Hello and welcome to another Netgalley review!!
I am so happy that a lot of publishers grant me books on Netgalley. It has definitely helped me read more books on a budget. You should definitely join NetGalley, I cannot recommend it enough.
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The Honey-blood Beauty & Her Vampire, Vol. 1 by Toma Fuyuori
Review
Thanks to Kodansha Comics for making this book available to me.
We follow Kagari who has rare ‘honey blood’ which makes vampires go insane around her. She is protected by Ryotaro, her bodyguard who is also a vampire but have been trained mentally and physically to control his reaction to her. Unlike other vampires who are protecting honey-bloods, he refuses to feed on her neck and chooses to do it from her feet. (creep). Anyways, one day she hears some girls discussing how romantic and somewhat sexual it is for vampires to feed on the neck, she decided she wanted Ryotaro to feed on her neck.
She asks him to feed on her neck but he refuses, slowly we learn more about his feelings for her and hers for him.
His task of protecting her is made more difficult by her ability to draw trouble wherever she goes.
I really enjoyed reading this and it was so funny!
Rating
I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars
The Springtime of My Life Began with You, Vol.1 by Nikki Asada, Emily Yamada
Review
Thanks to Kodansha Comics for making this book available to me.
We follow Suehiro who is a very quiet girl in school, she is usually the butt of the joke in the class. So when one of the very popular boys walk up to her and ask to be friends she thinks he has been put up to it. First, she refuses him and goes back to her small world, but he persists and asks her about the book he had noticed that she was always reading.
The interest he took in her reading tastes was one of the things that drew her to him. So when he asked her to go out with him. She was so happy and willing.
We get to see them build their relationship from friendship to commitment and even influence their classmates, build back a dead reading club. It was so much fun to read and I hope you check it out.
Rating
I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars
Murmuration by Blake Auden
Review
Poetry is food for the soul
.
I love reading poetry collections because they serve my soul its nutrients. This poetry collection ‘Murmuration’ does exactly that. The word ‘Murmuration’ itself is a concept of flight, of exalted beauty and of numbers. I can promise that each poem exalts, lifts and reveals patterns of beauty. Blake Auden was able to control and manipulate his emotions. I mean he would start with a line that definitely hints at grief, pain and sadness and he would liken it to snow, breathing, life and bravery.
.
I think my favourite poem, short but piercing like an arrow, goes thus
“What am I
if not
this daily
surrender?”
For me, this is the most powerful sentence in this collection. Simple, easy to understand but peels back emotions. I mean, we as people all seem to live each day in surrender. We surrender to circumstances, we surrender to society, we surrender to desire, we surrender to dreams, we surrender to people, we surrender to things every day. This does not mean it is bad, also it does not mean it is good. It simply means that one exists.
– I am probably overthinking things again but it is just so beautiful in its simplicity.
Blake adds certain statements and seeming conversations he has had with himself or self-reflections.
I quote
[Sometimes bravery is in the opposite direction to the battlefield.]
.
In my mind, I am thinking ‘not everything is worth fighting for, choose your battles’ because at the end of the day you are living to surrender.
.
I really loved reading this collection and I am looking forward to more of Blake Auden’s work.
Rating
I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars
The Smallest of Bones by Holly Lyn Walrath
Review
Honestly, I think with this book, I got exactly what I was hoping for. It contains short but hard-hitting poems that really reminders you of a lot of things you already know and practice. And a gentle nudge to start practising them if you haven’t already. Each poem follows a description of a bone in the human body. As someone with an Anatomy degree, it was quite interesting to read the authors take on the strength and importance of these small bones. It relates to the poems that cover love, passion, death, sadness, gender and vulnerability.
Whilst a lot of the concepts presented in this collection is not new. It holds its importance by serving as a reminder to treat yourself and others around you with love.
Rating
I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars.
Thanks for reading.