Venerable Cats, Parker Fulton

 Waterford, 626 pieces. Great Waterford quality with lots of cats, as expected. My pictures came out blurrier than I'd like, and I don't know why--I didn't change the conditions! Flipped easily. 6/10

blurry kitty!

kitty!

kitty!

Strange Attractor #14, Niraja Lorenz

 Hope Puzzles, 296 pieces. Very colorful image with lots of piece variation--I'm sometimes hesitant when multipiece whimsies have a structure that makes them more push-fit than interlocking, but that wasn't a problem here. It's nice to see real competition with Liberty--I think it's also making Liberty innovate. 4/5

peacock that came out sideways

a butterfly flaps its wings

kite flyer

natural Fibonacci sequence

fractals

The Empire State

 Stave, 60 pieces. I admit I'd love to get a full collection of these and mix them up in one box, as for the Zodiac signs, numbers, and letters. But for now I'll just have to do them one by one. A fine, relatively simple Teaser with easily recognizable NY signifiers (NYC, of course). 6/10

blurry closeup:

Moths & Butterflies

 Pieceful Solutions, 30 pieces. This cluster puzzle doesn't have dropouts or many pieces, but being borderless increases the difficulty. Very large pieces--a fun change of pace. 4/5

Richard Friend, Live Work Hope

 Artifact, 177 pieces. Standard grid-ish Artifact, smallish pieces. 3/5

Dreidel Dazzle

 Stave, 50 pieces. A one-sword Teaser doesn't take me very long at this point, but it's a nice piece of Judaica for my collection. There's a certain amount of "anything Jewish qualifies" in the whimsies--a bit like having an Easter bunny in a Christmas puzzle--but that's not surprising. 6/10

Drawbridge

 Basis, 388 pieces. This brand is definitely into experimentation. Here that comes in the form of moveable components! Otherwise a fairly standard Wentworth-ish puzzle with a few pieces that are a bit too small. 3/5

this little fellow probably shouldn't exist

Grand Circuit des Capitales, Jan-Loup

 Liberty, 729 pieces. Old-timey image, lots of new Liberty whimsies--at least new to me, and some new styles as well, like the partial Buddha (maybe supposed to be tilted on the ground?) and the elaborate multipiece horse done in thin strips, as well as nearly-connected whimsies like the train and its nearby smoke plume. Two alternate solutions that I found add to the interest. Overall, a lot to like. 4/5

multipiece boat and pavilion

elephant and rider

leaning Buddha and bear

more bear and multipiece dancer

bull

mermaid on unusual shell background

many leaning structures

a tilting windmill and a Viking ship

multipiece dancer

Taj Mahal

horse and curliques

Sphinx, sextant, camel

alternate solution

scary face

peacock

another alternate solution

train with steam not quite touching