Category Archives: Reading Challenges

ARC August 2018- Update #4

Posted in 2018, ARC August 2018, Reading Challenges by

ARC-August

What a freaking crazy week this was! Busy week at work, and then the Fair was this past weekend and that takes up so much of our time! I tried to stick with the reading schedule, I’ve been really pushing myself for the reading challenge this month and I’ve been enjoying all the extra reading a lot. I didn’t necessarily knock it out of the park this past week since it was such a busy week but I was able to get a bit of reading done. This past week I also participating in both ARC August AND Bout of Books, which was fun and challenging. You can check out my Bout of Books 23 journey here! Anyways, so here’s where I stand right now:

 

MY PROGRESS

August 2018 ARC’s

–Good Luck With That by Kristan Higgins – Read and reviewed (Week 1)
–Our House by Louise Candlish – Read and reviewed (Week 2)
–Smothered by Autumn Chiklis – Read and reviewed (Week 1)
-The Duke of Seduction by Darcy Burke – Read and reviewed (Week 4)
–Maybe For You by Nicole McLaughlin – Read and reviewed (Week 3)
–Cowboy, Cross My Heart by Donna Grant – Read and reviewed (Week 3)
-The Duke with the Dragon Tattoo
-Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia

Additions

–Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone – Read and reviewed (Week 3)
–BuzzBooks 2018 Romance Sampler – Read and reviewed (Week 2)
-Hot Pursuit by Rebecca Freeborn

Backlog ARC’s

I’m actually using a reading challenge to help me whittle away at the 2016 and 2017 backlog list, so for this challenge I’d like to get to the following:

-A book told through letters
-A book with a five-word title – Read and reviewed At the Heart of It by Tawna Fenske (Week 2)
-A book whose cover features nature
-A book whose title begins with K, Q, J, X, or Z – Read and reviewed The Killing Game by Nancy Bush (Week 4)
-A book you bought (requested) for the cover
-A book written by an author who wrote one of your favorite 2017 books
-A book with a one-word title

Books Read August 20th – 26th

The Duke of Seduction by Darcy Burke – 4.0 stars
The Killing Game by Nancy Bush – 3.5 stars

Plan for Upcoming Week

This coming week should hopefully be a bit smoother. Really August is just through Friday so there’s only a few days left to get in as much reading as I can. I plan to take Friday off to hopefully fit in a little last minute push to the finish line, but Friday night we’ll be leaving for Block Island for the weekend! Hope everyone else is having a successful reading month.

Bout of Books 23 – Day 7 & Wrap Up

Posted in 2018, Bout of Books 23, Reading Challenges by

3PKyE93

So for one of my goals this year to help me focus more on reading and having concentrated time for reading, I decided to participate in all 3 Bout of Books reading challenges / read-a-thons this year! This was the third and final one for this year. I didn’t done as much as I wanted to but it was still ok amounts of successful.

First let’s do my Day 7 (Sunday) update on reading, even though it’s pretty bad.

Update

Sunday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 0 hours! I was so busy, didn’t get to read much at all
Number of pages I’ve read today: 1 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read:  725 pages
Books read: Continued reading Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia
Challenges: I did not participate in the challenge for yesterday, just too busy this weekend!

And now let’s look at how I fared for my overall Bout of Books 23 wrap up:

Time Devoted to Reading

I plan to read at least 2 hours each day during the week, with hopefully additional hours on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I’ll be working up at the Fair event all afternoon and evening Thursday and Friday and then all day Saturday and Sunday, but I might be able to take a couple short breaks for reading between shifts.
Things definitely did not work out this way. Most of the weekdays I was able to read 1.5 – 2 hours but once we got to the weekend it fell apart. It’s just super hard to concentrate on anything during the Fair because there’s so much work to be done and so much going on. 

My Goals

My goals for this read-a-thon are that I’d like to participate in as much as I can: the daily posts plus reading every day. One of the reasons I’m especially excited about this read-a-thon is … I’M ON THE SCHEDULE! I submitted a couple daily challenge ideas and one of them was picked! I’m more excited than ever to participate, hopefully I don’t run too low on time.
I did participate in Monday and Tuesday’s (below) daily posts, the other days I either wasn’t interested in the prompt or ran out of time. I was especially excited to participate in Tuesday’s post since it was my suggestion! 

Capture

Books to Read

 

Overall this was not the greatest week of reading for me, I feel that I started off strong but fizzled out at the end due to my other commitments. I was able to get a little reading done at least. I’m looking forward to participating in the next Bout of Books but maybe I’ll skip August’s next year!

Bout of Books 23 Update – Day 6

Posted in 2018, Bout of Books 23, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

3PKyE93

Worked at the Fair yesterday 7am to after 11pm. Not a lot of time for reading but it was a great and very productive day for Fair activities! So anyways here’s my Saturday update:

Update

Saturday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 0.5 hour
Number of pages I’ve read today: 27 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read:  724 pages
Books read: Continued reading Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia
Challenges: I did not participate in the challenge for yesterday, just too busy this weekend!

Stay tuned for continued progress made in tomorrow’s post on my Saturday update!!

Bout of Books 23 Update – Day 5

Posted in 2018, Bout of Books 23, Reading Challenges by

3PKyE93

It is the Fair! I took a little extra time yesterday morning to rest up ahead of the big event, so I managed to fit in some reading time. Looking forward to the rest of the weekend I might not have as much time but that’s ok! So anyways here’s my Friday update:

Update

Friday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 2 hours
Number of pages I’ve read today: 169 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read:  697 pages
Books read: Finished The Killing Game by Nancy Bush and started reading Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia
Challenges: I did not participate in the challenge for yesterday, just too busy this weekend!

Stay tuned for continued progress made in tomorrow’s post on my Saturday update!!

2018 Book #74 – The Killing Game by Nancy Bush

Posted in 2018, ARC August 2018, Book reviews, Bookish 2018 Reading Challenge, Bout of Books 23, Reading Challenges, Romantic suspense by

51szCW+gBIL.jpgTitle: The Killing Game
Author: Nancy Bush
Date finished: 8/24/18
Genre: Romantic suspense
Publisher: Zebra
Publication Date: June 28, 2016
Pages in book: 384
Stand alone or series: Rafferty Fmaily series #5
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:

The Rules Are Simple:

It’s the ultimate test of strategy and skill. The killer chooses each opponent carefully, learning each one’s weaknesses. Every meticulously planned move is leading to a devastating checkmate. Because in this game, all the pretty pawns must die.

First You Play

Andi Wren is fighting to keep her late husband’s company safe from vindictive competitors. When she receives an ominous note, Little birds must fly, she turns to P.I. Luke Denton. But though Luke has personal reasons for wanting to take down Wren Development’s opponents, his investigation suggests this is deeper and far more dangerous than a business grudge.

Then You Die. . .

In a basement on the outskirts of town, police detectives unearth piles of skeletons. As they learn the shocking truth about each victim’s identity, their case collides with Andi’s, revealing a killer’s ruthless plot and a chilling, lethal endgame. .

My rating:  3.5 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. I finished this book for ARC August 2018! Love this reading challenge. And this year I’m especially excited because as part of the challenge they added one of my favorite things, reading Bingo! This book will be checking off my “Released more than 30 days ago” box, since its a 2016 release. And this is also one of the books counting towards my Bout of Books 23 Goal. AND (there’s more) this is counting towards my  book as part of the 2018 Bookish Reading Challenge,  for the “A book whose title begins with K, Q, J, X, or Z” category.

I’ve never read anything by this author before, but this one sounded pretty good so I thought I’d give it a try! The plot was pretty interesting and it was creepy enough. The bad guy was someone that I didn’t see coming – I was pretty surprised once we got to that plot twist. Overall though I didn’t find the book to be overly thrilling, I just couldn’t get fully into the story. I mean the plot held my interest, it wasn’t that I wasn’t interested in the story. I just couldn’t emotionally connect to the characters in the story. Andi was a little timid to me, and I thought her character development was a little choppy. I also thought that the transitions between the detective chapters and Andi / Luke story was not always the smoothest and sometimes it took me a minute to catch up. Other than those things the book was good, I liked it and it was a pretty good story. I would recommend trying it, and it might be better to try with the rest of the series.

Link to author website

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

Bout of Books 23 Update – Day 4

Posted in 2018, Bout of Books 23, Reading Challenges by

3PKyE93

Yesterday was a busy day, between finishing up all my fair entries and working up at the Fairgrounds all night, there wasn’t a ton of extra time for reading. Today I’ll be up at the Fair working all afternoon / evening. Hopefully can find some time here and there to read through the day today.

Update

Thursday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 1.5 hours
Number of pages I’ve read today: 127 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read:  528 pages
Books read: Continued reading The Killing Game by Nancy Bush
Challenges: I did not participate in the challenge for yesterday, there’s not enough time in the day!

Stay tuned for continued progress made in tomorrow’s post on my Friday update!!

Bout of Books 23 Update – Day 3

Posted in 2018, Bout of Books 23, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

3PKyE93

Busy day yesterday getting all my entries ready for the Fair. This will continue into today and then we’re working up at the Fair all night tonight accepting entries and doing the judging. Hopefully can find some time here and there to read through the day today.

Update

Wednesday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 1.5 hours
Number of pages I’ve read today: 119 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read:  401 pages
Books read: Continued reading The Killing Game by Nancy Bush
Challenges: I did not participate in the challenge for yesterday, Ran out of time!

Stay tuned for continued progress made in tomorrow’s post on my Thursday update!!

2018 Book #73 – The Duke of Seduction by Darcy Burke

Posted in 2018, ARC August 2018, Blog tour, Book reviews, Bout of Books 23, Historical Romance, Reading Challenges by

510E1RENG6LTitle: The Duke of Seduction
Author: Darcy Burke
Date finished: 8/21/18
Genre: Historical romance
Publisher: Self-published
Publication Date: August 21, 2018
Pages in book: 270
Stand alone or series:  The Untouchables series Book #10
Where I got the book from: Social Butterfly PR
NOTE: I received this book for free from Social Butterfly PR 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:

Lady Lavinia Gillingham prefers rocks and dirt to marriage. Her passion is science, and she’s determined to marry if—and only if—she finds a man who supports her interests and intellect. So far, she’s managed to avoid attention on the Marriage Mart, but when the Duke of Seduction pens anonymous letters singing her praises, she suddenly become the toast of the ton and matrimony seems imminent.

William Beckett, Marquess of Northam possesses the reputation of a rake but is secretly a romantic. Spurned at sixteen and knowing his sister was victimized by Society, he uses music and poetry to fill the void in his soul. As the Duke of Seduction, he uses his skill to help Lavinia, never anticipating she has no desire for assistance or that she could be the balm he needs. But when she’s on the verge of becoming engaged, can Beck beat back the shadows of the past and open his heart again?

My rating:  4.0 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. I finished this book for ARC August 2018! Love this reading challenge. And this year I’m especially excited because as part of the challenge they added one of my favorite things, reading Bingo! This book will be checking off my “Finish 5 ARCs” box, since I’ve done that by now for this challenge.

I’ve read many of the books in this series at this point, and I really have overall enjoyed the progression of the series. This book especially I think I enjoyed as one of my favorite books in the series. I really liked Lavinia’s character a lot, she was opinionated and fierce and ready to fight for what she wanted and what she believed was right. And I thought that Beck was a perfect compliment to her character, emotional where she was optimistic and level headed where she was fierce. The tension and emotion between their characters really lept off the page and I thought their relationship was well developed. Beck’s character had a lot of intense emotions and I liked that the author brought this aspect into his character and made him a little imperfect. The ending wrapped itself up a little quickly for me, but it did make for a quick read. Everything was just coming together towards the end at a fast pace. Overall though I really enjoyed this book, can’t wait to see how the series continues!

Link to author website

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

Bout of Books 23 Update – Day 2

Posted in 2018, Bout of Books 23, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

3PKyE93
Things are chugging along. I’ve got a whole spreadsheet I’m using to keep track of my schedule this week and so far so good!

Update

Tuesday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 1.5 hours
Number of pages I’ve read today: 128 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read:  282 pages
Books read: Finished The Duke of Seduction by Darcy Burke and started The Killing Game by Nancy Bush
Challenges: I did participate in the challenge for yesterday, Book Plot Emoji. You can see my Facebook post for this here:

Capture

Stay tuned for continued progress made in tomorrow’s post on my Wednesday update!!

Bout of Books 23 Update – Day 1

Posted in 2018, Bout of Books 23, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

3PKyE93

Yesterday (first day of the read-a-thon) was a busy day, as expected. I have a feeling the whole week will end up being like this but I worked like a 12 hour day yesterday, and I was just barely able to fit in the full 2 hours of reading. Really a half hour of it was technically on Tuesday since it was after midnight. I did the best I could though and I’m determined to keep at it and keep up with my busy schedule!

Update

Monday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 2 hours
Number of pages I’ve read today: 154 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read:  154 pages (Day one! Ha)
Books read: Read The Duke of Seduction by Darcy Burke
Challenges: I did participate in the challenge for yesterday, Introduce yourself in six words. You can see my Twitter post for this here

Stay tuned for continued progress made in tomorrow’s post on my Tuesday update!! Also today is MY day for the challenges. I had submitted a challenge idea, it was picked, and today is the day for it! Excited to be able to participate today especially.