Podfic Bingo

For whatever reason, I was super sure I'd already posted this. IDEK.

Re-reads. HUH

None. I'd planned to reread a couple of things before the year ended. Unfortch, that doesn't seem likely. *pouts*


I DNF'd

* A King's Mage by S.E. McPhearson (Book 1 of Heart-Mage Trilogy, Fantasy polyamore romance) - Beau, the spare prince, becomes the heir. He's also got to marry Penny (his dead brother's fiance who hates his guts) despite him being in love with Elias,his personal bodyguard.

DNF'd at the beginning of Chapter 4

The writing is fine?

Sadly, the more I read, the less interested I became abt the story. If the setting up isn't enough to get me hooked. . .

Also, the worldbuilding was a total fail. Yes, this is a book in a fantasy setting, but the overall vibe gives "inspired by French monarchy" and that's abt it! Most characters' names were French or French-sounding. And yet, the dialogue was v. modern. But there was (as far as I could tell) no electricity, cars, etc.

Picked up this book in hopes that I'd get lost into a whole new adventure. Again, I didn't connect with the story and found most of its worldbuilding v. confusing. Given that I have a lot of other books to read, I gave up on this one w/o any regrets. Which is sad cuz I was eager to read abt the M/M/F-as-endgame ship. Alas. I gave it a 1 out of 5.


Had an awesome time at first (but it all went downhill from there).

* That Weekend by Kara Thomas (YA Mystery) - Claire wakes up in the middle of a forest with no idea of how she got there or what happened during the previous 2 days. Also, even though she tries hard, she's got no idea where's Kat, her BFF, or Jesse (Kat's boyfriend) . . .

I'd read two of this author's other YAs a whole decade or so ago and distinctly remember liking them. For whatever reason, I decided to check this one out too. This author has a v. clean writing style--which is something that's quite important in mysteries. Even more so in this instance since the narrator is totally unreliable due to amnesia. At no point did I get lost or confused as to what was happening. 👍🏾 for that.

Additionally, this author has a flair for writing teenage characters that read like actual ppl. They've got insecurities, desires, good parts and bad ones too. Their interior lives are rich. This enhanced the plot in the best way.

As for the mystery, I REALLY enjoyed certain aspects of it. Especifically the reveal as to WHAT HAPPENED and, even more, WHY did the events happened. The motivations everyone had within themselves and how those desires (etc) kept the plot moving for the most part.

In a way, I'd say the keyword for this book is MOTIVATION. Sometimes, the characters' agendas ran parallel, oftentimes they ran against each other. And it was v. exciting to see everything being played out. Sometimes even within the same chapter.

Re the mystery: I did 🙄 at the explanation of HOW the events happened. It crossed the line into unbelievable. HOWEVAH, I shrugged it off despite how ridic it all was.

Claire . . . *sighs* OTOH, I think she was a good protagonist cuz her amnesia helped her become a conduit into the story. OTOH, once she got home, the pacing really slowed down and became repetitive with Claire self-medicating AND spiraling every waking moment AND being extremely selfish yet she was also traumatized.

MY problem was that she's someone who had severe anxiety. So, watching her being on the verge of an anxiety attack 24/7 while being unable to look away (due to her being the sole POV character + the fact that the story was told in 1st person) made this part of the book a deeply unpleasant reading experience. From time to time, I had to put the book to the side for 10 mins or so cuz it was exhausting and suffocating.

There were things that happen in the last two chapters that got me wondering what "inspired" the author to include a v. specific thing TWO CHAPTERS AWAY FROM THE ENDING. This meant that the book didn't land the ending but fully crashed it nose-first.

MEGA SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING AHEAD:

It turns out that Kat and Jessy are HALF-SIBLINGS BY BLOOD--which HUHHHH?

NGL, I didn't like the incest twist and how its repercussions (once OTHER CHARACTERS figured it out) were handled. I'm confused why Marian (Kat's own grandmother) wasn't clearer with Kat as to why she was so opposed abt Kat and Jesse's relationship, frex.

AND THEN, finding out that Jesse had known all along and didn't care made everything TEN TIMES GROSSER. My best guess is that the author wanted to add a major flaw to Jesse as a character since, aside from kinda leading Claire on a little, he hadn't done/said anything bad. And then, it's like "boom, yeah, we're half-siblings and I CHOSE TO NOT TELL YOU, but it's cool cuz we love each other." Me: 🤮🤮🤮🤮"

Averaging how I'd liked at least half of the book vs. that mess of an ending, I gave it a 3 out of 5..


* The Wife Deserved It by Darby Kayne (Domestic thriller) - Reid is over his marriage and, after much planning, he's decided tonight's the night his wife will die. But, the one thing that Reid has never considered is that his wife is READY for him. . .

The first half of the novella is tight. Excellent timing. I didn't mind how the story pushed and pulled me while the sense of utter dread abt the goings on kept building up. Good worldbuilding too. For a story with multiple POVs, everyone sounded like real people who had great and terrible motivations.

The keyword for this story was confrontation. Both in the sense of characters facing each other as well as facing (or not, in some cases) the truth as to who they really are.

OTOH, The story plateaued in the second half. I can't explain why w/o going into

FULL SPOILERS:

One of the POVs was Anna's (the wife). Somewhere near the beginning of the novella, she gets a full chapter where it's extremely clear she's made her choice. She will kill Reid as that's the only way out (and also cuz he's decided to kill her cuz he's a jackass.) The chapter includes a moment where Anna sees Reid searching for her and he's holding a knife.

Things get complicated and plans go awry..

THEN, starting around Chapter 15 and going on until Chapter 25, the story spends several POV chapters from Reid and Paige's POVs. With BOTH trying to convince Anna to get on their respective sides.

NGL, this was v. tiresome to read. ANNA HAD ALREADY MADE HER CHOICE! So IDK why the author made Anna appear unsure/wavering chapter after chapter. If anything, I'd have preferred that the author had made Anna's choice at the beginning of the novella uncertain. Because THAT would've kept up the suspense.

Instead, I spent those 11 (thankfully short) chapters mentally tapping my watch so Anna and Paige could help Reid shuffle off his mortal coil.

But the author had already made her choice and so I just had to keep waiting.

In the end, I liked it enough to give it a 3.3 out of 5 and will deffo read more of her books. 😛


It was . . . fine?

* Sweep of the Heart by Ilona Andrews (Book 5 of the Innkeeper Chronicles) (Urban Fantasy Romance) - Dina and Sean are chosen to host the space version of The Bachelor for one of the most powerful rules in the entire universe. There's additional drama via the disappearance of Sean's mentor. Oh, and the Costo lady returns . . .

There was worldbuilding (and how!) and plot (ditto) as expected from an IA book. I also gotta give 👍🏾 to having a character who is Black AND openly queer. Also how the latter was reflected on the selection of the contestants (with female and male hopefuls) without any of it being any kind of big deal. Oh, and the plottier developments toward the end were hella yummy too.

The key word for this novel was EXCESS.

NGL, my brain sorta @ ____ @ many, many times over the multiple descriptions of each setting: from the individual teams' rooms to the locations where each trial and date took place. Although I do appreciate that, like the rest of IA's novels I've read, this one doesn't have White Room Syndrome, this time IA really went OTT in terms of creating a picture in their readers' minds. Quasi infinite accounts of what every nook and cranny looked like.

This was also reflected in the tons of accounts as to what everyone wore. Something that was underlined by the size of the cast.

Off the top of my head, this novel had around 40 or so MAIN CHARACTERS. NGL, there were moments where I lost track as to who was from which group/planet. Why couldn't IA had started with 6 hopefuls for the contest vs. 12? :|

There was also Too Much focus on the Bachelor plot, IMO. It ran for over 70% of the novel. Hell, I even FORGOT that the A Plot was abt rescuing Sean's mentor. AND THEN, when the story finally got back to that, the actual!rescue was gently pushed to the side.

And this is where the push-and-pull feelings I've got abt this novel rear their head cuz the last 2 chapters drop so many things that had me going WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA??? and OMAIGOOOOOO!! IF ONLY THE BOOK HAD CUT SOME OF THE BACHELOR-ESQUE SCENES IN EXCHANGE FOR MORE OF THE MAIN/A PLOT!!!! *Pouts*

FINALLY, I know this novel was initially published in serialized form over at IA's site.

What I don't understand (and irritated the fuck out of me) was the inclusion of summaries (of what had happened in the previous chapter) whenever there was a new chapter. Not only was it REALLY UNNECESSARY, but the jokey/hyuk hyuk tone was unpleasant EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaated the summaries. IA mentioned at the start of the book that they left them in the book cuz they'd been so well received when the story was posted on their site. I'm sure it worked when the chapters were released once a week. But seeing them in sequence was OBNOXIOUS AND REPETITIVE.

The other extras (2 round of descriptions of the contestants) were USELESS AND REDUNDANT. But, at least, those extras were at the end of the book and not interwoven into the story in an unavoidable way like the stupid-ass summaries were. (Yes, I hated them THAT MUCH.)

The book DOES END ON A SOFT CLIFFHANGER. And, per the little I know, it'll be a while before IA gets working on the next story. Such is life. I'll happily dive in whenever Book 6 drops, that's for sure.

In the end, this isn't my fave entry of the series but, at the same time, I can't deny I had a good time reading it, LOL. I gave it a 3.2 out of 5.


Good vibes all around

* Sweep with Me by Ilona Andrews Book 4.5 of the Innkeeper Chronicles (Urban Fantasy Romance) - Dina and Sean are ready to celebrate the holidays Innkeeper-style. They're hoping none of the guests end up killing each other . . .

Such a DELIGHTFUL NOVELLA!!! There are some neat surprises within the pages of this book. I also love how the A plot (Dina and Sean trying to host some ~interesting folks without having anyone kill each other) and the B plot (Dina processing the events in the previous book and how it affected her own magic) intertwined.

I was, once again, dissatisfied with how few scenes abt Dina/Sean's romance were included. *Pouts*

Also, I did get the sense that IA overstuffed the plot by a smidgen. I could almost tell a point where IA nearly lost control of the goings on. Thankfully, things got back on track and the story landed in the best way possible. I gave it a 4 out of 5.


Current fic tally

Have picked up 217 fics, DNF'd 101. Things are fine!


Some thoughts

Had an uneven reading experience. Going thru the rest of the published entries for the Innkeeper Chronicles was fun even with the stumbles here and there. The two mysteries were solid enough for me to not DNF'ing them. Bonus: I'm deffo OJO abt Darby Kane's other novels. Sadly, the M/M/F was a big fail. Alas.

Up next

Last time: I've got the last two published books for the Innkeeper Chronicles, an M/M/F fantasy romance, and I'm reading the first book in a female detective series. Dunno why, but my yays for reading horror have sort of gone to ground? I might end up reading something scary next month, IDK. 😅

I paused the female detective novel cuz I'd planned to do a quick Non-fiction November reading thing. But that stalled HARD.

My current reads include two biographies from separate queer ppl, the fist book in a female detective series, a book abt #MeToo, another Darby Kane novel, and mayyybe a kinky F/M romance.

LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISEN, I'll be the first one to own up to not quite getting Cortis' music when they began dropping songs a few months ago.

Part of it was that I legit CANNOT DEAL with their MVs (which are chaotic to the point of overwhelming me in the most negative of ways.) The other thing is that a lot (by which I mean over 50%) of the PR abt BigHit's newest group (yes, that's BTS and TXT's agency) was pushing how involved the members were in terms of songwriting and production. Per what I know of BH (and Hybe's agencies in general) is that they do tend to offer songwriting and production tracks for their trainees. A large part of the thinking comes from how BH worked with BTS (especially the rapline, but all 7 members have worked on their music since pre-debut era).

In any case, I do acknowledge that a lot of my 🤨 came from my own expectations on what Cortis' sound was gonna be like. I wasn't ready for any of it. That said, I sat thru all of the MVs (not having a great time, but still.) Even though I would 🙄 at the videos (which were co-directed by Cortis and some other guy), there was something abt the sound that kept me from outright dismissing the whole thing.

Then, some weeks ago, I happen to listen to Cortis' music on streaming and it was like something clicked in my brain. Suddenly, I got it. Have checked out a few of their live performances and have enjoyed most of them.

Anyhoodle, the 2025 Mnet Asian Music Awards (or MAMAs as they're known) were held over in Hong Kong two weeks ago. Not even gonna front, I didn't tune in for the live show cuz there truly wasn't anyone I was RARIN' to watch. Some years is like that, LOL. [Unlike the 2020 shows where I watched the show for, like, 6 hrs or so while waiting for BTS to perform, LOLsob. My one consolation is that there were millions of other ARMYs watching along. Small mercies and all that.]

Scrolled thru this year's performances once they were uploaded on YT. And my jaw DROPPED when I saw Cortis' stage. One thing to keep in mind is that this group has mainly young members; Martin, the leader, is 17 y.o., frex.

Trigger warning: lots of happy screams from the fans; A ton of fast camera movements (that are on par with Korean shows) including shaky-cams; Additional warnings for HEAVY STROBE LIGHTS starting 3:10 and going til the end.

Watch on YouTube

I love the set-up with Martin working his keyboard (with the additional work from MAMAs' PD team synching up the lightsticks to represent the lights of a soundboard/equalizer thingie.)

Then how it expands to just the five members doing their choreo in between singing and rapping. Yes, there was backing track (per what I saw of everyone's performances, there wasn't a single performer who didn't have it. However, unlike some of the other artists, Cortis DID sing and rapped live at least 60% of the time, IJS.).

FWIW, I'm aware that the production team has tweaked the sound a little to push the crowds' roar to the forefront. I did see a few tweets (now locked) that were fancams and the crowds were HELLA LOUD for Cortis. It was impressive; gave me chills, heheh.