misssusan's review against another edition
3.0
okay this series is just the best kind of corny? like you know when it's late at night and you watch one of those family movies where you're like 'omg are you kidding me' but then your cold cynical heart is won ever by the sheer earnestness of everything on the screen and you finish the movie like ahhh love is real, please ignore my shedding of a single crystalline tear :')
that's basically the vibe of shira glassman's mango-verse
so in this volume shulamit meets kaveh, a bi prince who is in desperate straits as his father has imprisoned and plans to execute his boyfriend for reasons which boil down to politics and homophobia. shulamit is all about helping kaveh out, both because she's horrified to see someone else suffering due to loving someone of the same gender and because kaveh neatly solves a problem for shulamit; where to find a prince to marry and beget a heir who'd understand that she has a girlfriend and is 0% into ever sharing his bed outside of the necessary baby-making
bonus: this book's central storyline involves labour politics and fighting for fair wages for workers and i am 100% about that life. 3 stars
that's basically the vibe of shira glassman's mango-verse
so in this volume shulamit meets kaveh, a bi prince who is in desperate straits as his father has imprisoned and plans to execute his boyfriend for reasons which boil down to politics and homophobia. shulamit is all about helping kaveh out, both because she's horrified to see someone else suffering due to loving someone of the same gender and because kaveh neatly solves a problem for shulamit; where to find a prince to marry and beget a heir who'd understand that she has a girlfriend and is 0% into ever sharing his bed outside of the necessary baby-making
bonus: this book's central storyline involves labour politics and fighting for fair wages for workers and i am 100% about that life. 3 stars
sunnybandit's review against another edition
5.0
What I loved:
Firstly, the worldbuilding. LOVE IT. I will freely admit that I know very little about Jewish culture, but it infuses the fantasy setting in the Mangoverse series and I can’t get enough. I am used to a fantasy diet of “standard fantasy setting” - pseudomedieval European style places - and the kingdom of Perach is a breath of fresh air and sunshine in my TBR pile. Seriously, I hope Shira Glassman carries on writing these books for years and years and years.
Second - I still love Shulamit and her dietary issues. I had a tiny fear, after they were covered so well and in detail in ‘The Second Mango’ that they might disappear from the sequel. Reading this character means a lot to me, due to my own food intolerances - I’ve never read a main character (or come to think of it a secondary character) who deals with the same as I do. My fears were (thankfully) unfounded - while Shulamit’s diet is not as heavily featured in this book, it still pops up now and again (as does her sweetheart’s care and compassion around these issues, which just makes me melt!).
Third - positive bi representation. A novel that deals with biphobia in a very honest way, but celebrates positive (and different) representations of bi characters. After reading what I felt was less good bi rep recently, I needed Prince Kaveh and Akiva in my life.
What I wanted: I’m struggling to think of anything, to be honest. The mangoverse books are fluffy adventures - that’s what I wanted, and the author delivered (again).
What it made me want to read next? More from Shira Glassman, certainly.
Firstly, the worldbuilding. LOVE IT. I will freely admit that I know very little about Jewish culture, but it infuses the fantasy setting in the Mangoverse series and I can’t get enough. I am used to a fantasy diet of “standard fantasy setting” - pseudomedieval European style places - and the kingdom of Perach is a breath of fresh air and sunshine in my TBR pile. Seriously, I hope Shira Glassman carries on writing these books for years and years and years.
Second - I still love Shulamit and her dietary issues. I had a tiny fear, after they were covered so well and in detail in ‘The Second Mango’ that they might disappear from the sequel. Reading this character means a lot to me, due to my own food intolerances - I’ve never read a main character (or come to think of it a secondary character) who deals with the same as I do. My fears were (thankfully) unfounded - while Shulamit’s diet is not as heavily featured in this book, it still pops up now and again (as does her sweetheart’s care and compassion around these issues, which just makes me melt!).
Third - positive bi representation. A novel that deals with biphobia in a very honest way, but celebrates positive (and different) representations of bi characters. After reading what I felt was less good bi rep recently, I needed Prince Kaveh and Akiva in my life.
What I wanted: I’m struggling to think of anything, to be honest. The mangoverse books are fluffy adventures - that’s what I wanted, and the author delivered (again).
What it made me want to read next? More from Shira Glassman, certainly.
kathrynhoss's review against another edition
A bit more predictable than the first book in this series, but I'm interested enough in the world and the characters to keep reading. Minor nitpick: the language is super anachronistic. I'm not sure what approximate time period these stories are meant to be set in, but words like "yeah," "okay," "zoom," and "cardboard" kept pulling me out of the story. I wish it had been edited more stringently.
choirqueer's review
5.0
I really liked the first book in this series but I loved the second one even more! What a delightful story. Queers, dragons, fighting for justice...what more could you ask for? I recommend it very much.
cw: brief reference to sexual violence (no details, no instances which take place during the timeline of the book, but mentions it having happened to a character in the past, as well as discussion of a character fearing it happening in the future), homo-antagonist abuse, incarceration, military activity
cw: brief reference to sexual violence (no details, no instances which take place during the timeline of the book, but mentions it having happened to a character in the past, as well as discussion of a character fearing it happening in the future), homo-antagonist abuse, incarceration, military activity
wordnerdy's review against another edition
3.0
http://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2015/08/2015-book-199.html
The second book in Glassman's Mangoverse series is stronger than the first. It takes place a few years later, and finds all the characters from the first one getting involved with a prince from a neighboring kingdom, who has come to find help for his engineer boyfriend, sentenced to death by the king (for both political and homophobic reasons). The writing here is a lot more confident, although some of the dialogue is still awkward, and the engineer's "hilarious" jokes were . . . not. The characters are all likable, though, and I like the use of magic in this world. B/B+.
The second book in Glassman's Mangoverse series is stronger than the first. It takes place a few years later, and finds all the characters from the first one getting involved with a prince from a neighboring kingdom, who has come to find help for his engineer boyfriend, sentenced to death by the king (for both political and homophobic reasons). The writing here is a lot more confident, although some of the dialogue is still awkward, and the engineer's "hilarious" jokes were . . . not. The characters are all likable, though, and I like the use of magic in this world. B/B+.
devrose's review against another edition
3.0
Fluff. Jewish lesbian fluff. Remind me of these books' existence next time I need something light to read.
unwise_samwise's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia and Religious bigotry