Doodlefish, Jo Anne Yelen

 Waterford, 300 pieces. Incredible dropouts make this puzzle punch way above its piece count. Also still flippable with one hand, amazingly enough. 7/10

The Swan Princess, Mikhail Vrubel

 FoxSmartBox, 400 pieces. This maker continues to impress with unique cuts for each image. Slightly darker image than my personal ideal, but the piece variety allows steady assembly nonetheless. 3/5

swan swan (no hummingbird)

many more princess swans

Vintage Poster

 Waterford, 328 pieces. Muted colors in this Mucha-esque image; a steady assembly and a pleasant puzzle that can be flipped one-handed. 6/10 

Portal Swift of Spring, Susan Schroder

 Palmaris, 470 pieces. The borrower before me (this is a Hoefnagel puzzle) said they didn't finish, and I can see why. I'm afraid this is not a positive review. The image was dark, which is not my favorite, but the real problem was one that afflicts many new producers--there were big size differences between the largest and smallest pieces, which often creates problems, and too many of the pieces were long and thin. This matchstick configuration is hard for me to manipulate and also easily leads to pieces flipping onto the wrong side so the image isn't visible. I am very grateful to Hoefnagel for letting me try a variety of puzzles. Sometimes one just doesn't work for me, but that's useful information too. 2/5

center: an example of the kind of piece that gives me conniptions

Yin Yang

 ZenChalet, 200 pieces. The wood is nice and smooth--doesn't look like MDF. Instructive on how color affects perception--there's pattern symmetry but the halves feel different because of the colors. 3/5

Tyson Grumm, The Sleepover

 Artifact, 405 pieces. There was a missing piece but it didn't detract from assembly--the image is not super colorful but there's a lot of detail packed in there. I liked the stacking whimsies on the corner! 3/5

Sunshine Surprise

 Stave, 420 pieces. Very colorful mandala; lots of fun to do, except I have no idea if I got the rebus right. Suggestions welcome. 7/10 

mask

peacock

butterfly

painter

one of several bee/fish combos with bug nearby

palette (that fish shaped thing is a color line cut leaf on the front)

butterfly

My best guess: color my world (gull+oar M+eye Y+oar+owl+D) but yikes