ARC August 2016 – Check in #2 – 8/7-8/12

Woot! 2 weeks in and… not enough books read! Fortunately for me I am spending the next week UNPLUGGED from life where I will hopefully get some reading done. I am heading up to Maine with my Dad, Uncle and Cousin for some R&R with no electricity, internet, or cell service. Which is why I’m technically writing this post a little early. Since I’m posting a day or so early, I’m only covering the books that I read through this Friday, and then I’ll get caught up next weekend when I return from the island wilderness. So anyways, I was able to actually get some reading done during week two, here we go!

My Progress:

I didn’t really have an exact plan for what I would read but I will go off the original list posted and just disclose any variations from said original list:

-The Secret Ingredient of Wishes by Susan Elizabeth Crispell – Read and reviewed
-Results May Vary by Bethany Chase – Read and reviewed
-Sting by Sandra Brown
-The Form of Things Unknown by Robin Bridges
-Quarter Life Poetry by Samantha Jayne
-Behave by Andromeda Romano-Lax
-Thirty Days to Thirty by Courtney Psak
-All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda
-Dear Amy by Helen Callaghan
-The Killing Game by Nancy Bush
-Luck, Love, and Lemon Pie by Amy E. Reichert
-The Singles Game by Lauren Weisberger
-If You Left by Ashley Prentice Norton
-All Is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker
-To Have and To Hold by Laura McHugh
-The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood
-My Husband’s Son by Deborah O’Connor
-First Comes Love by Emily Giffin
-Stormswept by Sabrina Jeffries
-Once a Soldier by Mary Jo Putney
Additions to original list:
-I’ve Got Sand In All the Wrong Places by Lisa Scottline and Francesca Serritella
-The 24-Hour Wine Expert by Jancis Robinson
-Butter and Scotch by Allison Kave and Keavy Landreth

Books Read August 7th-12th

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The Secret Ingredient of Wishes by Susan Bishop Crispell – 4.25 stars

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Results May Vary by Bethany Chase – 4.75 stars

Plan for Upcoming Week

My plan is to read a TON! I’m currently reading The Rosie Project for my book club book (at about page 50 as of 8pm Friday), which won’t count for this challenge, and then I need to finish up I’ve Got Sand In All The Wrong Places, which I started last month. Then it will be a free for all, whatever I want to read I will!! PS Most definitely starting with Sting by Sandra Brown, I CAN NOT wait to read her new release!

1Aug2016

2016 Monthly Status Update: July

Posted in 2016, ARC August 2016, Book Riot Read Harder Reading Challenge 2016, For the love of books, Penguin Random House: Challenge Your Shelf A-Z Challenge, Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2016 checklist, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

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July was a crazy busy month. I feel like I’m barely keeping up this month just with work and house stuff so there has been pretty much no time for reading. I’ve been trying to keep up with deadlines but I’ve fallen WAY behind. Luckily I am participating in ARC August again this year so I can use this month to hopefully catch up a bit! Anyways, here’s my progress for July.

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 7
# pages read this month: 1,763
# books read year-to-date: 71
# pages read year-to-date: 22,253

Favorite Books I Read:

How The Duke Was Won by Lenora Bell – 4.0 stars
The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel – 4.0 stars

Books I Didn’t Particularly Enjoy:

I didn’t really have any books in July that I didn’t enjoy. I had books that didn’t exactly thrill me but I still found them enjoyable for the most part.

Status of 2016 Reading Challenges:

PopSugar Reading Challenge 2016 Checklist – 18/20 books read
Book Riot Read Harder Reading Challenge – 7/24 books read
Penguin Random House: Challenge Your Shelf A-Z Reading Challenge – 0/26 books read

August TBR list:

I have a rough TBR list on my ARC August Sign Up post that I’ll be working off of but other than that I don’t have a set TBR list for this month. My focus is more to get as many of the ARC’s on my back list read as I possibly can. I hate that I fell so behind and I’m hoping I can use August to catch up. I might end up straying off the list a little anyways depending on which new ARC’s pop up on my schedule. I’m very excited too for August since mid-month I’ll be going on vacation with my Dad to a house owned by his family off the southern coast of Maine. There is no electricity on the island and no wi-fi and very little cell signal. I can’t wait to unplug for a week and just read and relax and spend time with my family! Hope you all have a wonderful month as well!

16May2016

Bout of Books 16 Update Day 7 & WRAP UP

Posted in 2016, Bout of Books 16, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

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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

~~Finish Wilde Lake by Laura Lippman~~ – See the review here
~~Read Kill or Be Kilt by Victoria Roberts~~ – See the review here
~~Read Every Bride Has Her Day by Lynnette Austin~~ – See the review here
~~Read Troublemaker by Linda Howard~~ – See the review here
Read The California Wife by Kristen Harnisch – didn’t get to this one
Read Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn – didn’t get to this one
Read Quarter Life Poetry by Samantha Jayne – didn’t get to this one
Read Tell The Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt – read half of this one
Read People Who Knew Me by Kim Hooper – didn’t get to this one

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!

2May2016

2016 Status Update: April

Posted in 2016, Book Riot Read Harder Reading Challenge 2016, For the love of books, Penguin Random House: Challenge Your Shelf A-Z Challenge, Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2016 checklist, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

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Well April was definitely a more productive month for me. Between tax season drawing to a close of my sleep budget being re-instated I was able to get a lot of reading done in the beginning and middle of the month. Unfortunately, even though I had the last week of the month off I was doing so much other fun stuff that I got almost no reading done. Still was a good month though!

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 12
# pages read this month: 3,832
# books read year-to-date: 39
# pages read year-to-date: 12,152

May TBR list:

-Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn (The Reading Room) (rolled from April TBR – didn’t get to)
-Lake of Dreams by Linda Howard (NetGalley) (rolled from April TBR – didn’t get to)
-Behave by Andromeda Romano-Lax (NetGalley) (rolled from April TBR – didn’t get to)
-The Good Kind of Bad by Rita Brassington (NetGalley) (rolled from April TBR – didn’t get to)
-The Blue Bath by Mary Waters-Sayer (NetGalley)
-Kill or Be Kilt by Victoria Roberts (NetGalley)
-Every Bride Has Her Day by Lynnette Austin (NetGalley)
-Wilde Lake by Laura Lippman (Edelweiss)
-Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave (NetGalley)
-The California Wife by Kristen Harnisch (Author)
-Troublemaker by Linda Howard (Edelweiss)
-Nobody But You by Jill Shalvis (The Reading Room)
-Tell The Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka (Fiction Lover’s Book Club)
-People Who Knew Me by Kim Hooper (The Reading Room)
-Wicked Whispers by Tina Donohue (NetGalley)
-I Take You by Eliza Kennedy (The Reading Room)
-How the Duke Was Won by Lenora Bell (The Reading Room)
-Sweetest Scoundrel by Elizabeth Hoyt (purchased – need to read so can read next in series)
-Duke of Sin by Elizabeth Hoyt (NetGalley)
-The Beast of Clan Kincaid by Lily Blackwood (NetGalley)
-Lana and the Laird by Sabrina York (NetGalley)
-His Wicked Wish by Olivia Drake (NetGalley)
-Frayed by Kara Terzis (NetGalley)

I’m just not even going to think about how daunting this list is. I’m just gonna read and hope for the best this month! I do have 3 days off during the second week in May because I am participating in the upcoming Bout of Books reading challenge Bout of Books reading challenge and I am looking forward to having some days devoted to reading!

Happy reading everyone!

2Mar2016

Bookish Bingo: Holiday 2015 Reading Challenge – Recap

Posted in 2015, Bookish Bingo Holiday 2015, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

The last few months literally flew by. I definitely wasn’t able to focus as much on this challenge as I might have liked to but hey, life gets in the way. I had done another of the Bookish Bingo reading challenges during January-March 2015 and had such a blast that I wanted to do it again. Unfortunately this time around I was trying to make my already scheduled ARC’s fit into the necessary categories instead of picking books specifically for the reason that they fit into the categories, I think this is where I went wrong.

Anyways, Bookish Bingo is hosted by Pretty Deadly Reviews and there is already a Spring 2016 card up so if this interests you definitely go sign up! Its lots of fun! And here was my original post when I signed up for the Holiday 2015 bingo. Below is my filled out Bingo card and a list of all the books I read for this challenge!

Capture

Romance – A Match For Marcus Cynster by Stephanie Laurens
Multi POV – Tiny Little Thing by Beatriz Williams
Fantasy – Before the Claiming by Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia
2015 Realease You Missed – Too Close to Home by Susan Lewis
Time Travel – Return of the Witch by Paula Brackston
Free Space – The Restaurant Critic’s Wife by Elizabeth LaBan
Thriller – The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
One-Word Title – Nookietown by V.C. Chickering
White Cover – The Things We Keep by Sally Hepworth
Retelling – Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire
2016 Debut – Try Not to Breathe by Holly Seddon
Start a New Series – Down the Wormhole by Ana Franco
Blue Cover – In Real Life by Jessica Love

15Dec2015

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Best Books I Read in 2015

Posted in Book memes, For the love of books, Top Ten Tuesday by rebeccabook17

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Top Ten Tuesday is a book meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every Tuesday there is a different bookish topic and bloggers are asked to post their own top ten list based on the topic. This week is a listing of the Top Ten Best Books I Read in 2015. This one was definitely a hard one for me to narrow down since I read so many good books in 2015 (so far!).

10. The Light of Hidden Flowers by Jennifer Handford

9. Sisters of Versailles by Sally Christie

8. The Wonder of All Things by Jason Mott

7. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

6. The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman

5. When The Moon Is Low by Nadia Hashimi

4. The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson

3. I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios

2. The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

1. The Vintner’s Daughter by Kristen Harnisch

Since it really was just so tough for me to decide, I wanted to add in just a few honroable mention / runner ups. These books didn’t make it into my top ten but they were so close that I really think they deserve a shout out. And to be fair I’ve already read 120 books this year so these books still (pretty much) made it into my top 10%!

3. Imaginary Things by Andrea Lochen

2. Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

1. Something Borrowed / Something Blue by Emily Giffin

So those were my favorite books that I’ve read in 2015 (so far). What about all of you? What good books have you read this past year?

8Aug2015

ARC August – Check in #1 – 8/8

Posted in 2015, ARC August, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Woo hoo! One week down! ARC August, which is hosted by Read.Sleep.Repeat is a reading challenge that centers around catching up on reading your ARC’s! And I definitely needed the encouragement this month since I have a long list of them to get done.

My progress:

1. Awake by Natasha Preston – Read & reviewed
2. On The Way: A Working Woman’s Field Guide by Robin Lake – Read & reviewed
3. The Guilty One by Sophie Littlefield – Read & reviewed
4. Who Do You Love by Jennifer Weiner – Read & reviewed
5. Imaginary Things by Andrea Lochen – Up next!
6. Steele Resolve by Kimberly Amato
7. Melting Steele by Kimberly Amato
8. 33 Cecils by Everett DeMorier
9. Friction by Sandra Brown
10. We Never Asked For Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
11. A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan
12. Goddess of Suburbia by Stephanie Kepke

Books read August 1st-7th:

Awake by Natasha Preston – 3.25 stars – Also stay tuned for an interview with this author soon to be posted (hopefully)

One the Way by Robin Lake – 4.0 stars

The Guilty One by Sophie Littlefield – 4.0 stars

Who Do You Love by Jennifer Weiner – 3.75 stars

So! That’s where I ended up this week. Make sure to check in early next week, I’ll be posting an author interview with Andrea Lochen, author of Imaginary Things. Happy reading!

31Mar2015

Bookish Bingo reading challenge – Wrap up

Posted in 2015, Bookish Bingo: Jan-March 2015, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Well this wasn’t the neatest arrangement (below) but I am still learning! So above is my bingo card, completed as much as possible. I’m really pleased with how well I did! I think that if the contest hadn’t been during tax season I would have had a very good chance of completing the whole card! I was able to check off all but five of the squares. Below is each of the books I read, which square they checked off, and if you click on the cover it will bring you to my review on the book. I had a lot of fun with this reading challenge, and I would definitely like to play a game of book bingo again. The three month reading challenge is a little tougher for me since there are so many other challenges and goals I’m trying to reach this year that I decided to set aside to work on the bingo challenge for this quarter. Definitely a lot of fun though and I tried a lot of books I probably never would have read otherwise. There are many different sites that have some form of book bingo, and I would definitely encourage everyone to try it!