Just finished Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros because of the cliffhanger of the last book, but this one just didn’t grab me. It took me a lot longer to get through, and I had a break in the middle where I wandered off and read other books instead.

I started Whispering Wood by Sharon Shinn last night (as the 5th and last book in the Elemental Blessings series) and it’s…all right, I guess. Definitely doesn’t feel like the series will conclude with a bang, but that seems to be the case with her other series as well. Having said that, I really enjoyed her stand-alone book Summers at Castle Auburn and have re-read it a few times.

Way to crush hard mode for 4A!

Of course, here was my planned card, happy to share and hope it’ll be useful for someone else if there are any repeat squares next time. Probably my favorite book from the card was Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland. I really didn’t expect it to be as funny as it was, but I laughed out loud quite a bit. I ended up recommending it to all my friends afterward. I used the recommended thread, but I tried to pull as many books as possible from my TBR, to make some additional progress there as well, and almost all of these should qualify for hard mode.

1A - Older Than You Are: Hope Mirrlees - Lud-in-the-Mist 1B - Water, Water Everywhere: J.V. Jones - A Cavern of Black Ice 1C - What’s Yours is Mine: Alexandra Rowland - Running Close to the Wind 1D - Family Drama: John Steinbeck - East of Eden 1E - It Takes Two: Stephen King & Owen King - Sleeping Beauties (not hard mode)

2A - New Release: Heather Fawcett - Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands 2B - Plays with Words: Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange 2C - Independent Author: Michelle West - Hunter’s Redoubt 2D - Bookception: Jasper Fforde - The Eyre Affair 2E - Disability Representation: Lois McMaster Bujold - The Curse of Chalion

3A - Easy, Breezy, Read-zie: T.J. Klune - The Lightning-Struck Heart (not hard mode for me, sadly) 3B - Stranger in a Strange Land: Edgar Rice Burroughs - A Princess of Mars 3C - One Less: Baroness Orczy - The Scarlet Pimpernel (hard mode with 1A) 3D - There Is Another: Adrian Tchaikovsky - Salute the Dark 3E - LGBTQIA+ Lead: K.J. Charles - The Magpie Lord

4A - Now a Major Motion Picture: Mario Puzo - The Godfather 4B - It’s About Time: Rob Grant - Backwards 4C - Award Winner: Larry Niven - Ringworld 4D - Mashup: Aliette de Bodard - The House of Shattered Wings 4E - Local to You: Jonathan Lethem - Gun, with Occasional Music

5A - Debut Work: Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man 5B - It’s a Holiday: Ray Bradbury - The Halloween Tree 5C - Institutional: Victor LaValle - The Devil in Silver 5D - Minority Author: Samuel R. Delany - Trouble on Triton 5E - Among the Stars: Christopher Paolini - To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

I planned out a full card…and then didn’t finish it. Here’s the “C” column books I read to complete my bingo:

1C - What’s Yours is Mine: Alexandra Rowland - Running Close to the Wind

2C - Independent Author: Michelle West - Hunter’s Redoubt

3C - One Less: Baroness Orczy - The Scarlet Pimpernel

4C - Award Winner: Larry Niven - Ringworld

5C - Institutional: Victor LaValle - The Devil in Silver

With a shout out to column “E”, which I almost made it through as well. Thanks so much for putting this together–it was a lot of fun, even if I didn’t meet my goal of reading all the books. I’m looking forward to planning my 2025 card!

Came here to say this, it’s not quite cozy fantasy to me, but it’s definitely a change of pace from world-ending stakes.