Candy Bunny Reader

  I do this tag every year sometime in June.  Check out my answers for the previous years on the Navigation page! 1. Best book you read so far this year? I've got two: The Witch Who Chases the Sun by Dawn Chen and Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura   2. Best sequel you read so far this year? Amari and the Metalwork Menace  by BB Alston and Under All the Lights by Maya Ameyaw.   3. New release you haven't read yet, but want to.  Smash or Pass by Birdie Schae 4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year. This is actually a revised edition of a book originally published in 2009, but The Diaries of Emily the Strange: The Lost Days is coming out in September 2026.   Another one is the second book of the Kiki's Delivery Service series (yes, it's a whole series) titled Kiki and the New Magic . The author is Eiko Kadono.  The book was originally published in Japanese back in 1993 and getting an English release i...

 TW: Bullying, predatory relationships, terminal illnesses are all mentioned here.  This book had been on my TBR forever, and I am happy to report that this book was a great one! Lonely Castle in the Mirror by   Mizuki Tsujimura follows Kokoro, a 7th grader who's been avoiding going to school after getting bullied. One day she discovers the mirror in her room is glowing! She then finds herself on the opposite side of the mirror in a castle run by the mysterious Wolf Queen. Several other kids her age are there, too, and they've all been skipping school for similar reasons. They are tasked with finding the Wishing Key, which will grant them a single wish, and they must complete the task by March 30th before the castle vanishes. However, if any of them choose to make a wish, all their memories of each other and being in the castle will be erased.  Kokoro ends up forming close bonds with each of the other kids there while dealing with her own problems back home (mostly w...