Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon?

This is a review for Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? story by Fujino Omori, art by Kunieda.
I gave this book ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5 stars, I loved it.

Bell Cranel is a fairly average guy with a fairly average dream to save a really pretty girl who is cornered by a monster and then they will fall in love.  Good thing for Bell that monsters exist and he can fight them by going into the dungeon.  What will happen if his fantasy is reversed and he is the one saved from a monster by a beautiful girl?

In this series gods and goddesses are real and they bestow blessings on humans that give the humans special abilities and make them part of the god or goddesses' familia.  Bell is the only member of his goddesses' familia but he doesn't mind.  Bell is determined to get stronger and he fights monsters every day.

I am really enjoying this series so far.  The world created in this series is interesting.  The idea of gods and goddesses willingly coming to live among humans and bestow blessings on them is intriguing.  The cast of gods and goddesses that have been introduced in this first volume is quite diverse; Norse, Greek and Hindu deities have made appearances.  Bell is a lovable idiot with surprising depths.  The story lines are good and the plot moves along well.  There is a lot of comedy but it doesn't overshadow the serious points.

I recommend this very highly.  If you enjoyed Magi or Sword Art Online you will enjoy this series.

You should also check out the anime available on crunchyroll!

Jala and the Wolves

This is a review for Jala and the Wolves by Marti Dumas.
I gave this book ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5 stars, I loved it.

Jala is a curious six year old girl.  She loves to read, especially about animals, she is always learning new facts about them.  Jala knows her mother is magic, her mother always knows what she is thinking and when she is hungry after all!  One day she finds a mysterious mirror in her room and she just knows her magic mother put it there.  Jala travels into the mirror like Alice and Jala finds a wolf pack on the other side.
 
 This book is perfect for younger readers.  The narrative moves well, the language is simple and the story is intriguing.  Most children will find something in Jala that is familiar.  I don't think there is a child alive who hasn't pretended to be an animal at least once in their life. 

I enjoyed this book a lot!  Jala is an adorable child.  She is special and magical and just grabs your heart strings. Jala reminded me a lot of myself as a child.  I have always been a bookwork.  I had a special place in my room to curl up with my books and read.  I would have loved to find a magic mirror or wardrobe or rabbit hole to take me off on a magical adventure.  Coming home at the end and finding my mother making me breakfast would have been the perfect end.

I recommend this book to all lovers of magical adventure.  It is short and sweet and tells a great tale.

I received this book through GoodReads First Reads program.

The Ancient Magus' Bride

This is a review for Volume 1 of The Ancient Magus' Bride by Kore Yamazaki.
I gave this book ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5 stars, I loved it.

Chise Hatori is just an orphan, just an orphan who can see things other people can't.  No one wanted her, her family shoved her back and forth until she somehow ended up in a strange auction house being sold to the highest bidder.  The person who bought her has a strange outward appearance but he is very kind to her and even says he wants to marry her.  Now she is in training to be a mage learning about all of the strange magic in the world around her.

I remember being interested when this title was announced for publication, but I was a bit on the fence about buying it.  When I saw it in the store today I decided to flip through it a bit and I just knew I had to buy it.

Chise has a tragic back story that we don't know much about though it is being revealed in small pieces.  Elias is a mysterious figure, he raises many questions and he is very adept at avoiding answering any of them.  There are many magical beings in the world and Chise is a wonderful lens for the reader to learn about them.

I really enjoyed this first volume.  It is very interesting subject matter and Chise very loveable.  Elias is intriguing and all of the various magical beings, both good and bad, are well developed and designed.  I highly recommend this series!  It has a nice balance of humor and serious content.  The art is wonderful and brings everything to life in an amazing way.  The only downside is waiting 4 months for the next volume after the cliffhanger this one ended on!

Ajin: Demi-Human Volume 1

This is a review for Ajin: Demi-Human Volume 1 by Tsuina Miura & Gamon Sakurai
I gave this book ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 4 stars, I liked it a lot.

"Do demin-humans only become demi-human after they die once? Or are they born that way?"

Kei Nagai is a regular high school student.  He studies hard so he can become a doctor.  He is an obedient son and a good brother.  One day he gets hit by a truck and dies.  And then he gets up and realizes that he is one of the "demi-humans."  Demi-humans were discovered 17 years before, they are immortal.  They can die over and over again and come back to life.  There are 46 known demi-humans in the world, or there were this morning.  Now there are 47 and Kei is on the run.  Every government in the world wants to get their hands on the demi-humans.  They are seen as valuable test subjects and experimented on.

This story is great.  The story takes off immediately and drags the reader along with it.  Kei is on the run from the government.  The government is desperate to find him.  There is a strange man in a hat with a creepy smile watching people rush around frantically.  What on earth are these strange black mummy looking things?

I really enjoyed that this story didn't travel down the tired old "I'm immortal, I must be a superhero charged with saving the world" path.  This is much darker and I love it.  This series seems to be playing with the very definition of humanity.  What makes someone human?  Is someone who is different somehow not a human? 

Regular immortal superheroes are a stretch to my mind.  No government in the world is going to look the other way and let someone who can't die or who has super strength or who has x-ray vision roam around doing what ever they want.  I am much more inclined to believe that every government would be fighting to get their hands on and experiment on someone that appears to be immortal. 

I can't wait to see what is in store for the next volume of this manga.  I recommend this one very highly.  It is fairly graphic, he gets hit by a truck in the first chapter and that is only the first time Kei dies, so there is gore and there will probably be a whole lot more before this series ends.  The story moves at a good pace and I have to say the ending leaves the reader wanting more!

Magical Girl Apocalypse Volume 3

This is a review for Magical Girl Apocalypse Volume 3 by Kentaro Sato.
I gave this book ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5 stars, I loved it.

"Magical Girls of Future Past"

Spoiler Warning!
This is a review for the third volume in a series.  To read my review of the first two volumes click here: Volume 1 & Volume 2 If you choose to read the review for the third volume first you may find some spoilers for the first two volumes!

Synopsis:  Kii Kogami's live has been a living hell since the magical girls arrived bringing death and destruction with them.  His school was destroyed but he and a few other students escaped.  They finally found a safe haven at a shopping mall.  Their haven didn't stay secure for very long and they were once again forced to run.  In all of the chaos this time their group was split in half!

Kii is desperate to get to Tsukune's side and protect her but he has a slight problem.  One of the magical girls sent him back in time by 10 years.  He and the others with him are back in the year 2002 and the peacefulness of that time is surreal after all the chaos.  Will they be able to go back to 2012?  Do they even want to go back?  Is there a connection between the two time periods? 

This volume had a lot of surprises in its pages.  Some questions have been answered from previous volumes, many new questions have been raised.  The majority of this volume is in 2002 and this provides a unique look at some of the character's pasts.  Learning about their pasts sheds new light on their actions in the current year.  A tiny hint is given about the origins of the magical girls.  Not everything is quite the way it seems.

I can't wait for the next volume to be released.  The only downside to this series is waiting 3 months in between volumes!  I still recommend this series to anyone who isn't squeamish.  It definitely has its share of blood and guts but there is also a healthy dose of humor and a great plot to go with the gore!

Doubt Volume 2

This is a review for Doubt Volume 2 by Yoshiki Tonogai.
I gave this book ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5 stars, I loved it.

"One day a wolf snuck into a tight-knit colony of rabbits." 

This is a review for sequel in a series.  This review will have spoilers for the first volume.  If you wish to read my review of the first volume you can find that here.

Six players of the mobile game "Rabbit Doubt" decided to have an offline meeting.  They met up and ended up locked in a warehouse with no idea how they got there and the corpse of a friend hanging from the rafters.  Now they have to find the wolf hiding among them before they all die.

This volume starts off with two people dead and the rest are sure they know the wolf's identity.  Unfortunately for them nothing is as it seems for the remaining players.  Everyone is hiding a secret from the others, some big and some small.  Can any of them trust anyone else?  Will any of them even try to trust the others? Will anyone survive this deadly game?

I have to say, I liked the ending even better than the first volume.  The plot twists kept being interesting and unexpected.  The true identity of the wolf was a shock to me.  The motives of the wolf were even more of a shock.  The last page of the manga was a perfect ending to this series.  It is dark, and gory and it deserved a fittingly macabre ending and it got one.  I am not sure I will ever look at rabbits quite the same way after reading this series!

I definitely recommend this series to everyone who doesn't mind a little blood and gore! 

Twenty Dinners

This is a review for Twenty Dinners by Ithai Schori & Chris Taylor.
I have this book ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ 3 stars, I liked it.

"A photographer (who happens to be an ex-restaurant cook) and an indie rock star (who happens to be an avid home cook) show you how to slow down your life by cooking beautiful, straightforward, but sophisticated, food for--and with--friends."

This book features 20 full meals arranged seasonally that you can cook at home for or with your friends.  Each recipe is accompanied by stunning photographs.  The authors are pretty good about simplifying their food so it doesn't seem so difficult to make.

Each meal has several dishes included and the authors encourage swapping pieces out or experimenting to make everything how you like it.   Many recipes in here even suggest alternatives if you can't find an element.  Each meal has a suggested drink pairing.  Sometimes it is merely a wine suggestion, other times it is a cocktail that you can make yourself with the included recipe.

This book is all about cooking with friends so it stands to reason that the authors had several of the friends collaborate with them on this book.  There are sections to tell readers how to stock a home bar, how to buy and brew great coffee and how to mix great drinks.  Everything about this cook book is meant to make cooking for your friends more fun.

I personally enjoyed this cookbook.  There are a lot of great recipes in here.  Some of them are pretty basic like roasting a chicken or grilling a hamburger.  Others are more involved such as "morel and shiitake mushroom risotto" or "spiced red wine-poached pears."  There are a lot of recipes that I am looking forward to trying.  There are also quite a few that I probably won't ever make, due to lack of interest or inability to get a specialized ingredient or because I live in a land locked region and fresh fish isn't readily available.  Overall I enjoyed the cook book but it didn't blow me away.

I received this book free from blogging for books in exchange for an honest review.