Lisa - (Aussie Girl)’s Comments (group member since Sep 26, 2012)

Lisa - (Aussie Girl)’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

Velvet Was the Night

Mexican writer and location

Mexico in the 1970s is a dangerous country, even for Maite, a secretary who spends her life seeking the romance found in cheap comic books and ignoring the activists protesting around the city. When her next-door neighbor, the beautiful art student Leonora, disappears under suspicious circumstances, Maite finds herself searching for the missing woman—and journeying deeper into Leonora’s secret life of student radicals and dissidents.

Mexico in the 1970s is a politically fraught land, even for Elvis, a goon with a passion for rock ’n’ roll who knows more about kidney-smashing than intrigue. When Elvis is assigned to find Leonora, he begins a blood-soaked search for the woman—and his soul.

Swirling in parallel trajectories, Maite and Elvis attempt to discover the truth behind Leonora’s disappearance, encountering hitmen, government agents, and Russian spies. Because Mexico in the 1970s is a noir where life is cheap and the price of truth is high.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic comes a simmering historical noir about a daydreaming secretary, a lonesome enforcer, and the mystery of the missing woman they’re both desperate to find.

Laila Jane wrote: "My book defeated Kamaitachi. Can someone spin for a new monster? I’m heading into work and can’t get to it tonight"

Great going Laila. I'll spin for you..

Our new monster is.. MEDUSA

Go for it Keely. Hope that's the last of the 800+ for a while.

I'll be finishing off Babi first week of March as well.

How's everybody else going with their monster slaying?

Echidna is defeated in 5 days! Great going Monster Mashers.

New monster is - Babi Ngepet.

Thanks Vicky and Natasha. Exciting!

Vicky wrote: "I can't search well on my phone but we can use graphic novels for this, right? I seem to recall there being an overall "count anything you read vibe" but I can't find the post. If so - I think I ca..."

Here's the post Vicky,

No page minimum. This is for pure fun and we aren't creating a ranking/score board. So I decided to let people use whatever they'd like even if we don't typically allow them in our challenges.

And box sets are fine too!

So read those graphic novels and finish off those monsters. Yay.

Laila Jane wrote: "Had to look it up on a map. Looks coastal to me!"

Thanks. I thought so too.. I'm half way through and most of the action is set on the water and the restaurant the main character works at is called The Shoreline.

Hi team.. I'm reading a book set on Chesapeake Bay, Virginia. Is that coastal?

The Villa

From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins comes a deliciously wicked gothic suspense, set at an Italian villa with a dark history, for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware.

As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend.

Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierce’s girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album––and ends in Pierce’s brutal murder.

As Emily digs into the villa’s complicated history, she begins to think there might be more to the story of that fateful summer in 1974. That perhaps Pierce’s murder wasn’t just a tale of sex, drugs, and rock & roll gone wrong, but that something more sinister might have occurred––and that there might be clues hidden in the now-iconic works that Mari and Lara left behind.

Yet the closer that Emily gets to the truth, the more tension she feels developing between her and Chess. As secrets from the past come to light, equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emerge––and it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends.

Good one Laila. I'll be finished Kingdom of the Wicked later on today. '😊

Hi Vicky,

The task is - Ghost is important to plot. I'm thinking it sounds like a particular ghost character or at least ghosts with speaking parts are required. So doesn't quite fit but maybe post the question in the Q and A thread and get the Mods POV?

We're getting through those monsters.. one 800 book at a time, LOL. Great reading Monster Mashers!

Keely wrote: "I've got several books on the go. Once I finish one or two of them, I'll start a 800+ page one. Annoyingly, one of my books is 710 pages which is long, but not long enough."

Great Keely. I just got the ok from the Mods to be able to read large print books so that gives a few more options with the 800+ page books.

Judith wrote: "Sure, that’s fine. Normally the issue with large print books is the inflation of page points. With no points involved, I’ll accept it 🙂

And 8 in a row is rough!"

Fantastic. 😍

Hey Mods and friends..

If we are reading a large print book for those 800+ pages tasks ( I can't believe we got three monsters in a row with this task, groan.. ) is that okay?

Hello Monster Mashers..

Ahool is defeated! Next monster is - YETI.

Oh no.. another 800+ read... 😆

Natasha wrote: "I'm reading The Shadow Rising which is 1,051 pages."

That's awesome, Natasha. We can save our 800+ till next time.

Re-open is defeated.

New monster is - Bakekujira

Vicky wrote: "Oof another 800+ page book."

I do have one I've been wanting to re-read.. if no one else finds something before I'm up to it I have

Cretan Bull has been defeated!!

New monster is - Penanggalan.

Thanks for clearing that up. 😊