Kate Daniels 10: Magic Triumphs

Kate Daniels 10: Magic Triumphs by Ilona Andrews

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This took my an insane amount of time to read, not because I didn't enjoy it, but because I started a new full time job and my schedule got all kinds of turned upside down for awhile. Recently managed to feel like I actually caught up and got used to the new schedule a little, on top of having spring break off with my kids, and that gave me a little bit of time to actually enjoy some reading again. Once I had that, it took very little time to actually sit down and finish this book. There are so many things happening, that it largely feels like just rolling from one bomb to the next. Overall though, I'd have to say that despite the losses, things probably turned out the best that anyone could have hoped for with what was faced in this book. There were a lot of ways many things could have turned out. Of course, the main cast, especially Kate and Curran, are too stubborn to ever just let things be. Luckily, they are both genuinely good people for all the power they can command and generally try to do the right thing for their family and the people around them despite, or perhaps because of, the cards they've been dealt.

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Hatchimals Colleggtibles

Hatchimals Colleggtibles (Android)

My rating: 1.5 of 5 stars


Of course I ended up with my daughter begging to check out this game after her friends at school got her hooked on Hatchimals and she managed to beg a couple of them from Nana on day trips. The game play itself is overly sensitive and a little difficult for small hands, especially if they are overly excited about playing and not really paying attention to the details of what they should do to control the screen. The idea is cute though, and they definitely have a solid lure with kids loving the toys. I've yet to see if/when it will ask for money for the app, but it won't be approved if it does.

Ikemen Sengoku: Romances Across Time

Ikemen Sengoku: Romances Across Time (Android)

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars


This appears to be very similar to Blood in Roses+ as far as set up and general game play. There appears to be enough with the side games and events at the moment that I am not yet annoyed waiting to level up to continue the main story, but I could see that changing quickly as challenges are likely to continue increasing and the range of the level up required will likely increase and take longer to achieve along with it. The art work is very nice however. We'll see if I last any longer with this one than I did with the first. It does have better odds so far as at least I can reliably earn coins and progress with the side options even when I'm stalled on the main story, which the other lacked.

Matchington Mansion

Matchington Mansion (Android)

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is very similar to Homescapes, just a different company and slightly different directions. It tends to glitch when trying to view different decoration options when completing tasks, which is aggravating. The 3-match game itself is mostly similar, but the power ups leave a lot to be desired comparatively speaking. Overall there is something about the game play on this one that is just not as engaging as the other. It also likes to override your settings for notifications once your lives have regenerated or it's been awhile since you last played. This last is a big annoyance to me that I don't want or need. If I have notifications turned off, I shouldn't be notified.

Choices

Choices (Android)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is another popular freemium game that is very tempting as it makes you want certain results for your story line that you need to have enough diamonds for. You can earn diamonds every day, but must have a lot of patience to earn enough to likely cover your story if you don't want to actually pay out of pocket. This is not as difficult if you are playing one of the stories that is currently in progress on release, so you only have one new chapter a week instead of the entire story available at once. You do need keys to unlock new chapters, but they regenerate fairly often throughout the day, so it isn't as much of an annoyance, even if you are playing a story that is completely available and not pending releases.

Gardenscapes

Gardenscapes (Android)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Made by the same company, this is very similar to Homescapes, including the butler being the main character narrating and completing tasks. Some of the puzzle matches do not create any responses for special matches that otherwise would in most any other match-3-type game, which can be a little annoying. This version also seems to be fond of timed tasks that you can either pay coins (if you have them) to complete faster, or wait a specified amount of time for your task to finish. These small nuances combine to make the game not as enjoyable as it's counterpart, though still entertaining and very much following the same idea overall.

Homescapes

Homescapes (Android)

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars


This has probably quickly become one of my favorite games. It is a typical match 3 puzzle game, but you play the game to earn stars and complete tasks. These tasks mostly give you 3 choices for decorations that you can place to design everything the way you want. It's fun to see everything clean up and come together looking nice on top of just a standard puzzle game.

Merge Dragons

Merge Dragons (Android)

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


After several videos of his, I decided to try it as an alternative to Titan Uprising given my kid's current love for dragons. While it is different, they quickly get annoyed with trying to drag things around or the timed challenges. Ultimately they'll finally decide on what they want to do and all the dragons will be sleeping again, requiring either watching a video to get one lone dragon back, or waiting until they all wake up, which inevitably means they've changed their minds on their task priorities. As with most freemiums games, I refuse to pay for anything, so they are stuck with waiting to accomplish anything, which makes them lose interest much sooner than many of the others with the puzzles.

Township

Township (Android)

My rating: 1.5 of 5 stars


This is reminiscent of the old FarmVille games on Facebook, just expanded to building a town instead of just a farm and tasks expanding to those areas as well. It quickly becomes apparent that either you'll cave to buy materials you are missing to continue progress or be stuck in one place for indefinite periods of time. While you are waiting for tasks allowing you to finish your required builds, you will run out of storage room, which will mean you either make a judgment call on what you can sell or cave to buy more, and receive a never ending stream of notifications asking you to come back to the game even when you have notifications turned off. All of this combined to annoy me rather quickly. While I liked the initial game play and idea of it, the way it rolled out and forced things left me very displeased and quickly losing interest.

Web Toon

Web Toon (Android)

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I originally loaded this as a reading option on my phone as I grew up enjoying various comics and manga. While there were a few interesting stories, the format, time, and constant notifications I could not remove eventually annoyed me enough that I never paid any attention to it and ultimately removed it from my device.