan having been introduced in the last book and having an established relationship to build on. We get thrown straight into a house full of all these delightful characters (there’s a great line from Jack’s POV describing the dynamic between Edwin and Violet as two cats with terrible personalities who have been adopted by two people determined for them to coexist and like if that doesn’t sum up this whole series I don’t know what does. Just a bunch of golden retrievers adopting grumpy cats. Anyway), and then get to watch them trying to solve a mystery when all they want to do is make out with their respective partners. So yeah, the c...

  Big time second book vibes here – this book is working really hard to do the heavy lifting of the trilogy’s plot and world-building. It takes place a year after the first book, with a bit of a surprising twist: Robin’s sister, Maud, is on an ocean liner accompanying an elderly woman who knows where part of the Last Contract is. Except the elderly woman immediately dies, leaving Maud to try to solve the murder and avoid becoming the next target. Luckily, she has Robin’s records of his visions to help her, which lead her to Lord Hawthorne and, somewhat accidentally, the beautiful but guarded heiress Violet. Mayhem ensues, with quite a lot of action crammed into one book.  It was really good, don’t get me wrong – I cannot express how much I adored Maud and Hawthorne’s sibling-ish relationship, and the whole thing was delightfully chaotic. But because it was so plot-heavy, it felt a bit like the relationship got sidelined. I mean, we don’t find out what Violet’s backstory is unt...

  I love the Runaways characters, and I particularly love how they’re conceptualized in this revamp. This volume does an awesome job covering how the characters are handling their respective traumas and emotions, how their lives have changed, and how they’re trying to cope. It brings the characters together in a way that feels natural and lays groundwork for future stories, not sacrificing characterization for flashy plot moments. That being said, it does mean that not a ton happens in this volume, but I’m looking forward to seeing more of the characters and the story as it progresses. Overall just a fun story that’s a bit different from a lot of the Marvel comics out there.

  So I’ve been thinking about this book for a week now and I just don’t know what to make of it. On the one hand, there were elements I adored – Valentin and Carmen were wonderful characters (Carmen was some of the best casual transfemme representation I’ve ever seen), and there were some really beautiful found family moments. On the other hand, the actual plot felt kind of unnecessary, and seemed to resolve too fast – like there was never a real point to it anyway. The vignettes of Poppy’s life l earning to be a vampire were far more interesting to me, and I would have liked to see more. But on the other hand, without a plot to anchor it I think it would have felt adrift and meandering. Which is something I know some readers enjoy, but I personally don’t. I realize this doesn’t sound like much of an actual opinion, but like I said – I just don’t know what to do with this book. I think it will appeal to a certain kind of reader, and I happened to like plenty of it, but I definitel...

  I really really liked this but I seriously needed it to be a duology or something. Not because I want more of the story after it ended, but because it got so rushed at the end and it would have been massively improved by just letting it be two books. It has two main elements that are, of course, deeply interwoven. The premise of the book is that a cult popped up through England’s early history who believed that one day King Arthur would return and take his place as ruler of the country, bringing magic back with him. This group is in political conflict with the dominant Catholic Church, which backs Gwen’s father’s right to the throne. Art’s father is a cultist, and Gwen and Art were arranged to be married as children to create ties between the two groups. So that’s one element of the book: a sort of political intrigue storyline. The other element is the relationships between Gwen and the knight she’s been obsessed with for years, Gwen and Art, and Art and Gwen’s brother, Gabriel. ...