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Review: Cursed Princess Club: Vol. 1 by LambCat

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Graphic Novel or Adaptation, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , ,
Cursed Princess Club, Volume 1 by LambCat

Cursed Princess Club, Vol. 1: A WEBTOON Unscrolled Graphic Novel
LambCat
WEBTOON Unscrolled
Published January 3, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Cursed Princess Club, Vol. 1

Just because you’re cursed doesn’t mean you’re not special.

Meet Gwendolyn, the youngest princess of the Pastel Kingdom. Despite her big heart and love for baking, Gwen is living proof that royalty doesn’t always have it all—unlike the typical fairytale princess, or other princesses in the Pastel Kingdom, Gwen isn’t particularly attractive. While her sisters have woodland creatures do their hair and makeup, and flowers blossom wherever they sleep, the youngest princess is just a bit . . . different.

When her father proposes marriage for Gwen and her sisters in hopes of building an alliance with the Plaid Kingdom, Gwen’s heart shatters when she overhears Prince Frederick call her “ugly.” Ashamed and overwhelmed, she runs away into the forest, where she discovers the twisted and enchanted world of the Cursed Princess Club—and her life will change forever.

Outcast by society, the Cursed Princess Club are a ragtag crew of misfits and cursed princesses who have banded together to form their own friendship circle. One where they are seen, supported, and appreciated—warts and all. With Gwen joining the crew, she embarks on her own journey to find community and embrace her uniqueness.

This volume collects episodes 1 to 34 of the enchanting WEBTOON series.

My Review

I heard about this series through an author that I really like. I can’t remember where I saw the endorsement, though. It might have even been in the acknowledgements at the back of the endorsing author’s book? I sincerely can’t recall. At any rate, I decided to check out the series.

The subverted tropes are a lot of fun. Instead of the cursed princesses being victims awaiting rescue, they’ve formed a club in which they support one another and celebrate other parts of their lives. Gwen’s two sisters and brother all have very fairytale princess qualities to them. Her oldest sister, Maria, is followed by birds and other cute forest animals who help her brush her hair and do her makeup. She’s also a talented singer. Wherever Lorena, the middle daughter, goes, flowers spring up. She’s gifted at combat skills and other types of movement. Both are classically beautiful.

Jamie, the only prince in the family, is also very pretty. In fact, he’s often mistaken for a princess, and he doesn’t seem to mind this at all. Gwen, the youngest daughter, looks different from her siblings. Her hair is stringy, and her skin is kind of a pale green. Her small irises and pupils make her eyes look very different than her siblings, too.

The girls learn they’re betrothed to three handsome princes, which is great news, until Gwen hears the youngest prince call her ugly to his brothers. His words cut her pretty deeply, and she worries about what will happen if her family hears that he said this awful thing to her. She doesn’t want to ruin her sisters’ happiness or her dad’s political maneuvers.

Both the princes’ dad and the princesses’ dad are very tropey. The girls’ father wants to shelter them and imagines base motives for anyone who so much as glances their direction (something even the guards are not permitted to do). The boys’ father leans hard into some toxic masculinity, forcing the boys to do pushups when they fail to obey strict rules, and tasking them with manual labor to toughen them up.

Gwen meets the cursed princesses and joins the group, where the other girls teach her about self-love and embrace her despite her insecurities. The first volume introduces the club members, but doesn’t deeply explore any of their histories.

The exaggerated expressions and humorous references to fairy tale tropes make this book a lot of fun to read. The series is very binge-worthy, so be prepared for the need to hustle out to grab the next book when you’ve finished this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some flirty comments and very vague references to sex/romance.

Spiritual Content
Some princesses have magical curses on them, such as having empty holes for eyes. People wonder if Gwendolyn is a witch because of how she looks.

Violent Content
Gwendolyn overhears someone call her ugly, and it deeply hurts her.

Drug Content
Someone offers Gwendolyn alcohol, which she refuses because she’s underage.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Let’s Get Together by Brandy Colbert

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , , , ,

Let’s Get Together
Brandy Colbert
Clarion Books
Published September 9, 2025

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Let’s Get Together

Boston Globe–Horn Book Award–winning author Brandy Colbert gives The Parent Trap a fresh, funny, and delightfully unexpected update in this story of two girls—one raised by her single father, the other in the foster care system—who meet by chance . . . only to discover they’re identical twins.

Kenya Norwood likes things just the way they are. She’s lived all her life in Pasadena with her dad and grandmother, she’s attended the same school with the same friends since pre-K, and whether it’s at outdoor club or her own lunch table, she loves being the center of attention. Even as she’s about to start middle school, she knows one thing for sure: none of that is going to change.

For Liberty Perry, change is all she’s ever known. Her mother disappeared when she was a toddler, and ever since, she’s never stayed in one place for very long. But her new foster mother, Joey, seems different. Maybe in this home, in this school, change won’t come so quickly.

Except everything changes the day the girls meet—and Kenya and Liberty discover they are identical.

Neither Kenya nor Liberty is ready to find out she has a twin sister (in fact, they’re both unsure if they even want one), and when the girls learn the truth of how they were separated, it’s clear that no one else in their lives was ready for this, either. But soon, they realize that the connection they share might be even stronger than the things that kept them apart—and that teaming up might be the only way to set everything right.

My Review

I must be especially vulnerable to earworms because all it takes is seeing this title to get the song from the 1961 movie, which I haven’t seen since elementary school. The power of music.

This novel is based on that original idea: twins separated as babies, with no memory of one another, who reconnect unexpectedly and decide to set their parents up to fall in love. Some elements have been updated to be more modern and more believable. For example, Liberty lives with a foster mom. Kenya lives with her dad and grandmother. Neither girl knows where her biological mother is. (They find out in the course of the story.)

While the truth about the girls’ mom comes out, the story doesn’t center her experiences. Their grandmother and father tell the girls that their mother was sick and that the illness led her to make very painful choices. They acknowledge her drug addiction as part of her illness, but the explanation stays fairly neutral. They tell Liberty that they tried very hard to find her and her mom. The girls ask some questions and briefly discuss feeling angry at their mom, but again, it’s not a central focus of the story, and the narrative moves forward pretty quickly.

While Liberty hasn’t always had a positive experience with foster care, she loves her new foster mom, Joey (short for Josephine), and it’s easy to see why. The two have a great rapport. Joey offers stability and emotional support at a time when Liberty really needs them. I really appreciated that even though foster care wasn’t a focus of the book, Colbert made space for nuance and didn’t oversimplify or overly demonize the foster care experience.

Fans of the original story will note that these identical twins do not switch places as the characters in the earlier work did. I actually like that the story sidestepped what I imagine actual identical twins get tired of seeing/being asked about. A character jokes that the girls could swap places, and that’s about as far as that idea goes.

All in all, this is a charming, upbeat, family-focused story celebrating both biological bonds and bonds made purely from love.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Vague reference to the romantic status of adults.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Reference to kidnapping and abandonment of a young child. (Happens long before the story begins.)

Drug Content
Mention of a character with drug addiction issues. Nothing shown on scene.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , ,

Bloodmarked (Legendborn #2)
Tracy Deonn
Simon & Schuster
Published November 8, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Bloodmarked

The shadows have risen, and the line is law.

All Bree wanted was to uncover the truth behind her mother’s death. So she infiltrated the Legendborn Order, a secret society descended from King Arthur’s knights—only to discover her own ancestral power. Now, Bree has become someone new:

A Medium. A Bloodcrafter. A Scion.

But the ancient war between demons and the Order is rising to a deadly peak. And Nick, the Legendborn boy Bree fell in love with, has been kidnapped.

Bree wants to fight, but the Regents who rule the Order won’t let her. To them, she is an unknown girl with unheard-of power, and as the living anchor for the spell that preserves the Legendborn cycle, she must be protected.

When the Regents reveal they will do whatever it takes to hide the war, Bree and her friends must go on the run to rescue Nick themselves. But enemies are everywhere, Bree’s powers are unpredictable and dangerous, and she can’t escape her growing attraction to Selwyn, the mage sworn to protect Nick until death.

If Bree has any hope of saving herself and the people she loves, she must learn to control her powers from the ancestors who wielded them first—without losing herself in the process.

My Review

While I really enjoyed continuing Bree’s journey, I think this book’s pacing is much slower than the first. We learn a lot of background information and witness rituals and scenes from King Arthur and the original knights.

There’s a lot more political intrigue here, too. Bree learns about the Legendborn’s leadership and how the regents operate. She also learns more about how the cycle began through her visits to the past.

Bree’s relationships with Nick and Sel also advance, but very slowly. She speaks to Nick periodically, and it’s obvious where the relationship is headed long before either of them acknowledges what’s happening. Bree and Sel avoid each other for much of the story, which heightens the tension. I was really ready for them to talk to one another by the time they finally did!

All in all, I think this book added a lot of interesting context to the overall story. I like where the relationships are heading, and I’m very interested to see what happens in book three.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used somewhat infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing.

Spiritual Content
Several different branches of magical ability exist and are conducted in different ways. One group borrows power from ancestors, repaying it with their own energy or sacrifices. Another group steals power from elsewhere, accruing a debt that will someday come due. Some characters can communicate with the dead.

A line of magic wielders descended from King Arthur and his knights continues to use magic to fight demons who slip through gates from other worlds.

Violent Content
Brief racist statements and microaggressions. Situations of peril. Battles against creatures called demons made of dark magic from another world. References to assault (not shown on scene).

Brief battle scenes showing injuries and fatalities.

Drug Content
The team goes to a bar looking for an ally. A server brings alcohol and a drink with magical power.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I borrowed a copy of this book from the library. All opinions are my own.

Review: Chris Makes a Friend by Alex Gino

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Chris Makes a Friend
Alex Gino
Scholastic Press
Published November 4, 2025

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Chris Makes a Friend

From the award-winning author of MELISSA, a sweet and tart story about unexpected friendship and family reconciliation.

Chris does not want to be spending the summer with their grouchy grandmother and social butterfly sister. But they don’t really have a choice, once their mom leaves them at Grandmother’s house. They can, however, try to escape whenever they want to — into the woods, where they encounter another kid who is the friend they need to survive the summer.

Only… there’s more to this friend than meets the eye…

My Review

I’ve loved every book I’ve read by Alex Gino, so it is no surprise to me at all that I adore this one, too. I’m not even sure where to start singing praises. Ha.

First, I like that this story includes a child whose primary caregiver has a chronic illness, specifically chronic pain. This is something that so many kids deal with, and yet isn’t often represented in literature. Gino presents Chris’s mom’s health in a matter-of-fact, personal way. They share Chris’s understanding of her mom’s pain as well as coping strategies and preferred language and boundaries that are all very personal to Chris’s family experience. All this is phrased as her mom’s preferences, so readers whose experience differs will find no judgment here.

Additionally, one of my favorite things about Gino’s books is how wise the writing is. They relate up-close emotional experiences in a raw, unfiltered way, always making space for the messy, unprocessed feelings that kids experience without judging them as good or bad. Chris has a hard summer, between staying with grandparents whom she loves, but who don’t always do things the same way as she does at home, and worries about her mom’s health, and an unplanned separation/estrangement from her best friend. The story relates her feelings and struggles as she experiences them. I felt her confusion and frustration right along with her.

The story also explores how we check in with our thoughts and emotions, from talking to ourselves to journaling and beyond. Again, this conversation in the hands of a less savvy author could have delved into talking down to the reader, but in Gino’s capable hands, it feels gentle. We experience the wonder of a character discovering these ideas for herself. I love that.

I can’t talk about this book and not mention the amazing reading list drawn from references throughout the book that appears in the backmatter. This is a lovely way to showcase other incredible books and authors. I’ll be adding a few to my own reading list!

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Some squabbling between sisters.

Drug Content
Chris’s mom has surgery and takes heavy painkillers during her recovery.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I borrowed a copy of this book from the library. All opinions are my own.

Review: The Dragon’s Apprentice by James Riley

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , ,

The Dragon’s Apprentice (The Dragon’s Apprentice #1)
James Riley
Labyrinth Road
Published April 1, 2025

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Dragon’s Apprentice

In this hilarious fantasy adventure from the New York Times bestselling author of the Story Thieves series, a girl strikes a deal with the ancient, cranky dragon she accidentally summoned to teach her the forbidden magic she needs to save her mother.

STOP. Don’t read any further. There are magic spells in this book, and the Emperor has forbidden anyone from learning magic, because it’s way too dangerous! If you try one of the spells, any number of terrible things might happen (or so the Emperor says). 

Don’t be like Ciara, a twelve-year-old girl living in the tiny village of Skael. When she used a spell from within this book, she ended up summoning a dragon. A DRAGON! Those things breathe fire! From their mouths! She’s obviously doomed. 

And don’t listen if Ciara tells you that dragons won’t hurt humans, and that they even once taught us magic, a thousand years ago. Definitely don’t pay any attention to the fact that the dragon she summoned, Scorch, might be willing to help rescue Ciara’s mother and free her village from the Emperor and his Warden, because it’s all obviously a big lie. So put this book down, and forget about it. Magic is just way too dangerous. After all, you wouldn’t want to summon your own dragon, would you?

My Review

My daughter picked this book when we were shopping at a book sale recently. We weren’t familiar with the author, but I think the cover art and the characters’ expressions in that illustration drew her in.

The story begins with an excerpt from Bianca’s diary and then connects readers to Ciara, the main character, who is interrupted while reading it. Both Bianca and Ciara are upbeat narrators with a little bit of spunk to them.

Ciara’s mom is sick with a potentially fatal illness caused by her mining work. Ciara and her mom hope to sell their farm in order to buy the medicine that will cure her. The warden, who holds the town in his iron grip, refuses medicine to the villagers without a hefty fee. His soldiers trash crops and property looking for Bianca’s journal. They have the classic thoughtless bad-guy vibe, basically doing everything to make the villagers’ lives miserable.

When Ciara discovers that she can use magic, she thinks of all the possibilities of how the magic could be used to drive the warden out of her village. What she doesn’t realize at first is that magic can’t be used to directly harm humans, and using magic comes with a price.

The relationship between Ciara and the dragon, Scorch, really drives this story forward. There’s a playful energy to it that keeps the overall narrative upbeat, despite the warden’s cruelty.

I read this book aloud to my eight-year-old, and she really enjoyed it. We’re hoping to continue the series with the next book soon.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Some characters can do magic. Dragons exist in the story. References to mysterious, malevolent creatures called revenants.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. References to abusive working conditions and torture. Soldiers intend to execute someone they’re told is an enemy.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I purchased a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Review: City Spies: Forbidden City by James Ponti

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, , , , , , , ,

City Spies: Forbidden City (City Spies #3)
James Ponti
Aladdin
Published February 1, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Forbidden City

In this third “thrilling” (Kirkus Reviews) installment in the New York Times bestselling series from Edgar Award winner James Ponti, the young group of spies help a fellow agent in another international adventure perfect for fans of Spy School and Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls.

After taking down a mole within their organization, the City Spies are ready for their next mission—once again using their unique skills and ability to infiltrate places adults can’t. The sinister Umbra has their sights set on recruiting a North Korean nuclear physicist by any means necessary, and the City Spies plan to keep an eye on his son by sending Paris to the chess prodigy’s tournaments in Moscow and Beijing.

Meanwhile, Sydney’s embedded as a junior reporter for a teen lifestyle site as she follows the daughter of a British billionaire on tour with the biggest act on her father’s music label to uncover what links both the band and the billionaire have to a recent threat from an old Soviet missile base.

From a daring break-in at one of London’s most exclusive homes to a dangerous undercover mission to a desperate search and rescue operation on the streets of Beijing, the City Spies have their work cut out for them on their most dangerous mission yet.

My Review

This series has really hit a good stride. This installment centers around Paris and Sydney, though the other characters play important roles, too. I especially loved the scenes with Kat in them.

The series isn’t always perfectly believable, but that doesn’t detract from the fun. I love that the approach is that kid spies would have access to people and places and trigger less suspicion than adult operatives. It’s a really fun idea, and the author uses that in some clever ways.

The books have a large cast of characters, but I like that each mission features different ones. That kind of changes things up a bit. They also have very unique roles within the team, making them best suited to certain situations. That’s been a lot of fun.

The story also takes readers to some interesting places. In this book, readers visit both Russia and China for chess tournaments. The chess component was interesting —I enjoyed learning how moves are recorded and getting some tidbits about different playing strategies.

I feel like I read this one really fast. The pacing made the story impossible to put down at some points. And the characters are so engaging. I’m a huge fan of the series. Definitely going to read more.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Adults with nefarious intentions chase kids. Agents of a shadowy group steal nuclear warheads.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I borrowed a copy of this book from my library. All opinions are my own.