Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR:  Eva Glyn SERIES: Bookish Escapes, #3 GENRE: Contemporary Fiction PUBLICATION DATE: January 16, 2026 RATING:  3.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A contemporary fiction set on a floating library travelling across the Croatian islands. Character-oriented, slow-paced. Good use of the found family trope. More focus on the humans behind the library than the library itself. Some great themes, but slightly repetitive at times. A few scenes felt unnecessary. Not much romance, which I appreciate. A nice choice for fans of the genre.  Plot Preview: Thirty-five-year-old Ana Meštrović has accepted a new government contract to use her catamaran as a library carrying books across various islands of Croatia. She needs to make this project a success so that she can prove to her parents that she can have her own career independent of their oyster farming business.  Two new crew members will join Ana for this summer project: fifty-three-year-old British national Lloyd – the l...

AUTHOR: Thomas Nowak ILLUSTRATOR: Alberto Miranda GENRE: Humour PUBLICATION DATE: March 3, 2026 RATING: 3.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A collection of Dad jokes. Mix of puns, riddles, and smart one-liners. Some jokes were familiar to me, but many were new. Some were a bit too esoteric, especially for children. If you love Dad jokes, you'll find some great ones in this book. Better suited to adults. My younger daughter is fond of dad jokes, and we have a gala time at home cracking each other up with our quips. As such, when I saw this book listed on NetGalley, I immediately asked her if she wanted me to get it and read it together. There wasn’t even a moment’s hesitation before her ‘Yes!’ rang out. We ended up having a lot of fun with this buddy read, but also wished some things were different. The book starts with a humorous dedication – the perfect start to a joke collection. It then moves on to the jokes, with the table of contents indicating the ten topic areas the jokes are distribu...

AUTHOR: Lisa Papp SERIES: Madeline Finn, #3 GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: September 1, 2020 RATING: 5 howls-of-happiness stars! In a Nutshell: The third picture book in the Madeline Finn series, and just as beautiful and impactful. I’ve run out of adjectives to praise this series, so just go for it. Plot Preview: Star has a test, and Madeline is doing everything she can to prepare him for it. On the big day, Madeline and Star are off to Walker Oaks, a retirement community, where Star will be tested on his potential as a therapy dog. The tests have a smooth start, and Madeline’s mom is confident that Star did well. But Madeline herself can't help but think about an elderly man in a wheelchair who never smiled or looked their way. Can Star do better with him? Can she help in any way? The story comes to us in Madeline’s first-person perspective. By now, I expect the sun and the moon and the *Star* from this book series, and it delivers every time! Yet again, the...

AUTHOR: V.E. Schwab GENRE: Fantasy PUBLICATION DATE: June 10, 2025 RATING: 2 stars. In a Nutshell: A multi-timeline vampire fantasy about needs, wants, and desires. Triple POV, but only one was interesting. Good prose, lacklustre plot, repetitive scenes. Mostly boring. Only the finale has a few thrills. This is an outlier opinion. Plot Preview: 1532. Spain. Maria. A beautiful girl married to a viscount who views her only as a vessel to bring forth his future children. She longs for freedom. 1827. England. Charlotte. An idealistic girl who's sent away to her relatives in London to hide a clandestine affair. She longs for love. 2019. USA. Alice. A Scottish girl who joins college in Boston hoping for a fresh start and a clean break from the past. But one mistake imperils her plans. She longs for revenge. How do the lives of these three girls intersect? The story comes to us in their third-person perspectives spread across multiple countries and centuries. In all honesty, had I realise...

AUTHOR: Carola Schmidt ILLUSTRATOR: Dian Ovieta GENRE: Children's Inspirational Book. PUBLICATION DATE: February 6, 2026 RATING: 4 stars. In a Nutshell: An inspirational picture book aimed at young girls. Nice uplifting message, fabulous illustrations. A bit too vague, but this can also work to its advantage. Recommended. As the cover indicates, this is a “letter to a powerful girl”. Addressed directly to the young girl reading the book, the content offers a motivating note about how to tackles the various stones that life may throw in their path. I found the tagline quite interesting. The adjective “powerful” is a minor addition but a major game-changer in that line. It highlights how even confident children can face hurdles on their way. At the same time, it serves as a reminder that the little reader is powerful, whether they believe it or not. As far as messages go, the content is obviously as expected. But there are a couple of things that set this book apart. For one, the con...

AUTHOR: D.A. Holdsworth GENRE: Poetry PUBLICATION DATE: December 5, 2025 RATING: 3 stars. In a Nutshell: An illustrated epic ballad aimed at children but better for adults. Innovative in concept and implementation. Great language and rhymes, good structure, quirky simian characters. Had I been a poetry person, I might have enjoyed this more. Recommended. I never knew epic ballads are still being written, that’s how much of an ignoramus I am when it comes to poetry. The only epic ballad I have read is Coleridge’s ‘The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner’, and that too, with a lot of hesitation. As such, I was a bit apprehensive when this book came my way. Given my aversion towards anything poetic, I didn’t trust myself to be able to focus on a lengthy piece of poetry. Keep this in mind because the rest of my feedback is influenced heavily by this regrettable shortcoming. This ballad poem comes to us from a first-person narrator who bumps into an aging chimpanzee at a tavern. Nudged by the narra...

AUTHOR:  Lisa Fox GENRE: Satirical Story Collection PUBLICATION DATE: 7th December 2025 RATING: 3.6 stars. In a Nutshell: A short story collection that takes a satirical look at several relevant topics. Varied in genres and protagonists. The humour is somewhat dark. Entertaining enough, as long as you expect the OTT tone common to satire.  Author Lisa Fox has penned two short story collections prior to this one: ‘Core Truths’   and ‘Passageways’ . I had enjoyed both of these speculative collections and hence looked forward to her latest set of stories. This one is slightly different from the earlier two, in that it doesn’t contain a unifying theme.  The stories in both “Core Truths” and “Passageways” were embodiments of their respective titles, with every story containing a “core truth”/“passageway” as applicable. I think that helped me appreciate the author’s cleverness and creativity better. This time, there was no thread connecting the stories beyond the sati...

AUTHOR & NARRATOR: Arundhati Roy GENRE: Memoir PUBLICATION DATE: September 2, 2025 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A memoir written by one of India’s most eloquent writers. I picked it up for her writing and was rewarded richly with her thoughts and words. Her deeds aren’t always my cup of tea, but I judge memoirs by their content and not by their authors’ life choices. This was an easy winner in that regard. Much recommended. I am not a big fan of memoirs. I find most of them fake and pretentious and even indulging in humble-bragging. Celebrity memoirs are even worse because they all sound the same ( probably because most of them are ghostwritten by the same ghostwriters who went to the same kind of creative writing courses .) I also am not a big fan of the new trend in memoirs wherein dirty family linen is washed in public, sometimes after the death of the “antagonist”. Given all this, I shouldn’t even have picked this book up, forget about reading it. But there was one key dif...

AUTHOR: Liadan Ní Chuinn GENRE: Short Story Collection PUBLICATION DATE: January 20, 2026 RATING: 2 stars. In a Nutshell: A short story collection. Character-driven, introspective, mostly gloomy. Some good bits of writing here and there but on the whole, this failed to capture my attention. As I have enjoyed whatever Irish works I read, I thought that this collection, promoted as a debut collection by an Irish writer, would be my cup of tea. [ One big mistake I made here was to assume that “Irish writer” meant a writer from Ireland. I forgot about Northern Ireland, a country I know very little about.  😬] What is further intriguing is that other than that fact that the author was born in Northern Ireland in 1998, we know nothing about them. ‘Liadan Ní Chuinn’ is a pseudonym, and the writer has no publicity photos or social media presence under this identity. It is quite brave of a debut writer of literary short stories to refuse promotional mandates. Sadly, the above made no differ...

AUTHOR: Cherry Zong GENRE: Graphic Novel PUBLICATION DATE: January 13, 2026 RATING: 3 stars. In a Nutshell: An upper-YA graphic novel loosely derived from the fairytale of "Little Red Riding Hood." Not a retelling. Decent story but too meandering. Interesting characters, but not everyone is explored well. A good read, but could have been shorter and better. Plot Preview: Nineteen-year-old Red, a skilled hunter, has devoted her entire life to helping her grandmother, a witch trying to save the forest they live in from a strange rot that keeps spreading despite their efforts. Red's task is to locate the creatures known as ‘nawa’, kill them, and take their bodies to her grandmother for exorcism and deliverance. With no other humans still living in the forest, Red is quite lonely. But one day, she bumps into an injured wolf-girl named Sil. As the two of them move towards a hesitant friendship, Red uncovers some dark secrets about everything she's known. I'm not that f...

AUTHOR: Frances Hodgson Burnett GENRE: Middle-grade Fiction, Classic. PUBLICATION DATE: 1905. RATING: 2.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A children’s classic about a young girl and her fortitude in times of adversity. Overly perfect main character, decent story (though a bit too straightforward.) Many inclusions that haven’t aged well at all. This was a reread after many decades, and it confirmed that my original feelings for the book haven’t changed; this can never be my favourite. Plot Preview: At the age of seven, Sara is sent by her wealthy and loving father, who is serving in India, to her new school in London. Dubbed ‘the little princess’ by her classmates for her fancy clothes and toys, Sara shows that her richness hasn’t spoilt her compassion and kindness towards those of lesser means. But when her father suddenly dies bankrupt, Sara’s circumstances change drastically. The story comes to us in various characters’ third-person perspectives. I had purchased this book from a book fair at s...

AUTHOR: Gabrielle Meyer SERIES: Dollar Princess, #1 GENRE: Historical Romance, Retelling PUBLICATION DATE: January 6, 2026 RATING: 4.5 stars. In an Nutshell: A historical romance inspired by the classic musical, ‘My Fair Lady’. Christian fiction. Excellent characters and plotline. Great exploration of the gilded era, social mores, and emotions. Does far better justice to the adopted-heiress trope. The first of the ‘Dollar Princess’ series, but standalone. Much recommended. ♫ ‘ Wouldn’t it be loverly’♫ to read more such adaptations? 😍 Plot Preview: 1882. Twenty-one-year-old Keira O'Day, abandoned by her parents in childhood, has grown up with her uncaring relatives in the tenements of NYC, scraping by somehow. So when a wealthy eccentric widow named Maude Hill makes a wild proposition, Keira hesitates only a little before accepting. The plan is that Maude, an unflappable social climber, will adopt Keira, train her to be a lady, and present her as a rich bride for any titled Englis...