Book Review: Hamley's Birthday by Sandra J. Paul (Hamley #1)

 

  Note: This book isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads Hamley #1: Hamley is jarig.

Saw this cat xenofiction series at the local library. You know me, I'll give any xenofiction a try, so here we go. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Wolf Woman by Hay van den Munckhof

 

  Note: The title of this book has been translated into English by me for the reading comprehension of this blog's viewers as the book itself isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads Wolvenvrouw. 

This one looked interesting to me, so I picked it up from the library. Spoilers ahead. Also, this review will contain mentions of sexual assault, read at your own risk.

Book Review: Duncton Tales by William Horwood (The Book of Silence #1)

Yes, the sequel series to Duncton Wood! I'm finally giving it a look. Spoilers ahead.
 

Book Review: Coorinna by Erle Wilson

 

Well, you know me. I love reading xenofiction and thylacines are my favorite animals (yes, even surpassing wolves). Sadly there is barely any thylacine xenofiction out there. I wanted to read Coorinna before, but legal ebooks and English physical copies are very, very hard to come by without having to pay a whole lot. So I settled for getting a German copy instead. 

Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Magic Hour by Kirstin Hannah

 

Sometimes you just gotta pick up a book based on the premise of "it features a character who befriended wolves". 

Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Cobweb by Michael Morpurgo

 

Impulse buy in Luxembourg which I finished reading in the span of a few hours. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: I Am Rebel by Ross Montgomery

 

I think this will be the second book by Montgomery that I read? Ah well, spoilers ahead.

Book Review: A Wolf Tells Lies by Alden Louper (The Wolves of the Vale Rift #1)

 

Someone in a xenofiction Discord server I'm in mentioned this one. It was published fairly recently. Let's take a look. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: StormClan's Folly by Erin Hunter (Warriors Super Edition #18)

 

More kitty cat drama. Let's take a look. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Tala's Secret by Bryce Thomas (Rhamin #3)

 

The third book in the series. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Blue Tooth by Bryce Thomas (Rhamin #2)

 

 

 

Book two time! Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Rhamin by Bryce Thomas (Rhamin #1)

Another wolf xenofiction that looked interesting to me. Spoilers ahead!

Book Review: Lost Tracks by Jenny Galaxia (Free Fall #1)

   Note: The title of this book has been translated into English by me for the reading comprehension of this blog's viewers as the book itself isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads Free Fall #1: Verlorene Spuren.

Bought this one on a whim because it looked interesting to me. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Solo's Journey by Joy Smith Aiken

 

Cat xenofiction that isn't Warriors? Gasp! 

Anyways, spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Callanish by William Horwood

 

I don't think I've read much if any bird xenofiction before. So let's check out Callanish by William Horwood, a book about golden eagles.

Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski (The Witcher #1)

 

Apparently this series has a funny publishing order, but I'm going to label the books (if I do review more of this series) by how they're numbered on the Dutch copies I read. They number this installment as the first, so that's what I'm going with.

Book Review: The Island by S.J. Paul (Islands #1)

 

    Note: This book isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads Eilanden #1: Het Eiland.

Book at the library I just kinda picked up one day, the premise seemed interesting. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: The Cold Moons by Aeron Clement

 

Badger xenofiction. I think this is a first for me. Spoilers ahead!

Book Review: Sophia's Invitation by Random House

 

I quite like the Unicorn Academy Netflix show, so when I saw this book I bought it and gave it a read. Spoilers ahead.

Oddly enough this book doesn't seem to have an attributed author.

Book Review: Catalysts by F.J. Thornburg (The Tales From Veynekan #2)

 

Took me a while to get to this one. Ah well, better late than never.

Book Review: Ice Dogs by Terry Lynn Johnson

 

Another one that's been on my TBR shelf for a while. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Colder Mountain Winds by Teng Rong (The Wolf Chronicles #3)

Book three! Spoiler ahead!

Book Review: Protectors of the Emerald by Barbara Laban (The Midnight Cats #2)

 

 Note: The title of this book has been translated into English by me for the reading comprehension of this blog's viewers as the book itself isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads Mitternachtskatzen #2: Die Hüter der Smaragdsterns.

I did actually read book one of this series but never ended up doing a review of it. Oh, well, I'm not going back to do one now. Because quite frankly I didn't care much for book one. Will I like book two better? Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: The Devil's Wage by Ton van Reen (The Bokkenrijders Gang #4)

  Note: This book isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads De Bende van de Bokkenrijders #4: Het loon van de duivel.
 

The final book in a series I really like. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Scourge of the Black Gold by Ton van Reen (The Bokkenrijders Gang #3)

 

   Note: This book isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads De Bende van de Bokkenrijders #3: De gesel van het zwarte goud.

Book three time! Let's take a gander. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Fiery Riders by Ton van Reen (The Bokkenrijders Gang #2)

 

   Note: This book isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads De Bende van de Bokkenrijders #2: Vurige ruiters.

 Let's look at book two. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Esaped From the Gallows by Ton van Reen (The Bokkenrijders Gang #1)

  Note: This book isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads De Bende van de Bokkenrijders #1: Ontsnapt aan de galg.

 
 Since my Bokkenrijders interest is resurfacing, here's a historical fiction book all about it! Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Secrets of Stone by Coltrane Seesequasis (A Wolf in the Sun #1)

 

This one looked promising to me. Spoilers ahead!

Book Review: The Shadowsneaker by Rob Koops (Ancient Blood #2)

  Note: The title of this book has been translated into English by me for the reading comprehension of this blog's viewers as the book itself isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads Oerbloed #2: De schaduwsluiper.

Book two is finally out! Spoilers ahead!

Book Review: People of the Wolf by W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear (North America's Forgotten Past #1)

This one looked very interesting to me when I found it on a secondhand book website. Let's check it out. Spoilers ahead. Also, content warning for mentions of sexual assault.

Book Review: While the Storm Rages by Phil Earle

 

The third book by Earle about kids and animals in wartime I have read this year. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Following the Moon by James Norbury

 

It's xenofiction with a wolf in it. Of course I had to read it. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Wolf Songs of Sky and Sea by Teng Rong (The Wolf Chronicles #2)

 

I wasn't too fond of book one in this series, but I do want to give the rest a look. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Balto and Togo: Hero Dogs of Alaska by Helen Moss

 

This one has been on my TBR for a while! Let's check it out! Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: The Immortal Order by Angola Hone (The Canid Chronology #2)

 

Another ARC review. Per usual, me being given a free copy of this book does not mean it'll affect my opinion on the book. These are my honest views. Also, spoilers ahead.

After Frelik's death, Ashiy and Ziliac both set out into the world to put him to rest, by bringing home some of Frelik's fur to his parents in the town of Sepplecretem. Ziliac keeps being plagued by visions and later finds out that Dusklight, Frelik's killer, is still alive. Meanwhile Ashiy hopes to find out more about his late parents by visiting their graves in Sepplecretem. Together the wolf and fox will discover more secrets tying into the world's past.

Yep, this is a solid followup to the first book. I think I honestly like this one more than the first one, though the first isn't bad by any means. But things really felt like they got going in this book.

For one, I really want to complement the world-building for this universe. I genuinely could get lost here and just learn a lot about the various species, cultures, beliefs, towns, history and lore, etc. We definitely go more in-depth in this second installment, but I still feel there's a lot of room for new aspects to be explored. Looking forward to this in future books!

This book also had my favorite setting in the series so far: Sepplecretem, a town with huge graveyards and crypts and an interesting system of animals looking after and guarding the crypts. Also, bonus points for introducing undead elements, because I really like these in fantasy.

I also really just loved some of the characters. The standout character for me this book really was Ziliac. I already liked him in book one, but in this installment he's one of its protagonists and I just loved reading his arc and POV. He's just a super interesting yet flawed character and I loved seeing his various relationships to the characters around him change throughout the book, such as the one between him and Ashiy, and the one between Ziliac and his father. Other characters I liked were Fyra (an interesting newcomer, a magical Arctic fox) and Jiji, who was just adorable. 

If I do have one criticism for this book, it's still that I don't think Ashiy is a very interesting character, an issue I also had with the first book. He's not badly written by any means, but he's just a bit bland and forgettable as far as standard fantasy protagonists go. I do like him, and his relationships with the characters around him, and his quest to find his deceased parents, but I'd be lying if I said I thought he was the most interesting out of the cast. Especially as a protagonist I keep hoping for just a little more from this character. 

I also thought that some of the infodumping once we start to get more into the history of the world and specifically the stuff regarding Keld and his daughters could get a little bit much. It was just a lot of information for me to process at once and I do wonder if it perhaps could've been spread out a little more so it's easier for the reader to process. I had to read this backstory section over a couple of times before grasping the lore. But maybe that's just on me and the fact that I don't do well with large infodumps. I personally prefer having information delivered to me in small bite-sized chunks.

Also, I spotted at least one typo and one formatting error in this book.

But this is still a very solid second installment and I do recommend it. Especially for fans of fantasy and animal xenofiction.

 Rating: 4/5

Book Review: In the Shadow of the Wolf Queen by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (Geomancer #1)

 

It has a wolf on the cover so I read it. Enough said. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: The War of the Dwarves by Markus Heitz (The Dwarves #2)

 

It has been a hot minute since I read book one, but I do want to continue this series. So let's take a look at book two. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Frost Dancers by Garry Kilworth

This is now the third xenofiction book by Kilworth I've read. One of his previous books I read before I really liked, the other I thought was just mediocre. Now let's see if his hare novel is any good. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Fire and Ash by Erin Hunter (Bamboo Kingdom #6)

 

The final book in the first arc! Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: When the Sky Falls by Phil Earle

I've read one book by Earle before and it was decent. Let's check out this one. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Wolves of the Shadowlands by Matthew Manyak

 

Another wolf xenofiction which looked interesting to me! Spoilers ahead!

Book Review: The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

 

Found this at a bookstore, it looked interesting enough. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Black Magic by Nicole Austen (Shadow of the Pack #1)

 

More wolf xenofiction, hooray. This one I've actually trying to obtain for a while, however I ran into some issues. For one, there doesn't seem to be an ebook release for this book (which is how I'd have preferred to have read it). Secondly, I finally ordered the paperback off of Bol about six months ago but it just never ended up shipping. They kept sending me notifications with "there is an issue with your order. We'll let you know when we've shipped it". And then there was radio silence and they never ended up shipping it to me. So in the end after five months I cancelled my Bol order and just got it off of Amazon instead. I'd still have preferred to order it from Bol or get the ebook but I guess I didn't have a choice here.

Ah well, spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Flaming Fate by Sophie Torro (The Wolves of Elementa #4)

 

I think(?) this is formally the final installment in the series. There are two more Elementa books out there, but from what I've seen at a brief glance they're supplemental and not formally a part of the series.

Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Ranger by Michael Hoyt

 

A wolf xenofiction I thought looked interesting. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: The Enchanted Door by Geronimo Silton (The Chronicles of Fantasy Kingdom #2)

 

Let's take a look at book two. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: The Great Timbers by James A. Kane

 

This one looked interesting to me. You know me at this point, I'll read anything with a wolf on the cover. Is it any good? Eh, let's see. Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Heartsong by TJ Klune (Green Creek #3)

 

Spoilers ahead!

Book Review: The Beasts of Grimheart by Kieran Larwood (The Five Realms #3)

 

Just as a note, this will probably be the last book of this series I will be reviewing. Not because I don't want to read onward, but simply because this is the last book in the series that got translated into Dutch and is available at my library. I could buy the future installments, of course, but I don't think I'm quite engaged enough with this series to pay for the next books. Ah well, only time will tell.

Spoilers ahead.

Book Review: Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan #1)

 

Sure, let's check this one out. Spoilers ahead.