Tales from the Circle

Time to Play (Apocalypse Parenting Book 1) is a LitRPG book about a mother thrust into an apocalyptic game-like situation with her three kids. One minute she's worrying about driving them to their sports lessons and the next minute the electricity stops working and an announcement informs her - and everyone else - that earth has just become the site of some alien game-show and they're now the unwilling contestants in this game. It's such an excellent premise with some great characterization that grounds it and makes it very, very real. I flew through this book in about two days because it was such a page-turner. One of the main draws that kept me turning the pages is the main character Meghan's realistic struggles and reactions as a mother of three. In a way, it's a book where monsters suddenly spawn and the characters can collect points and have to figure out how to survive, but it's also really just a book about the struggles of parenting, because it's not...

 Miss Percy's Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons is basically like a Jane Austen novel, but the main character inherits a dragon egg. The egg hatches. She has to deal with it while also dealing with her growing realization that the life she's settled into isn't exactly the life she wanted. Her inheritance changes her life, slowly but surely, but I loved that Mildred doesn't immediately become some hardened adventurer at the drop of a hat. She remains true to her character and reacts to the change in her life in realistic ways, making the book more charming than ever and adding another excellent thread of her personal growth into the plot.  It's a cozy book, but not one without excitement and adventure. The plot really comes together near the end and delivers a satisfying action-packed conclusion. That being said, this is book 1 in a series and the doors were definitely left open for even bigger adventures. I think it works well enough on its own...