Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR: Kat Saturn ILLUSTRATOR: Chrystal Phegley GENRE: Teen Fantasy-Adventure PUBLICATION DATE: November 17, 2025 RATING: 3.75 stars. In a Nutshell: A teen fantasy about a stellar [pun intended] adventurous quest. Great characters, but even greater inclusions of astronomy, history, and anthropology. Light in terms of approach, but hefty in intelligence. Too many whats, not enough whys. Fabulous illustrations. A nice, thought-provoking option for those willing to try a complex read. Plot Preview: Eleven-year-old Elli Veil has always been fascinated by the stars, especially by a bright star that shines every night high beyond her bedroom window. Staying in a cult-like isolated community, Elli believes that the stars hold the promise of life beyond her village of Box Hollow. However, one night, that star abruptly disappears and no one in Elli’s whereabouts seems to care. But the little girl knows something is wrong, and with some unexpected partners, she sets off on a quest to locate the...

AUTHOR: Mackenzi Lee GENRE: Historical Romance PUBLICATION DATE: September 9, 2025 RATING: 2.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A historical Sapphic romance set during the Regency period. Interesting characters, but average plot development. Started off well for me, but it couldn’t sustain the vibes. Anachronous and inaccurate in various ways, so better if read as a fantastical version of history. Fairly ribald, though the spicy scenes are not that explicit. Might work for readers looking for mindless entertainment because it does offer many moments of fun. This is an outlier opinion. Plot Preview: Thirty-four-year-old Harriet Lockhart, the daughter of a prostitute, plays male roles in bawdy Shakespeare productions on Drury Lane. She lives life on her own terms, so when a mysterious letter comes out of the blue, she is surprised to learn the identity of her benefactor, and aggravated at his condition for continued funding: she must start living a respectable life and find a decent husband. Twenty...

AUTHOR: Laura J. Mayo SERIES: Fairies and Familiars, #2 GENRE: Fantasy PUBLICATION DATE: October 7, 2025 RATING: 3.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A fairytale fantasy continuing Theo's story from Book One. Good characters, many returning and some new. A thin plot with a weak mystery. Offers popcorn entertainment but no depth or logic. I liked it, but not as much as the first book. The second book of the Fairies and Familiars duology and needs to be read in series order. Plot Preview: (This preview contains minor spoilers from the first book.) Theo is trying to settle in her a new life as Cecily's familiar, but with most fairies either being ignorant about or obnoxious to humans, Theo is struggling. She misses Kaz, the only person who would have understood her problems. To add to her woes, she is being stalked by a stranger. When the stranger finally approaches her, Theo learns about a thousand-year-old secret, and finds herself right in the middle of new fairy bargains and dangers. Th...

AUTHOR: Kathleen M. Blasi ILLUSTRATOR: Petronela Dostalova GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: August 12, 2025 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A heartwarming picture book about a little space lover and his ‘mission’. Loved the story, writing, characters, and ending. The illustrations are great as well. The information on meteors was a bonus. Much recommended. Plot Preview: Young Milo loves space and dreams of playing take-off with his “Second-in-Command”, his Mom. Unfortunately, Mom has plenty of tasks and even though Milo helps her, her list of chores never seems to diminish. When the weather forecast predicts a meteor storm in the middle of the night, Milo is desperate to witness it. But will his Second-in-Command have the time to help him accomplish this mission? The story is written in Milo’s third-person perspective. All children love to look at the moon and the stars, but several actually dream of flying through space. Young Milo is one such sweet kid. I loved...

AUTHOR: Estelle Nadel with Bethany Strout ILLUSTRATOR: Sammy Savos GENRE: Graphical Memoir PUBLICATION DATE: January 23, 2024 RATING: 3.75 stars. In a Nutshell: An upper-middle-grade graphic memoir recounting a Polish-Jewish girl’s experiences during the WWII Holocaust. Excellent presentation of the characters and their struggles. Mixed feelings about the art. Intense scenes, not surprising given the theme. Not for sensitive children. Enia Feld, who later becomes ‘Estelle Nadel’, was born to a large Jewish family in a small Polish village named Borek. The youngest of five, with the closest sibling being seven years older than her, Enia is the baby of the family. She loves to spend her days singing in the fields, playing with her siblings, and helping her mother in whatever little ways she can. All this changes when the Nazis invade Poland in 1939. Over the next five years, five-year-old Enia goes from the girl who sang at every opportunity to the silenced child in hiding, living on the...

AUTHOR: Jaimie Admans SERIES: Ever After Street, #6 GENRE: Romance-Drama PUBLICATION DATE: October 13, 2025 RATING: 3.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A romance combining the usual tropes with some strong emotional themes. Nice loveable characters, though they read younger than their age. Good story, great fairytale content. The sixth and final book of the Ever After series. Not the best book of the series, but definitely not the worst as well. A good one to bid adieu to Ever After Street with. Can be read as a standalone, but would recommend going in series order. Plot Preview: As the sole proprietor of the ‘Colours of the Wind’ museum, Lissa has run her business her way since the last decade on Ever After Street. So what if the museum is struggling? When a know-it-all developer named Warren Berrington buys the building that houses the museum and plans to demolish the structure for a more profit-making cinematic mall, Lissa is horrified, but she knows she won't back down without a fight. ...

AUTHORS: Eoin Colfer & Andrew Donkin ILLUSTRATOR: Giovanni Rigano GENRE: Graphic Novel PUBLICATION DATE: April 11, 2023 RATING: 3 stars. In a Nutshell: A teen graphic novel highlighting the impact of climate change on two opposite corners of the world. Alternating perspectives from one Canadian Inuit girl and one Bangladeshi/Indian boy. The former narrative is exaggerated; the latter is better but not perfect. Decent illustrations, though a bit too dark-tinged. The intent and the message are great, but the overall execution is just okay. Plot Preview: ‘Here’. Bay of Bengal. Twelve-year-old orphan Sami lives with his grandfather. They fish for their living, but because of the flash floods, intense storms, and rising water levels, the catch is dwindling. ‘There’. Northern Canada. Fourteen-year-old Yuki has noticed the struggles of the bears to find food. She is sure that the bears wandering into town aren’t polars but a new species named ‘grolars’ ( more on this below ), and is dete...

AUTHOR: Beka Gremikova GENRE: Fantasy Short Story Collection. PUBLICATION DATE: November 30, 2025 RATING: 3.95 stars. In a Nutshell: A sci-fi fantasy story collection about dealing with various kinds of ‘monsters’ – external and internal. Original premises, even as a couple of the stories pay homage to classic fairy tales. Interesting characters, atmospheric writing, reflective plots. Slow-paced. Recommended to young adults and adults. This is the author’s second story collection in the Unexpected Encounters series. I had read the first collection, Unexpected Encounters of a Draconic Kind  in October 2023 and was blown away by the creativity of the storylines. As such, this sophomore collection was a highly anticipated one. To a great extent, it lived up to my expectations. The key phrase in both collections is the series title: Unexpected Encounters. Every story contains some kind of an unexpected encounter, whether fulfilling or risky or adventurous or uncertain. The meet-ups cou...

AUTHOR: Daniel Georges GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: September 15, 2025 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A lovely picture book teaching a much-needed lesson in today’s world. Great story, quirky illustrations, excellent life lessons. A standalone new entrant to the ‘My Crazy Stories’ universe. Recommended. Plot Preview: When Jimmy’s parents are going out for the evening, they leave him in the hands of a new babysitter named Ms. Cherry. Jimmy behaves wonderfully until his parents leave, and then unleashes his hidden side. With him flexing his speed and fearlessness and temper, Ms. Cherry has a tough time keeping up. But then, something happens and Jimmy is forced to question his attitude. The story is written in Jimmy’s first-person perspective. We are living in a material world, and we are raising a material generation because of our short-term thinking. Giving so many things to children – at times, even if they don’t need anything new – trains children to take...

AUTHOR: Jean-Baptiste Aubin GENRE: Maths PUBLICATION DATE: February 3, 2026 RATING: 5 stars! In a Nutshell: Exactly as the title states. A big book of everything pi. Fascinating and hilarious. Not at all dry. Totally enjoyed this book. If only math textbooks were like this! If someone had told me in my school years that I would relish a book about that infernal concept called pi π, I would have laughed right in their face! Not that I didn’t enjoy maths, but so many geometrical formulae involved the use of pi that it became a bugbear. I wish such a book had existed in my childhood. Pi is known to be one of the most enigmatic concepts in mathematics, even when humans (with the aid of computers) have unfurled its decimals to much more than practically necessary. This book seeks to shatter the dread surrounding this concept without sounding like a school textbook, and it is VERY successful in this endeavour. The uniqueness of the approach is that the content is almost conversational despit...

AUTHOR: Clodagh Murphy GENRE: Romance. PUBLICATION DATE: September 6, 2025 RATING: 3.75 stars. In a Nutshell: A romantic comedy filled with the Irish festive spirit. Forced proximity trope. A good balance of comedy and emotions, though it never gets too intense. Nice characters, though a few are a bit too pushy. Sweet romance, with a teeny bit of steam. A heartwarming read with only a few misses and eyerolls. (Coming from this Grinch, consider this a compliment.) Recommended. Plot Preview: When her boyfriend breaks up with her just a few days before Christmas, Mary McBride longs for a morale boost with her loving family back in Dingle. So she books a last-minute flight from New York to Ireland, hoping to surprise her family. When she reaches home, she discovers that her family had the very same idea, and they have gone to New York to surprise her. Worse, they entered into a house-swap agreement, and Mary has to handle the grumpy Evan Prentiss, who wants his temporary house all to himse...

EDITOR: Sarah Mirk ILLUSTRATORS: Gerardo Alba, Kasia Babis, Alex Beguez, Tracy Chahwan, Nomi Kane, Omar Khouri, Kane Lynch, Maki Naro, Hazel Newlewant, Jeremy Nguyen, Chelsea Saunders, Abu Zubaydah GENRE: Graphic Nonfiction PUBLICATION DATE: September 8, 2020 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: An illustrated anthology containing true-life narratives related to the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison. Horrifying and infuriating. Definitely recommended, but make sure you are in a good headspace when you read this. The below review comes from an angry place; I apologise if it sounds aggressive. I don’t mean to hurt anyone’s sentiments, but I found it impossible to control my emotions while penning this. I wrote and rewrote my review for this book thrice before finally giving up on all hopes of diplomatic politeness. Each time, no matter how much I tried to stay on point, I was going off topic into a rant about US politics ( both present and past ), its spiteful attitude towards people of non-w...