kingstoken

Three quarters of the way through the year, where did the time go? You can find my bingo card here, I'm doing well, and I now think I will not have a problem completing it before the end of the year. I was a little worried earlier in the year when I was going through my slump, but now I only have to read roughly three books a month before the end of the year, which is very doable. Here are some of my thoughts on the books I read over the summer:

*The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan - my first book by this famous author, it was a fun read, with an interesting take on Norse mythology, the protagonist was pretty funny, and I really liked the side characters. My only compliant is that it never delves into the aftereffects of the trauma the protagonist goes through, but my understanding is that is pretty common for middle grade books.

*Someone to Remember by Mary Balogh - this author rarely disappoints, she is one of my favourite romance authors, and this book has a mature couple which I usually enjoy. However, this one did feel a tad rushed, and not as filled out as it could have been, maybe becasue it is about 100 pages shorter than her other novels in the series.

*Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe - I was gifted this book, and it is such a delightful children's story, that I was able to enjoy as an adult.

*The Rebel Heiress and the Knight by Melissa Oliver - a middle of the road romance, although the concept of a female Robin Hood type character had potential

*Run Away by Harlen Coben - a really good mystery/thriller, the author was able to intertwine a whole bunch of threads that you were not sure how they all connected in the beginning. They also did a really nice job of making all the POV characters sympathetic, even the ones that turned out to be villains

*Bonds of Brass by Emily Skrutskie - heavily influenced by Star Wars, but this one allows for a gay romance. It was a fun read, and one I had been looking forward to for awhile. I will say though that the main character has some communication issues, which makes sense given his history, but still there were times I just wanted to shake him and be like "please just discuss things with your friend/love interest, I'm begging you"

I also read two Star Trek novels this summer that didn't fit a bingo square:

*Infiltrator by W.R. Thompson - this one was okay, I liked the focus on Geordi, he got a potential romance in this one, but of course it didn't go anywhere. It also focused on Wolf, who is not one of my faves, but it was somewhat humorous.

*The Covenant of the Crown by Howard Weinstein - this felt like it could have been an episode of the original series, which makes sense, becasue the author wrote for TAS. It focused on McCoy, which I love, and has Spock and McCoy on an away mission together, which is also a fave contrivance of mine. The only thing that felt weird was how the Klingons were written, but this was one of the very early trek novels, written before the Klingons had been fully fleshed out in the Trek universe