Jan 12 2026
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Book Review: The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook to Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson

Title: The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook to Surviving Medieval England

Author: Brandon Sanderson

Series: Secret Projects #2

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

The Overview: A man awakes in a clearing in what appears to be medieval England with no memory of who he is, where he came from, or why he is there. Chased by a group from his own time, his sole hope for survival lies in regaining his missing memories, making allies among the locals, and perhaps even trusting in their superstitious boasts. His only help from the “real world” should have been a guidebook entitled The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, except his copy exploded during transit. The few fragments he managed to save provide clues to his situation, but can he figure them out in time to survive? -Goodreads

The Review:

I had a lot more fun reading this book than I thought I would.

The basic premise was really nothing to write home about: a character-driven portal fantasy that had more to do with relationships and cheeky concepts than exciting plot points. 2/5 stars.

The presentation, however, is what made this book a delight! Fully illustrated entries out of the “real” handbook reference throughout the story, including several excerpts. Interesting, if not really my taste, full-color art pages. And the best part – doodle illustrations in the margins involving this little wizard guy as secondary story alongside the main one <- easily my favorite part of the book. 4/5 stars!

And finally, Cosmere implications. This book offers a lot of backstory into one of my favorite Sanderson characters. There were lots of really good nuggets of information here. But to be totally real with you, I am having a hard reconciling this character, who seems a high-strung, bumbling fool, with the shrewd, calculating character I’ve come to love in previous works. The two just read like totally different profiles to the point where I’m going to need to see some compelling growth arc storylines in future books to be convinced that this was the intended backstory for him all along. It’s great though – now I have additional motive to keep reading more Cosmere. 3/5 stars.

Overall, definitely not my favorite Sanderson, but one that I liked a lot more than I thought I would. Compared to his other Secret Projects it’s not highly recommendable, but if you’re going to read it, absolutely pick up a physical copy.

Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Frank, Jen, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Mike, Elizabeth, Bee, Tracey, Poochtee, Kinsey, Alysa, Derek, Kelly, Meabh! <3

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by Niki Hawkes

Jan 7 2026
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Book Review: The Courage to be Disliked

Title: The Courage to be Disliked

Author: Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga

Series: N/A

Genre: Nonfiction

Rating: 2/5 stars

The Overview: A single book can change your life. Already an enormous bestseller in Asia, with more than 3 million copies sold, The Courage to be Disliked demonstrates how to unlock the power within yourself to be the person you truly want to be. Using the theories of Alfred Adler, one of the three giants of 19th century psychology alongside Freud and Jung, it follows an illuminating conversation between a philosopher and a young man. The philosopher explains to his pupil how each of us is able to determine our own lives, free of the shackles of past experiences, doubts and the expectations of others. It’s a way of thinking that’s deeply liberating, allowing us to develop the courage to change, and to ignore the limitations that we and those around us can place on ourselves. The result is a book that is both highly accessible and profound in its importance. Millions have already read and benefited from its wisdom. Now that The Courage to be Disliked has been published for the first time in English, so can you. -Goodreads

The Review:

What a thoughtful, brilliantly crafted non-fiction book. It was clear a ton of time and effort went into the careful construction of every single argument and counter-argument. Masterful.

I mean, I completely hated it. But it was well done.

I struggled with the formatting – it was a back-and-forth argument between a young boy and an old wise man. I don’t know if it’s this current day and age of people constantly bickering back-and-forth, or just my general dislike of debate class in general, but I had a really difficult time listening to an eight hour audiobook of two people intensely discussing Adlerian theory. In some ways, it read a little condescending because I don’t need a theory argued and disproved beyond all doubt to adopted as useful in my own life. I just want to hear what the ideas are with maybe some real life examples and applications, then I can decide for myself whether or not I think it’s feasible for me. I balk at a format trying to “convince” me anything. It’s too pushy. #rebel

But if I can let the presentation go for a minute, I also didn’t really get a lot out of this book, which surprises me because within a few weeks of each other both my therapist and minimalist/productivity guru Matt D’Avella mentioned how much this book changed their lives. So I was going in with a massive set of expectations and, I mean, I got a few things from it, but not because it explored the topics in any great depth. It was all just surface-level. What I extracted, I did so because I took those surface level ideas in percolated on them for a while, and drew meaning from my inner workings rather than from what was presented in the text. This is not abnormal for a self-help nonfiction, but most that I’ve read offer a bit more topic exploration than what I got here.

That being said, I’m not discounting that this might actually be incredibly helpful for a lot of people, even though it didn’t land for me. I would highly recommend watching D’Avella’s coverage of this book in his video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DZofD0YN0A). He totally read a different book than I did and managed to thoroughly extract most of the great ideas the book has to offer.

But one gripe – I felt incredibly misled by the title “The Courage to be Disliked“ – because even though that might be the general punchline of the book, it did not spend very much time addressing that specifically. I felt like I should’ve come away with a very clear picture on what it looks like to have the courage to be disliked and how to actively pursue that state of being. I had to read between the lines, and ultimately came away with just the following takeaways:

I liked the idea that to be happy we need to stop seeking validation from outside sources. To take it further, we can tell we are living true to our needs, wants, and desires based on the presence of that outside disapproval. If you’re willing to live in acceptance that people will dislike you, it means you’re being true to yourself.

Another takeaway I liked was this promotion of lateral relationships versus vertical ones. It has universal applications, but I immediately thought of how I could apply it to better raising my kids. I can see how this would help them seek validation from within themselves, rather than always looking at me for approval. Day one applying it has been a success.

And that’s pretty much it.

So overall an interesting read, one that I more or less despised reading. I hope I carry these ideas with me going forward (the true test of a non-fiction), but I fear for me personally this is going to be quite forgettable. Don’t let this review, scare you off of picking up the book if you’re inclined – I seem to be in the vast minority.

Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Frank, Jen, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Mike, Elizabeth, Bee, Tracey, Poochtee, Kinsey, Alysa, Derek, Kelly, Meabh! <3

by Niki Hawkes

Dec 30 2025
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Book Review: The Strength of the Few by James Islington

Title: The Strength of the Few

Author: James Islington

Series: Hierarchy #1

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

The Overview: The Hierarchy still call me Vis Telimus. Still hail me as Catenicus. They still, as one, believe they know who I am. But with all that has happened—with what I fear is coming—I am not sure it matters anymore. I am no longer one. I won the Iudicium, and lost everything—and now, impossibly, the ancient device beyond the Labyrinth has replicated me across three separate worlds. A different version of myself in each of Obiteum, Luceum, and Res. Three different bodies, three different lives. I have to hide; fight; play politics. I have to train; trust; lie. I have to kill; heal; prove myself again, and again, and again. I am loved, and hated, and entirely alone. Above all, though, I need to find answers before it’s too late. To understand the nature of what has happened to me, and why. I need to find a way to stop the coming Cataclysm, because if all I have learned is true, I may be the only one who can. –Goodreads

The Review:

I’m writing my review after having just finished this book, but I can tell this is one of those that I’m going to have to sit with for a while before I can completely form how I feel about it. Or maybe I just need to talk it through:

I think I loved it, but there were just a few tiny minor things that made me question myself while I was reading. One of which was a bit of a disjointed plot, another was a moment that I viewed as clear emotional manipulation (which I’m carrying some resentment for thank you very much), and few story conveniences.

I thought the plot was a bit disjointed. And I don’t even mean the grander-scale tertiary plot that made up the very core of the story. No, no I mean WITHIN each of those branches, there were a few things that seemingly to me, came out of nowhere. A great example is the chariot race – it’s not a spoiler because it really didn’t have a ton of bearing on the plot as a whole, and while I enjoyed it wildly – it felt nestled in just for the sake of having that fun element. Now I would definitely rather this than the alternative, but it’s things like this that pulled me out of the story a bit.

And maybe disjointed isn’t even the right word – maybe it’s the lack of seamless integration for some of these cool elements. They felt plunked in. There wasn’t enough lead-up. And there were a couple of times where I had to suspend my disbelief a little bit and “just go with it.”

But given the massive undertaking that was this project, and how well he wove together the storylines, and how ultimately it culminated into an ending that left me eager to pick up more, even though I just spent an entire month on it – how much do my criticisms matter?

This is still one of the best books I read in 2025 and I consider it an entirely worthwhile continuation to one of the best books that I’ve ever read, period. And that’s the thing – when you write a book that is the paragon of perfection (at least as far as my personal reviewing criteria), it would be really, really difficult for anything else to measure up. Let alone a middle book which doesn’t have either new series novelty or series-ending momentum. Even comparing it to the first book, which lives on a pedestal, I think it has more than earned some slack.

So all of that said, I’m disappointed that I didn’t love it quite as much as the first book, but if I can get enough distance and perspective to evaluate it as a whole, holy crap – that was a great read! It’s one of those books, kind of like Sanderson‘s Stormlight Archive, where you go through hundreds and hundreds of pages without feeling like a single one of them is wasted. It was a joy to read, and I cannot wait for the next one.

Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Frank, Jen, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Mike, Elizabeth, Bee, Tracey, Poochtee, Kinsey, Alysa and Derek! <3

by Niki Hawkes

Oct 13 2025
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Book Review: The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst

Title: The Enchanted Greenhouse

Author: Sarah Beth Durst

Series: Spellshop #2

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 4/5 stars

The Overview: Terlu Perna broke the law because she was lonely. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away into an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium. This should have been the end of her story . . . Yet one day, Terlu wakes in the cold of winter on a nearly-deserted island full of hundreds of magical greenhouses. She’s starving and freezing, and the only other human on the island is a grumpy gardener. To her surprise, he offers Terlu a place to sleep, clean clothes, and freshly baked honey cakes—at least until she’s ready to sail home. But Terlu can’t return home and doesn’t want to—the greenhouses are a dream come true, each more wondrous than the next. When she learns that the magic that sustains them is failing—causing the death of everything within them—Terlu knows she must help. Even if that means breaking the law again. This time, though, she isn’t alone. Assisted by the gardener and a sentient rose, Terlu must unravel the secrets of a long-dead sorcerer if she wants to save the island—and have a fresh chance at happiness and love. Funny, kind, and forgiving, The Enchanted Greenhouse is a story about giving second chances—to others and to yourself. –Goodreads

The Review:

Another delightful tale set in the same world as her Spellshop book!

This one started out stronger than the last – with a main character who immediately came across much more likable and a setting that was to die for. Terlu as a story lead was endearing and I liked the level of caring she exuded. That’s not to say I didn’t like the lead in the previous book – a woman who was a bit unapproachable and more in her own way (with a great growth arc!) – but Terlu here made for a much more relaxing reading companion.

And the setting!! A huge cluster of individual greenhouses hosting a wide variety of habitats and species. Truthfully I could’ve spent an entire book just reading about them taking care of plants and solving soil issues, but alas that’s not as marketable. It was the world-building component that kept my interest sparked and ultimately provided my favorite takeaways from the book. I especially loved the pollinator dragons.

So even though the best elements remained strong throughout the entire book, there were a few minor things that eventually knocked me off a slam-dunk high rating: conflicts and pacing.

The conflict in this story was off somehow, perhaps not quite robust enough for the length of the story. On one hand it’s a cozy fantasy and the conflict in those can be anything as simple as “Gosh I really need to spruce up this cottage because it’s filthy.” So maybe needing a more robust conflict wasn’t the problem, but it definitely needed something… more. More cozy-world problems. More day in the life of a greenhouse gardener-type of vibes. The grand conflict overarching the story I thought was great, but the solution didn’t require enough elements to merit a large page count, so it was kind of in and out.

And then you have a third drama point where the main character is fixated on the problems of a different character – that was the part I really didn’t like. It felt like she didn’t have enough going on to drive a story, so she had to borrow problems. So I think between her not having enough internal conflict and the simple overarching plot is why the pacing felt a little off. And there wasn’t enough of that cozy “nesting into our new environment” element to keep me engaged in the meantime.

While the romance in the first book was so subtle and lovely that it didn’t even feel like a major component to the book – in this one the romance was much more heavy-handed. I like that Durst’s male leads are kind people with a lot of compassion and and positive regard for the main characters. I also like that they both managed to showcase these attributes in completely different ways. I will admit that in this one, I found the back-and-forth between the two a bit too saccharin. But it’s a cozy fantasy so I just leaned into it.

Despite a couple of minor issues that kept the book from being higher rated than the first one, the last couple of chapters really brought it home for me and I ended up walking away really glad that I had read it. I’m especially excited for Sea of Charms currently slated for release on July 21, 2026

Recommendations: if you’re in the mood for a cozy fantasy with a touch of romance (and I mean only just a touch in the first book) this series is an absolute delight… give it a try!

Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Frank, Jen, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Mike, Elizabeth, Bee, Tracey, Poochtee, Kinsey, and Alysa! <3

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By Niki Hawkes 

Sep 17 2025
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Book Review: The Air War by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Title: The Air War

Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Series: Shadows of the Apt #8

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

The Overview: An empress demands her birthright . . . All is in turmoil as the world moves towards war. In Solarno, the spies watch each other and ready their knives, while Myna sees the troops muster at its border and emotions run high as it vows never to be enslaved again. In Collegium, the students argue politics, too late to turn the tide. In the heart of the Empire, new pilots have completed their secretive training, generals are being recalled to service and armies are ready to march. Their Empress, the heir to two worlds, intends to claim her birthright. And nothing—either within the Empire or beyond it—will stand in her way. A conflict is coming, the like of which the insect-kinden have never seen. –Goodreads

The Review:

After two somewhat tangent novels, it’s nice to be back with what feels like a main storyline… and the beginning of an end-of-series arc.

It has taken me a couple of years to get to this point in the series, and although many of the characters are different from where we first started, the overall atmosphere and vibes and “fix“ that I get from reading an Apt book is going strong. I love the world building and have a lot of emotional investment on seeing how the story ends.

As a sidenote, I was realizing through this book that I’m confused on what it actually means to be “Apt”. I think it’s backwards than what I thought it was.

Anyways…

I’ll admit, I could be a little more invested if we’d stayed with some of the early characters a tad longer. It’s one of those situations where a new POV is introduced every couple hundred pages, and then their stories slowly start to become more prominent. Before long, you only have a small page count dedicated to the original core cast. I tend to latch on to early characters, and by the time I figured out that I needed to pay more attention to the new POVs because they were more than just passing, it was a too late to garner investment for them. So at this point in the series, I am more reading to find out what happens to who’s left of the OG people, and a little less so to see what happens to these new people. I have only just so much capacity of shits to give.

All that said, the series has felt immersive, expansive, and wildly creative, and I cannot wait to finish things out. The next book is shaping up to be very exciting, indeed.

Recommendations: if you like the first book Empire in Black and Gold, you’re pretty much in for a solid ten book series of enjoyable stuff. Give that one a try – it was one of the strongest introductions I’ve ever read and easily one of my favorite examples of creative world building. If you’d like to taste-test the author’s fantasy works first, pick up Guns of Dawn (a standalone).

Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Frank, Jen, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Mike, Elizabeth, Bee, Tracey, Poochtee, and Kinsey! <3

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by Niki Hawkes

Aug 26 2025
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Book Review: The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

Title: The Spellshop

Author: Sarah Beth Durst

Series: Spellshop #1

Genre: Cozy Fantasy

Rating: 4/5 stars

The Overview: Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz—a magically sentient spider plant—have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite. When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor who can’t take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home. In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries. But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much needed secret spellshop. -Goodreads

The Review:

What a wholesome and charming book!

The Spellshop was a full-on cozy fantasy with a subtle romance, found-family vibes, and pops of creative magic. Going in, I was expecting a heavy Romantasy with the love story dominating the entire plot. That was not the case at all. And actually, you might be surprised to hear this, but I think the romance could have been more prominent. Legends and Lattes, one of the first-movers in this new era of cozy fantasy (loved) had about the same level of romantic components (few), to give you a frame of reference. That said, the romance we got here was organic and sweet, and I came away from it with all the right feels.

My personal fantasies aren’t romance-driven. No, what I daydream about is a life of simplicity. A slow, methodical way of living that encourages mindfulness and peace. The Spellshop was the perfect dose of all of those “day in the life” vibes that let me just relax into someone else’s gradual attempts to build a meaningful life. Add in books, an enchanted spider plant, and other totally endearing characters, and you have yourself a fun, creative read. It was great.

The only thing I didn’t strictly love about the book were the slightly repetitive conflicts near the end. I got a bit bored for a minute. It’s a minor thing though, as she quickly reigned me back in with some cool magics, but I think it did solidify my rating as a four-star rather than something a bit higher. Even so, Durst is an author who tells the stories I’ve always wanted to write, and I cannot wait to read more for her in the future. I’m fixing to pick up the next stand-alone in this Spellshop set, The Enchanted Green house, very soon.

Recommendations: if, like me, you are completely aboard the cozy fantasy train, The Spellshop is a must-read for the subgenre. It was an absolute delight. Also consider her Race the Sands book. It’s not cozy fantasy, per se, but it is awesome fantasy and one of my favorite things I’ve read in recent years.

Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Frank, Jen, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Mike, Elizabeth, Bee, Tracey, Dagmara, Poochtee, and Kinsey! <3

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by Niki Hawkes