kingstoken

My fourth quarter was better than my third I think, although I did have to read some short books in order to complete my Book Bingo (which I did yeah!)  Here are the books I finished:

The Wager by David Grann - a really interesting read about a shipwreck and mutiny, not always an easy read, but worth it if you are at all interested in the Age of Sail.

Mr Cadmus by Peter Ackroyd - this is a weird little book, the beginning seems like a traditional sort of mystery set-up, but the second half got really weird, almost like magical realism.  I wasn't really for me.

Betrothed by Claire Cullen - this was I think the first ever professionally published omegaverse novel that I've read.  It was alright, I enjoyed it for what it was.  It is a bit of a fairy tale retelling, and I did like the idea of in their society the prefect relationship is a triad relationship. My one complaint was the omega was a little too damsel in distress for my liking, I just wanted the author to give the poor guy a win instead of just piling more stuff upon him.

Cemetery Boys by Adien Thomas - I enjoyed this.  It was every YA, and there were times that I really wanted these teens to seek out help from an adult, but I got why they didn't.  The world building was interesting, and based on a culture I know next nothing about. The romance was sweet, and I wasn't sure how it could have a happy ending, but it did, so that was a nice surprise.

Dance 10, vol 3 by Satou Inoue - These idiots are back again, at least in this volume they were finally starting to admit to themselves that they may actually be feeling attraction to a person of the same gender, and the story progressed somewhat.

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K LeQuinn - this story is kind of famous in sci-fi circles, and I thought it was a interesting thought experiment, but the story itself was pretty short and didn't really have much meat to it.

The Little Restaurant near Place des Ternes by Georges Simenon - this is a very different Christmas story, it's basically about this woman seeing a young woman heading down the same route she took as a youth (ie being used by men and prostitution) and decides to prevent it, even if the girl probably won't thank her for it.  It is very of the time it was written (1950s), but I still enjoyed it.

Christmas Re-union by Andrew Caldecott - an another Christmas mystery, this was alright, but left open ended, even leaving the option of a ghost having done it.

A Share in Death by Deborah Crombie - an okay mystery, the big problem with this one was there were a lot of secondary characters and most of them were not developed enough.  The few central characters were done well, but the rest were forgettable, to the point that after the second murder when they were interviewing all the suspects again I was like "who are these people again?" which is not something you want in a mystery.  Also, the detective had a thing for two different women in the story, and I was like "what is the point of this?"

The Geek Who Saved Christmas by Annabeth Albert - Grumpy man needs help decorating for the holidays from his sunshine Christmas loving neighbour.  It was sweet and fluffy, and just what I needed for a pick me up before Christmas.

Introducing the 2025 Book Bingo Card!



Don't forget if you are having trouble filling some of the squares you are allowed two substitutions and two wild cards, substitutions are substituting one category for another, I'll post a substitution list below, wild cards can be any book you want, including fanfiction, the fanfiction should be over 50,000 words and fanfiction can only be used once for a wild card square.

Substitution list:
*Author you've never read before
*Book older then you are
*Fairy Tale or Fairy Tale Retelling
*Graphic novel or Comic
*Pet or Animal Companion
*A main character over the age of 30
*Under 100 Pages
*Romance Plot or Sub-plot
*Translated
*Humour
*Non- fiction
*With a Blue Cover
*Horror or Paranormal
*Colour in the Title
*Seasonal Read
*Book made into a film or tv series
*Historical (fiction or non-fiction)
*Number in title
*Female author
*Three word title
*Craft, Hobby or Cookbook
*Written by an author from your state or country
*Animal on the cover
*Disability or Mental health
*Read a book from the year you were born
*Mythology
*Title begins with first letter of your name
*Dystopian
*Book mentioned in another book
*Diverse reads
*One word title
*Award Winning/Bestseller
*Disabled Author
*Non-western Setting
*Set in your state/country
*Title is at Least Five Words Long
*indigenous author
*Has illustrations (but not a comic or graphic novel)
*Set at a school/university
*No sex/romance
*Re-read

I finished my book bingo! I was a little later finishing then last year, but I'm just happy I got it done. (Book Bingo Masterpost) As you can see I read so much Doctor Who related stuff this year, which wasn't my intention, but just kind of happened (there is so much tie-in stuff that compels me).



I have also made a book badge for everyone who completed the challenge! Thank you to everyone who participated, I hope you had fun!



I'll probably make a review wrap-up post near the end of this month for this quarter. I'll probably have a brainstorming post up soon for next year's book bingo.

I am making pretty good progress on my book bingo, you can see my card here.  I read eight books this quarter, plus I had one DNF, it was pulling me into a reading slump so I was like "nope! we're moving on!". 

Doctor Who: Shining Darkness by Mark Michalowski - I picked this one up solely based on the fact it was staring my favourite Doctor and companion duo.  It was a fun, every episode like.  My favourite part was they meet these aliens who collect religions and discard them once they get bored of them, and Donna has pretend to be a Goddess, and she calls herself the "Ginger Goddess".  Although, most of the story has to do with robots and whether they should be treated like sentient beings or not.  My only complaint about the story is that the Doctor and Donna spend most of the book apart, and what I love about them is their banter when they're together.

Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones - This was a middle grade novel, and it doesn't have a whole lot of plot to it, it is mostly just vibes, it is very cozy.  I think those people who are always talking about cozy fantasy nowadays might like it.  It is mostly about this boy who after his grandmother dies goes and lives with this bachelor, and he slowly discovers the magical area and creatures around him.  It felt somewhat fairy-tale
like, but in a homey English countryside kind of way.

Doctor Who: Death's Deal by Darren Jones - this was the audio drama that I listened to, although it was more like an audiobook I would say because there were only two performers.  It is primarily narrated by Catherine Tate, and she does a good job, but it was a little funny to hear her try and do Ten's voice, like she gets the vibe right, but she can't quite pull off David Tenet's voice.  The story itself was okay, the Doctor and Donna get stranded on this deadly planet with others, it was a bit gory in spots, because people are getting killed, but overall I enjoyed it. 

Haikyū!! Vol 1-3 by Haruichi Furudate - I read the first three volumes of Haikyu!!  I surprisingly really enjoyed these.  I don't know if it is because I liked playing volleyball when I was young, but these were a fun read.  The characters are sometimes a little too over-dramatic and silly, but they felt very much like young teenagers to me, which is not something that always happens when reading books targeted towards teens.

His Sacred Incantations by Scarlett Gale - this is the sequel to His Secret Illuminations which I had really, really liked.  Unfortunately, the sequel is just not as good.  It was still nice to spend time with these characters again, and they introduced some great new characters, plus they fight an undead necromancer, but it still felt like something was missing.  Another reviewer on goodreads said it lacked tension, which I agree with.  Also, there were like three marathon sex scenes, that were really over the top, and after awhile I just found myself skimming over them. 

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling - this kind of felt like the prefect bathroom book to me, I don't mean it in a bad way, just that the essays were short and split into smaller chunks, so prefect for reading when you have a short amount of time.  I took this to a few doctor's appointments and it was great to read in the waiting room.  It was funny, but of course some essays were better than others.  I think her best essays were at the beginning of the book, during the second half I think you could sense that she was running out of material to writer about.

**Just a note** Big Finish has some of their older Doctor Who audio dramas on spotify for free!  It is mostly classic who, but they do have a couple with the newer Doctors, someone over on tumblr has collected all the info in one post if your interested.  I listened to two others in the "Destiny of the Doctor" series, the ones featuring Nine and Eleven.  They were both good, but I liked the one featuring Nine the best.  The Narrator does a great job with Nine's voice, he sounds a lot like them.  However, their voice for Jack Harkness was not great, they could not pull off the American accent well.

Hi guys, I meant to have a brainstorming post before now, but unfortunately I've been sick with some sort of virus. Anyways, I should probably get making the Book Bingo cards asap, so these are the options we had on last year's card and substitution list:

*Crime or Mystery
*Banned book
*Book made into a film or tv series
*Historical (fiction or non-fiction)
*Number in title
*Female author
*Book from your TBR
*Three word title
*Craft, Hobby or Cookbook
*Written by an author from your state or country
*Person's name in title
*Book with a woman protagonist
*Animal on the cover
*Sci-fi or Fantasy
*Author you've never read before
*LGBTQ+
*More than 300 pages
*Disability or Mental health
*Recommended
*Romance plot or sub-plot
*Action or Thriller
*Read a book from the year you were born
*e-book or Audiobook
*Mythology
*Title begins with first letter of your name
*Humour
*Under 100 page book
*Dystopian
*Horror/Paranormal
*Book mentioned in another book
*Diverse reads
*One word title
*Movie/TV Tie-in
*Award Winning/Bestseller
*Disabled Author
*Romance
*Colour in the Title
*Graphic novel/Comic
*POC Author
*Seasonal Read (spring/summer/autumn/winter)
*Non-western Setting
*Translated Book
*Set in your state/country
*Title is at Least Five Words Long
*Fairy Tale or Fairy Tale Retelling
*YA/Childern's
*Book in a series

Let me know if you have any ideas to add to the list!

I'm making good progress on my Book Bingo card, I only need to read five more books before the end of the year and that's quite doable.  I read seven books this quarter, which seems to be about my average.

The Highlander's Tactical Marriage by Jenni Fletcher - I remember liking this one when I read it back in July, but I had kind of forgotten about it and had to go back and check Goodreads.  The set-up of this novel is that the hero is put in an arranged marriage with a woman that once scorned him, so he could have been a real ass, but I appreciated that he wasn't.  He was somewhat cool and distant with the heroine in the beginning, but he soon realized that there was more to his bride than he thought.

A Contest of Principles by Greg Cox - I joked on my Trek Discord that I think this is the second or third Trek novel I've read where McCoy is kidnapped by aliens for his medical knowledge, not that I am complaining, I eat that trope up.  I really liked this one, the Triad get split up and are on different planets dealing with related crisises, and each storyline had its own unique characters.  Spock makes friends with this fuzzy pet like alien.  My only compliant is that the triad spend the majority of the novel separated and by the end I just wanted them back together again. 

The Prefect Stranger by Megan Miranda - this is a supposed to be a mystery/thriller, and it was alright, not hugely thrilling, there was a big lull in the middle of it.  The one point the narrative hammers home early on is that the two women were not lovers, but I kind of wish they had been.  I think it would have added another more interesting layer to the story.  Also, the main character does some really stupid stuff, like sleeping with the main detective that is investigating her friend's disappearance, like why?

Saving Her Mysterious Soldier by Bronwyn Scott - this story started off well, a solider has amnesia and his nurse brings him to her family's home to recover.  But, then the characters start making some stupid decisions like starting a sexual relationship before he was fully recovered.  Like they only had to wait two weeks before a report came probably revealing his identity, but no they couldn't wait, ugh!  Anyways, I like Bronwyn Scott, she is a good writer, but this wasn't her best one.

Planet of Judgement by Joe Halderman - this was an alright Trek novel, the first half was better than the second.  The first half had a planet that actually had some scary, life threatening creatures, and it felt very much like the stranded crew could have been prey.  The second half wasn't as good.  At one point these aliens make the crew relive some of their worst memories, which is fine, good concept, but then the author decides to have Spock rehash the events of Amok Time step by step, and that seemed a really strange decision, because wouldn't most Trek fans be intimately familiar with that episode?  I wish the author had spent more time crafting McCoy's memories, because those were new and had more potential to be interesting. 

Reforged by Seth Haddon - M/M fantasy romance.  I liked the characters in this one, but I think the author bit off way more than they could crew.  If the author had kept it small and focused on palace intrigue like it was in the beginning I think it could have really worked, but the second half tries to go expansive, but the author hadn't really spent enough time developing the minor characters, villains and world-building for me to really care all that much.  I stuck with it becasue I really did like the main couple and their two friends, but this story just felt like it needed to be a little more developed.

Lore Olympus: Volume One by Rachel Smythe - this was fun. Not really what you expect from a modern Greek myth retelling, it was very tropey, and the Gods were all so trashy and catty, and sometimes outright mean, but that does kind of fit the Greek Gods.  I never read the WebToon so this was all new to me.  it has my interest piqued, so I will definitely be checking out the other volumes. 

First reading wrap-up of the year! I'm making pretty good progress on my bingo card so far, which you can see here.  Nothing has blown me out of the water yet, but I still have enjoyed quite a few books, I finished seven books in the first quarter:

Jeweled Fire by Sharon Shinn - I put this book down last July and forced myself to pick it up and finish it this past January (because I paid good money for it!)  I would say it's an alright fantasy mystery romance.  One thing I did like about it was all the rival princesses become friends and really supportive of each other instead of being catty and competitive like they could have been.  The mystery was a little interesting, but its conclusion was disappointing.  The romance was a little flat, I didn't really feel much chemistry between them at all, also their age difference squicked me out, normally an age gap wouldn't bother me (especially in a quasi-medivial setting), but he was 25 and she was 17, and I was just like no! Plus, it wasn't like the heroine was a mature 17, she acted very much like a slightly spoiled teenager that often makes poor decisions, she gets better over the course of the novel, but still their romance felt off.

The Tenant by Katrine Enberg - this was a good mystery, a few twist and turns, and trying to figure out how the murder of a tenant is connected to life of the building's landlady.  All the characters felt well developed and their reactions felt realistic.  My only compliant is the police detective sleeps with a witness, which he knows is wrong, and then when she breaks things off he watches her through her windows for a while, which is so wrong!  Thankfully he realizes his behaviour is wrong and stops, but I don't know why it was included in the story to begin with.  It had nothing to do with the rest of the murder plot and could have easily been left out.  Anyways, mystery interesting, detective being creepy, bad.

Sherlock Homes and the Ripper of Whitechapel by M.K. Wiseman - this was pretty good, the mystery itself wasn't all that compelling, because we all know about Jack the Ripper, but I'd say this story is more of a character study of Sherlock and his relationship with Watson.  All the clues seem to point to Watson as prime suspect, but Sherlock throughout the novel is constantly fighting with himself, between his logic and his belief in his friend.  There were a couple of points where I wanted to yell at Sherlock to just ask Watson if he was involved, but that would have given things away if he was I guess.  Also, interesting to read one of Sherlock's mysteries from his own perspective. 

The Disasters by M.K. England - this was a pretty fun YA sci-fi adventure, it was fast paced and the characters were all pretty likeable.  My only issues with this one is that you have to suspend your disbelief with this one a bit, because there were multiple times where they all should have been dead or at least severely injured.  Also, the author barely lets the characters breathe, they're bouncing from one situation to the next trying to save everyone, and there was some pretty severe stuff going on that would been nice to have some time to reflect on and deal with the aftermath.

Eloping with the Laird by Jeanine Englert - good romance, a young widow's father is forcing her to marry again, but is supposedly letting her choose her husband, so she chooses a man that is supposed to die before age 25.  I like the main characters, they were always honest and respectful of each other which was a plus.  There were some things I wish the author had lingered on or developed more, like the relationships with some of the side characters, but overall a pretty solid romance.

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao - I have mixed feeling about this one, there was things I really liked, like the main character's rage against her treatment and abuse not being smoothed over, and also the slow building of the love triangle to an actual poly triad, which like never actually happens in fiction, so that was a pleasant surprise!  The world is very brutal, especially for girls, and the main characters were brutal themselves, but how they were able to overlook torture and murder was worrying at times.  Also, I wish the revenge plot had lasted longer, but it was actually nice to see a woman get revenge for a death of a loved one and not have it softened or forcing the heroine to be the better person, etc. I am interested to see where the sequel goes with this story.

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E Harrow - modern girl falls through portal into fairy tale world, not the most original concept, but I did enjoy this author's take on it.  I loved her friendship with her best friend, and the idea that multiple princesses in multiple universes are reliving similar version of the same story was a cool idea.  My only problem is I wanted more, I wanted the author to go deeper into the character's feelings, and the world-building and the magic, but it was a novella, and there just wasn't the space for that much development.  Anyways, it was sweet, and it you might like it if you're looking for a fairy tale fix.

I finished my Book Bingo at the end of November, I haven't read a lot since then with the end of the year being busy, but I did manage to sneak in a couple more books before the end of the year.  I finished seven books in the fourth quarter of the year:

The Iron Warrior Returns by Michelle Willingham - This was an alright, but not very memorable, romance. It kind of had a concept I like, of friends and one person is in love but the other one hasn't realized what is in front of them yet, but it just didn't quite work for me here. Also, they were both virgins (which was nice actually), but they have sex for the first time it is mind-blowingly amazing, with simultaneous orgasms and everything, and I'm sitting there like "Really?"

Wonder Woman Agent of Peace Vol 1: Global Guardian by Amanda Conner - a fun collection of short Wonder Woman adventures, my favourite was her team up with Harley Quinn

Two Wrongs by Mel McGrath - This was an interesting story, but kind of depressing, because it deals with suicide and suicide contagion. Overall a middle of the road mystery. However, the main antagonist was very hateable, he is not a mustache twirling villain, he seems like a very real person, those type of people that blame everyone else for their own failings.

Stranger Things and Dungeons and Dragons by Jody Houser - this was a fun look at the boys playing D&D and how they use it to cope at different points in their life.

More Than Enough by Elizabeth Wambhein - this was lovely, soft and dreamlike. It's a beauty and the beast retelling, with two Ace protagonists, one of which is sex adverse. I really came to love the two main characters, they had been through so much and yet kindness was the one thing they needed most from each other.

Heartstopper: Volume One by Alice Oseman - I had heard about this series so I decided to give it a try. It was very sweet, the slow build up to a possible relationship. I look forward to reading more of the series next year.

The Last Mile by David_Baldacci - this was a pretty good mystery, that deals with a lot of topical issues like wrongful imprisonment, the death penalty, etc.  It did drag a bit in the middle, and the ultimate villains were a bit mustache twirly, but I liked the developing friendship between the main detective protagonist and the man those name they were trying to clear.

There is one book I am in the middle of, but there is no way I am finishing it in one day.  Overall, another great reading year!

First of all, congratulations to everyone who completed their book bingo card! And to those who haven't, but are close, I know you can do it! Don't forget you have two substitutions and two wild cards you can use. For everyone who has, or will complete, their 2022 book bingo cards I present to you the 2022 Book Bingo badge. You may share it, put on your profiles, or just look at it with a sense of accomplishment.



Also, this will be the brainstorming thread for next year's card. Is there any squares you would like added to the 2023 card? Or do you have some suggestions to tweak existing categories? Comment on this post.

For reference, this was last year's card and list.