Tag Archives: books

Bout of Books 23 – Sign Up Post

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

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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

Posted in 2018, ARC August 2018, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

ARC-August

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 #1

Posted in 2018, ARC August 2018, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

ARC-August

Wow this week just flew by! Busy week at work and then this weekend was Goal Day and then spent some time at my aunt and uncle’s house. Luckily Goal Day means a good amount of concentrated reading time! So between that and some late reading nights (I’m cutting into my sleeping time the next few weeks to try and get more done) I actually got a good amount of reading done this week! And this weekend was the ARC August Read-a-thon, I’m glad I got to participate and read a bunch! 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
-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

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 – Started At the Heart of It by Tawna Fenske
-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 1st – 5th

Smothered by Autumn Chiklis – 1.25 stars
Good Luck with That by Kristan Higgins – 5.0 stars

Plan for Upcoming Week

This week is going to be a little nuts. Work has been really busy for me lately, I’ve been working many nights and weekends and that will be the case this coming week also. Even though this week will be busy, I’m sure I’ll find time to read when I can but I’m not going to stress too much about it for now! Happy reading everyone!!

ARC August 2018 Reading Challenge Sign Up

Posted in 2018, ARC August 2018, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

ARC-August

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 25 ARCs from 2016 and 31 from 2017 that I never got a chance to read, plus I missed the “deadline” for 7 additional ARCs so far in 2018. PLUS I have 7 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 three years (2015, 2016, and 2017), 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! Also new this year is a Read-a-thon during the first weekend of the month, which I’m really looking forward to!

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

August 2018 ARC’s

-Good Luck With That by Kristan Higgins
-Our House by Louise Candlish
-Smothered by Autumn Chiklis
-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

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
-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

COVER REVEAL – The Duke of Seduction by Darcy Burke

Posted in Blog tour, For the love of books by

SPBR_COVER REVEAL

The Duke of Seduction, an all-new historical romance from USA Today bestselling author Darcy Burke is coming August 21nd!

Burke, Darcy- The Duke of Seduction (final) (1)

The Duke of Seduction by Darcy Burke
Publishing Date: August 21nd
Genre: Historical Romance
Cover Designer: Seductive Musings
Photographer: Passion Pages Photography

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, he doesn’t expect to feel the sting of Cupid’s bow a second time, and yet he’s able to woo the coldest of hearts with the anonymous words he publishes. As the Duke of Seduction, he uses his skill to help Lavinia, never anticipating she has no desire for assistance. While Lavinia is pursued by several suitors, Beck is the one who is seduced when he learns that love can strike twice…

DUKE OF SEDUCTION_PRE-ORDER

Pre-order your copy today!
Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2ypnYPL
iBooks: https://apple.co/2tptdJo
Amazon Universal: http://mybook.to/TheDukeofSeduction
Nook: https://bit.ly/2tntIDJ
Kobo: https://bit.ly/2tlGsLf

Add to GoodReads: https://bit.ly/2I8mUzh

About Darcy:

Darcy Burke is the USA Today Bestselling Author of sexy, emotional historical and contemporary romance. Darcy wrote her first book at age 11, a happily ever after about a swan addicted to magic and the female swan who loved him, with exceedingly poor illustrations. Join her reader club at http://www.darcyburke.com/readerclub. A native Oregonian, Darcy lives on the edge of wine country with her guitar-strumming husband, their two hilarious kids who seem to have inherited the writing gene, two Bengal cats and a third cat named after a fruit.

740B2310 Darcy

Connect with Darcy:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DarcyBurkeFans
Twitter: https://twitter.com/darcyburke
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/darcy-burke
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5823441.Darcy_Burke
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/darcyburkewrite/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darcyburkeauthor/

Stay up to date with Darcy by joining her Reader Club today:
http://www.darcyburke.com/join-my-reader-club/

Website: http://www.darcyburke.com

 

2018 Book #56 – Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren

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

51voySJEiTLTitle: Love and Other Words
Author: Christina Lauren
Date finished: 7/3/18
Genre: Fiction, women’s fiction, romance
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: April 10, 2018
Pages in book: 433
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
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 story of the heart can never be unwritten.

Macy Sorensen is settling into an ambitious if emotionally tepid routine: work hard as a new pediatrics resident, plan her wedding to an older, financially secure man, keep her head down and heart tucked away.

But when she runs into Elliot Petropoulos—the first and only love of her life—the careful bubble she’s constructed begins to dissolve. Once upon a time, Elliot was Macy’s entire world—growing from her gangly bookish friend into the man who coaxed her heart open again after the loss of her mother…only to break it on the very night he declared his love for her.

Told in alternating timelines between Then and Now, teenage Elliot and Macy grow from friends to much more—spending weekends and lazy summers together in a house outside of San Francisco devouring books, sharing favorite words, and talking through their growing pains and triumphs. As adults, they have become strangers to one another until their chance reunion. Although their memories are obscured by the agony of what happened that night so many years ago, Elliot will come to understand the truth behind Macy’s decade-long silence, and will have to overcome the past and himself to revive her faith in the possibility of an all-consuming love.

My rating:  5.0 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 haven’t read anything by Lauren in the past, but I’ve heard a lot of good things from various other readers so I was excited to give this one a try. This is going to be a hard one for me to write down though, not because I didn’t like it but because there honestly just aren’t enough words to describe how this book made me feel. The emotions and reactions this book invoked from me were powerful and raw. The plot was perfectly captivating, it has been a long time since I’ve read a book that so perfectly captures what that first love feels like. There is joy, but hand in hand with the joy there is also pain, and the situation in this book in particular led to intense heartbreak. Reading the development and intensity of Elliot and Macy’s relationship though was like a testament to true romance. I just couldn’t put it down, I stayed up until one in the morning last night reading it. This book was a roller coaster of emotion that I didn’t want to end. I just can’t say enough, I loved this book and everyone should read it!

Link to author website

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

2018 Status Update: June

Posted in For the love of books by

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June was the best. Well, the later part of the month was anyways. The first weekend was quilting retreat where I did get some good reading done. The following couple weeks I was crazy busy at work so I didn’t get any work done. But then! I went away to my family’s house in Maine for a week and I read non-stop and it was the best! I need to find a way to better balance my work and personal life so that I can fit in more reading time. Anyways, here are some highlights from June for me:

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 12
# pages read this month: 3,818
# books read year-to-date: 54
# pages read year-to-date: 17,668

Favorite Books I Read this Month:

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware – 4.5 stars
The Highlander’s Promise by Lynsay Sands – 4.25 stars

Other Posts this month:

Quilting Retreat 2018
Paperback Release – The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden

Next Month TBR List:

Next month I only have a good number titles scheduled:

-90’s Bitch by Allison Yarrow
-Warrior of Clan Kincaid by Lily Blackwood
-Set the Night on Fire by Laura Trentham

Short list for July but I’m hoping to use the extra time to get through some of the other 2018 scheduled reviews that I’ve missed so far this year.  Hopefully July will be a productive month! Happy reading everyone!

Bout of Books Update – Day 4

Posted in 2018, Bout of Books 22, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

LLnmmXw

Thursday went ok for reading. I had a productive but stressful workday, grabbed some food and drink with a friend and had some relax time, and then got to read once I got home.

Update

Thursday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 1.5 hours
Number of pages I’ve read today: 115 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read: 349 pages
Books read: Continued reading The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll
Challenges: I did not participate in the daily post challenge for Thursday

Almost done with this book! And then I can start the next one, which I’m not super excited about the next one either but its gotta get read! Happy reading everyone!

Bout of Books Update – Day 3

Posted in 2018, Bout of Books 22, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

LLnmmXw

So Tuesday didn’t go great. I had some personal things come up that flowed over into Wednesday also. My reading progress was not awesome but everybody’s gotta deal with crap sometimes so that’s that.

Update

Tuesday & Wednesday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 1.5 hours (been working toooo much)
Number of pages I’ve read today: 127 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read: 234 pages
Books read: Continued reading The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll
Challenges: I did not participate in the daily post challenge for Tuesday or Wednesday

Hopefully things kind of turn around, although I’m getting together with friends the next two nights and then I have a bridal shower and work on Saturday. So we’ll see how the next few days go I guess.Part of my problem is I’m just not loving the book I’m reading right now but I have to get moving because I’m getting really behind. Hope everyone has a happy reading week!

Bout of Books 22 – Sign Up Post

Posted in 2018, Bout of Books 22, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

LLnmmXwSo 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 is coming up next week and while I have a really busy schedule I am looking forward to hopefully getting a lot of reading done next week!

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, May 14th and runs through Sunday, May 20th 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 22 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.

Since I’m so behind in my reading schedule, this will be a great week to devote to reading and catch 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. Saturday I’m working and I have a bridal shower but then Sunday is pretty open so hopefully I can make up for any lost time on Saturday. I usually like to take a day or two off during the May reading challenge but this year I’m not able to because I’m too busy.

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.

Books to Read

Hopefully I’m actually able to get through all (or at least a few) of those, if so I could at least kind of stay on track with May’s reading schedule so far. 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, May 15th at 11:59pm! Happy reading!