Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR: Tochi Eze GENRE: Domestic Drama PUBLICATION DATE: August 5, 2025 RATING: 3 stars. In a Nutshell: A dual-timeline domestic drama exploring the effects of contradictory beliefs on a marriage. Character-driven. Interesting exploration of the central theme and some other tough topics. Flawed but well-sketched characters. Thin plot with too many themes. Good use of the Nigerian setting. Slow-paced. Not everything settled at the end. Somehow a bit distanced in execution. Quite ambitious for a debut. A good one-time read. Plot Preview: Then in 1960s Lagos. Independent-yet-traditional Margaret didn’t expect to form a relationship with British-born half-Nigerian Benjamin. But their rapport is strong, and despite indications from both their families that they should separate and despite learning that their pasts are more connected than they knew, they get married in secret. But the burden of marriage and parenthood on a young couple without familial support is always high. Margaret’s wor...

AUTHOR: Jo Ellen Bogart ILLUSTRATOR: Maja Kastelic GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: October 5, 2021 RATING: 3 stars. In a Nutshell: A wordless picture book about a little boy and a gargoyle. Cute story, but leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Amazing illustrations. Recommended, but mainly for adult-child buddy reading. Plot Preview : Anthony lives with his parents in a house full of photos. One day, a “rock” in Anthony’s room cracks open, to reveal a strange but friendly creature inside. When Anthony asks his mother about the rock, she shows him the photo album of their trip of Paris. Anthony realises that his new friend resembles the gargoyles at the Notre-Dame Cathedral. He shows the photos to the little gargoyle as well. And when they get a chance to go to Paris to visit his ailing grandma, Anthony makes sure that they find the gargoyle who resembles the baby gargoyle the most. I am not usually fond of wordless picture books, but the presence of the word ‘ga...

AUTHOR: Frode Grytten TRANSLATOR: Alison McCullough NARRATOR: Colin Mace GENRE: Literary Fantasy PUBLICATION DATE: November 18, 2025 RATING: 2 stars. In a Nutshell: A literary fantasy-fiction set on a fjord in Norway. Introspective, not morbid. Too many characters, too meandering and monotonous for my liking. Some unnecessary triggering and crass content. Better for those who are more about prose than plot. Recommended, but not to all. Plot Preview: One morning, Nils Vik, a ferryman, wakes up and knows that it will be the day he dies. He still wants to follow his routine, so after his morning routine, he looks around his empty house for one last time, walks out, and boards his beloved boat that he has been ferrying on the fjord for many years. As he sets off, his dead dog joins him, and one by one, several other souls also make their way to Nils Vik one by one across each of the ferry stops. Each, including the dog, discusses several things from the past, sometimes offering the ferryma...

AUTHOR: The Amazing Theatre of Physics GENRE: Juvenile Nonfiction, Science. SERIES: Science All Around Us, #2 PUBLICATION DATE: June 24, 2025 RATING: 4 stars. In a Nutshell: An illustrated book about the real-life examples of physics in a city. Practical and informative. A great option for STEM enthusiasts in the middle-grade and teen age groups. This is the second book in the interesting STEM series titled ‘Science All Around Us’. It does an excellent job of enlightening children about the practical aspects of two of the most dreaded science subjects: physics and chemistry. I have already read two books from this series: Book One: The Awesome Physics in Your Home and Book Three: The Amazing Chemistry in Your Home . Book Two maintains the same level of quality, though set in a different environment. As the title indicates, this book leaves the ‘home’ setting and focusses on applications of physics in the city at large. I appreciate how the places chosen are the ones that children actu...

AUTHOR: Jaclyn Desforges GENRE: Speculative Short Story Collection PUBLICATION DATE: RATING: Can't decide. In a Nutshell: A collection of somewhat absurdist short stories. Highly creative, but a bit too random in development. This collection has its merits but it wasn't the right book for me. A good option for those who don’t seek a destination but enjoy a meandering journey. The title and the cover called out to me so strongly that I had to try this collection. The description was also intriguing. Unfortunately for me (and the book), the stories had fewer babies and more weirdness than I would have liked. From the description, I understood this to be a speculative fiction collection. The thirteen stories herein are indeed speculative, but more towards the absurd side of the spectrum than the fantastical side. I don't mind absurd fiction when there's some rhyme or rhythm to the plot, but this set of stories was a combination of stream of consciousness and abstract bizar...

AUTHOR: Meg Shaffer GENRE: Fantasy-Romance PUBLICATION DATE: April 7, 2026 RATING: 1 star. In a Nutshell: A book-about-books fantasy featuring the titular book witch. After the super-interesting start, this absolutely didn’t go the way I expected it to. Too much of insta-love. OTT dialogues, absurd plot twists, and immature characters. I enjoyed this author’s first two novels but simply couldn’t connect with this one. This is an outlier review. Plot Preview: Despite her youth, twenty-five-year-old Rainy March has been a book witch for more than a decade. She follows all the rules of the profession seriously, including the one about ensuring that fictional characters and the real world do not intersect. But when she is sent on assignment into the book series starring the Duke of Chicago, her favourite book character, she forgets all the rules and ends up in a relationship with him. When this is discovered by the head witch, Rainy is forbidden from interacting with the fictional characte...

AUTHOR: Gabrielle Meyer SERIES: Timeless, #7 GENRE: Historical Romance. PUBLICATION DATE: May 5, 2026 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A historical fiction novel set during two timelines: the Gold Rush and the Golden Age of Hollywood. The latest novel from the incomparable Timeless series, and probably the one with the most number of surprises. Excellent plot, characters, writing, and historical research. Christian without being preachy. A bit slow and repetitive in the final quarter, but the ending is worth it. Much recommended! Works as a standalone but better to read in series order. Plot Preview:  Twenty-four-year-old Ally Adams lives two simultaneous lives. ( If you've read any of the Timeless books, you know how her time-crossing works. )  In 1849, wishing to restore her family’s lost comforts, Ally intends to capitalise on the Gold Rush and travels with her sick father and young half-sister to San Francisco, where she finds herself penniless and at the mercy of an ex-c...

AUTHOR: Annalisa Crawford GENRE: Story Collection, Dark Literary Fiction PUBLICATION DATE: July 24, 2026 RATING: 4.25 stars In a Nutshell: An indie collection comprising one novella and three short stories. Excellent atmosphere and lyrical writing. Dark and haunting. Much recommended. I've been a fan of this author ever since I read her story collection titled "The Clock in My Mother's House and Other Stories."  Since then, I've read three more of her works and enjoyed all of them. Safe to say that I now pick up an Annalisa Crawford work without even reading the blurb. A risky strategy, but with the right author, the reward is almost always assured. This latest book justifies my faith in her writing. The collection comprises one novella and three short stories. The novella takes up about 65% of the book. The mood in all four entries is somewhat similar: melancholic and haunting. The stories circulate around the same core topics of personal loss, grief, mental hea...

AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR: Melani Sie GENRE: Graphic Novel Comic SERIES: Milk & Mocha, #2 RATING: 3.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A comics collection featuring the adorable duo Milk and Mocha. Cute and light, but also repetitive and somewhat bland. The second book featuring Milk and Mocha. While this isn't bad, it also isn't memorable. I liked the first one better. Milk and Mocha are the creations of Indonesian comic artist Melani Sie. This duo is quite popular on social media and are recognisable faces in several memes. However, reading a single comic is one thing and reading an entire comic collection is another. The first book of the Milk & Mocha collection had the tagline “Our Little Happiness”. As such, it had a happier vibe, highlighting how little joys enhance our life. This book focusses on “Our Little Moments”. While the introductory note about the significance of little moments is amazing, the change in focus also means that the comics in this book are a little unde...

AUTHOR: Gayle Forman GENRE: YA Contemporary Fantasy PUBLICATION DATE: January 7, 2025 RATING: 1 star. In a Nutshell: A YA contemporary fiction with mild fantasy elements. Could have been awesome but the FMC is too YA, if you know what I mean. 😬 Basic writing, annoying characters, convenient developments. Minimal and ad hoc fantasy content. The only thing I liked was the plot structuring. Can’t recommend this, sorry. Plot Preview: When Amber cycles home one spring afternoon, the last thing she expects is her mother to scream on seeing her walk in. The reason is horrifying even to Amber. It seems she has been dead for seven years, having lost her life in a hit-and-run accident while riding the very same bicycle she just rode home. But Amber doesn’t feel dead! The return affects not just Amber but her family and other acquaintances who were active in her life when she was alive. A lot has changed in the last seven years and Amber needs to be prepared to face those developments bas well....

AUTHOR: Bruce Holsinger NARRATORS: Stacy Carolan and January LaVoy GENRE: Contemporary Dystopian Fiction PUBLICATION DATE: July 8, 2025 RATING: 2 stars. In a Nutshell: A contemporary drama about a family whose life changes after an accident. Interesting representation of technology (specifically AI) and its impact on real-life issues. Goes overboard on subplots and secrets. I expected to like it better given my antipathy towards excessive AI reliance, but the OTT drama and the annoying lead character were a turnoff. This is an outlier review. Plot Preview: The Cassidy-Shaw’s self-driving minivan gets into an accident when seventeen-year-old Charlie is in the driver’s seat, his father Noah is next to him working on his laptop, and his mother Lorelei (a renowned expert on AI ethics) and tween sisters Alice and Izzy are in the backseat busy with their own phones. The accident results in the deaths of the two people in the other car. Who is to blame for their deaths? The situation gets fur...

AUTHOR: Maria Tureaud GENRE: Historical Horror PUBLICATION DATE: January 27, 2026 RATING: 2.75 stars. In a Nutshell: A historical Gothic paranormal mystery set during the Irish potato famine. A lead character who’s compelling as well as naïve. Slow-paced plot. More horrifying in its historical content than in its supernatural inclusions. Fantastical content based slightly in Irish mythology, which might get confusing to outsiders. Some details left vague till the end. Recommended but with caution. Plot Preview: 1848. Ireland. Twenty-two-year-old Maggie once had a large happy family, but she is now all alone in the world, having lost all her loved ones to the potato famine. So when an eccentric wealthy lady approaches her with a strange proposal - to pose as her daughter Wilhelmina and convince solicitors to release her inheritance in exchange for a house and land after the completion of the task, Maggie sees it as the best chance of defeating her destiny and honouring the memory of her...

AUTHOR: Lari Don ILLUSTRATOR: Elise Carmichael GENRE: Folktale Collection PUBLICATION DATE: June 16, 2026 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A collection of ten magical Celtic stories . Simply awesome tales! Only the illustrations didn't work too well for me. A great book for children (and adults) who love fairy tales. This book contains magical stories from the Celtic isles. There is a wonderful map of the isles right at the start. I have long known the word “Celtic” but only when I saw this map did I realise how the Celtic Isles are places. The introductory note offers a little insight into Celtic geography and its significance. The collection has ten stories, which is a bit disappointing to be honest. Each story was so delightful in its tone and content that I couldn’t help long for more. The stories come from varied Celtic Isles: : Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and Brittany. Each location contributes one-two stories. The text retains the original Celtic s...