Tag Archives: books

2016 Status Update: May

Posted in 2016, Book Riot Read Harder Reading Challenge 2016, Bout of Books 16, For the love of books, Penguin Random House: Challenge Your Shelf A-Z Challenge, Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2016 checklist, Reading Challenges by

update-clipart-update-clipart-7caknz8ni

MAY ROCKED! I got SO much reading done and I was able to participate in some great read-a-thon events, one of which I had never participated in before. May’s TBR list was intimidating but I think I really did a great job of keeping up with the schedule as much as I could. I gave myself a couple nights off to drink too much wine but having so many days off that I could devote to reading I think offset any breaks I took. And I had retreat for the last weekend of the month with pretty much two full days devoted to reading. Retreat was great this year and I loved spending time with my quilting ladies, be sure to check out my post about retreat below!

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 18
# pages read this month: 6,228
# books read year-to-date: 57
# pages read year-to-date: 18,380

Favorite Books I Read:

The California Wife by Kristen Harnisch – 4.75 stars
People Who Knew Me by Kim Hooper – 4.5 stars
The Beast of Clan Kincaid by Lily Blackwood – 4.5 stars
Lana and the Laird by Sabrina York – 4.25 stars

Books I Didn’t Particularly Enjoy: 

51jZGbaKlpL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_51OK+NK3wVL._SX308_BO1,204,203,200_

I didn’t really like Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave (2.75 stars). I just couldn’t really get into the story line on this one and it fell flat for me. I also didn’t particularly like Duke of Sin by Elizabeth Hoyt (3.25 stars) which was a HUGE disappointment for me because I usually LOVE her novels in the Maiden Lane series.

Other Posts this month:

Tall Poppy Book Giveaway
Author Interview!  – Mary Waters-Sayer – Author of the Blue Bath
Bout of Books 16 – Read-a-thon, contests, giveaways, and more!!
Bout of Books 16 Update – Day 1
Bout of Books 16 Update – Day 2
Bout of Books 16 Update – Day 3
Bout of Books 16 Day 4 – If You Like This, Try This
Bout of Books 16 Update – Day 4
Bout of Books 16 Update – Day 5
Bout of Books 16 Update – Day 6
Bout of Books 16 Update Day 7 & WRAP UP
Reading Retreat! 2016
Reading Retreat Read-a-thon Wrap up!

Status of 2016 Reading Challenges:

PopSugar Reading Challenge 2016 Checklist – 17/20 books read
Book Riot Read Harder Reading Challenge – 3/24 books read
Penguin Random House: Challenge Your Shelf A-Z Reading Challenge – 0/26 books read

June TBR list: 

-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)
-Nobody But You by Jill Shalvis (The Reading Room)(rolled from May TBR – I haven’t received from the publisher yet!)
-I Take You by Eliza Kennedy (LibraryThing)(rolled from May TBR – I haven’t received from the publisher yet!)
-How the Duke Was Won by Lenora Bell (The Reading Room)(rolled from May TBR – didn’t get to)
-Frayed by Kara Terzis (NetGalley)(rolled from May TBR – didn’t get to)
-Quarter Life Poetry by Samantha Jayne (NetGallley)
-Anything For Her by Jack Jordan (NetGalley)
-The Girls in the Garden by Lisa Jewell (NetGalley)
-The Girl Who Came Back by Susan Lewis (NetGalley)
-The Creswell Plot by Eliza Wass (NetGalley)
-The Wedding Sisters by Jamie Brenner (NetGalley)
-I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid (NetGalley)
-The Girls by Emma Cline (NetGalley)
-If You Left by Ashley Prentice Norton (NetGalley)
-The Vintner’s Daughter by Kristen Harnisch (own – for Fiction Lover’s Book Discussion)
-Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler (NetGalley)
-Beauty and the Highland Beast by Lecia Cornwall (NetGalley)
-Thirty Days to Thirty by Courtney Peak (NetGalley)
-First Comes Love by Emily Giffin (NetGalley)
-All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda (NetGalley)
-The Killing Game by Nancy Bush (NetGalley)
-Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner (NetGalley)
-Stormswept by Sabrina Jeffries (NetGalley)
-Once a Soldier by Mary Jo Putney (NetGalley)

So that is the plan for June. Similar to my May TBR, June seems daunting with the amount of books I have on the list. I feel pretty confident in how well I did on the May list though, so I think June will (hopefully) be a successful month as well!

Happy reading everyone!

2016 Book #52 – Wicked Whispers by Tina Donahue

Posted in Book reviews by

61AEh1qCkUL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_Title: Wicked Whispers
Author: Tina Donahue
Date finished: 5/25/16
Genre: Erotic historical
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Publication Date: May 24, 2016
Pages in book: 222
Stand alone or series: #2 in the Dangerous Desires 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:

Follow the heart through darkness . . .
As the Inquisition gains force, even the faintest rumor can brand one a heretic. In this world it is Sancha’s gift–or curse–to be blessed with the gift of healing. But the villagers are in need of her arts more than ever, and she feels it is her duty to help them at the risk of losing her life. And at the sacrifice of her heart . . .
Enrique has never wanted a woman as he does Sancha. Determined to have her love, he woos her with exquisite passion, giving her refuge to pursue her healing in secret. But their very desire and escape from the ruthless forces of the world may be their undoing. And together, they must pit themselves against a jealous rival and archaic tradition to secure their place in a hopeful new dawn . . .

My rating:  3.0 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 was invited to read this title through NetGalley and though I don’t usually read novels in this particular genre I decided to give it a try. This book was set in the late 1480’s in Andalusia, Spain. This book is the second in a series by this author, the series so far has featured two sisters from the same family. This book is about Sancha Lopez de Lara, sister to Isabella who was featured in the first book. Sancha is a healer and spends much of her time studying medical journals, which was actually quite dangerous during that time period due to the Inquisition. Regardless of the danger, she spent her time helping those less fortunate, that is until she meets Enrique. She feels an attraction to Enrique unlike anything she’s ever felt before, but he wants her to give up her healing practice to make sure that she’ll stay safe. While she loves Enrique, this isn’t something she wants to consider as she feels an obligation to use her knowledge to help those in need, no matter the cost of herself. When Sancha’s life is threatened by rumors though, Enrique will do whatever it takes to protect her.
Overall I liked this book more than I expected to. I don’t usually read erotic novels because, well, I’m kind of a prude I guess. And there’s a generalization that novels in this genre have no plot line, are just about sex, and for the most part are not meant for recreational reading but for something a little more… involved. To go on a little rant, that’s always been one of the things that frustrated me most in people’s assumptions about romance novels. I think a lot of people confuse romance novels with erotic novels, because they think people are reading romance novels for the sex scenes. No everyone is different but honestly there aren’t usually an overwhelming amount of sex scenes in romance novels. There are a couple (maybe) but the main point of romance novels isn’t sex its emotions, like love. The point of erotic novels is (for the most part) sex. The plot line tends to focus around the main characters’ lust. And while this book did focus a lot on sex, there was an actual plot line and it turned out to be quite interesting. I did find some of the conversations and scenes to be somewhat awkward or they felt forced, but the drama in the last few pages was interesting and felt real. I love revenge plots so the ending of this book really grabbed me. This isn’t the type of book that I would normally pick out for myself to read, but it turned out to be an ok read. There was a lot of commentary about women being obedient to man, which didn’t particularly appeal to me but it was fitting for the time. This isn’t really a genre that usually appeals to me but if you like books in this genre or even if you like historical romances with steamy sex scenes, this book would be a good read for you!

The bottom line: This book wasn’t really one that I would have picked on my own. It had a solid plot line and was ok but probably isn’t something I would read again. If you like erotic novels or even historical romance, this book may interest you. Also if you like a hero that lived during a time when a woman was supposed to be super obedient then this book may interest you.

Link to author website

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

Reading Retreat! 2016

Posted in For the love of books by

20140601_091101

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!

2016 Book #51 – People Who Knew Me by Kim Hooper

Posted in Book reviews, Fiction, Women's fiction by

51XE0ajiVKL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_Title: People Who Knew Me
Author: Kim Hooper
Date finished: 5/24/16
Genre: Fiction, women’s fiction
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication Date: May 24, 2016
Pages in book: 294
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: The Reading Room NOTE: I received this book for free from The Reading Room 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:

Everything was fine fourteen years after she left New York.
Until suddenly, one day, it wasn’t.
Emily Morris got her happily-ever-after earlier than most. Married at a young age to a man she loved passionately, she was building the life she always wanted. But when enormous stress threatened her marriage, Emily made some rash decisions. That’s when she fell in love with someone else. That’s when she got pregnant.
Resolved to tell her husband of the affair and to leave him for the father of her child, Emily’s plans are thwarted when the world is suddenly split open on 9/11. It’s amid terrible tragedy that she finds her freedom, as she leaves New York City to start a new life. It’s not easy, but Emily—now Connie Prynne―forges a new happily-ever-after in California. But when a life-threatening diagnosis upends her life, she is forced to rethink her life for the good of her thirteen-year-old daughter.
A riveting debut in which a woman must confront her own past in order to secure the future of her daughter, Kim Hooper’s People Who Knew Me asks: “What would you do?”

My rating: 4.5 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. Reading the description of this book I was intrigued, and while not dying to read this book at first, I definitely wanted to know more. This book hooks you right from page one though and sucks you in for the rest of the story, only spitting you out at the end feeling lost and a little heart-broken. I couldn’t put this book down, the story line really progresses masterfully by alternating between the past and the present, consistently only giving the reader enough of a glimpse so that you’re dying to learn the rest of what happened. This book was about Emily Morris, who disappeared from New York a week after the tragedy of 9/11 without telling any of her family or even her husband that she was still alive. As a reader, when I first heard that she had done this I was appalled. How could she abandon her life and her loved ones without a word? What about the pain she was causing them? These are questions, I have to be honest, I struggled with through most of the book. As we learn more about Emily/Connie’s background, there is a certain understanding of why she took the path she did, but it is still heart-breaking. When Emily/Connie learns that she has cancer though, she has to start thinking about where her thirteen year old daughter Claire would go if she died. And with these thoughts come the realization that she must tell her daughter Claire the truth about her past and Claire’s parentage.
Overall I liked this book a lot. Like I said, I couldn’t put it down and I was hooked on the story from the very beginning. Some of the subject matter was tough for me since I could not at all imagine myself doing what Emily/Connie did. At the same time though, put in that extreme situation I couldn’t help but wonder, who can say what I would actually do? Emily had to deal with way too much stress on her young marriage and its no wonder that her unhappiness from that situation manifested in such an extreme way and that she walked away without looking back. That is one of the things that I ended up really liking about this book: even though some of the decisions that Emily/Connie made really turned my stomach, I couldn’t help but really think about what I would have done put in the same situation. It is easy to say I would be noble and honest when I’m not faced with making that choice and dealing with the consequences of that choice. But it is hard not to wonder if I might end up taking the easy way out. Who can say what any one of us would have done in Emily’s shoes.

The bottom line: This book had a couple of great plot twists included and even beyond the excitement of those I just couldn’t put this book down. It was like when you’re watching a video of a car crash and you know the crash is coming but you want to see really just how much the car caught on fire in the end. This book was heart-wrenching, scandalous and for me was really thought provoking psychologically. I would say this one is a must-read for this summer!

Link to author website

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

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 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!