Edward Henry Potthast, Brighton Beach

Artifact, 170 pieces. I'll admit to feeling some betrayal: other than the edge pieces which interlock, and some whimsies among the edges, this is push-fit! Why would you use a laser to make a push-fit puzzle? (I presume the answer is: for variety.) I'm not a fan of push-fit, but I did it because it was there!

so there

Bonnie White, Gently Down the Stream

 Waterford, 791 pieces. A nicely challenging Waterford (successor to Elm) puzzle with thick wood and fairly consistent difficulty. 4/5

interacting/hand holding whimsies

thematically appropriate horse and carriage

Valeriane Le Blonde, Mis Mai

 Artifact, 238 pieces. A nice image with moderate difficulty. 3/5

Ring of Fire

 Stave, 215 pieces. A delightful Treat puzzle with lots of difficulty but fairly consistent assembly. 8/10

Deepit Agrawal Mittal, Majestic III

Bewilderness, 326 pieces. I like the geometric cut here; it breaks up the image in ways that make it a fair amount harder despite what seem like discrete areas of different colors. 3/5

Scott Gustafson, Belling the Cat

Artifact, 364 pieces. Hard for its size because of the very limited colors; details emerge slowly on assembly. Cat and mouse themed whimsies, including a girl interacting with a rodent of unusual size, and cat themed edging on top and bottom. 3/5

note the cheese whimsy

girl on chair confronting ROUS

Awesome Blossom

 Stave, 195 pieces. Very nice--a mix of Treat-like flourishes (the big peonies in the outfit) and difficult Teaser flowers. 8/10

Edward Binkley, Village

Artifact, 309 pieces. A ton of detail here rendering it reasonably hard; the supernatural creatures made it fun to do while listening to Discworld books. 3/5

blurry multipiece dragon

Allie Sudberg, Let's Dance

 Artifact, 367 pieces. Whimsical images with a lot of white space to add to the difficulty. Multiple interacting dancer whimsies, with an overall swirling cut to evoke the music--nice! 3/5

Gold Rush

 Stave, 385 pieces. Beautiful image with nice near-color-line cutting. 7/10

interacting whimsy: mermaid and fish

frog on flower

koi outline

twin fish

girl on turtle for some reason

circle of bugs/bees

"made in the shade"/maid + hen + D + shade

Josephine Joy, Irish Cottage

 Artifact/Ecru, 181 pieces. Relatively hard for its size with lots of detail in the foliage. 3/5

Cherries on Top

 Stave, 160 pieces. Incredibly hard, frameless Teaser. 9/10 what a killer