kingstoken (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kingstoken) wrote2026-03-28 07:54 pm
kingstoken) wrote2026-03-28 07:54 pm
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First Quarter Reading Wrap-Up
I'm moving on the 31st, so I'm going do my first quarter reading wrap-up now because I don't think I'll be finishing anymore books in next few days. The first part of the year has actually gone really well, I have read seven books and completed a full series! I'm sometimes terrible about continuing series, so I was very surprised by that. Anyways, here are the books I read:
Magician by K.L. Noone - a sweet M/M fantasy romance, although it also felt very melancholic to me. I don't know if it was the author's intention, but one of the main characters is sort of semi-immortal, or at least lives way longer than any normal person, and he falls in love with a human man. The issue isn't really brought up til near the end of the novel and I wish there had been more internal thought or angst about this issue. That being said I did like the characters a lot and the way the author described the magic was interesting, and almost poetic at times.
The Knight and Necromancer series by A.H. Lee - this is three books, The Capital, The Broader, and The Sea. I'm just going to talk about them together because I read them back to back (and they have kind of smushed together in my head), which is something I rarely ever do, but the story was compelling enough that I wanted to keep reading and I was lucky enough that my library had them all on the hoopla app. So this series is a M/M fantasy romance about a Knight, who is the brother of the Queen, and a newly fledged Necromancer. The Queen is trying to make an alliance between her kingdom and the necromancer's mentor. There is a big bad that is trying to destroy the kingdom, people don't trust necromancers so every time something terrible happens they try and blame it on the necromancer, plus there is demons and dark magic involved. And while all this is going on a romance has developed between the knight and the necromancer. I will say my recurring complaint with this series is that it's heavy on the fantasy and light on the romance. What we get of the romance is good, but I wanted more of it. (This actually the opposite problem of most fantasy romances I've read)
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson - The main character has a condition similar to the "50 First Dates" movie where she forgets the previous day every time she goes to sleep, only instead of being played for laughs it's treated as the kind of horrific thing that it is here. Anyways, this woman knows something is wrong, and she can't trust her husband, and she knows this because she writes herself a diary and every day she reads it. You follow her as she tries to piece her life back together. There were moments where it felt you were taking two steps forward and one step back, but it makes sense in the context of the story. Overall, a very memorable concept for a mystery.
Justice League, Volume 1: Origin by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee - I was kind of surprised to find this comic volume in a free little library, but I enjoyed it. It is about the formation of the Justice League and these characters meeting for the first time, I think this is part of the new 52. I liked that they had Batman using his head and taking on more of a leadership role, because he is so under powered compared to the rest. I did feel that Superman was out of character though. Overall, lots of action, but it needed more character moments.
The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths - just finished this one today. It was nice mix of modern mystery and Gothic, which isn't easy to pull off. It is very centred on this school where one teacher dies, which leads to another murder, and it's all connected to another teacher at the school. There were three main POVs, I really liked Claire and Harbinder's POVs, one is an upper-middle class teacher and the other is an immigrant working class police detective and they both bring different perspectives to what is going on. My least favourite POV was the teenage daughter, Georgie, but I do think the author did a good job of capturing the feeling of teenager thinking they are way more grown-up than they actually are. Overall, a solid and enjoyable mystery.
Magician by K.L. Noone - a sweet M/M fantasy romance, although it also felt very melancholic to me. I don't know if it was the author's intention, but one of the main characters is sort of semi-immortal, or at least lives way longer than any normal person, and he falls in love with a human man. The issue isn't really brought up til near the end of the novel and I wish there had been more internal thought or angst about this issue. That being said I did like the characters a lot and the way the author described the magic was interesting, and almost poetic at times.
The Knight and Necromancer series by A.H. Lee - this is three books, The Capital, The Broader, and The Sea. I'm just going to talk about them together because I read them back to back (and they have kind of smushed together in my head), which is something I rarely ever do, but the story was compelling enough that I wanted to keep reading and I was lucky enough that my library had them all on the hoopla app. So this series is a M/M fantasy romance about a Knight, who is the brother of the Queen, and a newly fledged Necromancer. The Queen is trying to make an alliance between her kingdom and the necromancer's mentor. There is a big bad that is trying to destroy the kingdom, people don't trust necromancers so every time something terrible happens they try and blame it on the necromancer, plus there is demons and dark magic involved. And while all this is going on a romance has developed between the knight and the necromancer. I will say my recurring complaint with this series is that it's heavy on the fantasy and light on the romance. What we get of the romance is good, but I wanted more of it. (This actually the opposite problem of most fantasy romances I've read)
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson - The main character has a condition similar to the "50 First Dates" movie where she forgets the previous day every time she goes to sleep, only instead of being played for laughs it's treated as the kind of horrific thing that it is here. Anyways, this woman knows something is wrong, and she can't trust her husband, and she knows this because she writes herself a diary and every day she reads it. You follow her as she tries to piece her life back together. There were moments where it felt you were taking two steps forward and one step back, but it makes sense in the context of the story. Overall, a very memorable concept for a mystery.
Justice League, Volume 1: Origin by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee - I was kind of surprised to find this comic volume in a free little library, but I enjoyed it. It is about the formation of the Justice League and these characters meeting for the first time, I think this is part of the new 52. I liked that they had Batman using his head and taking on more of a leadership role, because he is so under powered compared to the rest. I did feel that Superman was out of character though. Overall, lots of action, but it needed more character moments.
The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths - just finished this one today. It was nice mix of modern mystery and Gothic, which isn't easy to pull off. It is very centred on this school where one teacher dies, which leads to another murder, and it's all connected to another teacher at the school. There were three main POVs, I really liked Claire and Harbinder's POVs, one is an upper-middle class teacher and the other is an immigrant working class police detective and they both bring different perspectives to what is going on. My least favourite POV was the teenage daughter, Georgie, but I do think the author did a good job of capturing the feeling of teenager thinking they are way more grown-up than they actually are. Overall, a solid and enjoyable mystery.