R11: Team A*TEN*SHUN Serial Bookworms (10)

[Zoë]

I’m going to finish mine on Friday afternoon! So close!

[Stacey]

Sam, if it looks like it's going to be tomorrow before you finish, just let us know. We still have a free pass we can use and it looks like we are down to only a week or two left anyway. Exam time can be brutal on reading!

[Suzanne]

Completion Post
Week # 10
Spot: 73



Book: The Trouble With Valentine's Day
Author: Rachel Gibson
Pages: 368
How the book qualifies: Chinooks Hockey Team #3
Read: 11/08/19
Rating: 4
Review: This was a fun book and reminded me a lot of Susan Elizabeth Phillips. The characters are fiesty and quirky and the storyline is witty. The sweetest part of the book was "I want to try with someone who loves me enough to try with me. I want to grow old looking at the same face every morning. I want to grow old looking at the same face every night at the dinner table. I want to be one of those old couples you see holding hands and laughing after fifty years of marriage. That's what I want. I want to be someone's forever."

[Zoë]

Completion Post

Book:
Qualification: Third in the Inheritance Trilogy
Rating: 4 stars
Date finished: 11/8
Review: loved this trilogy. I read her other series as well and this is very different. Not as dense and hard to follow though her prose does mean you need to pay close attention to take sure you understand true nuance between characters. This was a lovely trilogy that made me really fall in love with the characters even as they weren’t “perfect” or even always “good” but they were all very real and authentic. This author knows how to write human nature in so many ways. Definitely recommend.

[Sam]

Stacey wrote: "Sam, if it looks like it's going to be tomorrow before you finish, just let us know. We still have a free pass we can use and it looks like we are down to only a week or two left anyway. Exam time ..."

Nope, looks like I'm going to be finished tonight. This book is moving along quickly.

[Sam]

Completion Post
Spot: 73
Cover:
Book: Bright Blaze of Magic- Jennifer Estep
Qualification: Black Blade #3
Date Finished: 11/8/19
Rating: 4 stars
Review: This is the final book of the Black Blade trilogy. Lila has settled into her role in the Sinclair Family. She knows that Victor Draconi is up to something and with the help of her friends, she tries to stop him. However, her endeavors are unsuccessful. When the Draconis attack the Sinclairs and kidnap the survivors, it is up to Lila, Devon and their friends to find a way to rescue the survivors and put a stop to Victor. I thought this was a great ending to the series. Lila learns that her power does more than she thought it did and that she has friends she didn't realize. I loved the climactic battle at the end. I just wish there was an epilogue as I would have loved to see how Lila handles the results of her battle with Victor. I enjoy this author and will continue to read other series by her.

[Stacey]

Tracking Post -- Week 11

Old Spot: 73
Roll: 7
New Spot: 80

Options:
Standalone
0.? (if meets page count)
#8 in series
80. Cover Item: Instrument

Moondance - Skein of the Crime -- Review
Plethora - A Toxic Trousseau-- Review
Sam- Where There's a Will -- Review
Nikk the Sapphired Book Dragon - Charms & Witchdemeanors-- Review
Suzanne - Here and Now and Then-- Review
Zoë - Dark Matter -- Review
Stacey - A Lot of Fuss About a Duck -- Review

[Stacey]

There are 2-3 teams in the 90s this week, so my guess is this week and next and we will probably be done. I'll plan to use our points next week, just to see how far we can get. :)

[Zoë]

Selection Post UPDATED

Book:

Qualification: Stand alone

[Nikki the Sapphired Book Dragon]

Selection Post

Book:

Qualification: #8 in series

[Zoë]

Completion Post
Week 11

Book:
Qualification: stand alone
Date finished: 11/8
Rating: 4 stars
Review: So I ended up sick today and listened to this book all day long. At first I wasn’t sure if I liked the main character all that much but then it got interesting and that didn’t matter as much. I appreciate this author and how he explores science within our real world. Definitely worth a read. It’s nothing super deep but it’s fun and interesting.

[Moondance]

Week 11 Selection Post:
Spot: 80

Options:
Standalone
#8 in series

Skein of the Crime Maggie Sefton


Qualification: #8 in The Knitting Mystery series

[Sam]

I'm going to read Where There's a Will by Rex Stout. It is Nero Wolfe #8 and has 255 pages in the kindle edition.

[Nikki the Sapphired Book Dragon]

Week 11 Completion post
spot 80

Charms & Witchdemeanors by Amanda M. Lee
pages 384
How it fits: Wicked Witches of the Midwest
read 11/10/19
rated 3 1/2 Stars
Review:
I have mixed feelings about this read. While I did enjoy the characters and mostly liked the mystery, I did find parts of the story a little far fetched in the the way the played out. As this was more with the investigative parts rather than than the magic parts of the story, this effective pulled me out of the story and flow. Thankfully I mostly read this series for the characters so can Usually overlook small issues I have with the plot line. Also I listened to the second half of the book and was thrown off briefly when I realised that the narrator also narrated all the Jayne Frost series by Kristen Painter(of which I listened to most on audio) so it took me a moment to readjust her characterisations to new and different characters but once I had, it wasn’t to bad as I do like her narration style so was able to enjoy the second half of the book. Over all an entertaining read and a series I will be continuing on with

[Moondance]

Week 11
Completion Post:
Spot: 80

Options:
Standalone
#8 in series

Skein of the Crime Maggie Sefton


Qualification: #8 in The Knitting Mystery series

Read: 11.11.19
Rating: 3 stars
Review:

Kelly Flynn navigated her car out of the shopping center parking lot and merged into fort Connor's thinning late-night traffic.

Kelly comes home late one August night to find a young woman stoned out of her mind in her backyard. Fast forward six weeks or so and the young woman, Holly, has been taken under the wing of Mimi, the owner of House of Lambspun. She is learning to knit and has started back taking classes at the university. Everyone is shocked when Holly turns up dead on a walking trail where several assaults have taken place.

I have not read anything in this series in quite some time. I was sad to see where Kelly and Steve's relationship was heading. I enjoy the yarn shop atmosphere. I always enjoy the knitting pattern that is given in the back of the book. This one also had a yummy carrot cake as well.

It was nice to catch up with secondary characters and with Kelly. i thought the culprit was a bit obvious when I realized what the motive was behind the murder.

I'm sure that I will return to Fort Connor at some point. It's just not an urgent need with so many other books to read.

[Sam]

Completion Post
Spot: 80
Cover:
Book: Where There's a Will- Rex Stout
Qualification: Nero Wolfe #8
Date Finished: 11/13/19
Rating: 4 stars
Review: Wolfe's finances are low. He really needs an influx of cash to keep up his household. Enter the Hawthorne girls. Three well known, accomplished young ladies from a good family. Their successful brother, Noel, dies and leaves his fortune to his mistress despite promises of legacies to his sisters. They want to hire Wolfe to talk with the mistress and try to get most of the money back. This isn't really Wolfe's kind of thing but he is desperate so agrees. It is then discovered that Noel wasn't accidentally killed in a hunting accident as previously thought, but was murdered. This is much more Wolfe's purview and he is hired by the family to solve the murder. I always enjoy these books, despite their old-fashion quality. Archie is a wonderful character and handles Wolfe and his eccentricities very well. I look forward to visiting West 35th Street again very soon.

[Plethora]

Selection Post
Week 11
Spot 80



Book: A Toxic Trousseau
Author: Juliet Blackwell
Pages: 336
Fits: # 8 in A Witchcraft Mystery series

[Plethora]

I thought I had posted my selection earlier in the week, I think I forgot to hit post....

[Plethora]

Completion Post
Week 11
Spot 80



Book: A Toxic Trousseau
Author: Juliet Blackwell
Pages: 336
Fits: # 8 in A Witchcraft Mystery series
Read: 11/12/19
Rating: 4
Review: OK so I just find this series funny because of the familiar Lily has. A pet pig Oscar, so out of the ordinary from what you normally find. I enjoyed the history sprinkled in this installment detailing the [just incase somebody doesn't know this about old Victoria gown since it is integral to the story line ] (view spoiler)[that certain dies, green in particular, was laced with arsenic and made them poisonous (hide spoiler)].

[Suzanne]

Completion Post
Week 11
Spot 80



Book: Here and Now and Then
Author: Mike Chen
Pages:
Fits: Standalone
Read: 11/14/2019
Rating: *****
Review: This was a cute sci-fi novel! The main character is a time travel agent who gets stuck in the 1990s after a botched mission. For 18 years he's lived his life as best as he could with a wife and teenage daughter. Then a retrievaql agent finally contacts him to bring him home, but he's not so sure he wants to leave now. The author's previous works were comics and this is his first literary novel. I liked it a lot and he's got two more books listed for publication so I'll have to check those out when they are released!

[Stacey]

Completion Post -- Week 11

Spot: 80
Book:
Completed: 11/14/19
Pages: 165p,
How It Fits: Standalone
Rating: 2 stars
Review: The Title, the cover and the description make you think this is a fun, quirky book about girlfriends taking a vacation. That's not what you get. There are 3 friends, but they don't really seem to care about each other, 2 of them are not very likeable and the story is random snippets from their lives over the course of about 2 years. The book is written in an interesting structure with multiple POV shifts between the 3 friends which made my rating 2 instead of 1 star.

[Stacey]

Nice job everyone! We are all checked in. I'll roll first thing in the am for next week, and depending on other teams, I'll use our extra points.

[Stacey]

Week 12 Tracking Post

Old Spot: 80
Roll: 6
New Spot: 86 (or 91 if we use our extra points)

Right now there are at least 2 teams that are over 100 -- more may pop up as the day goes. We can read for either of these numbers if you all would like or we can just wait and see what happens. TBH I've overbooked myself with challenges this fall so I'd be happy to call it done. Let me know what you all think.

[Moondance]

I can go with either. I do have a first book that I need to read for another challenge. I'll go with the consensus of the team.

[Zoë]

I don’t mind either way. I don’t have a preference at this point wins this is my last challenge that I am in for the year. :)

[Sam]

Let's go 91. I have both a #1 and a #9 so that gives me a choice.

[Nikki the Sapphired Book Dragon]

I am happy to go with 91. I have a book 9 that needs reading :-)

[Stacey]

It occurred to me that I have a few standalones that I'll be reading this week, so that works.

Although one of the teams is only waiting for one person to finish their book to claim victory, so not sure I'll even have time to start before its over.....

[Plethora]

Yea it is tough, looks like Team 1 already checked in for the win.

Always fun game though.

[Sam]

Yup, team 1 has won. Good playing with you, team.

[Zoë]

Awww bummer. Well thanks for the good time, everyone! Loved reading some of the reviews and seeing the banter. :) See you all next time!

[Moondance]

Great game everyone! Thank you for taking care of us Stacey!