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I do not know what Margaret Owen put into Vanja and Emeric to make me love them so much but I am delighted by their every interaction. Far and away the best protagonists and best romance I have come across so far in this challenge. Like it’s not even close

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Everything is Tuberculosis

by John Green

HRCYED Prompts Fulfilled:

1. Nonfiction: Medicine 2. Q's Recommendations: Youtube Short

I have a stream of informative podcasts that I like to listen to when I'm driving, many of which have, at some point, talked about Tuberculosis. It's a big shaper of human history, which I don't think is a particular secret. I'd have said going in that I know a decent amount about it. But this book still had a lot to teach me, even though it wasn't even 200 pages long,

I think this book is really smart with the way it weaves "fun facts" about Tuberculosis (like the fact that its tied to the invention of the cowboy hat), with the staggering facts about its potency, with the systemic ways that we've allowed it to flourish, with the very personal story of a boy he met named Henry. You never get too bogged down by one mode of the book before he's switching gears - just when the historical facts start to make you feel like you're reading a history book, you're pulled right back to Sierra Leone to see how Henry's life was affected by the disease. Then when you start to wonder how we could let this kid suffer so much, we're back to trailing the systems that have failed to lead to this point, and when it starts to feel overwhelming, you're fed a few nuggets of fun facts to keep you going.

It's well-written, informative, and at times incredibly moving. I think that's just about all you can ask for in a non-fiction title.

Final Rating: 5

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Disappearing Earth

by Julia Phillips

HRCYED Prompts Fulfilled:

1. Around the World: Asia 2. Become the Avatar: Earth

This is a book I really wish I liked more than I do. I love the idea of using a broad ensemble cast to explore a place, which how the story is set up - month by month, we get to see a little vignette told from the perspective of a person who lives on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia.

In terms of setting up the place, the book does that excellently. With such a broad swath of characters, we get to see all sorts of perspectives - how the indigenous people feel about Russians and vice versa, how the older generation sees the new migrants as a sign of the failures of capitalism, and how people view their homes and their families. I don't know much about Russia, but I certainly felt immersed in the place.

However, the struggle for me is the little vignettes themselves. Some of them are excellent. You're drawn in immediately to a character's current conflict, interested to see where it goes, and moved by the conclusion. In others... well, you're introduced to a new cast of characters who only have a tenuous connection to the characters you've already learned about, and it isn't always clear why we care to focus in on these guys right now. Some of these stories pick up after a bit - the story of a woman dealing with the grief of her second husband dying was one that started weak but ended with a really poignant depiction of that initial state of grief - but others just. Don't go anywhere.

Ostensibly, they're all connected by the event that happens in the first chapter - the abduction of a pair of sisters - but in most of them the girls are only brought up as sort of a background detail to the larger story, which makes me wonder why we're using them as the connecting thread through the story at all.

The last chapter sees several of these stories coming together... but not all of them, which only weakens some of the chapters that don't end up having much relevance. Or, a character from a past story is in that last chapter, but what happened to them simply isn't brought up, and they're more there as set dressing.

Overall, there are some great moments in this book and some insightful look inside the hearts of its characters. But for me, there were just too many places that it dragged for me to highly recommend it.

Final Rating: 3.25

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A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping

by Sangu Mandanna

HRCYED Prompts Fulfilled:

1. New Releases: July 2. BIPOC Authors

What if a family was a broken witch, her kindly great-aunt, a man who wears armor around the house, an old woman who's desperate to own a goat, two magical children, a magical historian, a cursed fox, and a zombie chicken? This is the essential philosophical question answered by this book.

This is a little delight of a book. Like having a nice cup of tea. We get to exist at an inn that was enchanted by our main character in her youth and watch as she tries to get her former magical power back. We also get to meet all of the residents of the inn, as oddball as they are. It's charming and its sweet.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the love interest in this book is pretty firmly canonically autistic. I really enjoyed his character arc through the book as he tries to find a place that will support his more severely autistic younger sister, and a place that he can call home as well.

The main character is also compelling, though I did feel as though she wasn't as consistently written as the other characters in the book - it was nothing egregious, but there were a couple of times where another character would claim she acted one way, and I would raise an eyebrow going "really? does she?" I think this is mostly a problem in the front half of the book.

There's nothing that fully elevates this book to a favorite to me, but I did enjoy it, and I can definitely recommend it to anybody who is looking out for a book in the "cozy fantasy" genre.

Final Rating: 4

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also hey, that's another bingo square knocked out! :)

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Bride

by Ali Hazelwood

HRCYED Prompts Fulfilled:

1. Series Staircase: Duology (Book 1) 2. Subgenres of Choice: Paranormal

Is this book groundbreaking literature with deep themes and characters I will think about for years to come? No. Not even a little. Did I still enjoy reading it? Yeah.

It's an arranged marriage romance between a vampire and a werewolf, who get married to keep peace between their species. A lot of trope-y romance stuff is there. The main romantic lead is big, stoic, and a powerful domineering alpha who initially seems put off by our lead heroine, only for us to later realize that he was holding back due to his deep, biological attraction to her. There's soulmates and mate marks and scenting. It's cheesy. I was in no way surprised to see a nod of recognition to AO3 at the end of the book.

Still, I had fun reading it, and I often found myself saying "no, just one more chapter, then I'll set it down for a bit," and proceeded to read three more. I was interested in the plot and wanted to know what would happen next to these characters. There was a decently compelling mystery set up, and I wanted to know how the conflicts would all play out. For the most part, I was able to take the cheesy tropes as just a part of the genre and accept them.

Still, there were a few things that bugged me. The major one to me is technically a spoiler, but I don't think there's anybody who would read this book and not figure it out within the first 50 pages - the main character is the love interest's soulmate. Of course she is. But the problem is that she thinks his mate is someone else, and the way the conversations are written, she manages to dodge ever saying who she thinks his actual mate is to his face until the "big reveal", even though they talk about it multiple times. It's painful, and not in a fun way, seeing the characters dodge around saying the obvious, because it feels like a carefully constructed contrivance by the author than anything else.

Other minor things were that there's a persistent joke about the main lead's technological ability that's never once funny and that the lead character is good at hacking for... seemingly no reason. Also, yes, the love interest has a knot. Knotting is fucking foreshadowed in this book. It is a minor conflict once the characters start a sexual relationship with each other. And the dirty talk once they finally get the knot to work is fucking atrocious, though thankfully that's only a few lines near the end of the book.

Despite all this, I still had fun with it, and I am planning to check out the sequel once it comes out this fall.

Final Rating: 3.75

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This Will Be Fun

by E.B. Asher

HRCYED Prompts Fulfilled:

1. Subgenres of Choice: Romance 2. Make a Quote: Fun

I had so much fun with this book. It felt like the way the characters were written in this book were written in the ways that appeal to me specifically. They are messy and dramatic but ultimately there's a core of understandable motivation at their heart that you can uncover once you get under all of the prickly barriers they put up. Basically all four of our lead characters fall into that trope, even if the barriers they put up and their core motivations are different, and I just really enjoyed reading about them.

The plot is pretty basic - it's a "what happens to the heroes after they save the realm?" story where the remaining heroes have different ways of handling the grief of losing their leader. They all hurt each other and retreated into themselves in different ways, but now that the queen is getting married, they're all being pulled back together again. There isn't really all that much plot to dig into - while they do end up going on a second quest to save the realm, that doesn't start until halfway through the book, and if you take a birds eye view their second quest is pretty short and lackluster.

I think this book does somewhat fall prey to the characters existing in their own heads and over-explaining their feelings. The characters are very clearly and compellingly constructed, so it does get a little tiresome to hear the narration really hammer in, again, why the rogue is so intent on acting like a hero. I think it would be improved by making deliberate cuts in places and trusting its audience to remember the character motivations without spelling them out every time.

But still - I really liked the characters. I was rooting for them to succeed and rooting for them to get together and I was invested. I love these guys, and I had a blast reading this book.

Final Rating: 4

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also this is the third book I’ve read this month where one of the tag line says it’s like the princess bride and I’m starting to think maybe people haven’t read the princess bride

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I’ve been reading this will be fun for a couple days now and man is it a blast. I just really like characters who are deeply flawed but also relatable and this is just “these people care for each other so much and also hurt each other so bad: the book.”

I wouldn’t say this is like, fine literature. the plot is only barely there and I’m halfway through. but I’d be happy watching these messy bitches work through their trauma together in an empty room so I’m having a great time!

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By Wingéd Chair

by Kendra Merritt

HRCYED Prompts Fulfilled:

1. Disability Challenge: Wheelchair User 2. Heritage Months: Disability Pride

I went in really wanting to like this book, but overall it was just... okay. The premise is that our main character is a would-be mage, recently ousted from boarding school, who finds herself and her father under attack by shadowy memory-stealing shapeshifters controlled by the so-called Peacekeepers. In the middle of an attack, she is rescued by a band of outlaws, and with them she works to find a way to combat the problem and hopefully restore memories to the people of the realm.

Overall, the plot of the book is interesting. I did want to know what would happen next, especially when we're introduced to a less evil shapeshifter part way through the book. The main character is also bound to a wheelchair, and I thought the book did an excellent job of showing the difficulties of her condition while also giving her agency and the ability to do cool things.

Unfortunately, the characters really didn't speak to me at all. The two characters who get any development are the main character and her love interest, and while they're both serviceable as main characters, I felt like they were pretty standard. The girl is snarky and rude because she's tired of being looked down upon, but she's also smart and adept with magic and ultimately does good. The love interest starts out as brooding and stand-offish, but once his tragic backstory is unlocked, he comes out of his shell a little more and becomes more of a bland hero. I've seen these guys before, and I've seen them written far more compellingly than this.

The two side characters that the two initially travel with are interesting at first blush, but they never get any development past what they can do in battle. It's implied that they love each other two, but we're only told this and not really shown it. It drives me wild that, at some point in the book, the characters are shown their worst memories. We see these side characters affected by what they saw, but we never get any indication about what it is. Why bother to include that detail?

I will say I enjoyed the character of the less evil shapeshifter, and he arguably gets a decent character arc, but even then it felt like more could have been done to flesh him out.

I also don't think it helped that the ultimate message of the book simply does not resonate with me. The character regards god at multiple times in the book, talking about how clearly he doesn't care about her and so she doesn't care about him, only to by the end of the book realize that her pain was actually god's plan for her and gives her the power she needs to be strong. I'm hazarding a guess that the author is Christian (there's a Bible verse after the last page of the book), so I feel like this may be a message that is important for her, but it did have overtones of the skeptic being shown the true word of god.

So overall, not a Bad book, but not a book for me, and I'm certainly not running to read anymore of this author's books.

Final Rating: 3

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Before the Coffee Gets Cold

by Toshikazu Kawaguchi; Translated by Geoffrey Trousselot

HRCYED Prompts Fulfilled:

1. The Last Ten Years: 2015 2. Readathon: Read a book with a drink on the cover

The premise of this book is simple, but interesting. There is a cafe where if you sit in just the right seat and drink just the right drink, you can travel through time. There are many other rules involved with this time travel which make it ultimately unsatisfying for most people - you can't change the present, you can't leave the cafe, and you're on a time limit. This means no going back in time to meet famous historical figures - but if you know a loved one was in the cafe last year, you could at least go back and see them.

The book uses these rules as a vehicle to explore regret, grief, and acceptance. In each chapter, we see a different patron of the cafe who is traveling through time for their own reasons, and we see how it can give them the closure they need to move forward with their life.

Unfortunately, for most of the book, the writing really pulled me out of it. I think this is likely a consequence of the translation - sentences that I'm sure must have sounded poignant and beautiful in their native Japanese feel very stiff, and despite the intriguing premise, I felt pretty bored while reading a good chunk of the book. Two of the four scenarios we were presented with did not particularly move me, even if they were kind of interesting in a sort of big picture way. Had the book been much longer, I really might not have finished it - most of what kept me reading after the first chapter was seeing that I was already a quarter of the way through, so I knew it would at least been a quick read.

I'm glad I did finish it, because two of the scenarios did really get to me, especially the final chapter of the book. While I don't think this saves the book enough for me to seek out more of the series, I can appreciate the questions that the book is exploring, and I think it has some interesting ideas.

Final Rating: 3.5

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Little Thieves

by Margaret Owen

HRCYED Prompts Fulfilled:

1. Series Staircase: Trilogy (1st Book) 2. Subgenres of Choice: Fairytale

This book. THIS BOOK. I've been meaning to read it for a bit now and holy shit I am so glad I finally did.

The CHARACTERS. I really liked everybody in our main cast. The protagonist, Vanja, immediately won me over as being kind of a scrappy, clever misfit, but the more you learn about her, the clearer it is just how well fleshed out and thought through she is. The book really focuses on her, why she is the way that she is, and what redemption and rehabilitation looks like for a character like her. The ways her trauma shapes her into lashing out and denying help is so well written and so compelling, and it becomes SO satisfying to see her grow.

The supporting cast is great too. Vanja's relationship with her eventual love interest is incredibly compelling from the start, and seeing them go from adversaries, to grumbling accomplices, to being able to SEE each other in a way nobody else ever has. There are so many good scenes between them as they start to slowly understand each other and care for each other, as well as hurt and betray and reconcile. But Vanja's relationships with other characters are also well fleshed out, and I found myself getting just as invested in her reconciling with the former friend who had hurt her as I did her bonding with her love interest.

She also has such fascinating relationships with figures of power - her former masters, other members of the nobility, and her two godly mothers who can't seem to understand why she wouldn't want to act as one of their servants, even if it means breaking a deadly curse.

There are some things I could nitpick if I really was forced to point out flaws with a gun to my head, but frankly, I don't want to. I loved this book and can't wait to pick up the next two.

Final Rating: 5

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The Dallergut Dream Department Store

by Miye Lee; Translated by Sandy Joosun Lee

HRCYED Prompts Fulfilled:

1. Subgenres of Choice: Cozy Fantasy 2. Translation Challenge: Korean

This feels like it was a slice of life animated series that somebody accidentally turned into a novel instead. It doesn't follow the traditional structure of a novel, with rising action, climax, and resolution. Instead, we follow Penny as she gets a job at a department store that sells dreams and see various little vignettes from the setting.

Through these vignettes, we learn about the top dream makers, about the system of currency in the dream world, and the peculiar ways that the owner of the store, Dallergut, ensures that the customers get the dreams they need rather than the dreams they want. The world-building is whimsical and charming, providing explanations for all different types of dreams that somebody might have. For instance, those unpleasant dreams where you feel paralyzed are actually snuck in by leprechauns who are trying to game the payment system! Who knew?

As I neared the ending, I thought I was going to give this book a lower rating than I actually have. It was cute, but there wasn't really much substance behind it. The characters are charming, but one-note, and while the world-building is interesting, there are basically no stakes. The main character gets a very expensive item that belongs to the store stolen from her early on, and she never faces real consequences for it. This is obviously intentional - the book is going for a cozy, easy-going tone. I just felt like there wasn't a lot that really gripped me.

That said, the last main chapter (excluding a couple of epilogues) dealt with dreams about people who had passed on, and I'm not too ashamed to admit that I basically cried through reading that entire chapter. Maybe that's just a topic that hit particularly hard for me and may not connect with others, but it did connect for me, and it's the first one of the books I've read for this challenge to actually get tears out of me, so I have to give it credit.

Overall, this is an easy and enjoyable read. If you want a cozy, dream-like slice of life book, this will not disappoint you.

Final Rating: 4.25

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i also finished my second prompt for hrcyed! most of these books were pretty difficult reads so i feel pretty accomplished having them under my belt

not sure which of the upcoming challenges i want to try and focus on finishing next. i'm about halfway through sub-genres already, and a few of the books i want to get to soon will round out those last couple of prompts, so that'll probably be the next one to knock out, but i feel like i'm sort of getting that one filled by default since it's mostly filled with sub-genres i'm already likely to read. i feel like i'm gonna wrap up non-fiction subgenres pretty fast too. (two books down, two more that i'm planning to read soon, and a few options for my fifth book hanging around)

idk ill probably just bop around based on what the library+my physical bookshelf provides me and focus in on the next prompt once i feel like i need a direction to go in

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dallergut dream department store surprised me by making me cry in the last chapter. it really feels like watching some chill anime or cartoon and then all the sudden it has That episode which is just unexpectedly sad.

like. tales of ba sing se. it’s that in book form.

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This Princess Kills Monsters

by Ry Herman

HRCYED Prompts Fulfilled:

1. The Even Bigger Rainbow: 7+ Colors 2. New Releases: June 2025

One of the quotes on the back of the book says that this book is The Princess Bride meets Shrek, and while I mostly agree with that assessment, I think it is missing a key component to the alchemy that best describes this book's makeup: Monstrous Regiment.

This story is based on the story of The Twelve Hunstmen, which is a fairytale I wasn't aware of before reading the story and had to check to make sure it was real. The book starts with a simple retelling of the story, where a man is bound by his father's dying wish to marry a princess other than his fiance. Being spurned, the fiance gathers 11 other women, they all dress as men to act as the prince's huntsmen, and then when the truth is eventually revealed, the prince breaks off his new engagement and gets back with his true love. We quickly learn that we are going to see the True version of this story, told from the point of view of the second fiance. Starting this way makes for an especially fun dynamic when we are first introduced to the hunstmen, knowing the secret that our main character does not.

The writing is often sardonic and funny, and the characters are all nearly immediately charming. The main love interest is especially charming and likable, and even though the book feels nice and complete, I find myself wishing for a sequel just because I want to see more of this cast.

The only things holding this back from a 5 star for me are some pacing issues - there are at least 3 scenes where the passage of time gets a little funky due to something being off with the character's perception, one of which involves a full month-long timeskip that feels a little jarring. Additionally, while most of the book is very funny and I felt like the jokes landed, there were a couple of jokes that really stood out to me as being a little too lampshaded and expected the reader to be aware of very specific tropes. (one bed...)

Overall, though, I had a blast with this one, and I'm really glad I picked it up for a read.

Final Rating: 4.25

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The Book of Fun

by Russ Frushtick; Illustrated by Sonny Ross

HRCYED Prompts Fulfilled:

1. TBR Game Challenge: Read something under 150 pages 2. Nonfiction: History 3. Secret Prompt: Read Outside

This is a cute book! It tells some interesting stories, the writing is informative with a few fun jokes thrown in, and the illustrations are well-done and charming to look at.

Each page of the book has an illustration and a couple of paragraphs describing the brief history of some current game or toy we enjoy, or a couple of odd-ball points of interest from history. It includes board games, video games, toys, theme parks, festivals, and various other things that people have enjoyed throughout the ages.

Because each attraction gets only a page - maybe two - devoted to describing it, there isn't a lot of depth to this book. If you've already heard about one of the topics its describing, you probably aren't going to learn anything new when you read that page, though you might get a chuckle over how its described. I also feel like the book could use more of an introduction and any kind of conclusion - the book simply ends on a page describing a roadside attraction with no follow-up. I feel like a brief closing talking about the concept of fun and what it means that humans have pursued fun over the course of history would have served the book well. While there is a brief introduction, half of that is spent talking about the author's own connection to writing about fun, and it doesn't quite feel like the gentle on ramp the book needed to feel like a cohesive work rather than some cool facts stuck together.

Overall, though, I liked it! It's definitely a nice coffee table book to have out - its not that deep, but it's fun to flip through the pages anyways.

Final Rating: 3.5