My Languishing TBR: H #AtoZChallenge2024 #Books #BookReviews

H is for Holly

I’m doing folklore and book review posts to reach and please a larger audience. Previous years have shown select interest in both and to minimise blogging throughout the year, I’m focusing my efforts on April.

Focusing on an A to Z of my TBR (to be read) list, each letter will have books starting with that letter on my list, a book I’ve read and reviewed (with the review!) and one of my books matching the letter with a link about more info about the book.

I chose the books this year quite randomly from my Goodreads Want to Read page. Some are quite creatively added to letters.

If you’d rather check out my folklore post for today, go here.

You can read reviews for from previous years for this letter here and here, and my year-end reviews here, here, here and, most recently, here.

My TBR

About the Book I’ve Read

I’m using the author’s name for this letter. LOL.

About the Book

The Nixie’s Song (Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, #1) by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

The Spiderwick Chronicles leave the old-fashioned charm of New England far behind and head south for some fiendish faerie fun in the hot Florida sun. Eleven-year-old Nicholas Vargas only thinks his life has been turned upside down after his developer father remarries and moves his new wife and daughter into the soon-to-be completed Mangrove Hollow.

But an “expedition” to a nearby lake turns up a little nixie with a giant problem – the huge, lumbering, fire-breathing variety – and it’s up to Nick; his stepsister, Laurie; and his big brother, Julian (plus a familiar face from the original Spiderwick Chronicles) to figure out the best way to stop a host of rampaging giants before all of Florida goes up in smoke.

Check it out on Goodreads.

My Review

Vivid storytelling, great world-building and characters one can easily bond with. The nixie and giant are both such bigger-than-life characters that one almost misses the other fae making an appearance.

A good story about changing circumstances, changing families and adapting to change.

About the Book

A Giant Problem (Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, #2) by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

Nick and Laurie have a giant problem and it’s a lot bigger than they originally thought. When Taloa sent them off to find her sisters, they discovered a single fire breathing giant, but as it turns out, that one giant is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Check it out on Goodreads.

My Review

I like that the person teaching them about giants is named Jack. The family tension and the siblings getting along better felt realistic. I’m not sure how the fire and destruction caused by the giants can so easily be attributed to natural causes by those without the Sight, but ignoring the supernatural is what some people are best at.

I think the one best off in this book is George…

The twist ending is good.

About the Book

The Wyrm King (Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, #3) by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

In the final installment of Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles , Nick and Laurie had thought they solved their giant problems when they drove all the giants into the sea. But now, the Grace kids have come back to tell them they may have more trouble coming their way!

It turns out the giants control the population of Hydra, a dragon like creature that is creating sinkholes all over Florida. But with the mermaids refusing to return the giants to the shore, the nixie’s still missing and the threat of a destroyed Florida drawing closer, the kids have to take matters in their own hands.

Will Nick and Laurie be able to stop the destruction they unwittingly caused? Can a new giant hunter help save the day? Can Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide help them out of this or are they on their own?

Find out in the final conclusion of the Spiderwick saga!

Check it out on Goodreads.

My Review

I liked the twist that several dragons twisted together make a hydra – so much more terrifying than the one from Greek mythology. The giants eating the small dragons, not just to breathe fire but to rid the world of these pests, was quite a cool plot twist.

I liked that Jack the giant slayer returned to help the children and that the Grace children helped, too.

The water fae were my favourite in this series, keeping true to character and refusing to bow to change – a good foil to Nick and the others who need to figure out what they want and learn to adapt to change.

A good series.

My Book

How You Remind Me (Irascible Immortals #2)

Remember that you can request all of my books from your local library!

I hope you enjoyed this. For more books I’ve read and reviewed, check out either my Pinterest board about reviews or my Goodreads profile. Alternatively, you can check out my reviews on BookBub. Have you read any of the books? Loved or hated any of them?

You can now support my time in producing book review posts (buying books, reading, writing reviews and everything else involved) by buying me a coffee. This can be a once-off thing, or you can buy me coffee again in the future at your discretion.

*FYI, my reviews are my honest opinion and if something bothers me, I tell it straight. How else will anything change? My opinions are based on being a voracious reader and book buyer, not an attack on the author.*

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