Light Years by Kass Morgan

'Light Years' by Kass Morgan follows the story of four soon to-be space academy students from socioeconomically diverse backgrounds as they fight adversity, and some aliens too. I don't know why I thought that sounded interesting but it actually kind of was. The story, and the characters were all super interesting, but I found the novel lacking in other ways. Rating this was actually a real challenge for me since while I really enjoyed it I don't think it deserves 4+ stars given that the writing itself lacked a bit of finesse and complexity. 

Each of the characters had their own story to tell, and their backgrounds well reflected this. With one rich kid, two poor kids from the outer planets, and an alien? spy, we certainly got to see a few different perspectives. The politics of the world were therefore really interesting, but I felt that they could have been fleshed out more as while the characters often spoke about perceived prejudice, there could have been more examples of it in action, especially in regards to Deva and Chetire, where the prejudice was felt from afar, but not seen directly in action on the planets themselves. My favourite perspectives were those of Rex and Vesper, but Arran's naivety and Orelia's coolness weren't that enjoyable. I liked the role that romance played in the novel, but I don't think that it was very realistic. I mean, who seriously feels 'electricity coursing through their body' when they kiss someone?

There were some pacing issues with this book, and I think that the end was pretty rushed. The first few weeks were really well fleshed out and then the remainder of the year was wrapped up in the same amount of words. I did enjoy the cliffhanger at the end of the book, even if it was pretty obvious. Another issue I had was with the teacher-student thing going on, and that when the student was with this teacher it was the only time they truly felt safe. It's honestly kind of weird, even if they are of similar ages (which was reinforced way too often.)  

I received an ARC copy of this book from NetGalley, and would like to thank Hachette Children's Books, and most of all Kass Morgan for giving me opportunity to read and review this book.

The Edible Cookie Dough Cookbook by Olivia Hops

So this might be a bit random, but I feel like 'cookie dough' should be one word. It's a common enough phrase anyway, at least in my head. Cookiedough just looks like it belongs together. Anyway, when I saw The Edible Cookie Dough Cookbook pop up on Netgalley I knew I just had to give it a shot. Who doesn't like eating cookie dough? One of the reasons I usually bake vegan is because I don't want to have to remotely worry about salmonella when eating that stuff off my hands. Here, Hops has managed to compile a whopping 75 different totally edible cookie dough recipes, even coming with instructions on how to heat treat flour for safety (although I can't say I bothered with it.) 

This book comes with 3 major sections: 

The obligatory introductory basic how to stuff was about as interesting as it ever is. I did enjoy the author's writing style and personal notes about how she fell into the cookie dough business, but as usual my focus was on the glorious tasty treats themselves. 

Cookie dough recipes: There were SO many awesome sounding recipes in here, from your classic double choc to a lemon cardamom dough that looked amazing. Every recipe started pretty much the same way, beating a ton of butter and sugar into the fluffy goodness we all know and love. One thing I will say about these recipes is that they seem to rely on premade flavourings, such as cake or brownie mix. And while that does make for a short ingredient list, I think that it would have been nice to get some less artificial flavouring going. 

Recipes using the cookie dough: these were pretty cool, including cookie dough layer cake, cookie dough stuffed cupcakes, and cookie dough party dip. Am I going to make any of these? Probably not. But there are certainly plenty of ideas that I think would be great for kids birthday parties, or barbecues and picnics. 

The recipes are all formatted well, and easily understandable. Most people with basic baking experience should be able to make them once they work out how to cream butter and sugar. The problem, for me anyway, is that this book recommends a paddle beater, which I do not have, and resulted in some pretty sugar-grainy dough. Not every recipe in this book has a photo, which I personally like, because you can never be misled by how something looks, only how it sounds, but if you're a photo fiend, this probably isn't for you. There isn't anything incredibly exciting about the photography that is there, nor is there anything particularly exciting about the formatting, so if  you're looking for an average kind of cookbook with inventive recipes, go for it. 

I made two recipes with this book to varying degrees of success. The birthday cake cookie dough tasted  fine, but I did not beat the butter and sugar nearly long enough and it was a dry, crumbly mess. Thankfully I forgot to take pictures of that monstrosity. The taste was only ok, maybe because I used cheap cake mix, or maybe because the flavour was supposed to come entirely from cake mix. 

The second recipe I tried was the White Chocolate Chai Cookie Dough, minus the white chocolate, because I was too lazy to go to the shops. This turned out much better and is pictured beside (because I know you've missed my amazing food photography.) The taste was again kind of bland, and tasted basically just like chai tea powder, the basis of its flavouring. It just left me feeling like there was something missing (maybe the white chocolate.)  The texture was better, getting to a cookie dough consistency, and not being too dry, but I could still feel the individual sugar granules. 

Overall I gave this a 3.5/5 stars, because there was a huge variety of recipes, they just could have been better.