Welcome to my second mini reviews post! In this post I’ll be talking about the following books, so feel free to skip to the relevant section by clicking on the titles below if you’re only interested in some of the books:

• Poyums by Len Pennie
• The Apothecary Diaries by Natsu Hyuuga
• Swordheart by T Kingfisher
• Small Things Like These by Claire Gleeson

Without further ado, let’s take a look at the reviews!

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I’ve been watching Len Pennie’s Instagram videos for quite a while now, and my favourites are always the ones where she introduces Scots words. I understand a fair bit of Scots, but my family doesn’t really speak Scots, so it’s mostly recognising cognates and patterns and the many words that have been adopted in Scottish English, so I always enjoy the opportunity to learn more about the language, and that was one of the things that drew me to this poetry collection the most.

I think the way Pennie mixes the two languages throughout the poetry collection – and even within the same poem – is done very well, and especially when the two are used together, I think the switch between the two languages imbues the lines with a very specific and intentional meaning. 

I particularly like Pennie’s sense of rhyme and rhythm. Some might say they are quite simple rhythms and rhymes, but they tickle my ear in just the right way and make reading her poetry out loud extremely satisfying. 

The actual topics of the poetry are, of course, extremely important, but I don’t think they move me particularly – partly because they’re topics I already know a lot about, so they don’t bring me anything new, and I don’t find myself particularly emotionally moved by poetry generally speaking. That being said, if someone were to start arguing against the points made in the poems, I’d start getting heated, so I do think it’s because I agree with a lot of the things she says that I didn’t have a particularly strong reaction. However, if you are currently struggling with mental health, do be aware that this poem does talk a lot about mental health and some of the darker thoughts that people have when experiencing poor mental health.

Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s

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Having watched the Apothecary Diaries anime, I wanted more of the story, so I decided to give the light novel series a go. The anime (up to now) has covered the content of volumes 1 to 4, so I pretty much knew all of what happened in this instalment – and I think the anime has stuck to the source material pretty closely – so I of course wasn’t really surprised by the mystery elements of it, but I can’t hold it against the book and I remember not seeing some of the twists coming in the show, so I’m very much looking forward to getting to new material so I can experience that in book form as well. 

I will say that they really like to mention “men who are not really men anymore” (aka eunuchs – and I personally don’t agree that your physical biology makes your gender, but we are talking about a harem setting in a fake ancient China, so let’s give it a pass) and women being voluptuous a lot… maybe too much… But I only minded a bit since it was quite repetitive, although in Maomao’s uninterested tone, it became more funny than annoying. 

Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s

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This was a really enjoyable, fun fantasy romance, and I’m really looking forward to reading the spin-off that is coming out later this year. Both the female and male main characters were interesting and entertaining to read, and the humorous tone of the book was pulled off really well. The main characters are both slightly older – our FMC is mid-late 30s, and our MMC is physically older (not counting the many hundreds of years he’s been in a sword…), and although our FMC is slightly naïve, it doesn’t read as overly young, just an ignorance of the world outside of her village setting. I also love her frequent info dumps – not in a worldbuilding info dump way, but in an extremely endearing I’m going to tell you random fun facts kind of way. 

This isn’t one for you if you want hugely in-depth worldbuilding (although what we do see is very interesting, and this is set in the same world as some of Kingfisher’s other books if you want more). The focus is very much on the romance, which makes sense, since this is a fantasy romance. But the secondary, non-romantic plot supports the romance well, the romance isn’t too fast, and the misunderstanding elements are not overplayed in a way that frustrates me. 

Something I didn’t really pick up on very much, but that I do see having read about itafterwards, is the somewhat problematic ace representation. Or rather, the fact that the FMC’s previous husband was shown as having no interest in sex, and this was disparaged on multiple occasions. I don’t think he was intentionally written as an ace person and it would have been fine if the focus was the fact that Halla was not informed or given any alternative or say in the situation, which I do think was the implied context and the reason and I didn’t pick up on it. However, the way it was written in places made it seem like the lack of sexual interest in general was the issue. You can take a look at this Reddit thread if you want to know more; I pretty much agree with the general vibe of the conversation. Other rep was done well, for example, one of our main side characters was nonbinary (and a great character). 

Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s

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I listened to the audiobook of this novella and finished it within the day, so it was definitely a nice combination of short and holding my attention. The content, however, is far heavier than the book itself. Unless you have some context, the extent of the horrific things occurring might not be entirely clear, so I highly recommend reading up on the Magdalene laundries in Ireland either before or after reading this book.

The writing style is extremely atmospheric and I felt very much transported to this small Irish town and I ended up quite invested in the characters, despite it being such a short book. I think the open ending works well – anything else would have required a much longer work, because there is nothing simple about the aftermath of the events in this book. But if you hate open endings, it is something to be aware of.

I dock a half star (from 4.5 to 4 in my head, although I don’t actually give 4.5 stars) for the infidelity-adjacent content – it’s very brief and nothing actually happens, but I just find it frustrating when people who offer a glimpse into a different world automatically lead the character to think about what being married/with them rather than their actual partner. It just feels unnecessary, overdone, and cheapens that part of the story in my mind. Can we not have platonic visions of a different life?

Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s

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In the UK and want to support independent bookshops? Find all books I’ve reviewed over 3.5 stars on my Bookshop.org UK page!

If you are based in the UK and want to support independent bookshops, please consider buying the books on this list via my storefront on Bookshop.org UK (or the affiliate links in my posts). If you do, I get 10% commission and so do British independent bookshops (without affecting the price you pay).

If you can’t buy the books right now but want to read them, please check your local library (or request them)! Together we can keep these important community resources alive.

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Have you read any of these books? If so, what did you think? If not, let me know if any of them will be making your TBR!

Keira x