dwarves – Cannonball Read 17

Insubstantial Fluff

A Fellowship of Librarians & Dragons by J. Penner

October 11, 2025 by CoffeeShopReader Leave a Comment

Bingo 21: Review I may have already had A Fellowship of Librarians and Dragons on my TBR before looking up reviews, but turns out I had a pretty similar reaction to Bjornsnipe: https://everyday-offershub.com/2025/10/a-fellowship-of-librarians-dragons-adenashire-book-two-bjornsnipe/ This series, not totally surprisingly, appears to be let’s take a core group, and then pair everyone off, one novel at a time. There’s not a lot of substance, and no attention to realism. This is pure wish fulfillment, where everything turns out fine in the end, romantically, family-wise, dragon baby-wise, friend-wise, […]

“A safe fairyland is untrue to all worlds.”

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien

July 18, 2025 by bjornsnipe 2 Comments

It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him. By now, I think practically everyone has either read the book or seen the movies, hopefully both. (Full disclosure: I will judge heavily anyone who has only seen the movies; why would you do that to yourself?) The book, as is frequently the case, is loads better. No unnecessary romantic subplots, no characters who are dead making appearances, no characters showing up far too many years […]

Messing Around a Lot in the Woods

The Fifth Wards: Good Company by Dale Lucas

March 22, 2020 by CoffeeShopReader Leave a Comment

The Fifth Ward: Good Company was kind of hit or miss for me. I totally saw Rem’s big personal reveal coming a mile away, and a lot of the other characters’ reaction to it were not surprising either. Of course Indilen and Torval are going to accept it; on the one hand, I’m glad there wasn’t a lot of unnecessary drama there, but on the other, there was so little reaction it’s like all that time trying to build it up was wasted. The set […]

Medieval Mayhem Aligns with Modern Politics

Fifth Ward Friendly Fire by Dale Lucas

August 10, 2019 by CoffeeShopReader Leave a Comment

Bingo 14 (Reading the TBR) Fifth Ward: Friendly Fire has been on my shelf for a while, long enough for me to have gotten it not too long after it came out and have a sequel already out by the time I got to it. In a way, it’s a good thing that I waited as long as I did, because it seemed really timely for the political here and now in spite of not being set anywhere close. The Fifth Ward series is set […]

Will the real good guy please stand up? Or not.

April 11, 2016 by CoffeeShopReader 2 Comments

Righteous Fury is a prequel to a series I have not read (a 4 book series Dwarves). In some ways this is classic fantasy. The cast includes a variety of magical beings, including some elves, dwarves, but mostly the alfar. Humans also come into the story, but are mostly slaves. This race is “cruel and surpassingly beautiful artist-warriors”. Two alfar in particular command the majority of the story: Calphalor and Sinthoras. At the beginning they hate each other and belong to opposing political parties. Calphalor […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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