The Bookforager’s Picture Prompt Bingo
1 March 2025
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: A Chemistry set, A Temple, A typewriter, Alice Feeney, AS Webb, Beautiful Ugly, book-blog, Bookforager, Books, Daughter of Chaos, Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales, Heather Fawcett, Mushrooms, Picture Prompt Book Bingo, reading, Stephanie Burgis, Wooing the Witch Queen
This year I am once again taking part in The Bookforager’s Picture Prompt Bingo. I took part in this wonderful event last year and loved it. It really makes you sit down and think about the books you’ve read and, well, come up with creative ways to ensure that you have all the prompts covered.
Below is the bingo card with the written outline. The whole ethos surrounding this is to have fun. There is no pressure, no timelines (okay, it’s a yearly event so of course you need to complete by the end of the year if you can) but you come up with the books whenever best suits you, you post when you want, and, as mentioned above, you might use some creative thinking to cover the whole card. Anyway, if you can’t complete the card what’s the worst that can happen! (You go to book bingo prison and have to hang your head in abject shame but it’s no big deal – only kidding)
So, without further ado, here’s the link to the Bookforager’s fantastic blog – I highly suggest you check it out and give them a follow – and below is the bingo card. And, at the end of the post my update on the books I’m using so far.

Plain text version can be found below:
PICTURE PROMPT BOOK BINGO 2025 (TEXT VERSION)
| 1. A prehistoric flint knapped stone knife | 2. A lighthouse | 3. An apple on a leafy branch | 4. An archery target with three arrows in it |
| 5. A very large mechanical telescope | 6. A human skull | 7. A stag | 8. |
| 9. A crab | 10. A sheaf of wheat | 11. |
12. |
| 13. A fringed umbrella / parasol | 14. |
15. A stylized sun with a human face | 16. A Roman helmet |
And, sometimes being late is occasionally useful – and as I’m pretty much always late that’s the best silver lining I can come up with – in this case I have two month’s worth of reading to choose from already.
I’ve checked the books read during January and February and I think I’m able to cross off four of the books from the prompt.
No.8 the ruins of a temple like structure.
I’ve interpreted this as a Greek temple and so I’m using Daughter of Chaos by A S Webb. This is a story crammed to the rafters with Greek mythology and lots of adventuring:
No.11 an old mechanical typewriter. I’m using Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney. This story centres around an author and his struggles to get on with life after his wife mysteriously disappears. He eventually travels to a remote Scottish Island and falls into writing a novel. I actually can’t recall if he was using an old typewriter if I’m going to be completely honest (it’s more likely that he was using a laptop) – but, either way, a keyboard is involved. That’s my flimflam excuse and I’m sticking with it:
No.12 a cluster of four mushrooms. Well, I’m massively into my fae books at the moment and in fact just completed Heather Fawcett’s final in series – Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales – and as we all know, mushroom rings are a traditional means to step into the land of the fae are they not, also there are little mushrooms (or perhaps toadstools) on the cover, so I’ve definitely cracked this one:
No.14 a chemistry set up of bottles and tubes. For this prompt I’ve chosen Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis. This is an absolutely delicious romantasy in which one of the central characters (in fact the titular Witch Queen) has her very own laboratory – although to be fair we do spend more time in the library which is not something that you’ll hear me complaining about:
That’s my progress so far. Four prompts down – 12 still to go.
I hope you all take part – I’d love to see what books you all come up with.
Booking Ahead/Weekly Wrap Up
23 February 2025
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Book Review, book-blog, Booking Ahead, Books, Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Fantasy, reading, Sunday Post, Weekly wrap up

Books read this week:
This week has been good in terms of reading – unfortunately, I seem to have caught a cold which is quite unpleasant but hopefully I’ll shake it off soon. I’ve been doing some catching up, visiting all your lovely blogs to see what I’ve missed and also responding to comments. I’ve posted two reviews this week and I probably need to post three more next week. I also need to make a start on reviewing my SPFBO books and I’m hoping to squeeze in one more title before the end of February. In books – I completed Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett. I’ve loved this series and this was a very satisfying conclusion (at least I think it’s the conclusion). I’ll be posting a review next week. I also read, and already reviewed, Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis. This was a lovely romantasy, cosy with low stakes. Check out my review here. I then picked up Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey, this is quite a sad read, or at least that’s how I felt about it. Beautifully written and very atmospheric. Finally, I picked up Greenteeth by Molly O’Neill, which I’m absolutely loving and can’t wait to dive back into.
Finish Greenteeth and then I’d like to try and fit in one more review book and maybe another SPFBO finalist (perhaps one of the shorter books – there are some very chunky finalists this year).
Reviews Posted:
- The Crimson Road by AG Slatter
- Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis
Outstanding Reviews
- Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
- The House of Frost and Feathers by Lauren Wiesebron
- SPFBO x 1
- SPFBO x 2
- SPFBO x 3
- SPFBO x 4
- Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey
- Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
That’s it for me this week, what have you been up to, any good books to shout out about. Let me know.
Booking Ahead/Weekly Wrap Up (slightly late!)
10 February 2025
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Book Review, book-blog, Booking Ahead/Weekly Wrap Up, Books, Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Fantasy, SPFBO, Sunday Post

Books read this week:
Being late seems to be a theme for me at the moment! I’m still reading and catching up but still keeping busy in other news and that’s set to continue for this week. So, hopefully, next week, maybe things will be a bit calmer, I’ll catch up with absolutely everything and live happily ever after – it could happen. I did manage to complete Grave Empire by Richard Swan and in fact already reviewed it. Spoiler alert – I loved it. In an attempt to get ahead a little with my SPFBO books I’ve already read another finalist which I enjoyed and I’m almost through the fourth one I picked up. I need to start writing some reviews for these in the forthcoming week. Once I complete this fourth finalist I’m going to be picking up some February review books. Definitely Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett and The Crimson Road by AG Slatter. I’m really looking forward to both of these and so I have no doubt they’ll be quick reads. Lets see if I can finish my current SPFBO book and the above two. Stranger things have happened.
Hopefully I will have finished my fourth finalist which means I can pick up one of the two books mentioned above. So excited!
Reviews Posted:
Grave Empire by Richard Swan
Outstanding Reviews
- Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
- The House of Frost and Feathers by Lauren Wiesebron
- SPFBO x 1
- SPFBO x 2
- SPFBO x 3
That’s it for me this week, what have you been up to, any good books to shout out about. Let me know.
Friday Face Off: Spellbound by Georgia Leighton
7 February 2025
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Book Review, book-blog, Books, Friday Face off, Georgia Leighton, reading, Spellbound

Today I’m returning to the Friday Face Off, originally created by Books by Proxy). I’ve missed these for the past few months and so would like to get back to comparing covers (and hopefully I will be updating this page with a new banner. This is an opportunity to look at a book of your choice and shine the spotlight on the covers. Of course this only works for those books that have alternative covers (although sometimes I use this to look at a series of books to choose a favourite). . So, if you have a book that has alternative covers, highlight them and choose your favourite. If you’re taking part it would be great if you leave a link so I can take a look at what you’ve chosen.
This week I’ve chosen a book that I’m looking forward to reading. Spellbound by George Leighton. Here are the covers:
My favourite this week:
I have to confess that I’m rather fascinated by this cover.
Have you read this book already? What did you think and which is your favourite?
Join me next week in highlighting one of your reads with different covers.
Friday Face Off: The Storm Beneath the World by Michael R Fletcher
31 January 2025
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Book Review, book-blog, Books, fiction, Friday Face off, Michael R Fletcher, reading, The Storm Beneath the World

Today I’m returning to the Friday Face Off, originally created by Books by Proxy). I’ve missed these for the past few months and so would like to get back to comparing covers (and hopefully I will be updating this page with a new banner. This is an opportunity to look at a book of your choice and shine the spotlight on the covers. Of course this only works for those books that have alternative covers (although sometimes I use this to look at a series of books to choose a favourite). . So, if you have a book that has alternative covers, highlight them and choose your favourite. If you’re taking part it would be great if you leave a link so I can take a look at what you’ve chosen.
This week I’ve chosen a book that I’ve read previously and loved. The Storm Beneath the World by Michael R Fletcher. Here are the covers:
My favourite this week:
Have you read this book already? What did you think and which is your favourite?
Join me next week in highlighting one of your reads with different covers.




















