I enjoyed one of the books in this series so much, I thought I’d try another one. Under His Spell pairs Bethany, a determined soccer player praised for avoiding “boy-based distractions”, with a foreign transfer student who turns out to be a fairy prince. It’s written by Marie P. Croall and illustrated by Hyeondo Park. Allein has been sent to our world to hide from a war over the inheritance of the throne, but his cousin has led a band […]

When I found out that “teen paranormal romance” is one of the hottest new book genres, I thought I should check out this graphic novel line trading on its popularity. (It didn’t hurt that writer Paul Storrie was an old friend.) I’m glad I did, because I got a fun monster love story, but one more creative and unusual in its content than I suspected. “My Boyfriend Is a Monster” is an umbrella title; each of the entries stands alone. […]

Hamster and Cheese is the first book in a new series, Guinea PIG: Pet Shop Private Eye, by Colleen AF Venable and Stephanie Yue. In it, the title character, named Sasspants, solves mysteries. It’s very cute — Sasspants lives in a glass habitat filled with books her size — and has some funny dialogue and character interactions. There is one running gag, about the shop owner being stupid, that didn’t work for me, since it’s reflected in calling all the […]