Category: Doreen

The Perfect Escape by Leah Konen

This page-turner of a thriller will have you either sighing with satisfaction at the ending or grimacing with dismay, depending on your personal worldview. Three friends have decided to take off from the hurly-burly of New York City in order to have a girls’ weekend upstate, all while nursing wounding sorrows. Diana is hiding from …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/01/04/the-perfect-escape-by-leah-konen/

Dracula: Curse Of The Vampire by Jonathan Green, illustrated by Hauke Kock

Happy New Year, readers! Here’s to another wonderful year of reading and discovery for you all! Back in 2020, we told you about the very cool Kickstarter campaign for Jonathan Green’s gamebook Dracula: Curse Of The Vampire. I received my copy partway through 2021, but didn’t have time to sit down and read/play through it …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/01/03/dracula-curse-of-the-vampire-by-jonathan-green-illustrated-by-hauke-kock/

Animal Adaptations: Unique Body Parts by Radka Piro & Lida Larina

And so, here is my last review of the year, dear readers, the review of a gentle but thoroughly intelligent, beautiful and extremely accessible book that encourages curiosity about the world around us. Hopefully, it’ll be a harbinger of the year to come! Why yes, I am an eternal optimist in many regards. But to …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/12/29/animal-adaptations-unique-body-parts-by-radka-piro-lida-larina/

The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling

A delightful paranormal romance that balances a sweet and steamy romance with small-town magical shenanigans. Vivienne Jones is nineteen years old when she meets Rhys Penhallow one magical summer in her small hometown of Graves Glen, Georgia. He’s here to take summer classes at the university close by, and the two embark on a whirlwind …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/12/28/the-ex-hex-by-erin-sterling/

The Case Of The Unwelcome Visitor (Bad Machinery #6) by John Allison

It’s become a tradition of recent years for me to use the Christmas holiday to read another Bad Machinery book, to just sit finally and take the time to put my feet up and enjoy these books that perfectly distil everything I like about reading. Mystery: check. Humor: check. Empathy: check. A hint or more …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/12/27/the-case-of-the-unwelcome-visitor-bad-machinery-6-by-john-allison/

The Bear House by Meaghan McIsaac

Oh, wow, I do hope this is the start of a series, because Meaghan McIsaac makes some truly great narrative and world-building choices here! Imagine a realm where the kingdoms are devoted to the animal constellations that we readers more or less already know, with the Bear House ruling supreme over them all. The leaders …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/12/23/the-bear-house-by-meaghan-mcisaac/

The Orphan Witch by Paige Crutcher

There are some interesting set pieces and arresting imagery in this modern-day tale of witches on a remote southern island, tied by bonds of blood and love. You definitely get the idea that some of these scenes sprang into Paige Crutcher’s head fully formed, so viscerally and lovingly are they depicted. Alas, that’s about all …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/12/22/the-orphan-witch-by-paige-crutcher/

The Field Guide To Dumb Birds Of The Whole Stupid World by Matt Kracht

Matt Kracht loves birds enough to be perfectly blunt about what jerks they can be, to massively entertaining effect. In this follow-up to his initial The Field Guide To Dumb Birds Of North America, he expands his reporting on birds to cover avians of the entire world, gaining a significantly wider range for his mockery. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/12/21/the-field-guide-to-dumb-birds-of-the-whole-stupid-world-by-matt-kracht/

Carlton Crumple Creature Catcher 3: Reptoids from Space by David Fremont

While I’m sure I would have understood more of the passing references here had I started with volume one, this was still a more than alright place to begin with the Carlton Crumple Creature Catcher series, as my 10 year-old will happily attest. As of this volume, Carlton Crumple is bored at home, on the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/12/20/carlton-crumple-creature-catcher-3-reptoids-from-space-by-david-fremont/

Spílexm: A Weaving Of Recovery, Resilience, And Resurgence by Nicola I. Campbell

Hrm, well, if I’d known this was essentially a memoir by a woman in her 40s, I would have probably skipped it (as I do for memoirs by men in their 30s, and for roughly the same reasons.) I feel that the 40s are a bad age for a woman to try to do a …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/12/17/spilexm-a-weaving-of-recovery-resilience-and-resurgence-by-nicola-i-campbell/