Book Review: One Dark and Froggy Night, by Jade Greenberg

I got myself in a little bit of a pickle. I couldn’t remember if I’d promised a review here on See Sadie Read or a promo over on Sadie’s Spotlight of One Dark and Froggy Night, by Jade Greenberg. So, I opted to do both, just in case. You can find more book and author information over on Sadie’s Spotlight.

Danny made the mistake of crossing the wrong witch. Now he’s a warty amphibian. At least until he learns his lesson.

When my witch ex turned me into a frog, I was pissed. But it didn’t take long for me to realize how good I got it. Life as a magic frog is figata, baby. Close to perfecto. But it has its downfalls. One formerly very big downfall to be exact.

Now the King of Atlantis is granting wishes to anyone who can help him find a lost mermaid fairy princess.

A magic wish is just what I need to live the perfect magic froggy life. All I got to do is find her.

If I was a mermaid and wanted to go missing, I’d go somewhere no one would expect to find me. Like the sky. No one would think to look there for a fish. But I’m a frog. How would I get to the sky?

This one’s a corundum, but I’m going to figure it out.

I thought I had it good before, but now that I know the impossible is possible, I got a plan. A big one. If you know what I mean.

This is a truly odd book to review. Danny is both intensely unlikable and adorably himbo at the same time. He is dumb as a box of rocks, but also not the most off-the-wall aspect of the story. Plus, for all his faults, he is actively becoming a better person before the readers’ eyes.

I think for me, I have to admit, though, that even if being ridiculous is the story’s purpose—it is literally the book’s shtick—it was just too much for me. I appreciate the nods to mysticism, mythology, and machismo. But it wasn’t quite the sort of humor I most appreciate. That, however, is wholly subjective, and the right reader will likely find this uproariously funny.

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Series Review: The City Between (#1-10), by W.R. Gingell

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I borrowed audio copies of W.R. Gingell‘s the City Between Series through Hoopla—all 10 books (Between Jobs, Between Shifts, Between Floors, Between Frames, Between Homes, Between Cases, Between Walls, Between Decisions, Between Family, and Between Kings.) And I pretty much binged the whole series (including the little short’s on Gingell’s website). So, I opted for a single review, instead of 10 individual ones.

Description of book one, but it works for the whole series too:

When you get up in the morning, the last thing you expect to see is a murdered guy hanging outside your window. Things like that tend to draw the attention of the local police, and when you’re squatting in your parents’ old house until you can afford to buy it, another thing you can’t afford is the attention of the cops.

Oh yeah. Hi. My name is Pet. It’s not my real name, but it’s the only one you’re getting. Things like names are important these days.

And it’s not so much that I’m Pet. I am a pet. A human pet: I belong to the two Behindkind fae and the pouty vampire who just moved into my house. It’s not weird, I promise—well, it is weird, yeah. But it’s not weird weird, you know?

As I said, I binged this series, one book after another; without a breath between. Which means I didn’t pause to review each one individually. So, this review will be for all 10 books collectively.

I quite enjoyed this. I’ve not come across a lot of urban fantasy set in Tasmania and I really appreciated the little splashes of normal culture that are only notable because I’m listening to it as an outsider—like referring to someone looking like they come from the mainland or going to Woolies for groceries, or the regional slang (“You’ve got kangaroos in the top paddock” was a notable favorite). I loved it and the narrator—Zehra Jane Naqvi— did an amazing job bringing this to life (especially when you factor a Korean-speaking character in too).

Pet has such an endearing personality and voice and her three psychos kept me interested. I love the found family aspect of the series. Pet found herself a whole new family…or created it rather. She’s the glue that holds them together.

I will admit that quite a lot is left unexplained in the world in the beginning. So, I just had to force myself to be comfortable with a certain amount of not knowing that I’d have preferred not to. But it was still a lot of fun, with a slow-building reveal over 10 books. (And I felt a lot firmer in my understandings by the end.)

The characters remained consistent throughout, the over-arching plot ties nicely together, and the whole thing ends well. I did regret that some of the bigger characters seemed to have a lot less time on page, even if their importance wasn’t diminished, as the series progressed. (I missed them and the group’s banter.) And while certain aspects of the ending were sad, there was a wonderful sense of forgiveness and acceptance of human foibles.

All in all, for a bit of absurdist, urban fantasy fun, this worked a treat and I’ll be looking for more from this author.

I posted this to Instagram when I was roughly halfway through the series. Even then you could tell I was having a lot of fun with the series.

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Book Review: Of Blades and Shadows, by Belle Manuel

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I won a paperback copy of Of Blades and Shadows, by Belle Manuel, in a giveaway over on Instagram.

After sixteen years of living under the thumb of a brutal slaver, Arayna Gamon is given the chance to be a part of an elite group of assassins—Soul Stealers. Serving only the Dark Throne, Arayna must learn how to use her burgeoning magic to ferry souls to the Underworld. But when an ancient being demands she pay a price, Arayna must decide where to place her loyalties.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I thought it had interesting characters doing interesting things in an interesting world. On the other, nothing even resembling an over-arching plot emergence until about page 350, and then everyone decides to deal with the issue later, and it was basically dropped again. So, in essence, this is a book of interesting people in an interesting world, running around doing and reacting to random things that don’t seem to really tie into anything or tie together in any meaningful manner.

Further, as much as I liked a lot of things about the book, not least of which is the way Manuel challenged a lot of fated mates tropes and accepted behaviors. I often couldn’t quite follow what was happening or the leaps that characters took. Plus, Arayna basically emerged from slavery and challenged everyone and everything that crossed her path, even when they were significantly stronger and more experienced. While I was probably supposed to read this as strong and independent, it came off as brutish and all but suicidal—more like she couldn’t control herself than that she had a point to make.

Having said that, I’d read another. I didn’t not enjoy it and I’d be interested in seeing how things turn out for the crew.

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