puddlejumper's reviews
726 reviews

The idea of this book is a really great one and definitely something that is needed. The fitness industry has become increasingly toxic and not an inclusive environment though this is being challenged by a lot of fitness professionals. 

I liked that there was a focus on exploring movement and exploring your body. That is something that has been lost. 
Movement has to have meaning now. You can't just move because you enjoy it, it's to lose weight or build muscle or whatever, and that's very damaging. 

My feelings are split about this book. I am both the target audience and not the target audience. I am a Pilates teacher and I am a neurospicy hypermobile. 

The focus on improving sleep, hydration, stress levels etc were excellent. The bite sized explanations on the body and exercise were really well written and easy to read and understand. Loved that. 

The exercises were well explained and the photos helpful. I liked the movement snacks. Short flows are a great way to get people moving and building it into their routine. 

My problem is with the ‘assessment portion’. It was not an assessment. It was a mobility check in and I have no issue with that! Get to know your body, get to know what niggles and clicks to inform you going forward but you are not assessing your body. 

You are encouraged to make notes about what you feel doing these movements but that is the end of it. There is no further advice, or explanation, or suggestions for different movements. 

There's a difference between noting your shoulder crunches in arm circles and knowing to move more slowly, than noting you rotate in a seated side bend which could be due to muscular imbalance though you wouldn't know that. 

Assessment implies that this information will be used to inform something. If you take these notes and pass them onto a movement teacher they will ask you to repeat the movements so they can watch you. I think I'm mostly confused by the language. 


Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC

 

I am finally able to review this! I’ve been running the campaign for close to two years now and we’re going into the finale in July (which is not in the book). I replaced the Icewind Dale setting with Eiselcross from Wildmount. Nothing major was changed but I thought I’d mention it. 

This cannot be run as written; it is a poorly conceived adventure and needs a lot of help from third party material. It felt more like random encounter after random encounter rather than a complete adventure. If you are looking for snowy side quests or ideas then grab a few from here and re-jig as necessary. 

The main problem is how disjointed it is. It takes the players from levels 1-15. The first half/early levels are spent wandering around Ten Towns and doing quests. I kept referring back to spring never having come, never ending winter, it was colder, food was scarce etc and my players did not care. They were happy dicking around Ten Towns. 

Ten Towns is problematic. I would grab either an expanded version of them or write your own as some of the stuff included in the book did not make sense or was unnecessary. Looking at you incest town. 

The middle part has nothing to do with the main plotline. It’s essentially a side quest to grind levels. The players had no motivation to engage with it. It was mostly dungeon crawls, fortresses, nothing unusual or special. 

My players had a lot of fun in Ythryn, though mine was Aeor and I took a lot of inspiration from what was done in Critical Role. They did not enjoy hitting specific locations to find bits of poetry. Again, they weren’t fully interested in the plot. 

There were fun elements but get third party stuff to help restructure it and make Auril an interesting BBEG. Her stat block was a joke. If your characters are level 15 when they encounter her, she won’t be a challenge at all. 

The art work was amazing. I loved flicking through this book because it was so colourful. It does add depth to a tundra/snow setting, the monsters are fun, and you can transplant the dungeon crawls into other settings. The maps were really good as well so the locations could be useful in other campaigns. 

I would definitely run it again but I would make changes before we even start. 

Also, if your players/characters like animals ignore the awakened animals part because that is all they will focus on. 

Memoirs are not a genre I gravitate towards. I wanted to read this book because of my interest in Greek tragedy and because I've experienced suicidal ideation. I was curious about using ancient literature as a way to explore and understand people's decision to kill themselves and the impact it has on the people left behind. 

It was a very interesting read, but I found it a bit disconnected. It was a dry read. Even the sections about her family and her experiences were very dry. If it was more emotive I might have felt more connected. 

Equally, it is the author’s right to keep that to themselves especially regarding such a sensitive topic. It isn't a criticism or a demand for vulnerability. I personally found it difficult to overcome that distance.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC

 

This was a very sweet and easy to read manga. The title pretty much gives the plot away – Hasimoto badmouths his boss to a friend in an online game, not knowing that his friend is actually his boss. 

There are multiple misunderstandings, mostly because Hasimoto is ridiculously dense, but they serve to further the plot and character development and are comical rather than angsty. 

It was definitely cute and easy brain fluff. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC 

This is a very fun manga about a man who finds himself working for a ghost real estate agency. 

He has to work with the mysterious tattooed hottie. I'm guessing this will turn romantic in the future. I wouldn't mind either way. These two work really well together and have a nice, fun developing relationship whether it's romantic or not. 

I really enjoyed the supernatural element. It was something a bit different. The different spirits and their stories were interesting. The zashiki warashi was definitely my favourite. 

Thanks to #Netgalley for the #ARC

I really enjoyed the blending of sci-fi with 1920s aesthetics and society. The first half definitely felt like an opulent space opera.

The book began to lose me when the con artist confessed her scheme with very little prompting. The mark's sister suspects her of lying, there is some plot stuff and then she fully explains her plan to marry her brother for money because he wronged her sister.

The plan doesn't make a whole lot of sense and it makes even less sense to tell that to your mark’s sister, especially when she loves her brother. 

The romance was flat with both siblings. I don't know how she was going to get Esteban to marry her, they had zero chemistry, and she was trying to con him. Be a better gold digger. 

The book suffers from having too much going on. The characters are never given any depth, their relationships are shallow and a lot of it has to do with the amount of stuff going on. 

This is more space opera than con/heist or romance. If you want sapphic space opera then give it a go. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC

 

This novel is all about ambition and power – what would you do to get it and what would it cost you – were very central to the plot and character motivations. 

 

Meilin leaves her family to join the army out ambition and a desire for autonomy. She wants to find a place for herself and not be defined by the men around her. A dangerous ambition as a competent woman in the realm of men upsets the social order. 

 

What stood out for me was that the character thought about the consequences of her choices, what would happen if she stayed, what would happen if she was discovered, and still made the choice to disguise herself because it was the only way to get what she wanted and that was worth the risk. 

 

The book is split into three parts and each part was paced differently which was a bit odd. The second and third parts were a lot faster pace and there wasn’t much development during those sections. The first part felt more developed as time was spent setting the world up and the characters. 

 

I thought the book lost its way in the middle a bit. The introduction of the situationship triangle didn’t fit with the rest of the book and felt very awkward. I hesitate to call it a love triangle as none of the parties actually loved or liked each other. 

 

It was still an amazing book that gripped me from the start. I loved the magical element and the world building, each kingdom had its own history and culture that were distinct, most of the characters were fleshed out and the family and friendship relationships felt organic, it was just the romance that was weird. 

 

Would definitely recommend to people that enjoy historical fantasy. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC

 

This is not grounded in reality at all. Do not expect this to be a good procedural investigation book. I would say it's romance with light mystery and squad goals. 

The case is a child abduction and murder which automatically takes it out of the cosy genre for me. None of it was handled well or respectfully in the writing. It felt exploitative, as if it was included just for shock value. The perpetrator did not make sense.  

There is too much going on and nothing gets developed. I forgot who half the characters were, especially since some of them had no personality. It was just a name and relationship to the main character.

The romance would have been better spread over several books. It felt too quick. The sex scenes were bad. Not weeping cock purple prose bad but not far off. Thankfully, they were easy to skip. They also flirt, dirty talk driving back from a child’s funeral which made it hard to like them. 

The first half of the book was much stronger and then it flops around and comes to a very unsatisfactory and frankly stupid ending. It was easy reading though and I enjoyed the premise. I’ll probably give the author another go and try the next in the series. 

 

It takes awhile for this novella to find its stride. The first few chapters are a bit awkwardly paced and there is a lot of information thrown at the reader. After chapter 3 it improves dramatically.


It follows a police detective in Seoul who can see ghosts and incorporates a mixture of Korean, Japanese and Chinese spiritualism and mythology. This part of the book I really enjoyed. It was explained well and felt integrated and fully flashed out.


The MC Han-gil is openly bi and identifies as asexual. You don't often see ace MCs, especially ones where their sexuality isn't the focus of the story. 


A lot of great things were packed into this novella. If this was turned into a series I would definitely keep reading. 


The story touches on transphobia in Korea and there are scenes of domestic violence against a trans person.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC

This is a very low conflict manga about first love. It's a good blend of humour and sweetness. 

The artwork is lovely and really fits the vibe. I would definitely recommend it as an easy, happy read

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC