Bogormen

Title: The Lost Story
Author: Meg Shaffer
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 352
Date read: July, 2024

As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived.

Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.

Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth about the disappearances, for while the rest of the world was searching for them, the two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. He believes it is there that they will find Emilie’s sister. However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return for his own inscrutable reasons. But the time for burying secrets comes to an end as the quest for Emilie’s sister begins. The former lost boys must confront their shared past, no matter how traumatic the memories.

Alongside the headstrong Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy must return to the enchanted world they called home for six months—for only then can they get back everything and everyone they’ve lost.


To set the stage: I absolutely adored Meg Shaffer's book "The Wishing Game". It was love at first sight, and I went on to recommend it to everybody I knew.

So when I heard that she's written another book AND that it was inspired by C.S. Lewis' "Narnia" series I was so excited! I grew up with that series, and have read them too many times to count. It couldn't have been more perfect!

... except that this meant my expectations were way too high, and that the book itself unfortunately couldn't deliver. It was perfectly fine, but since I had expected heart-eyes, "fine" just didn't cut it.

At the end of the day the book had a lot more shades of "Mio, My Son" or "Brothers Lionheart" (both by Astrid Lindgren) than it did of Narnia, and while I could see the charm of the story, I actually preferred the part that took place "here" over the part that took place "there" -- which kinda negated the charm of the book.

All this to say that this is definitely a case of "It's not you, it's me" ... possibly combined with faulty marketing.

Title: The Silent Patient
Author: Alex Michaelides
Genre: Suspense
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 339
Date read: July 2024

Alicia Berenson lived a seemingly perfect life until one day six years ago. When she shot her husband in the head five times.

Since then she hasn't spoken a single word.

It's time to find out why.


I'm having a really hard time deciding what I thought of this, and it is basically impossible to review it properly without spoiling parts of it. I found it captivating, and the writing style drew me in right away. It seemed awfully disjointed at times, but not in a way that felt jarring, I was just puzzled how it would all fit together.

( Spoiler )

Basically - if you enjoy an unreliable narrator, this might be a book for you. If not - give it a miss.

Title: Poison Study
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 5/5
# pages: Audiobook ~10hrs / 409 pages
Date read: June 2012, August 2014, September 2016, July 2024

Choose: A quick death... Or slow poison...

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace - and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust - and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear.

I started listening to this with no particular expectations. I'd never read a review of it, but just kept seeing it all over the place, so I figured it was about time.

I ended up LOVING it!!! One of the best books I've read in a very, very long time. It's a brilliant story that incorporates several of my favourite bookish ideas: Teaching of a craft - check. Latent magical abilities - check. Surprising romance - check. Friends among enemies - check.

Excellent book that's nicely contained. Still, it was so well written that I want to start the sequel right away :)

Title: The Woman Who Rides Like A Man Author: Tamora Pierce Genre: Fantasy Rating: 9/10 # pages: 216 Date read: August 2007, October 2011, April 2020, July 2024

A knight at last, Alanna of Trebond heads out to seek adventure in the desert of Tortall. Captured by desert tribesmen, she is forced to prove herself in a magical duel to the death. But her real challenge doesn't come until after she wins. As the first female shaman, Alanna must fight to change the ancient traditions of the stubborn desert tribes -- for their own sake and for the sake of all Tortall.


When I first read this quartet, I stopped after the two first books, because it just seemed wrong to me to read about Alanna when she wasn't still at the palace. I didn't realize that her adventures other places could be just as interesting to read. Fortunately I got over it, and now enjoy this book just as much as the rest of the series.

Book List

Title: Alanna Author: Tamora Pierce Genre: Fantasy Rating: 5/5 # pages: 216 Date read: August 2007, October 2010, September 2011, August 2014, November 2015, April 2020, July 2024

Call it fate, call it intuition, or just call it common sense, but somehow young Alanna knows she isn't meant to become some proper lady cloistered in a convent. Instead, she wants to be a great warrior maiden--a female knight. But in the land of Tortall, women aren't allowed to train as warriors. So Alanna finds a way to switch places with her twin, Thom, and take his place as a knight in training at the palace of King Roald. Disguising herself as a boy, Alanna begins her training as a page in the royal court. Soon, she is garnering the admiration of all around her, including the crown prince, with her strong work ethic and her thirst for knowledge. But all the while, she is haunted by the recurring vision of a black stone city that emanates evil... somehow she knows it is her fate to purge that place of its wickedness. But how will she find it? And can she fulfill her destiny while keeping her gender a secret?


The first quartet written by Tamora Pierce, and while "Protector of the Small" has overtaken it as my favourite series, the two first books of this quartet are definitely my favourite books. I love reading about how Alanna fits into life at the palace - her lessons and the friends she makes. I read it for the first time when I was 12'ish and have reread it regularly ever since.