Keely’s Comments (group member since Aug 30, 2013)

Keely’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

Day 2 DQs Jess to Jess

5.) This section opens with Jess and Nick meeting which provides more insight into Ben and his relationships with friends. The conversation Nick and Ben had about the apartment rent seemed really odd, why was the rent for that apartment so cheap? And how could Nick really arrange it?
Maybe Nick is helping a friend out... but I feel like maybe something suspicious happened to the previous owner. Or there is something wrong with the apartment that makes it difficult to rent out.

6.) More layers added to the Concierge, she seemed to like Ben because he treated her like a person. Anyone else think he had an angle there and he wasn't just being a decent person? However, she's following Sophie's instructions about Jess and vaguely threatened her. Any thoughts as to why?
I'd like to think he was being nice, but maybe he had alterior motives for being in her good book.

7.) Things are not looking good for Ben, I'm back to pondering the freshly planted flower bed in the courtyard. Any guess at what he's been up to? The blackmail of Sophie?
He seems to have bit off more than he can chew and it seems to have got him into a bit of trouble.

8.) The police station. Do you think Nick told them what Jess think he told them? Or do you think he told them "this is my friend's nutter sister who thinks he's missing when he's off getting laid".?
I don't think Nick told them exactly was Jess to him. He either spun it a bit or told them something else.

DAY 1 QUESTIONS - PROLOGUE - CONCIERGE

1. Lucy Foley has been a very popular author over the last few years starting with The Book of Lost and Found in 2015, this is her sixth book. How many have your read? Have you a favourite? What is it about her writing style that keeps you coming back? And if you are a newbie what are you expecting from The Paris Apartment?
I have not read anything from Lucy Foley before. So far, I like the short chapter style as it makes me read more at a time. I'm not sure what to expect from the book.

2. Ahhh.. Voila. Paris the city of love and light. 💕 How important do you think the apartment's location will be to the story? Have you been to Paris or is it on your travel bucket list? Any memories/stories you want to share.
I have been to Paris a few times. Mostly to Disneyland so I'm not sure that really counts, but I went to actual Paris on a school trip. I would have enjoyed it more if I have some closer friends there, but I remember enjoying it. I would go back again.

3. And now to the prologue. Does is set the scene? What are your initial thoughts of Ben and what is to come? PS Isn't the key so cute with the Paris landmarks on it. I want one!
I'm not sure how I feel about Ben. Honestly, I'm not really liking him that much at the moment.

4. It's a bit of a femme fest with all the main characters at this stage women. Jess, Sophie, Mimi and the mysterious Concierge - all seem to be full of subterfuge and secrets. Compare and contrast these women and what do you think their ongoing role in the novel will be?
They definitely all have their secrets. It's hard to tell at this point, but most of them seem to know more than they are letting on.

Melissa, for Rat King and Soul Surfer we haven't used anything from either. I believe the book read points get taken away if we don't use at least one item.

Well, it looks like we came second to last so we are going to be looking for Tuna for extra points as well as Capers and Anchovies. I'm not sure about the latter two but hopefully Tuna will be easy-ish to find.

The challenge finishes at 10pm for me and I'll be around from now so I can I check every hour or so and work on getting any last letters or words used.

From what I understand, the bonus word thing depends on our ranking for our restaurant name and description so we won't find out what we are looking for for a few more days until they announce the ranking. I may have some of that information wrong though, I haven't looked at that since they announced the voting.

Please use anything you can Alicia.

I've now finished all the books I had listed. I'm going to do my best to finish The Paris Apartment in time, but I'm not that far in.

I've been having a bit of trouble sleeping so I've been doing most of my reading in bed when I should be sleeping which I'm not complaining about as it let me catch up on some books and I have the luxury to nap in the day if I need to.

I managed to use all but 3 letters we had available for the spell-it-outs. If we get anymore, we can probably manage one more meal from letters.

Great, thanks Heather :)

I'll have another play around a bit later. Which reminds me that my boyfriend saw me messing about with the spreadsheet and when I tried to explain it all to him, he called it "homework". But I strangely enjoy doing it so it's not homework for me.

I found a word that would work with many the letters we have left, but we are missing an E to finish it. Anyone think they are going to squeeze in another spell-it-out book?

Also, Melissa, you have a few books with some scavenger words left. If you could list the words, I could help try and make some meals with them if you want. You don't have to list the locations if it is easier, I can let you know what I used after and then you can just go and fill in the blanks.

Okay, I fixed the chocolate milkshake problem. It is now a strawberry milkshake.

Melissa, I may be being blind but I can't see which book you are talking about.

Well spotted Heather, I tried so hard to keep that in mind when I made any drinks/desserts but I guess I got too excited about the idea of making chocolate milkshake that I forgot that one. I'll check later if one of my 500+ page books had chocolate in and mix some stuff around.

We could use some more letters, but scavenger words also wouldn't hurt. If I manage to have time, I'm planning on listening to a shorter audiobook just to get one or more vowels to play with so I can try and use up the letters we have remaining.
I would be tempted to say scavenger words over letters just because it is easier to make things from them, but if you don't think there is enough variety of words then by all means use the letters.

I have nothing planned for the next few days so if any of you are too busy to add meals from what you find in your books, let me know and I can play around with stuff. Might as well do something useful with my time other than reading :p

I have now used up most of the letters we had available, apart from some in one of my books but I am lacking any vowels. We do need an O and a U to finish two of our meals.

I've now used all my scavenger words for my books too. I may be able to squeeze in a short-ish audiobook, but for now I will just focus on finishing my already started books. Now I can read them without having to look for words, hopefully I will finish them quickly. I intend to spend my day reading.

I hope you all had a good weekend!

Oh, Melissa, I went and used the cream from one of my books I will finish but I left shop part blank as I didn't know what sort of coffee you were planning.

I'm not sure I'm going to manage to finish The Paris Apartment in time. I'll do my best but I really need to finish the others first. I did find cream in one of my books and have yet to use all the words for that one so we can use that if needed.

I'll mess about some more now and see what I can come up with.

As far as I'm aware, we can keep adding until the end of the round on the 30th. The only thing that needed to be done by the 23rd was the description of our restaurant.

I just added quite a few more meals. I hope you don't mind that I went ahead and used some of your spell-it-out letters to help fill in the curry I was making.
I'll add some more stuff later. I've still got quite a few letters to get creative with.

256 pages
32 pages
129 pages
224 pages
176 pages
248 pages
160 pages
321 pages
624 pages
320 pages

Current Total: 1,401,167

I haven't been able to check, but I believe Heather added/changed a bit of our blub so I can't take all the credit.

And you reminded me about The Paris Apartment, I totally forgot about it again. I read while waiting for a flight and then on the plane until I felt too tired. I get what you mean about it being a quick read. I think I prefer the short chapter style as it makes me go "just one more" a lot so I actually read more in one go.

I've put something in the box for now. It's not the best and I will not be upset if someone comes up with something way better, but at least we have something in there now. Like I said, I'm not the best at that sort of thing.

I'm not sure if it has been done already but we need to have the area about our restaurant completed by the 23rd.
I'm not very good at that sort of thing but I could try and think of something in my travels tomorrow if needed

That sounds like it was a fun day. Sometimes it's better just to keep things simple and spend a bit more money.

I've done the journey enough now that I know my way around the airports so I could easily run to the next plane if needed, but it shouldn't come to that.
Since that one time where my flight got delayed making me miss the next one, I vowed if it happened again I would just spend the night at the airport or try and get in a nearby hotel. It was way too stressful and by the time I got to my bf's house, it was about 3am when I should have got there about 6pm the previous day.