📖It’s one of the wisest stories for young minds that never cease to surprise me. This book stole my heart many years ago, turning me into a reader. It significantly contributed to my childhood, fostering my love for reading and gnomes. Now, my son wants to read it on his own, and my daughter smiles when she sees me opening the first page of these incredible adventures.
Cat Josef also enjoyed reading it with us 🌟📖🐈⬛
🪿The Plot: We follow a little boy named Nils Holgeson. He was a sweet little boy, but still, he was nasty a bit. He played tricks on farm animals and misbehaved sometimes. One day, he played a trick on a gnome. The fairy creature decided to give a lesson to a naughty boy. The gnome used one of his spells and turned Nils to the size of a thumb. Together with a farmer gander named Martin, who appeared Nil’s single friend and agreed to help him, they started their adventurous journey across Sweden. Whether Nils learns the lesson and the gnome’s spell dissolves? Will Nils and gander Martin come back home?
🦆The Writing Style: The translation by Joan Tate remains my favorite, as do the illustrations by Lars Klinting. This fairytale is action-packed, twisty, and wise. It is full of hilarious moments and heart-breaking scenes. Packed with numerous life lessons, morals, and thoughts, it will stay with a reader long after finishing the book. Moreover, readers get the chance to have a brilliant virtual guide around Sweden on the wings of a kind and friendly gander, Martin.
🪿The Characters: There are many characters in this glorious book. But how adorable they are! Selma Lagerlöf portrayed them all so masterfully and solidly. Each of them possesses features and traits that will stick in the memory and evoke feelings and emotions in the reader’s soul. All these participants in the book are multilayered, deep, and memorable.
☀️The Fave Quote: Truth be told, this book was, is, and will be one big wise quote for me. I just can’t define the one.
⭐️My humble rating is: 5.5/5
I gave my highest humble rating to this book just because it still takes the lead and remains one of my favorite books ever. Moreover, this book managed to make my son an avid reader and my daughter – an avid listener. “The Wonderful Adventures of Nils” by Selma Lagerlog contributed to my kids’ childhood and their personalities hugely, as it did to mine. And it feels priceless.
I hope this book will leave as significant and touching a trace in your heart as it did in mine and my kids.
Thank you for dropping by and reading this review!
You’ll enjoy reading this one if you are looking for a captivating fantasy novel full of adventures, twists, and events.
Genre: Fantasy novel for young readers
Language: English
The Plot: This is Book 2 in this series. We keep following a little boy named Ash. He and his guard – grumpy guard yeti – head to Pathfinder Stronghold of Aurora. They are still searching for answers and clues that will help them to find Ash’s missing parents. During their journey on the open ice, the crew of the Frostheart faces many dangers and challenges that still lead them to unexpected and incredible secrets.
The Writing Style: I was reading this book with my son, and we both had a great time following the main characters’ adventures. In my humble opinion, Book 2 was written at a more slower pace than the first one, but still, it was incredibly light and enjoyable reading. There were more twists and riddles and a captivating and pretty unexpected surprise at the end. My son really liked it. We enjoyed a lot of smart quotes that possess morals and lessons; it was a portion of ‘delicious food for brains’, and we enjoyed discussing it afterward.
The Characters: The number of characters is still numerous. As well as in Book 1 all of them are portrayed well enough to feel an emotional connection to them. The grumpy yeti remains our favorite – the fairy creature with a tough fate, wise thoughts, and a kind heart.
Fave quote: “I believe most people just want to live their lives in peace but wear fear like a shield against a frightening world. They lose sight of what they truly believe in.”
Would I read other books by this author: Yeap!
My humble rating is: 4.5/5
I hope you or your kids will enjoy reading the Book 2 of this amazing series.
Anyway, thank you for dropping by and reading this review!
If you are looking for a cleverly written novel where you can live in numerous magical parallel worlds, this book is definitely what you need.
“Every person has unlimited creative power” Elena Carter, “Follow the Blue Rabbit.”
The Plot: This is the second book of “The Dream Tamer Chronicles.” We follow a young woman Tina – a creative and aspiring writer. She is still deeply grieving and desperately misses her husband, who perished in a car accident. Her friends do their best to support her, and Tina works eagerly on numerous projects to distract herself from sullen thoughts. But her nocturnal life remains the main escape from reality. Tina travels along numerous parallel worlds and magical realms, trying to solve many riddles that will help her and some of her friends get what they truly need. But all these journeys are not as safe as they might seem at first sight. Moreover, they are full of danger and can even be fatal.
The Writing Style: I had barely closed Book 1 when I opened the next one and couldn’t tear my eyes off its pages. The novel is written cleverly and thoughtfully, with many smooth but heart-squeezing twists. I truly enjoyed how deeply it was created from a psychological perspective – I could feel the pain of all the heart-bleeding scratches and wounds in the depths of the characters’ souls. I could perceive a feeble flickering of a little borning fire in the characters’ hearts, the fire that might grow into a big cozy fire that warms their souls at last. The book is written in balance – it was rapidly paced where it felt needed, and it slowed the pace elegantly, stylishly, and gradually at the right time. This mesmerizing novel made me drown in tears, enveloped me with warmth, and gave me some bottomless inspiration. I enjoyed the adorable, fantastic world-building with many cute and heartwarming details. The novel is absolutely unputdownable and bewitchingly charming.
The Characters: In my humble opinion, only a person with a big heart and pure soul who faced many challenges could create such glorious, multilayered, and deep characters in all senses. They are like exotic flowers that are replanted in some ground which is harmful to them, but they still keep blooming. The depths of their souls are portrayed brilliantly. Their sufferings, inner tortures, thirst for life, and zest for finding the needed answers are described so powerfully that I wanted to hug them and join their adventures to help them follow the light and the blue rabbit.
The fave quote: “Always follow the light. There is no such thing as absolute darkness. Darkness wouldn’t even exist if it wasn’t for the light.”
Would I read other books by this author: Absolutely yes!
My humble rating is: 5.5/5
“I think people should never underestimate their dreams” Elena Carter, “Follow the Blue Rabbit.”
P.S. I gave my highest humble rating to book 2 in this series. The point is that one of the main characters – Alice, who appeared to be one of my favorite ones, had come through incredibly tough times. The author managed to depict her feelings masterfully. In some moments, I endured the same tortures, and I know how bloody it hurts. The author knew what she wrote about; at least it was written competently – no made-up, fictional feelings, only true ones.
I hope you’ll enjoy reading this book as much as I did!
If you are at the crossroad of your life, if you lose your path in following your dreams, and if you need a book that talks to you – you will love “Paper Castles.”
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Genre: Novel
Language: English
Release date: 2021
The Plot: James Brooke is a young architect. He has no job, still lives with his father, and tries to understand why his childhood dreams remain just dreams. Town walker, rain and coffee lover – James creates magnificent buildings, constructions, and castles, but only on paper. Until one day. Whether can James transfer his ‘paper castles’ from paper to real life? Whether can he protect the fragility of his creations in this hectic world? All the answers and many more captivating events you can find out on the pages of this profound and thrilling novel.
The Writing Style: Truth to be told, I was surprised that this is a debut book because it is written too masterfully and brilliantly. I can only imagine how the second one will look like! This fast-paced and enjoyable novel is full of heartbreaking twists and humorous moments. I adore how accurately the writer managed to depict all the feelings, emotions, and tiniest details of daily routine. I just felt like this book talked to me from the first page until the last one.
The Characters: There are not so many characters in this book. The main one is depicted so gloriously in all the aspects that I heard his voice in my head. And it felt magical. All the other characters find their ideal places around the life of James Brooke. The emotional connection to all the characters was strong enough to make my heart galloping and to make me cry a lot.
If you need a fast-paced, twisty, and eventful YA fantasy novel with lots of magic rules, this book is definitely what you need!
Genre: YA fantasy novel
Pages:304
Language: English
Release date: 2021
The Plot: “Being Remade” is the second book in the “Ruling Magic” trilogy (so far). 21 y.o. Isla Luciano, an heir to a modern-day powerful magical dynasty, keeps trying to change the world, helping norms with magic. But this mission appears to be more complicated than the girl expects. She leaves her ‘first love’ behind to restore justice regardless of mortal danger. She is ready for a face-off with her most vicious enemy – her mother. The only nasty problem is that this time Isla needs to counteract with all her secrets out.
The Writing Style: This is my second book by this writer. The writing style hasn’t changed considerably. Maybe, it became a bit faster. I would probably characterize it again as elegant and dynamic. A fabulous mix of humor, sarcasm, wit, heartbreaking, and touching scenes are still present on the pages of this book. The second book was filled with numerous adorable comparisons and metaphors that made me giggled a couple of times.
The Characters: The number of characters and sub-characters is numerous. The writer successfully portrayed villains and heroes perfectly enough to make a reader hate, love, and worry about them. The tiniest details in describing their appearances, actions, gestures, and thoughts facilitate visualizing and make you glued to the pages until the end.
Ellen Khodakivska 