Review: The Olive Conspiracy (DNF)

Title: The Olive Conspiracy

Series: Mangoverse #4

Author: Shira Glassman

Genre: High Fantasy

Trigger Warnings: Sexual content (heterosexual and homosexual), death, breastfeeding

Spoiler Warning: This book is fourth in a series, so this review might contain spoilers of the previous three Mangoverse books. If spoilers matter to you, proceed with caution!

Back Cover:

A love story between women, between queen and country, and between farmers and their crops.

When Ezra tries to blackmail Chef Yael about her being trans, she throws him out of her restaurant and immediately reports him to the queen. But when police find Ezra stabbed to death, Queen Shulamit realizes he may have also tried to extort someone more dangerous than a feisty old lady.

The royal investigation leads straight to an international terrorist plot to destroy her country’s economy—and worse, her first love, Crown Princess Carolina of Imbrio, may be involved. Since she’s got a dragon-shifting wizard at her disposal, contacts with friendly foreign witches, and the support of her partner Aviva, Shulamit has hope. What she doesn’t have is time.

Read To: 57%

Review:

I really, really hate to not finish this book. I thoroughly enjoyed The Second Mango and Climbing the Date Palm, and A Harvest of Ripe Figs was good. I follow the author on Goodreads, and overall am just very fond of this series. But I found myself avoiding reading this book, so I think it’s time to call it a “did not finish.”

So why didn’t I like this one enough to finish it? Several reasons. First, the parenthood aspect. Such a big part of the story is the fact that Shulamit (and Aviva) is a mother now. I do not have kids, probably won’t ever have kids (by choice), and the most I encounter young kids is occasional video calls with my sister-in-law and her toddler and baby. I think it’s awesome that some people really want kids and more power to them, but I found the whole parenthood aspect in this story profoundly uninteresting.

Second, the awkwardness of the Princess Carolina subplot. When Shulamit was younger, she had a crush on Princess Carolina, and now that she thinks Princess Carolina might be behind this terrorist plot, there’s a bunch of intentionally awkward emotions that come up. Awkwardness is one of the few things I can’t stand in my entertainment, and it made me wince every time it came up.

Third, this is another mystery plot. I established in my review of A Harvest of Ripe Figs that mystery plots aren’t really my thing. Not a fault of the book – that one’s entirely on me.

I am fond of this series, and I’m really disappointed that this book just didn’t do it at all for me. But to the best of my understanding, the fifth book is a short story collection, so I think I’ll just skip over this one and read the next. And who knows, I own this book on Kindle – maybe I’ll come back and finish it someday.

The Mangoverse Series:

1. The Second Mango
2. Climbing the Date Palm: A Labor Rights Love Story
3. A Harvest of Ripe Figs
4. The Olive Conspiracy
5. Tales from Perach

Review: A Harvest of Ripe Figs

Title: A Harvest of Ripe Figs

Series: Mangoverse #3

Author: Shira Glassman

Genre: High Fantasy

Trigger Warnings: Emotionally abusive relationships, sexual content (heterosexual and homosexual)

Spoiler Warning: This book is third in a series, so this review probably contains spoilers of the previous two books, The Second Mango and Climbing the Date Palm. Proceed with caution!

Back Cover:

Esther of the Singing Hands is Perach’s Sweetheart, a young and beautiful musician with a Girl Next Door image. When her violin is stolen after a concert in the capital city, she doesn’t expect the queen herself to show up, intent upon solving the mystery.

But Queen Shulamit–lesbian, intellectual, and mother of the six month old crown princess–loves to play detective. With the help of her legendary bodyguard Rivka and her dragon, and with the support of her partner Aviva the Chef, Shulamit turns her mind toward the solution–which she quickly begins to suspect involves the use of illegal magic that could threaten the safety of her citizens.

Review:

Let me say this: I did not enjoy this book as much as the previous Mangoverse books. That’s not really any fault of the book, though. This book is first and foremost a mystery story, and I’m just not a huge fan of mysteries.

The plot focuses on the mystery of Esther’s missing violin, which also leads into the related mystery of “who’s using this illegal magic and where is it coming from.” As far as mysteries go, it wasn’t bad – like I said, I’m just not a huge fan of mysteries. And because this is a mystery, unlike the previous Mangoverse books, you will miss things if you try to read it in bits and pieces.

I also didn’t enjoy Shulamit as much this time around – but again, not really the book’s fault. Shulamit and Aviva are now parents, and most of their characterization in this book focused on their challenges as new parents to a baby. And as someone who has never had a child, that part wasn’t very relatable (or honestly, interesting) to me.

Beyond that, the major characters really haven’t changed much. Which isn’t a bad thing, since they’re all good, solid characters and I like them a lot. (See my review of Climbing the Date Palm for more specifics.)

This book also introduces a lot of new characters, most of whom were there because of the mystery aspects (suspects and/or witnesses) and I doubt they’ll be in future books. In some parts it gets kind of confusing because there’s so many different characters running around, and none of them are particularly interesting.

Okay, from reading this review so far you might get the impression that I don’t like this book at all. Which is not true. I didn’t like this book as much as the previous two, no, but I still enjoyed it. It was a lighthearted read, quick and fun, with solid characters, a good plot, and stakes that never seem super high. It’s a relaxation read, just like the other books in the series, and I definitely enjoyed it for that. And I will be continuing the series.

The Mangoverse Series:

1. The Second Mango
2. Climbing the Date Palm: A Labor Rights Love Story
3. A Harvest of Ripe Figs
4. The Olive Conspiracy
5. Tales from Perach

Review: Climbing the Date Palm

Title: Climbing the Date Palm: A Labor Rights Love Story

Series: Mangoverse #2

Author: Shira Glassman

Genre: High Fantasy

Trigger Warnings: Threat of death, sexual content (implied or lightly described), homophobia

Spoiler Warnings: This book is second in a series, so this review will probably contain spoilers of the first book, The Second Mango.

Back Cover:

Prince Kaveh, the youngest son of the king of the City of Red Clay, is bisexual, and completely besotted with Farzin, the engineer his father hired to oversee the improvements to the city’s roads and bridges. However, the king doesn’t share his positive feelings. After Farzin ends up at the head of the protest that ensues when the workers are only paid a third of their promised wages, he’s thrown in prison and is scheduled to be executed.

Queen Shulamit, who rules over the neighboring nation of Perach, is eager to assist the desperate prince. She, too, loves justice and has a same-sex partner. She’s also hoping Kaveh, with his royal blood, is willing to give her and her sweetheart a legitimate heir in exchange. But can she find a peaceful solution that will pacify the king next door, get his workers fairly paid, and free Farzin? Or will she and her dragon-riding bodyguard Rivka have to go to war?

Review:

This story was very similar to the first book in the series, The Second Mango – in feel, that is, not in plot. Like the first book, Climbing the Date Palm was a fun, entertaining, not-very-deep story. However, it did go a bit darker than the first book.

Climbing the Date Palm introduces a whole new set of characters in a whole new kingdom, the main one being the bisexual Prince Kaveh, whose main personality trait seemed to be “being head-over-heels for this one guy.” Although, considering the circumstances of this one guy being sentenced to death, that can be forgiven. He kind of had that weak, wimpy younger prince trope going on, but overall I didn’t mind him.

I loved Shulamit again in this book. She’s brave, kind, and getting better at wielding her queenly power for the good of others. She feels scared and uncertain, and then she does what’s right anyway, and I admire her. The other major characters from The Second Mango, namely Rivka, Isaac, and Aviva, also play important roles, and they’re still great. Isaac gets a bigger part in this book, and he’s clever and fun to read about. Rivka is still awesome. And Aviva gets a bigger role and she’s sweet and supportive and a great complement to intellectual Shulamit.

As far as plot goes, this book mostly fixed the problem I had with book one – namely, that the problems didn’t have very high stakes. The stakes in this book involved a man’s life, war (if Shulamit and company can’t find a peaceful way to save Farzin) and the fate of an entire country (Perach if Shulamit doesn’t get a legitimate heir somehow). While it is pretty straightforward without any real twists, it was enough to keep me interested and thoroughly entertained.

There’s still not a whole lot about the setting in this book, but again, what you do get is great, and I love how Perach’s culture is based on Judaism. Since this is the second book with not a lot of setting details, I don’t have super high hopes for getting more in future books, but I can dream.

I only have one real problem, and it’s kind of nitpicky – the subtitle. I appreciate what Shira Glassman was trying to do with the whole pro-union message, but the banding together of the workers against the king didn’t actually work. That was the whole plot, that the king just ignored the workers’ attempts to unionize, imprisoned the person he felt was responsible, and Shulamit had to step in.

Overall, while it did have its problems, Climbing the Date Palm was fun, mostly lighthearted, entertaining, and just a great light read when you want something simple but enjoyable. I’m excited for book three.

The Mangoverse Series:

1. The Second Mango
2. Climbing the Date Palm: A Labor Rights Love Story
3. A Harvest of Ripe Figs
4. The Olive Conspiracy
5. Tales from Perach

Review: The Second Mango

Image from Goodreads

Title: The Second Mango

Series: Mangoverse #1

Author: Shira Glassman

Genre: High Fantasy

Trigger Warnings: Death, kidnapping, f/f sex (barely described), m/f sex (implied)

Back Cover:

Queen Shulamit never expected to inherit the throne of the tropical land of Perach so young. At twenty, grief-stricken and fatherless, she’s also coping with being the only lesbian she knows after her sweetheart ran off for an unknown reason. Not to mention, she’s the victim of severe digestive problems that everybody thinks she’s faking. When she meets Rivka, an athletic and assertive warrior from the north who wears a mask and pretends to be a man, she finds the source of strength she needs so desperately.

Unfortunately for her, Rivka is straight, but that’s okay — Shulamit needs a surrogate big sister just as much as she needs a girlfriend. Especially if the warrior’s willing to take her around the kingdom on the back of her dragon in search of other women who might be open to same-sex romance. The real world outside the palace is full of adventure, however, and the search for a royal girlfriend quickly turns into a rescue mission when they discover a temple full of women turned to stone by an evil sorcerer.

Review:

I’ve had this book on my to-read book for a while after discovering Shira Glassman somewhere on Tumblr and picked it up because the ebook was cheap on Amazon. It’s short and it was a quick read, and I did enjoy the story. But I do have some reservations about it.

So let’s talk about what was good. The characters were great. Shulamit is a solid character, and even though she seemed a little too focused on sex (although that could just be me, since I’m asexual and don’t really think about sex at all), she had a lot of complicated feelings that made her really likable. She also has serious food allergies (celiac disease and a poultry allergy) that cause her a lot of problems, which added an interesting dimension.

The other major character, Rivka the warrior, was also well done – and interestingly, you actually get more of her backstory than Shulamit’s. Her history makes for a great dramatic story and she has some emotional pain she’s dealing with, which makes her especially enjoyable to read. She also has a great dynamic with Shulamit and I loved watching the two girls interact.

Information about the setting was sparse, but what there was was solid. I’m hoping future books in the series have more of it, because I’d love to learn more about Perach and how it works. The plot also wrapped up nicely and it had a great happy ending that I thoroughly loved.

Now let’s talk about the not-so-good stuff. Namely, the tension, or lack thereof. The plot is super straightforward (there’s only one twist, and it has more to do with Rivka’s emotional arc than the actual plot) and the tension never ramps up. They meet a problem, they solve it. They meet a problem, they solve it. They meet a problem, their lives are in danger for a few moments, they solve the problem. The tension is minimal, they never run into other problems while solving a different problem, and in a lot of ways it just feels too easy.

But even given that, did I enjoy it? Yes, thoroughly. It was light and fun, and though it was missing a lot of the complexity I was expecting from a fantasy novel, sometimes simplicity is good and I missed next to nothing reading it in bits and pieces. It was a fun romp and I just bought book two – I’m looking forward to continuing the simple, light adventure in the Mangoverse.

The Mangoverse Series:

1. The Second Mango
2. Climbing the Date Palm: A Labor Rights Love Story
3. A Harvest of Ripe Figs
4. The Olive Conspiracy
5. Tales from Perach

Review: Always Human

Title: Always Human

Author: Ari

Genre: Science Fiction/Romance

Trigger warnings: Dieting/diet talk

Summary:

This is a story about nanobots, genetic engineering, and two girls falling in love. No matter how technology changes us, we’ll always be human.

Review:

I found this on a list of webcomics on Tumblr, with nothing more about it than “scifi and very gay.” I started reading it because I got bored at work. And then I couldn’t stop.

The short description up there doesn’t tell you a lot about the story. The story is set in a futuristic world where people can live in space, virtual reality is a major thing, and everybody uses “mods” to change their bodies – including appearance, resistance to sickness, and even getting rid of cancer. It starts when Sunati, a recent college graduate and virtual reality engineer meets Austen, a college student with Egan’s Syndrome, an immune disorder that means her body rejects all mods.

And it’s adorable. The romance moves pretty quickly, but even though it’s very romance-oriented, it’s less about the romance and more about the characters.

First, there’s Sunati. She’s a recent college graduate and current virtual reality engineer with dreams of going into space (ideally to Mars), and she tries really, really hard to make everyone around her happy (or at least not be inconvenienced), which I could really relate to. A large part of the story towards the end is her learning that it’s okay to do things for herself sometimes.

Then there’s Austen. She’s in college for genetics – she hopes to cure Egan’s Syndrome so she and other people with the disease can use mods like everybody else – but school is really stressing her out a lot. She also diets (which gets addressed in a very healthy way) and spends a lot of time exercising and studying so she can keep up with people who use mods to help them with those things.

Though both girls have their own individual issues that they deal with, but the bulk of the story is them navigating their relationship, learning to communicate and take the other’s feelings into consideration while still being true to themselves, and building a strong and healthy relationship. It’s emotional and adorable.

It’s also set in an amazing scifi world that I really want to talk about, but also it’s just fun to learn about it as you go. The world itself is beautiful (the art is amazing) and the details – virtual reality games and conversations, lenses like contacts that provide a data interface, the classic visual-displays-hovering-in-front-of-your-face … it’s just great.

And have I mentioned it’s adorable? It’s one of the cutest romances I’ve read in a long time. (And I don’t usually like romance.)

Also, look at this artwork! It’s so cute and happy and gorgeous.

I’m not usually into romance, but this one is great. You can read it online for free here!!!