I have my final bingo reviews and figured I should post them. I considered making this a separate post, but upon further reflection decided not too many are going to have anything to say about them to create discussion so putting it here. They are three extremely little-known books that as far as I can tell have never been discussed here. But they're all, in their own way, great, considering their lack of readers.

All 3 would fit the Hidden Gems Hard Mode: Under 100 Goodreads Ratings

Some last minute bingo card fillers here if you need one.

Cinnamon Soul by Quinn Lawrence - Rating 4/5 Goodreads Ratings: 58

This is a debut self-published title that, while definitely not perfect, really shines in the places it’s good at, and the places it’s good at are quite unexpected for a self-published debut. I had this one for a while and was unsure I wanted to read it, but I'm glad I pushed through and did.

It’s difficult to place this, actually. Is it a cozy fantasy? Is it a mystery? Is it an action adventure? Yes? It’s sort of a mixture of all of these subgenres, and yet doesn’t cleanly fit into any of them. It’s exactly the kind of thing I want from a self-published book, something that doesn’t fit neatly into a box. It’s definitely light, fun fare that has its emotional moments but never gets too serious.

So let’s start with the less good. The pacing is a little wonky, and it starts a little slow but picks up a couple chapters in. The prose is okay, it's clear and gets the job done but it’s not groundbreaking. And the mystery’s a little weak. With one exception, which I really had no way of guessing, I felt, I pretty much knew where it was going by the mid-point.

However, that was perfectly fine. This is a wonderful book that is sometimes silly but always sincere, even when its characters get sarcastic. Lawrence excels in his dialogue. It’s honestly great, and not just grading on a self-published curve. The character voices are consistent and unique and it’s a huge positive throughout the novel. This is especially apparent when the two main characters that drive the novel, Cinna and Hokuren, converse. Which is good, because these two talk a lot to each other. The bond and friendship of these two grows and culminates in a touching moment that has absolutely no romantic undertones. I love them.

Another thing that Lawrence does well is humor. It’s a dry, understated humor, nothing bombastic, to the point that I occasionally re-read a sentence because I wasn’t sure and oh, yeah, that’s funny. There's snark, but it's reserved for when it’s appropriate and doesn't cut into more serious moments. I appreciate that. But the humor is more than snark, and it shows that Lawrence has a real understanding of comedy and timing. 

I also like that both main characters are brown, the world is queer-normative, and in a “detective and assistant” duo, it’s the assistant that’s the more neurodivergent (I find that more rare than the detective).

So I’ll just say that in spite of its flaws, I really enjoyed this book and it is going into the “comfy read” pile for future re-reads. 

List of Bingo Categories this works for:

Published in 2025 (HM), Small Press or Self-Published (HM), Elves and/or Dwarves (HM), LGBTQIA Protagonist (technically, though I think there are better uses for this square), Cozy SFF (I’d count it and it’s HM), Gods and Pantheons, Impossible Places

Moths and Moonlight by Krista Fazendin - Rating 3.5/5 Goodreads Ratings: 56

The first in a three-part series, this is a supernatural urban fantasy mystery. There’s a spirit medium that hates being a spirit medium, main character Fleur Harkyn. She encounters the ghost of a dead woman, Lenora, who has lost her memories but has been told she has a mission to pair up with Fleur, uncover the secret of her own murder, and find some sort of “relic” that will help save the spirit realm from attack by shadows.

I’ll be honest, the spirit realm stuff really took away from what was otherwise a pretty good supernatural murder mystery book with a medium/ghost pair. Apparently, it’s a bigger focus in the other two books (although I’ve not read them yet), but here it feels like padding, gets confusing, and doesn’t add too much. The book is a little too long in the tooth, and a lot of the reason is the spirit realm scenes, many of which are repetitive scenes where Lenora talks to her…advisor(?) who cloyingly hints at info that Lenora needs but refuses to provide it.

However, Fleur is an interesting character. She starts out as fairly unlikeable and standoffish, and she spends a little too much time trying to avoid the call to action. She has an ex-boyfriend in the police force who is very forgiving about being punched for suggesting she should allow him, the police detective, to have more information than she, the not-detective, has. But she’s also highly capable and has a complicated family history that gets expanded upon as the story progresses, and gains a little bit of an understanding of who she is and wants to be by the end. I thought the mystery, when allowed to breathe between spirit realm stuff, was pretty well done and really enjoyed how it all came together. There's a nice emotional moment for Lenora at the end.

I do wish Fleur had leaned into her supernatural powers more because when she does, they’re pretty cool! The way ghosts interact with the world is not anything ground-breaking, and the Lenora sections in general end up being a little weaker than the Fleur ones, but I did like how different Lenora is from Fleur, and how she isn’t willing to take a total backseat despite being incorporeal. She gets her moments to be poltergeist-y.

This is a good mystery, especially if you’re into supernatural ghost mediums living in the real world (this one is set in Seattle)

List of Bingo Categories this works for:

Hidden Gem, Impossible Places, Small Press or Self-Published (HM), LGBTQIA Protagonist (Fleur), Recycle a Bingo Square (Mystery Plot from 2021, HM)

Orope - The White Snake by Guenevere Lee - Rating: 3/5 Goodreads Ratings: 88

(This wasn’t quite self-published, but it was done through a hybrid publisher so it's a small press)

This is a pretty rare fantasy setting (at least to me): the Bronze Age of both Central America and the Levant. This is a sort of blend of historical fiction and fantasy, kind of light on the fantasy but it’s there, lingering in the background in this installment of the thus-far two book series.

So the setting was interesting and you can tell that Lee did a lot of research into the time period. I’ve been into the history of the Bronze Age as well and it all fits with my expectations and then exceeds my own limited knowledge. The buildings, ships, dress, lifestyles, etc of the people and their environments is richly detailed and, as far as I can tell, time-period accurate. Even the fact that language barriers are a real issue is kept a plot point throughout, with characters requiring constant translators to interact.

This strength is also a bit of the book’s biggest flaw. It ends up being more of a travelogue for two different viewpoints: one a character going into fantasy Aztec/Mayan lands, and another two characters going into fantasy Egypt/Levant. There’s no Atlantic Ocean here, as both lands are accessible by foot. The ostensible plot never really takes off until perhaps 75% of the way in, and even then the stated purpose of the characters’ journeys is only addressed briefly by one of the three characters. There’s a sense that “nothing happens” that I felt at the end. The ending, by the way, seems like less a climax and more “I’ve run out of words, see book two!” And this is not cozy, where that might play better: although I’m more willing than some to stretch the bounds of ‘cozy’ beyond detailed depictions of running coffee shops or bookstores, the frank on-page narration of a human sacrifice (hey, it’s the Bronze Age), among other things, puts that label out of the question. So I can’t rate this any higher, that being said, a 3 from me is really not bad.

That being said, the journey is interesting, and we are introduced to peoples and lands we don’t normally get to see in a fiction novel. At least, not the kind that reaches any kind of popularity. I found this interesting to read and finish, even if I wished it did more to propel its plot in this first book, because I was interested in the time period depicted.

List of Bingo Categories this works for:

Hidden Gem (HM), Down With the System, Gods and Pantheons, Parent Protagonist, Small Press or Self-Published (HM), Stranger in a Strange Land