Candy Bunny Reader

  Everything I read in October! I sure read a lot, and had lots of new favorites.  Reviews will be linked if applicable.   5 star books: I Want to Be a Wall Volumes 1-3 by Honomi Shirano  Doughnuts under a Crescent Moon Volumes 1-4 by Shio Usui (link to Volume 1 review here ) In the Name of the Mermaid Princess Volume 5  by Yoshino Fumikawa and Miya Tashiro   The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity Volume 9 by Saki Mikami Eden of Witches Volume 4 by Yumeji The Loneliest Place by Lora Senf The Firelight Apprentice by Bree Paulsen Hilda volume 1 by Luke Pearson By Your Side by Kasie West Plain Jane and the Mermaid by Vera Brogsol    4.5 star books: Transmogrify by several authors In the Name of the Mermaid Princess Volume 6  by Yoshino Fumikawa and Miya Tashiro     4 star books:  The Deep Dark by Molly Ostertag Lost Evangeline by Kate DiCamillo Sakura Saku Volume 8 by Io Sakisaka

  Another great book by Ann Liang ! Never Thought I'd End Up Here is about Leah, a former teenage model who messed up in trying to congratulate her cousin at her wedding in broken Mandarin. Her mother thinks she can sharpen her Mandarin skills by going on an immersion trip to Shanghai sponsored by the department her aunt works in at Stanford. Also going on this trip is a guy named Cyrus--who has been Leah's number one enemy for the last several years. He was responsible for "the Incident" at Leah previous high school.  But when Leah gets to Shanghai--it ends up becoming an unforgettable trip! New friends, new places--and she gets to learn who Cyrus really is, while also confronting her past.  I love how at first this book seemed like it was going to be a silly enemies to lovers story, but it ended up being a lot deeper than thought. This book explores so many themes ranging from connecting to your roots, finding out what you really want in life, overcoming low self-e...

  My second Vera Brogsol book! The first one I read was Anya's Ghost back in 2022 when I first started my blog. You can read that review here . Plain Jane and the Mermaid is a historical fiction story. It's about Jane, a young woman that just lost her parents. She can't inherit any of what her parents left her because she is a woman, so her uncle tries to take it all for himself. Jane learns if she gets married, her husband can inherit what her parents left her, so she tries to hurry up and find someone to propose to.  Jane tries to propose to her childhood friend Peter, but it backfires because he thinks she only likes him because of his looks. After they get into a fight, Peter is abducted by a mermaid! Jane ends up getting help from the village witch to go underwater and get Peter back. Along the way she gets help from some unlikely people, and goes on a journey to accept herself as she is. This was such an enchanting novel! I liked how it played into some real world my...

    This is the third book in the Norendy  Tales series by Kate DiCamillo . Each book is a standalone story, but all set in the same world. You can read the reviews of the the first two books in this series here: (one is The Puppets of Spelhorst , the second is The Hotel Balzaar .) Lost Evangeline is the tale of a shoemaker who dreams of being a sailor. One day he finds a tiny girl (tiny like Thumbelina!) in a boot, and he decides to adopt her and name her Evangeline. The shoemaker loves telling stories about the sea to Evangeline. Evangeline also likes to sings and play games with her father. All is well at first, but... One day the servant of a sickly rich woman hears Evangeline singing, and he decides to trade the shoemaker's wife for her, thinking her singing will cure the sick Madame. He offers hundreds of gold coins. Evangeline's mother, the shoemaker's wife, jumps at the chance to send her tiny daughter away while she is asleep, as she believed Evangeline brought a...

  This book was recommended by @xoxobookishgirl over on Instagram, and is part of the 12 books 12 friends challenge. This is the last one! Doughnuts Under A Crescent Moon by Shio Usui f ollows Uno Hinako, a twentysomething who tries to have a normal life by following society's expectations of looking a certain way to try to fall in love, but she is not happy. One day one of her coworkers named Asahi Sato finds her crying alone in a park, and she cheers her up by sharing doughnuts with her. The two quickly become friends, and Uno starts trying to unlearn her people-pleasing behavior, but it isn't easy. Luckily, she has fun hanging out with Sato and her younger sister, and bonding over food.  So far I loved this first volume! I gave it 5 stars . It has everything I like in storytelling: queer characters, slice of life elements, and food. I also love the messages of how "normal" looks different from person to person. I am excited to read the next three volumes (it's ...

  You can click here to view Part 1, where I rank the movies from the 2000s.  Here are my rankings for the animated Barbie movies from the 2010s. I am a lot more opinionated this time around.  Again, these are just my opinions! I do not own Barbie. Barbie is owned by Mattel.  20.   Barbie in her Sisters in a Puppy Chase - Y’all, this is my least favorite Barbie movie ever. Barbie was so out of character in this movie, and I didn’t like how she was constantly putting her and her sisters in danger. 19. Barbie: A Perfect Christmas- It was so melodramatic and boring. 18. Barbie: Spy Squad- pretty boring. Also, they weren’t even good at being spies for the majority of the movie! 17. Barbie: The Princess and the Popstar- the main characters were really annoying. It’s also just hard not to compare it to the Princess and the Pauper. 16. Barbie: Princess Power— pretty forgettable. The character designs and animation were also kind of wonky. 15. Barbie:...