Insiyah’s Comments (group member since Apr 12, 2022)

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

M can you double check the edition for Time of the Dragons? Your linked and shelved edition shows 448 pages while the spreadsheet shows 453.

Brittany and Stormie, can you please add all the books you added to your wheel shelf?

DQs Day 3: Then - Then 58%
first line "Marcus changes completely..."
last line "...serious chat about your future"

11. "The sound of teeth against a spoon when someone's eating soup, insects that scuttle, people who don't listen, RATS, and when uncle Terry says 'WOMEN!'" - what a random list of pet peeves (Are they even pet peeves? Rats?? And uncle Terry 'all on his own'???),,, What are some of yours?
Miscommunication is a big one for me. People texting in chat speak. Unaesthetic spreadsheets. People chewing with their mouths open.

12. Dylan's (and Marcus') trip through Europe has become much more than just that, ending up in Asia, trying to figure out what to do with his life when he's already been handed it all on a silver platter. His dad is a douche and clearly wants to dictate Dylan's life while Dylan just keeps running away from his problems. Lucky he has all this money (his dad's I would assume) to just throw away. Can you relate to him in any way? Do you feel bad for him?
No, I really don't feel bad for him. He has this huge opportunity to travel and he's using it to mope around.

13. "Nowadays we date, we shop around. If we really like someone we spend more time with them. Then we move in with them a few years down the line. Then, maybe, if we've lost the will to live or whatever it is that compells people to settle down we marry them. We don't rearrange our lives because of a good shag."

"Addie, she's not right for you (...) Stop that! Don't you see what you're doing? You're turning her into something she's not. You don't understand her. She's not your beautiful muse, Dylan. She's messy and dark. And raw. She's a disaster waiting to happen. She's got power. And she doesn't even know it yet you know. She's like,,, she's untapped. (...) She's not right for you. Okay?"

Did Marcus already know something we didn't at this point? Did something happen between Marcus and Addie back in France? And then the way Marcus took care of Dylan after getting too high, in the bathroom.... Do you think he (not so?) secretely has feelings for Dylan? Or is he just jealous?
Marcus is just an idiot. Even without straying into spoiler territory, he fulfils his purpose in being a complete dick without any real reason.

14. Rodney thinking Deb has drowned in the river and actually LOOKING FOR A BODY IN THE WATER!!! had me laugh out loud to be honest, but only because of how frickin ridiculous this book is. Definitely expected something more cutesie and wholesome for some reason. Being almost two thirds into the book now, how do you feel about it so far? Is it meeting your expectations?
Welp, I was listening to an audiobook alongside my ebook because I kept switching to another app if I was just reading it, so... This would have been a DNF at 30% if not for the BOM points.

M wrote: "Good morning. I have been offline for a bit and will post my books tonight.

it is with so much happiness that my newest nephew was born early Wednesday. My sister in law is amazing, and they are b..."

Congratulations!

Stormie ~ Book Dragon ~ wrote: "I cannot access the google sheets, to update."

Please use this one to input your books - the main one is locked for all team members except captains and co-captains.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Stormie ~ Book Dragon ~ wrote: "I'm sorry. I just saw this message. I will do that this morning. I haven't been feeling well and have had doctor's appointments the last two days, so I am trying to get caught up."

No worries! Hope you feel better soon!

Brittany wrote: "Can I go back and check in the books I have completed since the start?"

Yes, you can!

Bobbi, can you please check The Useless Witch? The edition you've shelved has 283 pages but the spreadsheet shows 259. Please check and make sure you've shelved the correct edition & page count :)

DQs - Day 2 - 17 Oct
Then - Now 38%
first line "Can't the girl find..."
last line "shitshow of a strategy"

6. The author goes for the switching POVs and timelines method. How do you like these in general? And do you think it is a good fit for this book?
I don't mind switching timelines/POVs in general, in this book it felt a bit weird.

7. We get to meet some more characters along the way in the "THEN" section: Dylan's uncle Terry, his brother, the mysterious Grace and other friends whose dynamics to Dylan and Marcus should shed some more light on their characters and motivation. But do they? Do you feel like you are getting to know them better? Or understand them? (Or care?)
I liked Grace (I can forgive her love/whatever for Marcus). The more characters showed up though, the more Dylan and Marcus seemed unlikeable. Especially Dylan because you're supposed to dislike Marcus, but Dylan also comes off as an ass.

8. What do you think about Dylan's and Addie's past relationship in France? Do you like it/find it convincing? What about their sudden meeting in the present and the insta-lust after all the emotional baggage they seem to be dragging with them?
I didn't find it particularly convincing. It seems to be based entirely on physical attraction. Where are the conversations where you get to know each other??? And insta-lust can be fun and does make sense, but they seem to mistake it for love and it's not making for an interesting read.

9. I'm not really sure I'd call this book a "romance" though it certainly offers the trope of second-chance. Do you have any favourite romantic trope(s) or one that you especially dislike?
Favourite romantic tropes from someone who doesn't read much contemporary romance but quite a few classics - friends-to-lovers, self-actualisation and improvement (looking at you, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth) and least favourite is miscommunication. Which shows up in almost every romance fiction ever written. Hence, very little contemporary romance.

10. Any guesses what part Rodney may play in the plot or do you think he's just some kind of "filler" character?
He's a very unnecessary character. What even is he doing aside from being the outsider in this group? Even having finished the book and seeing his arc, I still think he's not needed.

Shannon, Brittany and Stormie

If you could possibly update the spreadsheet with any completed books you have, that would be great. The mods will be checking them out soon, and we'd like to make sure that everyone has at least one book on the spreadsheet.

DQs Day 1
Now - Now last line "...reach out and touch her."

1.) Is this your first book by O'Leary? Only reading for points and that lovely 'O' letter for Wheel-a-thon or was it already on your tbr list?
BOM points, mostly. My team doesn't seem to be struggling to fill in the Os. I've read The Flatshare, and I thought it was fun so I imagined this would be something similar, hence reading it.

2.) Road trips. Love them, hate them? If you've gone on a road trip before what are some must have for the journey?
If I'm driving, fun. If not, I need snacks, my own water bottle, headphones and a book to survive (and mostly not kill anyone).

3.) Deb's comment about never having a baby obviously proved untrue. Do we think the baby daddy is going to make an appearance in the story? Or do you think it's a no name person who isn't relevant to the book?
If this entire book is about the road trip, unlikely that the baby would show up. I don't think the dad will be in this book.

4.) The flagrant unconcern about money by half the characters is a bit gross. Do you think that's at the root of Dylan and Addie's split? Or do you think it's the mysterious Grace? Marcus especially seems to not know the whole breakup story. Any guesses to why Dylan didn't seem to tell him the truth?
To be fair, it's easy to think money's not a big deal when you're in a bubble of people who think the same thing. I think it would definitely be one of the issues, but not the main thing. I think the reason might be Marcus, actually. He's really hostile to Addie.

5.) Initial impressions of the cast of characters?
If it wasn't for BOM points, I likely would have DNF'd this. Enough said.

Kelly (Maybedog) wrote: "On the spreadsheet, there are three book at the top that aren't in a word, but have letters by them. Why is that?"

Which books do you mean?

Kelly (Maybedog) wrote: "I'm assuming that since we're early in the period it's okay if I read the books a little out of order. One of my books was on hold and has more people waiting. It's in the third reiteration of the ..."

Yes, it's fine as long as by the end of the round the words are completed :)

Kelly (Maybedog) wrote: "I'm not a huge fan of YA books, too many overly dramatic teens in my life when I was a foster parent, but that sounds good! Without teachers, are the kids just taught with books? How do they know w..."

The school has a sentience to it, and it gives them their assignment. The students self-study with some pretty terrible (hilarious) punishments if they don't finish their work on time.

I completed yesterday night, and if you're into fantasy YA, you might want to read it. It was so, so, SO good! I started it in the afternoon, got to maybe 15% and put it down, then picked it up after dinner which was a mistake because I could NOT put it down. I ended up finishing it at 2am because I needed to know what happened next.

Kelly (Maybedog) wrote: "Did I do it right this time?"

You did :)

Melissa wrote: "Just finished Frankenstein. I don't think I've ever read it before. It still holds up!"

It's one of my all time favourite books - I love reading it and I'm really glad you enjoyed it too!

Please make sure that once you're done reading a book, you do two things:

1) add it to your Wheel shelf
2) ensure the start and finished dates are accurate

Is anyone going to be reading The Road Trip? It's the second BOM for this month and since it's during a challenge readers get bonus points for their teams.

ONE AND A HALF HOUR TO GO!