Tag Archives: read-a-thon

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!

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!

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!

2016 Book #47 – Troublemaker by Linda Howard

Posted in 2016, Book reviews, Bout of Books 16, Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2016 checklist, Reading Challenges, Romantic suspense by

51nHA6Z+dQL._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_Title: Troublemaker
Author: Linda Howard
Date finished: 5/14/16
Genre: Romantic suspense
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: May 10, 2016
Pages in book: 400
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: Edelweiss NOTE: I received this book for free from Edelweiss 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:

For Morgan Yancy, an operative and team leader in a paramilitary group, nothing comes before his job. But when he’s ambushed and almost killed, his supervisor is determined to find out who’s after the members of his elite squad—and why. Due to worries that this unknown enemy will strike again, Morgan is sent to a remote location and told to lay low and stay vigilant. But between a tempting housemate he’s determined to protect and a deadly threat waiting in the shadows, keeping under the radar is proving to be his most dangerous mission yet.
The part-time police chief of a small West Virginian mountain town, Isabeau “Bo” Maran finally has her life figured out. She’s got friends, a dog, and a little money in the bank. Then Morgan Yancy shows up on her doorstep. Bo doesn’t need a mysterious man in her life—especially a troublemaker as enticing and secretive as Morgan.
The harder they fight the intense heat between them, the closer Morgan and Bo become, even though she knows he’s hiding from something. But discovering the truth could cost Bo more than she’s willing to give. And when Morgan’s cover is blown, it might just cost her life.

My rating: 4.25 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. This is my fourth book that I’ve finished during the Bout of Books 16 read-a-thon and was the fourth one on my goals list. Also, this book will count towards my “PopSugar 2016 Checklist” reading challenge, marking off the “a book that’s guaranteed to bring you joy.” Linda Howard is one of my all-time favorite authors and this is the first book she’s published in a while so I knew I was going to to love it and since it was by my favorite author, that it would bring me joy. This book is about Isabeau “Bo” Maran, who is the chief of police in a very small town in West Virginia.She is surprised when she arrives home one day to discover a recently wounded man waiting in her driveway, Morgan Yancy. Bo’s jerk of a stepbrother, Axel, decided the best place to hide his best operative (Morgan) was in the middle of nowhere, which just happens to be where Bo lives. Bo is not exactly excited about having a house guest but she feels too bad for Morgan in his extremely weak state to send him away. So she lets him stay and recuperate at her house with her and her dog, Tricks.
Overall I really liked this book a lot! I haven’t seen anything new from this author in the last couple years so I was screaming like a fan girl when I found out about this release. They say that Linda Howard is the master of romantic suspense and I think that title still holds true. I was engrossed in this book and didn’t want to put it down. While it was suspenseful, it was also so very sweet. Bo’s small town is so welcoming to Morgan and so loving and supportive to Bo. There were a lot of really touching moments. Tricks was honestly one of the coolest pieces of the book, she was Bo’s dog and was a very interesting character. Bo and Morgan were great characters to get to know better and had great chemistry and tension in the book. I am so very glad that Linda Howard published a new book this year!

The bottom line: I am a huge fan of Linda Howard, she is probably one of my all-time favorite authors. This book was suspenseful and thrilling, I didn’t want to put it down. I would definitely recommend!

Link to author website

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

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 Update – Day 1

Posted in 2016, Bout of Books 16, Reading Challenges by

q5ighFP

So! This read-a-thon started out slightly slow for me yesterday. I did met my goal of reading 2 hours but I only ended up reading 85 pages. Today so far is going MUCH better but that is information for tomorrow’s update! So my Monday’s progress is below:

Updates

Monday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 85
Total number of pages I’ve read: 85
Books read: Still working on Wilde Lake as of last night,so no books finished yet
Challenges: I did the introduce yourself in six words challenge for Monday, posted it on Twitter here

Stay tuned for much better progress made in tomorrow’s post on my Tuesday update!!

Bout of Books 16 – READ-a-thon, contests, giveaways, and more!!

Posted in Bout of Books 16, For the love of books by
Bout of Books

So over the past year I’ve periodically seen fellow bloggers participating in something called “Bout of Books” and reading their posts it has always seemed interesting/fun to me. So I decided to sign up for this coming one! I am excited to try it, though I’m still not 100% sure how it works. I do know that I’m supposed to read, which works out well for me since that is one of my favorite things to do! 

For those of you who don’t really know much about Bout of Books (including me), 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 @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 9th and runs through Sunday, May 15th 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 16 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

All in all it sounds like a great time to me! It isn’t required but I am nothing if not goal-oriented so I’ve decided to set some goals for the week. And luckily this time of year is pretty much my only slightly-slow season so I was able to take a couple days off to devote entirely to reading!! If you’d like to participate and would like to post goals (optional) they have a nifty template/help page that you can find here. Below are my TBR/Other goals for the week: 

Time Devoted to Reading

I plan to read at least 2 hours each day, with additional hours on the 2/3 days I am home during the week. Also the Saturday during Bout of Books is Goal Day for me so I can read all day (approx. 8 hours). 

My Goals

My goals for this read-a-thon are pretty much to learn the ropes. I’d like to participate in as much as I can: the daily posts plus reading every day plus whatever else there is (if there is anything else?). 

Books to Read

 

SO! That is Bout of Books and that is my plan! I am really looking forward to participating, it lined up perfectly with my busiest ARC month to date so I am really appreciative of the extra encouraged reading time!!! Hope you guys check it out and join up! If you do want to join make sure to add yourself to the page’s Sign Up Post by Tuesday, May 10th at 11:59pm! Happy reading!