2013 May Pick It For Me! Challenge

[Breann]

Kami, I finished my second pick Judgment in Death and, as usual, Eve & Roarke did not disappoint :) Thanks for the pick!

[Inge]

Jennie,

I'm so glad you enjoyed The Reluctant Dom, I was hesitant at first too but it immediately became a favorite.
I''m still waiting for that BR, so let me know when you're ready!

Elizabeth,

I'm sorry I took so long to post this, I actually read Long Hard Ride by Lorelei James a few days ago. I know you recommended. The third in the series and mentioned that it could be read as stand alone but I'm a little weird about series and like to read them in orders. But I assumed LHR would count as one of my reads :). I enjoyed it so I'll probably read all the series just not on time for them to count. Anyways, thanks for the rec

[Nancy H]

Dee,
I just finished . It has been on my TBR shelf forever, and I just needed your 'nudge' to get to it. Once I started it and got past the first few pages, I found myself reading almost the whole book in one day because I just could not put it down. I will definitely read more by this author since it was very well-written.

I have also started The Potato Factory, another one that has literally been on my shelf since a trip to Australia in 2001! I really like it, although it is over 800 pages so I don't know if I will be able to finish it by the end of the month. We shall see!

Thanks so much for your recommendations! I had hoped to get more of them read this month, but life sort of has a way of interrupting my reading now and then - lol! I will definitely get to them eventually, though, because they all look so good.

[Carla]

Dawn (Kat N Hat)--I just finished reading my first PIFM book this month, . It was a light, funny read that I really enjoyed. Thanks, Dawn, for the recommendation. I'd read the first awhile ago and liked it, but then never got to the next one. I'll definitely be reading more of this series.

[MountainKat, Moderator]

Hi Jane, I finished my fifth pick! I read Country Mouse and quite enjoyed it! I hope to get to a couple more picks this month, but I have to finish another challenge first! =) Thanks for all the great picks!!

[Lacy]

I started my second pick today . I'm really liking it so far.

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

MountainKat wrote: "Hi Jane, I finished my fifth pick! I read Country Mouse and quite enjoyed it! I hope to get to a couple more picks this month, but I have to finish another challenge first! =) Thanks for all th..."

Glad you enjoyed it Kat! Hopefully we can read it's sequel soon :)

[Macwolf01 [Elise]]

Macwolf01 [Elise] wrote: "Thanks Ashley, I put most of the books that I didn't have on my TBR list ..."

Hi Ashley,

I finished both and , I enjoyed Dawn's Awakening but LOVED Chasing Fire. I think it's my fav of Nora Roberts books so far.

Thanks for the great picks! E

[Lacy]

Hi Karen,

I finished my second pick. It was a great book and now I have a new author to read. My poor TBR list! I gave the book four stars.

[Irina]

Hi Arena,
Finished reading another picks this month Loved this one! can't wait to read more by this author.. thanks for the great pick :)

[Isha]

Radu wrote: "Hi Nikita,
I'm new to this and tried my best to give you a few choices. If you don't like any of them, I can always look for other ones! (I hope you don't mind Nicholas Sparks!)

A:
The Best of Me..."

Hi Radu

I read by Kristen Ashley earlier in the month and loved it so much that I ended up reading book 2,3 and 4.
Thanks for the picks Radu.

[Elizabeth]

Hi Roxy
I finished my second pick and I enjoyed it very much. I also read earlier in the month but I didn't like it - I had many issues with this book.
I just started my third pick
Thanks again for the great picks!

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

Hi Erin!

I finished the other day and really enjoyed catching up with Dec and Simon - lots of narky humour to enjoy and keep the smile on my face!

- OMG; just finished it... Fantastic! The balance between action, humour and emotion was masterful. Abi just can't stuff up a book in this series!

That makes four for this month! I think I'd better concentrate on finishing up some other books for the challenges, so I doubt I'll get to any more :( So thanks for the great picks :)

[Desperado]

Read , Sallie! Thanks for the rec! I've been meaning to try Myla Jackson for awhile and because of you, it's finally off the TBR!

[Erin]

Jane (PS) wrote: "Hi Erin!

I finished the other day and really enjoyed catching up with Dec and Simon - lots of narky humour to enjoy and keep the smile on my face!

[bookcover:Touch ..."

I'm glad you enjoyed them! I loved Touch & Geaux too. Still haven't gotten to Tigerland yet, but I'm glad to hear positive reviews.

[Skandia]

Hi Jennie,
I finished reading Long Hard Ride. Well, it was not my cup of tea. I do prefer my erotica with some storyline and there was none. Good I get it off my TBR.

[Lacy]

Karen,

I finished my third and final pick, . I loved it. Thank you for the great book recommendations!

I hope that you had fun reading yours!

[Paisley]

I squeaked in one last one for this challenge.

~KarenH~ THANK YOU for picking
Fifteen Shades of Gay for me!

I LOOOOOVED this one! I am so glad I read it - I probably would not have if someone didn't pick it for me - and it was a winner!

The story was very entertaining and the characters were both endearing and infuriating (a great combination) and quite sexy too.

There were sad moments, scorching hot moments, funny moments, tense moments, sweet moments...well, you get the picture right?

Totally worth reading.

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

Paisley wrote: "I squeaked in one last one for this challenge.

~KarenH~ THANK YOU for picking
Fifteen Shades of Gay for me!

I LOOOOOVED this one! I am so glad I read it..."

I'm so glad you liked it! It was our m/m buddy read a few months ago, and we all liked it a lot more than we thought we were going to based on the cheesy title and cover!

[Amy J.]

I finished . I really enjoyed it. Thanks for the rec!

[Carla]

I just finished my second PIFM challenge book for this month, Master of Desire. It was a fun romance, and good to read a historical romance that was a different time period than my usual regency.

Thanks, Dawn (Kat N Hat) for the recommendation!

[Breann]

Hi Kami! I finished today and I loved it! I think it went on all of my favorites shelves. Amazing! (now I get to join the group buddy read!)

I might try to squeeze in before the month is over!

[Inge]

Hi Elizabeth,

I just finished Cry No More, I can't say I loved it but it was an net testing, emotional read.
Thanks force rec

[Ashley]

Hi Carrie,
So I read The Raven Prince and loved it. I gave it 4.5 stars. Thank you for the rec. I am going to read the second book in the series tomorrow.

[Carrie]

I'm happy you liked it. :)

[Ashley]

Macwolf01 [Elise] wrote: "Macwolf01 [Elise] wrote: "Thanks Ashley, I put most of the books that I didn't have on my TBR list ..."

Hi Ashley,

I finished both and [bookcover:Chasing Fire..."

I am glad you enjoyed it. It is one of my favorite too.

[Becca]

Life has gotten in the way of my reading so this month is a fail for me :( I am about halfway through The Time Traveler's Wife and really like it so far and I also started It, and of course it's good :) I look forward to finishing both books soon, but unfortunately I don't see it happening by the end of the month :( I will own June tho! (Unless life keeps being stupid haha)

[Dee]

Nancy wrote: "Dee,
I just finished . It has been on my TBR shelf forever, and I just needed your 'nudge' to get to it. Once I started it and got past the first few pages, ..."

glad you enjoyed it. I hope you enjoy the Potato Factory - I love Bryce Courtenay's stuff - it was a sad day when he died. They did a mini-series of it like 10 years or so ago - you might be able to find it on Amazon

[Dee]

I finished up #3 last night - Menage - unfortunately, I was disappointed in it...it just didn't have the spark for me...and it was a bit disconcerting because the only copy I could get was the british version, so it was set in Philly, but with british spellings...which distracted me!

[MountainKat, Moderator]

Hi Jane, didn't get to any more of my picks this month, but I didn't just add the others to my TBR I bought them! So I will get to more, just not this month!

On another note, I started one of Fran's picks from March today! So far so good with the audio of Vanilla on Top! I bought several of those picks when I couldn't get to them too. I seriously have no self control...

[Angi]

My month got away from me plus I got caught up reading another series but I did manage to get Not His Kiss to Take read finally. Thanks for the pick!!

[Breann]

Kami, I was able to read and I loved it! I've been waiting to read their story so I'm glad I got around to it.

Thank you for all the great picks!

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

MountainKat wrote: "Hi Jane, didn't get to any more of my picks this month, but I didn't just add the others to my TBR I bought them! So I will get to more, just not this month!

On another note, I started one of Fra..."

LOL - I've done a bit of damage at Dreamspinner with their 20% and at Amazon & Kobo - decided I couldn't wait even though my TBR list is over 400 books! I'm completely in your camp :)

...Off to check out Vanilla on Top... ;)

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

I managed to squeeze in 2 more picks before the end of the month - finished a reread (actually listened this time) of Breaking Point, and loved it as much the second time through as I did the first! And I finished Instant Attraction just barely under the wire last night. Not my favorite by Jill Shalvis, but still very enjoyable.

Thanks for the amazing picks this month, Kat - I'm not positive, but pretty sure I read more picks this month than I ever have before! :D

[MountainKat, Moderator]

~KarenH~ wrote: "Thanks for the amazing picks this month, Kat - I'm not positive, but pretty sure I read more picks this month than I ever have before! :D "

I am so glad you enjoyed your picks!!

[Gigi]

Dee wrote: "I finished up #3 last night - Menage - unfortunately, I was disappointed in it...it just didn't have the spark for me...and it was a bit disconcerting because the only copy I could get was the brit..."

Aw Dee! I'm sorry! I couldn't find which were the 3 books that you read- Attachments and Menage. I hope that you enjoyed at least one of the 3 books that you read. I don't remember now if the copy that I read was a US version or a UK version. I read the book a couple of years ago. I'm so sorry, that at least 2 of the books were a bust!

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

Well, better late than never, here's a little information about how we did this month!

It seems like our completion rate was a little on the low side - we had 64 participants, and only 72% reported finishing at least one book. On the bright side though, we read 95 books, so the 46 people who did report in averaged slightly over 2 books per person :)

There were no solid favorites in either books or authors this month. We read 86 distinct titles, 9 of which were read twice, and 71 different authors, with 16 being read at least twice. No book was read more than twice, and the top author was only read 5 times (Abigail Roux, with 5 different titles read).

Thanks to everyone who participated this month!

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

And here's what we read:

[MountainKat, Moderator]

Nice stats Karen! Thanks for all your hard work!

[Ty]

pretty! great job, KarenH!