Melanie’s Comments (group member since Sep 01, 2014)

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

Sorry I haven't popped in much this week during all the planning, I've been sick most of this week and have pretty much only come on GR to mark the books I've finished. Thankfully I'm starting to feel better though just in time for the challenge to start.

I have 2 books I'm currently reading that I'm hoping to finish tonight which will clear my CR shelf before the challenge starts.

Set on a mountain.



A high-altitude thriller that will take your breath away—Cecily Wong is on her most dangerous climb yet, miles above sea level. But the elements are nothing compared to one chilling truth: There's a killer on the mountain.

Journalist Cecily Wong is in over her head. She's come to Manaslu, the eighth-highest peak in the world, to interview internationally famous mountaineer Charles McVeigh on the last leg of a record-breaking series of summits. She's given up everything for this story—her boyfriend, her life savings, the peace she's made with her climbing failures in the past—but it's a career-making opportunity. It could finally put her life back on track.

But when one climber dies in what everyone else assumes is a freak accident, she fears their expedition is in danger. And by the time a second climber dies, it's too late to turn back. Stranded on a mountain in one of the most remote regions of the world, she'll have to battle more than the elements in a harrowing fight for survival against a killer who is picking them off one by one.

Two women haunted by their sisters' unsolved disappearances band together in this captivating mystery from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of All Good People Here and host of the #1 true crime podcast Crime Junkie.

Nicole “Nic” Monroe is in a rut. At twenty-four, she lives alone in a dinky apartment in her hometown of Mishawaka, Indiana, she’s just gotten a DWI, and she works the same dead-end job she’s been working since high school, a job she only has because her boss is a family friend and feels sorry for her. Everyone has felt sorry for her for the last seven years—since the day her older sister, Kasey, vanished without a trace.

On the night Kasey went missing, her car was found over a hundred miles from home. The driver’s door was open and her purse was untouched in the seat next to it. The only real clue in her disappearance was Jules Connor, another young woman from the same area who disappeared in the same way, two weeks earlier. But with so little for the police to go on, both their cases eventually went cold.

Nic wants nothing more than to move on—from her sister’s disappearance and the state it’s left her in. But then one day, Jules’s sister, Jenna Connor, walks into her life and offers Nic something she hasn’t felt in a long hope. What follows is a gripping tale of two sisters who will do anything to find their missing halves, even if it means destroying everything they’ve ever known.

I've tried reading Emily Henry before and don't like her books/writing style so I'm going to skip that one. But my library has The Berry Pickers so I've put a hold on that one. I'm 10th in line but there are 7 copies so I feel like it should come in by the time the buddy read comes around.

I also added nominations for the July BOMs.

Hi all, I recognize a lot of you from various challenges.

I'm Melanie and I live in New Jersey (right across the river from Philadelphia) with my husband and our two cats (Marty and Sasha). I've worked in the finance department at a book publisher for the last 13 years.

I primarily read romance (historical, suspense, contemporary, paranormal) and mystery thrillers with the occasional cozy mystery, urban fantasy, or sci-fi. I mostly read just adult but I'll occasionally pick up a YA mystery. I'll pick up almost anything for a challenge though even if it's outside my usual genres. I have a pretty big personal library as well as access to my county library, Everand, and Kindle Unlimited so I can usually find something that fits a task that I want to read.

I'll take a look at the countries list and see if I have anything on my shelves that will fit or if I'll need to do more digging.

Lauri wrote: "Karen ⊰✿ wrote: "I'll take your wine (and also your cheese) 😊🧀🍷
Although on my recent trip to the Hunter Valley I was told you shouldn't have white wine with cheese, and Muscat actually goes very w..."

I will join you for that Coke with the cheese instead of wine since I'm also not a wine person.

Working to clear out that backlog.

Start of month:
Books on shelf: 92
Feedback Ratio: 82%

Books already read that need to be reviewed:


Books (already published):


Books (not yet published):


Added:

Finished/Reviewed:

End of Month:
Books on shelf:
Feedback Ratio:

Curse you line of shame! I'll need to get to 6 books this month from my list to get back on track.

Blood Sisters by Vanessa Lillie

A visceral and compelling mystery about a Cherokee archeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs who is summoned to rural Oklahoma to investigate the disappearance of two women…one of them her sister.

There are secrets in the land.

As an archeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Syd Walker spends her days in Rhode Island trying to protect the land's indigenous past, even as she’s escaping her own.

While Syd is dedicated to her job, she’s haunted by a night of violence she barely escaped in her Oklahoma hometown fifteen years ago. Though she swore she’d never go back, the past comes calling.

When a skull is found near the crime scene of her youth, just as her sister, Emma Lou, vanishes, Syd knows she must return home. She refuses to let her sister's disappearance, or the remains, go ignored—as so often happens in cases of missing Native women.

But not everyone is glad to have Syd home, and she can feel the crosshairs on her. Still, the deeper Syd digs, the more she uncovers about a string of missing indigenous women cases going back decades. To save her sister, she must expose a darkness in the town that no one wants to face—not even Syd.

The truth will be unearthed.

Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 by Lisa Unger

An extreme game of hide-and-seek turns deadly in this riveting new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger

When the real game begins, who will make it to the count of 10?

Charismatic daredevil and extreme adventurer Maverick Dillan invites you to the ultimate game of hide-and-seek. But as the players gather on Falcao Island, the event quickly spirals into a chilling test of survival. A storm rages as a deadly threat stalks the contestants, turning the challenge into something far more sinister than the social media stunt it was intended to be.

Enter Adele, a single mother with a fierce determination to protect her children at all costs. When she begins the game, she unwittingly enters a twisted web of deception and intrigue. Can she maneuver through the treacherous storm and the relentless competition and get home to her family? In a ruthless battle for survival where the stakes are higher than ever, the blurry line between the virtual and the real proves that the only person we can trust is ourselves.

So excited for this challenge to come back!

Working to clear out that backlog.

Start of month:
Books on shelf: 91
Feedback Ratio: 82%

Books already read that need to be reviewed:


Books (already published):


Books (not yet published):


Added:


Finished/Reviewed:

End of Month:
Books on shelf: 92
Feedback Ratio: 82%

Working to clear out that backlog.

Start of month:
Books on shelf: 90
Feedback Ratio: 82%

Books already read that need to be reviewed:


Books (already published):


Books (not yet published):


Added:


Finished/Reviewed:


1. Track Her Down | https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
2. The Next Grave | https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
3. We Were Warned | https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
4. Good Duke Gone Wild | https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

End of Month:
Books on shelf: 91
Feedback Ratio: 82%

Working to clear out that backlog.

Start of month:
Books on shelf: 91
Feedback Ratio: 82%

Books already read that need to be reviewed:


Books (already published):


Books (not yet published):


Added:


Finished/Reviewed:


1. The Vet's Shelter Surprise | https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
2. Hidden Bones | https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

End of Month:
Books on shelf: 90
Feedback Ratio: 82%

Keli wrote: "Ugh, Goodreads. I've got "notify me when people comment" ticked, but zero notifications."

Just wanted to let you know a way to potentially fix this as I was having this issue recently and someone let me know how to fix it.

If you look at your profile it says "last active in October 2024" which is obviously wrong since you just posted.

So if you log out of your account and then log back in, it will fix that last activity error and you should start getting notifications again.

I definitely failed this challenge this year (currently sitting at 23/50) but overall for the year I'll hit 295 books read assuming I finish the 3 I'm currently reading which I should. So I'm still happy with my reading for the year but next year I do want to try and clear out the older stuff in this challenge.

Working to clear out that backlog.

Start of month:
Books on shelf: 92
Feedback Ratio: 81%

Books already read that need to be reviewed:


Books (already published):


Books (not yet published):


Added:


Finished/Reviewed:


1. You Can Run | https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
2. No Place Left to Hide | https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
3. Love Letters by the Sea | https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

End of Month:
Books on shelf: 91
Feedback Ratio: 82%

2025 TBR Tackler

Duration: January 1, 2025 – December 31, 2025
Level: No Suspension – 27+ books

Completed: 0/27 books

#315 - Never Met a Duke Like You by Amalie Howard
#046 - The Thin Edge by Peggy Townsend
#334 - Her Last Whisper by Jennifer Chase
#250 - Drinking Deep by Dylann Crush
#204 - Love Letters by the Sea by Erica Ridley



#101 - Only a Duchess Would Dare by Amelia Grey
#337 - Her Perfect Bones by Ellery Kane
#034 - The Dark Corners of the Night by Meg Gardiner
#174 - The Irresistible Miss Peppiwell by Stacy Reid
#402 - Close to Home by Robert Dugoni



#366 - A Simple Seduction by Janna MacGregor
#273 - The Backup Plan by Jill Shalvis
#098 - Winter's Mourn by Mary Stone
#164 - The Duke’s Wife by Jess Michaels
#139 - Cowboy on My Mind by R.C. Ryan



#418 - The Cracked Spine by Paige Shelton
#272 - Defying the Earl by Erica Ridley
#449 - Love Only Once by Johanna Lindsey
#398 - Ne'er Duke Well by Alexandra Vasti
#447 - Like Cats & Dogs by Lizzie Shane



#386 - The Earl and the Country Girl by Eva Devon
#048 - The Heiress He's Been Waiting For by Kaitlin O'Riley
#234 - Those Texas Nights by Delores Fossen
#193 - Indecent by Darcy Burke
#285 - The Countess by Sophie Jordan



#458 - Jewel Me Twice by Charish Reid
#180 - A Scot Is Not Enough by Gina Conkle

I'm going to focus on clearing out the books from 2017 this time around.

Cleaning Out the TBR Closet 2025
Duration: January 1 - December 31, 2025

Goal: 11/40 books

Books Read or Removed from 2017: 11/132 books



Read:

Removed:

Working to clear out that backlog.

Start of month:
Books on shelf: 91
Feedback Ratio: 82%

Books already read that need to be reviewed:


Books (already published):


Books (not yet published):


Added:


Finished/Reviewed:

End of Month:
Books on shelf:
Feedback Ratio: