brookeisbusyreading's reviews
343 reviews

Probably my favorite volume of the series so far. I LOVE GARGOYLE! His design and powers are so cool!

The Nanashi vs Aqua battle still hurts my soul, despite having seen it in the anime over a decade ago. But, Rapunzel is a cool villain…annoying, but cool in how sadistic she is. And I forgot how much of a badass Dorothy is!

This volume - the scenes, the characters/creatures, the overall plot - I always find a volume of a manga I’m reading that just reminds me why I love the series. This was that volume (so far lol)!

From Rolan vs Alviss (YAY!) to Phantom’s crazy, sadistic episode Rapunzel’s psychotic entrance, this volume had a lot to unpack! It was glorious. I was especially excited to see Rolan and Alviss face off, but I also like the Iceberg Fields fights!

Next most anticipated part: Nanashi vs Aqua!

I love the Kannochi vs Ginta battle! I wish it was longer! Kannochi is an interesting character and I would’ve loved to see more of him! Though his Body Candle ÄRM is cool!

I kind of wished the fights between Snow and Fugi and Nanashi and Loco had been just a bit more detailed - drawn out a little longer. I like Loco and her Darkness ÄRM’s consequence though!

Great message, cool sport to center the story around, and a nice cast of characters. Donte and his brother Trey are sibling goals and I love how close they are. Coach is a nice mentor too.

The story isn’t bad at all. I know I’m an adult reading a middle grade story so I definitely tried to keep that in mind. The only thing I didn’t like was the pacing. It works amazingly well for immitating the sport of fencing in written form, but it does speed up the rest of the book’s pacing too. It still works for the most part outside of the fencing, though you don’t get the up-and-down feelings as much because of it. Faster pacing sacrifices that. I just think there could’ve been a better way to keep the faster pacing for the fencing scenes but slow it down in everything else.

I would still recommend this book for anyone who enjoys middle grade stories with important messages or if they want to learn about fencing!

I want to start by saying I thought there’s be more romance, BUT I loved the chemistry between Ben and Liam so much it didn’t bother me. So Ben’s a dork who loves to read and write (like me) and Liam’s a STACKED, friendly guy. UGH THESE TWOOOO!!! I wasn’t expecting Liam to be friendly - I was thinking he’d be the grumpy to Ben’s sunshine - but it made me love him that much  more! And those tattoos plus the meaning behind them…YESS!

Throw in grumpy softie Chef Davis, a quirky pick named Watson, gentle Mel, boisterous Emilia, supportive Liz, laid-back Tom, and romantic-obsessed Rachel and this is a cast of characters that is a blast to read about! Found family is also my favorite trope and these guys slid into that very smoothly. Ben and Liam’s relationship developed in that perfect ‘chef’s kiss’ (pun intended) kind of way!

Then there’s the visual style, lettering, and colors. The text was easy to follow, the art style had a cool blend of graphic novel meets manga, and the colors used lighter and darker colors to really maintain the right focus in each scene. I’m not entirely sure what it is but I feel more appreciative of the work each individual person (i.e. writer, illustrator, colorist, and letterer) put into this book.

Happy to add Chef’s Kiss to my bookshelf!

<b> “Everyone seems to think
loneliness is a sad thing.

But it can be a comfort too.

At least I know
I always have myself,
even when it seems
everyone else has left.”</b>


I absolutely love the personal journey in this book and the friendship! The illustrations were gorgeous, and I appreciated the quality of the pages too!

Love by Night (their first book) was incredible, which meant I was going to check this one out. I didn’t expect to relate to so much of K’s experiences and emotions.

This is a wonderful book and I feel like I’ve connected to S and K - that they’ve invited me to see how special relationships with people, especially friends, can be.

I’m a little conflicted with this book. I really like several of the poems, the illustrations, and how descriptive the author is. 

BUT most of the poems were so long and I felt like the point of the poem was lost, they were written more like ramblings or prose, and the topics were all over the place. I get that this is a collection with no specific theme. I just felt like there was no organization and I could see areas where there could have been that would have made the reading experience much more enjoyable…at least for me.

I really did enjoy the illustrations though, and the author’s descriptive style! Though I’d say my biggest issue was how long ~90 of the poems were. If they have short lines that’s not a problem for me. It’s when they look like paragraphs but don’t read quite like poetry that I struggle. (If the book advertised itself as ‘poetry and prose’ I would’ve overlooked this, but it didn’t.)

I’m just disappointed I didn’t enjoy it. Maybe it’s just not my thing.

Oof, so many things to say about this book…

First, it was too long. No poetry book should be ober 200 pages in my opinion. Plus, by the time I got done reading the short essays at the end, I pretty much forgot I had been reading a poetry book.

Second, why did so many of the illustrations not go with the poems? They didn’t really add anything else to them either. There was also this random rat/mouse drawing with words in a bubble that kept showing up but why…? And there were 3 naked women illustrated yet the ‘poems’ before and after them didn’t seem to be about exposing herself spiritually, for example, or rediscovering her body, etc.

Third, nearly all of the poems rhymed, but they felt…lazy? I don’t like that word when it comes to rhyming poetry since rhyming poems can be wonderful, but this book makes me lean more toward the lazy side. I felt like the rhymes were forced in majority of the poems just for the sake of rhyming. (Readers can tell when it’s something writers force or when it comes naturally.)

Lastly, the poems were A) too simple, B) not poems at all (or even affirmations), and/or C) just opposites put together to create the illusion of poems. I don’t mind simplistic or short poetry when it’s done well - because it can hit HARD in the right ways - but this book completely missed the mark for me.

It seems like nearly every popular poetry book I read I end up disliking. Maybe I should just stick to indie authors. At least I don’t tend to get frustrated or bored halfway through.