A Review of Hearth Stories, Springtime Fare

Book cover for Hearth Stories, Springtime Fare by B. Morris Allen, Erin Keating, Em Harriett, Erin France, and JM Cyrus. Image on cover is a painting of wild flowers growing in a meadow. There are tiny little pink, white, and blue flowers everywhere. Title: Hearth Stories, Springtime Fare

Author: B. Morris Allen, Erin Keating, Em Harriett, Erin France, and JM Cyrus

Publisher: Hearth Stories

Publication Date: March 22, 2025

Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Romance, LGBTQ+

Length: 66 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the authors.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

Hearth Stories: Springtime Fair (2025) is a special issue of Hearth Stories in which each story has instructions for making something that was featured in the story (charm, recipe, ritual, etc).

This issue features the following:

Crivăț and the Snow Curse by B. Morris Allen

How to Make a Martisor

The Confession Chocolate by Erin Keating

How to Make Confession Chocolate

Creature Comforts by Em Harriett

Fox’s Almond Cake

The Soapmaker by Erin France

Unscented Soap

A Song Amongst the Prayer Ribbons by JM Cyrus

Leaf Rubbing and Forest Bathing

Content Warning: An accident that seriously injures someone’s knee.

Review:

Early spring is no time to leave the house unprepared for any sort of weather.

“The Confession Chocolate” was a cozy tale about two friends who may or may not be falling in love with each other. The storyline was straightforward, so I don’t want to share too many details about it for spoiler reasons. What I adored about it was how Mara and Lennan danced around their evolving feelings for each other while she was simultaneously grinding through the busiest time of the year at her chocolate shop. The fantasy elements of the storyline ebbed and flowed in ways that were as natural as they were playful. I think this one might be a little more appealing to fans who already love the romance genre versus those who were hoping for something deeply rooted in traditional fantasy lore, but it was delightful either way.

I had mixed feelings about “A Song Among the Prayer Ribbons.” The romantic subplot was a wonderful surprise whose details I’ll leave for others to discover for themselves, and I liked the nuanced relationship between Maren and her grumpy, elderly father. What made me pause as I was reading was the underlying theme that it’s okay for older people to be argumentative, mean-spirited, and grouchy with younger people because the former have been alive for so long. This is something that pops up regularly in both fiction and real life, and it’s something I vehemently disagree with. Yes, of course we should make some allowances for people who are grieving or in pain, but I don’t agree with the idea that living a particular number of years should grant anyone the right to treat others poorly regularly. This is something I’m saying as a younger person who has a chronic illness that causes terrible pain and other symptoms that cannot be ignored. I completely understand being in a bad mood because of how one feels, but I cannot agree with the idea that this gives anyone the license to be a jerk. Self control is key.

Stinky soap and etiquette were the conflicts in “The Soapmaker.” Conversations about someone’s odour will always be awkward no matter how gentle others try to be about it, so I kept reading with interest as the characters in this little village tried to let the kind and wonderful woman who made soap for everyone know that the scent combinations she used weren’t appealing. My favorite part of this tale was the open-ended final scene that left so much scope for the imagination. It made me wish for a sequel so I could discover what happened to the characters next.

I look forward to other readers chiming in with their thoughts on these tales.

Hearth Stories, Springtime Fare was a sweet and gentle read.

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Fictional Things I’m Glad Are NOT Real

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

This is once again going to be a science fiction, horror, and fantasy heavy list due to how much I’ve read in those genres.

1. Vampires

Stylized drawing of a Chinese dragon that doesn’t have limbs. It’s long, snake-like body curls around itself as it flicks out its tongue and looks annoyed. 2. Zombies

3. The Borg

4. Panem (The country set in North America in the Hunger Games series that forced children to fight for their lives in epic televised battles)

5. Being the Chosen One ™. Honestly, that sounds exhausting.

6. Aliens who show up on Earth ready to fight.

7. Having a One True Love ™. Falling in love can be an excellent thing, but the pressure of believing there’s only one person out there for you and you’d better not mess things up was intense when I was single.

8. Epic adventures. This, too, sounds exhausting. Let someone else go save the world while I hunker down for the rest of the winter.

 

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Top Ten Tuesday: Nonfiction Titles I Recently Added to My TBR List


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Here are ten nonfiction titles I’ve recently added to my TBR list. If you’ve read any of them or have other suggestions for great titles in this genre, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Book cover for Surviving Rome: The Economic Lives of the Ninety Percent by Kim Bowes. Image on cover shows a close-up photo of a silver Roman coin. The face on the coin is pointing up, and you can only see the top half of the coin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Surviving Rome: The Economic Lives of the Ninety Percent by Kim Bowes

Why I’m interested: As I’ve mentioned here before, I prefer reading about the lives of ordinary people in the past. It’s interesting to find out what they ate and wore and what their daily lives were like.

 

Book cover for The Crown's Silence: The Hidden History of the British Monarchy and Slavery in the Americas by Brooke N. Newman. image on cove shows a British royal crown hanging from the black silhouette of a head as if it were an earring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. The Crown’s Silence: The Hidden History of the British Monarchy and Slavery in the Americas by Brooke N. Newman

Why I’m interested: This is an aspect of the transatlantic slave trade that I wasn’t aware of.

Book cover for elieve You're Made for More: 7 Steps to Break Free from Low Self-Esteem, Remember Your Worth and Claim Your Quiet Confidence by Natasha Page. Image on cover shows the title written in a pink font against a blue background with the subtitle written in a yellow bubble on the bottom right hand of the cover.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Believe You’re Made for More: 7 Steps to Break Free from Low Self-Esteem, Remember Your Worth and Claim Your Quiet Confidence
by Natasha Page

Why I’m interested: It sounds helpful. (I don’t have a great track record with self-help books, though, so no promises that I’ll actually finish it).

Book cover for Ferns: Lessons in Survival from Earth’s Most Adaptable Plants by Fay-Wei Li and Jacob S. Suissa. Image on cover is a drawing of about eight different types of ferns, one of whom is red, growing towards the centre of the book cove.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Ferns: Lessons in Survival From Earth’s Most Adaptable Plants by Fay-Wei Li and Jacob S. Suissa.

Why I’m interested: Botany is such an interesting subject.

 

Book cover for Unfrozen: The Fight for the Future of the Arctic by Mia Bennett and Klaus Doods. Image on cover is a drawing created from the perspective of someone looking down at the arctic and seeing the dark sea water between icebergs as a few different cargo ships sail past each other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Unfrozen: The Fight for the Future of the Arctic by Mia Bennett, Klaus Dodds

Why I’m interested: Cimate change frightens me, but I am also intrigued by how it alongside geopolitical conflicts are shaping the future of this continent. Will humans someday live there for non-scientific purposes, for example?

 

Book cover for The Great Shadow: A History of How Sickness Shapes What We Do, Think, Believe, and Buy by Susan Wise Bauer. Image on cover is a historical painting of a woman lying sick in bed as two other women tend to her. I’d estimate that this scene was set in the late 1700s or early 1800s based on their attire and the little white rumpled hat one of the caretakers is wearing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. The Great Shadow: A History of How Sickness Shapes What We Do, Think, Believe, and Buy by Susan Wise Bauer

Why I’m interested: I couldn’t read about contagious diseases back when Covid first emerged, but now I can occasionally explore how previous generations handled similar crises and how epidemics and pandemics e can permanently affect a culture in all sorts of interesting ways.

Book cover for The Flowers of Good: The Science and the History of Marijuana Liberation by Sidarta Ribeiro, Daniel Hahn. Image on cover is a drawing of what I presume is a marijuana plant. It’s tall, leafy, and green.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. The Flowers of Good: The Science and the History of Marijuana Liberation by Sidarta Ribeiro, Daniel Hahn

Why I’m interested: For the record, I don’t drink, smoke, or do any sort of drugs, including this one. I also do not judge you if you’ve made other choices in life. My interest in the topic is rooted firmly, pun intended, in how this plant can be used to treat pain and nausea from all sorts of various illnesses. The less suffering in the world, the better if you ask me! Such things should never be politicized.

 

Book cover for When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America’s Black Botanical Legacy by Beronda L. Montgomery. Image on cover shows drawings of the leaves of about a half dozen different plants, none of which I can identify unfortunately.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America’s Black Botanical Legacy by Beronda L. Montgomery

Why I’m interested: Can you tell I love reading about plants, especially during the cold months of the year when nothing grows? This is another topic I know nothing about but would like to.

 

Book cover for Why Not Me: Living with Invisible Illness by Lindsay Ireland. Image on cover shows dozen of little oblong shaped objects smushed together in circle. Are they bacteria multiplying in a Petri dish, maybe? They seemed to be loosely arranged in a star-like pattern.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Why Not Me: Living with Invisible Illness by Lindsay Ireland

Why I’m interested: I don’t have multiple sclerosis, but I do like reading about the lives of other people living with chronic, invisible illnesses. We often share a lot in common, and it’s rewarding to learn about the aspects of other diseases that are generally only known to those who are quietly dealing with them. Having empathy and/or sympathy for others is a good thing that I think should be encouraged more often than many parts of western society currently do.

 

Book cover for Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others by Stephanie Dalley. Image on cover shows a man carved into a stone wall. He has a long beard and appears to have two large wings sprouting out behind him as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10. Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others by Stephanie Dalley

Why I’m interested: I was lucky enough to learn a little about this topic in college, but there’s still so much I don’t know about it. Mythology is fascinating, so this is definitely something I’ll be checking out sometime.

 

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A Review of Five Miles Out Of Black Creek

Book cover for Five Miles Out Of Black Creek by Neil Shooter. Image on cover shows a dry, dusty country road that has no one travelling on it. It shoots straight ahead and, in the far distance, turns up over a hill. There are mountains even further in the distance. 

The trees on either side of the road and brown and leafless as it appears to be late autumn in this scene. The sky overhead is hazy and blue. Title: Five Miles Out Of Black Creek

Author: Neil Shooter

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: December 30, 2016

Genres: Horror, LGBTQ+, Contemporary

Length:13 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Dean Rand is in a bit of a slump, and needs to sell a story fast. Can this one save his bacon? Dr. Chang’s dirty white farmhouse in the middle of nowhere? Well, in the middle of Hamilton County, five miles out of Black Creek. Sure, the view is great, but it’s so isolated. Why would a scientist want to live here? Or work here?

Content Warning: Blood.

Review:

Not every farm is a tranquil getaway from city life.

Let’s see how much I can say about the antagonists of this piece without giving away too many clues about who or what they are. This means that my review may feel a little mysterious, but I’d rather allow other readers to discover for themselves what’s going on than to know ahead of time what to expect. What I can say about the antagonists is that they had good reasons for behaving the way that they did and that they provided plenty of conflict for Dean to work through during his visit. There’s  definitely something to be said for that! I also appreciated how unusual some of them were. That is to say, they didn’t exactly conform to mainstream ideas of what should be attempting to harm the protagonist in this genre, and that’s a good thing.

It would have been more helpful to have additional plot development. I knew what the twist in the end probably would be by the time I read the first scene, and unfortunately this was the sort of tale that, in my opinion, works better if one doesn’t know what to expect in advance. The character development was sufficient for something of this length, so it was really just the depth of the plot that held me back from choosing a higher rating.

With that being said, I do enjoy rural horror. Sometimes other genres glamorize this setting in ways that make me uncomfortable as someone who grew up in various rural places and intimately knows both the negative and positive aspects of that environment, so it was refreshing to see a character drive out to the middle of nowhere and be genuinely taken aback by what he found there. I also appreciated the way the story played around with the trope of a highly educated city slicker arriving at a farm and realizing there are still things about life he doesn’t know. This is something that happens to all sorts of people when they find themselves in cultures or places they’re unfamiliar with, after all, and it was well used here.

Five Miles Out Of Black Creek made me shudder.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Fictional Things I Wish Were Real


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

This list is going to be heavily influenced by Star Trek and other science fiction themes. Be prepared.

I wish these fictional things were real:

A photo of Earth taken from the moon. Earth is partially hidden in shadow and looks small against an endlessly inky black sky. The moon’s surface is a monotone of grey and light brown. 1) Successful Human Settlements

For example, groups of people living well on other planets or on the moons of other planets. I think our longterm chances of surviving as a species would be much higher if we had the technology to spread out in the galaxy or universe.

2) Replicators.

Imagine if we could have all of the food, medicine, medical equipments, and other necessary things for life available at the press of a button. So much human suffering could be eliminated. (I’ve already talked about the wonders of a Star Trek medical bay in a previous WWBC post, or I would have included it here as well).

3) Equality for All

My favourite types of science fiction to read and to watch are the ones that show humans solving problems that have nothing at all do with any form of prejudice based on ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity,  sexual orientation, religion, disability, etc. because such a thing doesn’t really exist in their society anymore. If only they went into more detail about how that happened, because I’d love to see us figure it out in the current era.

4) Warp Drives

We’ll need them to travel to other solar systems!

5) Magic

I wish I really could flick a wand or perform a spell to fix many major problems.

6) Dragons

Is this at all practical? No. Do I still want them to exist in remote places on Earth where humans will hopefully leave them in peace anyway? Yes.

7) Bigfoot

See also: #6.

8) Justice

Even the worst antagonists in books are virtually always overcome eventually. In real life, not so much…but I still wish it could happen. I want peace for everyone.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Quotes About Reading


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A tiny green cactus in a tiny white planter that is sitting on a white hardcover book on a wooden table. The original theme for this week was  “Quotes From/About Books,” but I’m tweaking it to be quotes about reading instead. 

1. “Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.”
Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

2. “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
Stephen King

3. “She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live.”
Annie Dillard, The Living

4. “Only a generation of readers will spawn a generation of writers.”
Steven Spielberg

5. “My alma mater was books, a good library…. I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.”
Malcolm X

6. “Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book.”
Stéphane Mallarmé

7. “Why can’t people just sit and read books and be nice to each other?”
David Baldacci, The Camel Club

8. “The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries.”
René Descartes

9. “Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.”
Anne Herbert

10. “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”
Joseph Addison

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A Review of Medium Error

Book cover for Medium Error by Eyal Avissar. Image on cover shows something red growing in a Petri dish. The centre is dark red and there are red tendrils spreading out in every direction. It feels ominous. Title: Medium Error

Author: Eyal Avissar

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: July 12, 2025

Genres: Science Fiction

Length: About 24 pages

Source: I  received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Medium Error is a haunting, lyrical descent into miscommunication between systems. A vessel from a post-human swarm is sent to infiltrate a worldform called HUM — Earth, or something like it. Its mission is seamless passage. But the host does not yield. It watches. It reflects. It responds.

Told in fragments, logs, classroom echoes, and philosophical fever dreams, Medium Error explores what happens when doctrine meets deviation — and when the medium pushes back. From collapsing swarm intelligences to substitute teachers and strange student diagrams, this story unfolds across both alien systems and the mundane brilliance of human learning.

Perfect for fans of Ted Chiang, Jeff VanderMeer, and readers who like their science fiction strange, recursive, and full of resonance.

Content Warning: A pandemic of sorts.

Review:

Anything is possible with the right preparations.

Xenofiction is one of my favourite subgenres of science fiction because of how interesting it is to explore conflict from non-human perspectives. The swarm in this tale was intelligent but obviously thought about things quite differently than a human would describe those same moments. While I don’t want to give away spoilers by sharing exactly what the swarm was or what their goal was when they discovered what they referred to as Worldform G44.21-HUM and what we’d call Earth, I can say that it was entertaining to read their logs and try to piece together what those first encounters were like from the human perspective.

I did find myself wishing for more clarification about what happened in the final scene. There were some tantalizing hints that not everything was going to plan, but they never quite gelled together for this reader. While I do have a theory about where things were headed and thought it was an interesting twist on the typical alien invasion story, the ending would have been stronger if a little more time was spent either confirming what I thought was going on or gently nudging the audience in the correct direction if my assumption turned out not to be the correct one.

There was an interesting perspective shift about halfway through that began to include what the human characters were up to as the invasion began. This was a good way to help explain some of the stuff that earlier sections were vague about, and I enjoyed exploring those moments from multiple points of view as I pondered over what I already knew about the aliens and what I thought they might do next. Yes, I know that I’m being vague in my review, but this truly is one of those things that are best left up to new readers to muddle over for themselves.

Medium Error was an intriguing introduction to this author’s work, and I hope to read more of it soon. 

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Song Lyrics That Made Me Cringe

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

Young brown girl holding her hand over her forehead in embarrassment. Her nails are painted various shades of pink. As I mentioned last week, I struggle with a lot of modern music. There isn’t always much care taken to write thoughtful lyrics or develop the artist’s vocal or instrumental skills before new songs are released.

No, I’m not saying that every song that was released when I was a kid or teenager was high quality. There were duds back then, too, but the quality of music in general does seem to be going downhill over time.

I wish this trend would reverse itself. It’s much more interesting to me to listen to thought-provoking lyrics written by or for an artist who is a genuinely talented singer or musician no matter what they look like than it is to see a highly attractive person use autotune or AI to sing something shallow and meaningless.

(Does this mean I’m old now? Ha!)

Here are some recent song lyrics that have made me cringe.

 

he way that switch brrt, I know he dyin’ (Oh my, oh my God)
6-7, I just bipped right on the highway (Bip, bip)
Skrrt, uh (Bip, bip, bip)

Doot Doot (6 7) by Skrilla

My school-aged nephew has informed us that 6 7 is no longer a cool meme now that we’re in 2026, but I am still annoyed by the song that created it.

 

I was a teenage teenager full of piss and vinegar
Living like a prisoner for haters
I was a teenage teenager, I am an alien visitor
My life’s a mess and school is just for suckers

I Was a Teenage Teenager by Green Day

I enjoyed some of Green Day’s stuff back in the day, but this song is repetitive nonsense.

 

Sexy, confident
So intelligent
She is heaven-sent
So soft, so strong

Woman’s World by Katy Perry

The concept was a good one, but the lyrics were so bland they felt like something written by AI.

 

The lyrics in this song are all too explicit and cringy to share in this post. I loved the beat, though, and wish it had been given better treatment.

WAP by Cardi B. And Megan Thee Stallion

 

 

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Top Ten Tuesday: Books for Armchair Travelers


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

This is one of those cases where I’ve read and enjoyed all of the Top Ten Tuesday books I’m mentioning today. It’s been a while since I’ve read some of them, but maybe they’ll become rereads this year.

Thank you to Laurie C @ Bay State Reader’s Advisory for submitting this topic. 

Book cover for The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Image on cover is a drawing of the city where the main character lived. The houses huddle close together and there are no plants to be seen anywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

 

Book cover for Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. Image on cover shows the faces of two Mexican people, one woman and one man, leaned in so close that his nose is nearly touching her cheek.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

 

Book cover for Walden or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau. Image on cover shows a sketch of the tiny cabin Thoreau stayed in. Trees are growing all around it. It is overlayed with a green filter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Walden or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau

 

Book cover for Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. Image on cover shows a closeup shot of a Geisha who is starting ahead at the viewer with a serious expression on her face.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

 

Book cover for The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. Image on cover shows a setting yellow sun partially obscured by a large tree. The background is orange as if it were just before sunset.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

 

Book cover for Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. Image on cover shows an Asian woman holding a fan up to her lips as if she were shushing the audience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

 

Book cover for Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez. Images on cover are a colourful bird hanging upside down at the top and a closeup shot of an olive-skinned person with brownish-green eyes peering at the audience from the bottom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

 

Book cover for Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1) by Chinua Achebe. Image on cover is a drawing of a middle-aged African man’s face who is staring thoughtfully into the distance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1) by Chinua Achebe

 

Book cover for Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Image on cover is a photo taken of the author from the side. She’s brown-skinned and wearing a black turtleneck sweater. She has a serious and slightly sad expression on her face.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Book cover for The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. Image on cover shows golden metal leaves and flowers arranged in a beautiful circular pattern against a dark pink background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

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A Review of Love Bug

Title: Love Bug (The Shrouded Isle Series) Book cover for Love Bug  by Zoe Tasia. Image on cover is a drawing of three light brown envelopes that have been dropped in a snowbank and have a few red hearts floating out of them.

Publisher: Zoe Tasia

Publication Date: February 13, 2024

Genres: Young Adult, Holiday, Mystery, Fantasy, Contemporary

Length: About 47 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

It’s Valentine’s Day on the Shrouded Isle. Love is in the air! Unfortunately, love needs a compass, because Cupid keeps hitting the wrong targets. Join Becca Shaw and her daughters, Jessie and Tate as they solve the mystery!

Review:

Love is magical.

I enjoyed the school setting of this tale, especially considering how kind Becca’s teacher was not only to her but to all of the other students in the class as well. Too often school is a source of conflict in young adult novels. While that is in no way a bad thing, especially given how common it is for some kids to have conflicted feelings about school for a wide variety of completely understandable reasons, it was refreshing to read about a teen who genuinely likes going to class and learning new things.

The slow start to this tale made it difficult for me to remain focused on reading it at times. While the pacing did pick up about halfway through, I found myself wishing that it had remained steady from the first scene to the last one as I found the middle and ending much more enjoyable and would have given this a higher star rating if not for my struggles with this aspect of the writing. If other readers have this same problem, I definitely would recommend sticking it out as the final scene was delightful.

Marketing this tale to the young adult genre was a great decision. What would have been out of place for an adult protagonist ended up being perfect for someone Becca’s age given her limited experience with life, magic, and matters of the heart. I nodded as I read about the Valentine’s Day cards she made as an extra credit assignment for one of her classes and wondered when the magical elements of the storyline were going to kick in. Obviously, I can’t share any details about exactly how that panned out for spoiler reasons, but I hope other readers have as much fun figuring it out as I did.

Love Bug piqued my curiosity.

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