2020 Monthly Status Update: July

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July has somehow come and gone – this year is flying by. Which is both shocking and not surprising to me considering I hardly ever leave the house. Working from home has been both a blessing and a curse – one of the upsides of it is that I have been finding more time for reading. Unfortunately I’m a bit behind with work so I’ll likely have to buckle down and cut down on my reading time. Here are some reading highlights from July for me:

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 9
# pages read this month: 3,129
# books read year-to-date: 54
# pages read year-to-date: 17,703

Other Posts this month:

Incognito Ex BLOG TOUR!!

Favorite books from this month:

One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London – 4.75 stars

Next Month TBR List:

  • The Love Scam by MaryJanice Davidson
  • Kiss My Cupcake by Helena Hunting
  • Here to Stay by Adriana Herrera
  • Wednesdays, Walks and Wags by Melissa Storm

I’m also planning to participate in the ARC August reading challenge next month and I’m very much looking forward to it! Happy reading everyone!

2020 Monthly Status Update: May

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May was another great reading month for me! I’ve been able to spend a lot of time at home lately and in between working I’ve been loving all the reading time I get. I also participated in a reading challenge in May so that allowed me to really focus more time on reading. Here are some reading highlights from May for me:

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 12
# pages read this month: 4,086
# books read year-to-date: 32
# pages read year-to-date: 10,581

Other Posts this month:

A Royal Kiss and Tell BLOG TOUR!!

LOTS of posts with the Bout of Books 28 reading challenge

Favorite books from this month:

Long Shot by Kennedy Ryan – 4.5 stars (I didn’t read this for the blog but because I heard about it on the Podcasts I listen to and it is SO GOOD but VERY intense so just be prepared to devour it in one sitting and to be emotional)

The Honey-Don’t List by Christina Lauren – 4.25 stars

The Accidental Beauty Queen by Teri Wilson – 4.25 stars

Next Month TBR List:

  • A Woman Alone by Nina Laurin
  • Billionaire Boss, Undercover Affair by Kyra Radcliff

 

And then I’ll be catching up on backlog! And reading a couple things from my own library! I’ll be traveling to a vacation spot this weekend and I’ll spend all week next week in paradise with not much to do other than reading! Which I am very much looking forward to. Happy reading everyone!

ARC August 2019 Reading Challenge Sign Up Post

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Woo Hoo! ARC August is here again, and I can’t wait to dig into some of my backlog and my upcoming releases. I still have wayyyyy too many ARC’s from the past three years that I never got a chance to read, plus I missed the “deadline” for 12 additional ARCs so far in 2019. PLUS I have 6 ARCs scheduled to be read in August. SO you could say I have a lot of reading to accomplish! For those of you that don’t know, ARC August is a month-long reading challenge hosted by Read.Sleep.Repeat. and the only participation requirement is reading ARC’s! I participated in this reading challenge for the last four years (20152016, 2017, and 2018), and every year this reading challenge has been super successful and productive. I hope to continue the productivity with this challenge this year since I have so much to read! I’ll be on a family vacation during the first few days of August and should be able to get a jump start on my reading for the month!

So here is the list I’m going to be working off of for this year’s challenge:

July & August 2019 ARC’s 

-Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson
-The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins
-The Arrangement by Robyn Harding
-A Highlander Walks Into a Bar by Laura Trentham
-The Perfect Wife by JP Delaney
-The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
-The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai
-Outfox by Sandra Brown
-To the Stars and Back by Camilla Isley

I’m hoping to also possibly get to some backlog ARC’s from previous years, but I’m in the midst of a series right now so between that and the ARC’s I might not be able to make it to previous years’ backlogs. I’m looking forward to a lot of the books I have lined up for August though – I can’t wait to get to reading!

2018 Monthly Status Update: August

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Ahhh August was crazy!! SO much going on, between reading challenges, the Fair, vacations, weddings, work, family and friends – I’m amazed I was able to find so much time for reading! I’m hoping to continue this trend for the rest of the year, though Fall is historically one of my busiest work seasons.. Anyways, here are some highlights from August for me:

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 12
# pages read this month: 4,042
# books read year-to-date: 76
# pages read year-to-date: 25,161

Favorite Books I Read this Month:

 

Good Luck With That by Kristan Higgins – 5.0 stars
Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone – 5.0 stars

 

Other Posts this month:

ARC August 2018 – participated in this reading challenge, check out all my posts here!
Bout of Books 23 – participated in this one too! Check out all my posts here!
The Duke of Seduction RELEASE BLITZ!!
The Duke of Seduction RELEASE BLITZ!!
The Duke of Seduction BLOG TOUR!!
The Duke With the Dragon Tattoo BLOG TOUR!!

Next Month TBR List:

Next month I’m excited to actually have some time set aside for books I want to read! Around my birthday, I’ll be spending the middle two weeks reading whatever I want to – I’m not setting a schedule for that since that will be a whatever I want at the moment thing but I can Guarantee you it will include the new Sandra Brown book and at least one Kristan Higgins! But for my ARC’s for September, here is the list of September releases I need to read and review:

-Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren
-One More Moment by Samantha Chase
-Lies by T.M. Logan
-The Exes Revenge by Jo Jakeman
-Intercepted by Alexa Martin
-A Rose in the Highlands by Heather McCollum

ARC August 2018 – Final Update and Wrap Up!

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This ARC August was super successful! I really pushed myself and tried to read as much as possible. It was hard to balance between this, social stuff, a wedding we traveled for, and the Fair, but I still managed to read a lot of great books. Plus I also participated in the Bout of Books 23 challenge during one of the August weeks, which was another great way for me to incentivize myself to read more, not that I really need an excuse. Anyways so here’s where I ended up on the ARC Reading challenge! I made good use of my time in and really put in some extra hours but didn’t get through as many as I had hoped:

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 – Read and reviewed (Week 5)
Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia – Read and reviewed (Week 5)

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 27th – 31st

Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia – 3.75 stars
The Duke With the Dragon Tattoo by Kerrigan Byrne – 4.0 stars

ARC August 2018 Reading Bingo!!

I was super excited to have the Bingo be a part of the fun this year, I really enjoy any time that I get to do a reading bingo. Here is my bingo sheet and how I did with this bingo challenge!

ARC Bingo

So that’s a wrap for this year! I had a great time participating in this challenge again and I hope to participate again next year! Happy reading everyone!

ARC August 2018- Update #4

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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

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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! 

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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 – Sign Up Post

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So for one of my goals this year to help me focus more on reading and having concentrated time for reading, I am participating in all 3 Bout of Books reading challenges / read-a-thons this year! The first one was in early January and I got a good amount of reading done. The next one was in May and between work and personal stuff I didn’t actually get a ton of reading done.

This one though is going to be a doozy. I’m also participating in ARC August this month, plus I have a huge event coming up next weekend, the Terryville Fair, where I’m working up at the Fairgrounds literally the whole weekend sun up to (well after) sun down. Hopefully I can still carve out a little reading time but I’m also going to try and be realistic about this.

For those of you who don’t really know much about Bout of Books, 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 Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 20th and runs through Sunday, August 26th 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 23 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

The Bout of Books Read-a-Thon was created by Amanda @ On a Book Bender on a complete whim in August 2011. It took on a life of its own and was such a hit that Amanda decided to do it again and turn it into a somewhat regular occurrence.

  • Bout of Books is a week long read-a-thon, usually from 12:01am on a Monday through 11:59pm on a Sunday in whatever time zone you are in.
  • It is low pressure, meaning participants are only asked to push themselves to read more than they normally would during any given week. There is no competition between readers.
  • How much time a reader wants, and can commit, to read, tweet, or network with fellow bloggers is left to individual preference. All challenges and giveaways are optional.
  • Networking with fellow bloggers is actively encouraged, though never required.
  • Use Twitter to post updates throughout the read-a-thon. Everyone will be tweeting with the #boutofbooks hashtag.

I’ve been reading pretty close to on schedule lately and I’m hoping to continue that trend over the next week!

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.

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.

Books to Read

List is a little shorter than some of my previous challenges, but I have to be realistic about my time constraints. I would’ve loved to take the whole week off and just read non-stop but work has been consistently busy since just about a year ago. Anyways, I’m really looking forward to this week-long reading challenge devoted to reading ! If you do want to join make sure to add yourself to the page’s Sign Up Post by Tuesday, August 21st at 11:59pm! Happy reading!

ARC August 2018 – Update #3

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What a whirlwind this week has been! Busy week at work, a weekend trip to a wedding in PA with my family and a couple other social dates also, but I was able to make a lot of time for reading still! I’ve been really pushing myself for the reading challenge this month and I’ve been enjoying all the extra reading a lot. And this coming week I’m participating in both ARC August AND Bout of Books, so lots more reading to come! Plus the Fair is coming up this week – so basically I’m planning not to get any sleep this week! 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
-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)

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
-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 13th – 19th

Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone – 5.0 stars
Maybe For You by Nicole McLaughlin – 3.75 stars
Cowboy, Cross My Heart by Donna Grant –  stars

Plan for Upcoming Week

This week is going to be hectic that’s for sure. I’m just going to try and push through and keep at it – I’ve so far been mostly successful at balancing my productivity between work and reading and other. Let’s hope I can keep it up this week!

ARC August 2018 – Update #2

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I was killing it this week! Between getting stuff done at home and at work and also getting my books read, I have been on point and on target! It was a busy work week and this next week is looking busy as well but I’m committed to reading as much as I can this month. 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
-Maybe For You by Nicole McLaughlin
-Cowboy, Cross My Heart by Donna Grant
-The Duke with the Dragon Tattoo
-Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia

Additions

-Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone
-BuzzBooks 2018 Romance Sampler – Read and reviewed (Week 2)

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
-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 6th – 12th

At the Heart of It by Tawna Fenske – 3.0 stars
Our House by Louise Candlish – 3.25 stars
BuzzBooks 2018 Romance – 4.0 stars

Plan for Upcoming Week

This week is going to be super fun! Work will be crazy, as usual, this week. But this coming weekend my husband, parents, and I will be traveling to PA for my cousins wedding. And we couldn’t be more excited for him and his future bride, and to celebrate with my family. We’ll see how much reading I get done, but even if its none it’ll still be a great time. Happy reading everyone!!