Category Archives: For the love of books

Reading Retreat! 2016

Posted in For the love of books by

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So this weekend is my annual Reading Retreat! For those of you who haven’t seen my posts in prior years, I’ll give a little explanation. Every year my Mom goes on a Quilting Retreat with her Quilt Guild. The retreat is at the Incarnation Camp in Ivoryton, CT. While I’m not a big quilter, I went a few years ago to spend the weekend with my Mom and have gone every year since. I spend the whole weekend reading, hanging out with Mom, and chatting with all the awesome ladies at retreat. The Camp provides our meals which means extra reading time since there is no food prep. I always have a great time and I usually get a lot of reading done. I wrote about my experience at retreat for the past two years, you can see those posts here: 2014 and 2015.

So for this year I wanted to make it a little more structured, mostly because I still have so many books to get done for the month of May. So I’m doing a Reading Retreat Read-a-thon for the coming weekend!

readathon

 

Looking at my review schedule (I sort by publication date on my priority list) the next 5 books on my To Read list are all historical romances, so this is going to be a great fun weekend! I love historical romances and I haven’t been able to read quite as many lately so this is a great coincidence that I have so many on my goals list for the weekend! I’m including more books here than I will most likely be able to read in 3 days because I am an optimist and would love to actually be able to read all of them this weekend. My goals for this weekend are as follows:

So that is my plan for this weekend and I am very excited to be spending the weekend at retreat with my mom and our friends! I am doing something different this year in that I am not bringing my computer so I won’t be doing any of my review posts until most likely Monday. If you’d like to keep up to date with my travels and adventures this weekend though be sure to check out the Rebeccabookreview Facebook page to keep up to date! Happy Memorial Day weekend to you all!

Bout of Books 16 Update Day 7 & WRAP UP

Posted in 2016, Bout of Books 16, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

q5ighFP

Day 7 was mostly spent traveling and visiting with family but I managed to read about 3 hours at night before bed. My Sunday’s progress is below followed by my wrap up of my overall Bout of Books accomplishments:

Updates

Sunday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 226
Total number of pages I’ve read: 1,719
Books read today: I started Tell The Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
Challenges: Sunday was a free day so there was no challenge

Time Devoted to Reading

My goal was to devote at least 2 hours a day to reading and I did that! I read about 27 hours over the course of the 7 days which was good. And I read over 1,700 pages which seems like a great accomplishment for one week!

My Goals

My goal for this read-a-thon was to learn the ropes and have fun! I posted a update every day on how the previous day went and I also did Monday, Tuesday and Thursday‘s “challenge” post.  I really had a lot of fun with Thursday’s “If You Like This, Try This” post!

Books to Read

Overall I think it was a successful week. I had a great time participating and I will definitely want to participate in another Bout of Books in the future!

Bout of Books 16 Update – Day 6

Posted in 2016, Bout of Books 16, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

q5ighFP

Day 6 was great because it was goal day! So I had a lot of devoted reading time although the tv was distracting me more than usual. I can usually keep the tv on while I’m reading and it isn’t a problem but this week that hasn’t been the case. So anyways, my Friday’s progress is below:

Updates

Saturday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 260
Total number of pages I’ve read: 1,493
Books read today: I finished Troublemaker by Linda Howard
Challenges: I did not participate in the Saturday challenge, there just isn’t enough time in the day!

Today (Sunday) is the last day of the read-a-thon and I will be traveling a lot and visiting with my husband’s family so not sure how much reading I will get done, but I will try my best! Happy reading everyone!

Bout of Books 16 Update – Day 5

Posted in 2016, Bout of Books 16, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

q5ighFP

Day 5 of my first Bout of Books and I have to say I thought things would move a little faster for me but I’m finding it really hard to concentrate sometimes. I read probably about 2 and 1/2 hours but I don’t think I made as much reading progress as I could have if I was concentrating. So anyways, my Friday’s progress is below:

Updates

Friday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 140
Total number of pages I’ve read: 1,233
Books read today: I started Troublemaker by Linda Howard
Challenges: I did not participate in the Friday challenge, it had to do with posting something scary and I’m not so good at that.

Tomorrow (Sunday) is the last day of the read-a-thon and I will be traveling a lot and visiting with my husband’s family so not sure how much reading I will get done, but I will try my best! Happy reading everyone!

Bout of Books 16 Update – Day 4

Posted in 2016, Bout of Books 16, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

q5ighFP

I had to go to an all day training on Day 4 so I didn’t get to read like I had been the previous days (all day) but I did read probably around 4 hours since I read most of the night once I got home. So my Thursday’s progress is below:

Updates

Thursday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 343
Total number of pages I’ve read: 1,093
Books read today: I finished Every Bride Has Her Day (you can see my review here)
Challenges: I loved the Thursday challenge, “If You Like This, Try This” it was a really fun post and I’m pleased with my book ideas.

Today (Friday) I’m hoping to get some work out of the way this morning and then devote the afternoon and evening to reading! And tomorrow is Goal Day, which I am really looking forward to and will hopefully get a bunch of reading done! Happy reading everyone!

Bout of Books 16 Day 4 – If You Like This, Try This

Posted in 2016, Bout of Books 16, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

So the challenge for Bout of Books 16 – Day 4 is a post about “If You Like This, Try This.” I liked this idea behind this post, though I didn’t end up doing what I had originally planned. So below are my suggestions for books by genre:

1. If You Like Romantic Suspense, then try:

Now You See Her by Linda Howard
Deadline by Sandra Brown
The Liar by Nora Roberts

2. If You Like Historical Fiction/Romance, then try:

The Vintner’s Daughter by Kristen Harnisch
Maiden Lane series by Elizabeth Hoyt
MacKenzie Family series by Jennifer Ashley

3. If You Like Contemporary Romance, then try:

Too Good To Be True by Kristan Higgins
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
The Glass Kitchen by Linda Francis Lee

4. If You Like Epistolary novels, then try:

Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
Every Boy’s Got One by Meg Cabot
The Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger

 

If any of you have more suggestions, I am always looking for new things to add to my TBR list!

Bout of Books 16 Update – Day 3

Posted in 2016, Bout of Books 16, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

q5ighFP

Well Day 3 went well. I spent most of the mornings at appointments and the night at a family gathering but I still managed to read about 3.5 hours and finished a book. So my Wednesday’s progress is below:

Updates

Wednesday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 209
Total number of pages I’ve read: 750
Books read today: I finished Kill or Be Kilt and started Every Bride Has Her Day
Challenges: I didn’t do the challenge for Wednesday

I’m writing this at the end of Thursday and I haven’t made much progress today but I am hoping to have productive days the rest of the weekend.

2016 Book #45 – Kill or Be Kilt by Victoria Roberts

Posted in 2016, Book reviews, Bout of Books 16, For the love of books, Historical Romance, Reading Challenges by

51zuZ+efm4L._SX302_BO1,204,203,200_Title: Kill or Be Kilt
Author: Victoria Roberts
Date finished: 5/11/16
Genre: Historical romance
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablance
Publication Date: May 3, 2016
Pages in book: 352
Stand alone or series: #3 in the Highland Spies Series
Where I got the book from: NetGalley NOTE:I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

It’s been three years since Lady Elizabeth Walsingham ended her childish crush on Laird Ian Munro, the fierce Highlander who scared everyone but her. She’s a grown woman now, heading to London to find a proper English gentleman. But when the wild Highland laird walks through the door, she’s that breathless youth all over again.
Ian tries hard to avoid the young lass who’s confounded him for years. But now that they’re attending court, he must keep watch on her night and day. Danger is at every turn and advisors to the Crown are being murdered. Ian soon realizes the girl he’s been protecting is a beautiful lady who needs his help, almost as much as he needs her.

My rating:  3.75 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This is my second book that I’ve finished during the Bout of Books 16 read-a-thon and was also the second one on my goals list. This book tells the story of Elizabeth Walsingham, who lives with her sister and the rest of her family at her brother-in-law’s house in the Highlands. Elizabeth and her sisters receive the news that their Uncle has died, and they travel with the Highlander men to England to grieve with their aunt. While in England, Elizabeth decides that she would like to be presented at court to see if she can find a suitable husband.Laird Ian Munro is not too keen on this idea. Even though Ian doesn’t think he wants Elizabeth for himself, he doesn’t seem to want her flirting with anyone else either. Through their experiences though, Ian comes to realize that the reason he’s so jealous over Elizabeth’s suitors is that he is in love with Elizabeth himself.
Overall I liked this book. The hero was clueless and arrogant but also ended up being charming and chivalrous. .The heroine was a little naive but she was younger so that wasn’t overly surprising. I liked that this book can be read as a stand alone, though it does reference things from the previous two books. The book itself doesn’t need to be read as part of the series though and can be read on its own. It was a good book and I liked it but nothing really grabbed my attention as overly exciting. This wasn’t one of my all time favorites but it was a good romance read. I would especially recommend to historical romance and Highlander fans.

The bottom line: I liked this book, it was a nice and interesting story. I wouldn’t say there was anything overly interesting  or thrilling but it was a definitely a good read. I thought it was a sweet story and I would recommend it!

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

Bout of Books 16 Update – Day 2

Posted in 2016, Bout of Books 16, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

q5ighFP

Well Day 2 went better than Day 1. I got distracted for a bit mid-day but I ended up reading for over 7 hours and I finished one book and started a next one. So my Tuesday’s progress is below:

Updates

Tuesday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 456
Total number of pages I’ve read: 541
Books read today: I finished Wilde Lake and started Kill or Be Kilt
Challenges: I did the book shelf shelfie challenge for Tuesday, I posted it on Twitter here

I’m hoping to make good progress through the rest of today and tomorrow. I’ll either be posting an update tomorrow late in the day or I won’t post an update again until Friday. Happy reading to you all!

Bout of Books 16 – READ-a-thon, contests, giveaways, and more!!

Posted in Bout of Books 16, For the love of books by
Bout of Books

So over the past year I’ve periodically seen fellow bloggers participating in something called “Bout of Books” and reading their posts it has always seemed interesting/fun to me. So I decided to sign up for this coming one! I am excited to try it, though I’m still not 100% sure how it works. I do know that I’m supposed to read, which works out well for me since that is one of my favorite things to do! 

For those of you who don’t really know much about Bout of Books (including me), it is basically a week-long, no pressure read-a-thon that has been going strong since 2011! Here is a description directly from the Bout of Books blog:

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 9th and runs through Sunday, May 15th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 16 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

All in all it sounds like a great time to me! It isn’t required but I am nothing if not goal-oriented so I’ve decided to set some goals for the week. And luckily this time of year is pretty much my only slightly-slow season so I was able to take a couple days off to devote entirely to reading!! If you’d like to participate and would like to post goals (optional) they have a nifty template/help page that you can find here. Below are my TBR/Other goals for the week: 

Time Devoted to Reading

I plan to read at least 2 hours each day, with additional hours on the 2/3 days I am home during the week. Also the Saturday during Bout of Books is Goal Day for me so I can read all day (approx. 8 hours). 

My Goals

My goals for this read-a-thon are pretty much to learn the ropes. I’d like to participate in as much as I can: the daily posts plus reading every day plus whatever else there is (if there is anything else?). 

Books to Read

 

SO! That is Bout of Books and that is my plan! I am really looking forward to participating, it lined up perfectly with my busiest ARC month to date so I am really appreciative of the extra encouraged reading time!!! Hope you guys check it out and join up! If you do want to join make sure to add yourself to the page’s Sign Up Post by Tuesday, May 10th at 11:59pm! Happy reading!