Jo's 2020 #RockMyTBR Challenge

[Brittany]

I'm not a huge fan of set up books so that is disappointing. Enjoy Ballad!

[Jo]

Yeah I was a little disappointed! Thank you :)

[Jo]

I'm going to start today, I'm a little nervous because I really wasn't a fan of her other book, Foul Is Fair but I love Tudor history so I'm hoping this should be a fun one!

[Jo]

Finished which was so much fun, I love the Tudors and to have a modern, more feminist reading of them was brilliant for me. One thing that did kind of bother me though is that there's no acknowledgement of the actual Tudors in the book? Okay granted I didn't go to an American high school, so I don't know how much is taught about the Tudors there, but you'd think that they'd at least know enough that it would be considered a little strange that all these modern day teenagers have the exact same names as famous Tudors and their lives are playing out in very similar ways? I don't know, it just kind of irked me that there was never any acknowledgement of that! Otherwise, I really enjoyed it.

My next read for this challenge will be in September, my September book, .

[Jo]

Started my September book today. Getting to the tail end of this challenge now, only four more books to go!

[Kayleigh {K-Books}, YA Fantasy Fan]

Oh let me know your thoughts on that one Jo. I love re-tellings and have that one of my TBR

[Jo]

I will!

[Jo]

Okay so I've been massively struggling with Sherwood, haven't even made it 30% of the way through with only 4 days of September to go, so what I'm going to do is instead swap it out for and count that as my September read (even if I will in all likelihood finish it in October) and pick one of my runner up reads from the original poll to read for October.

Here's where you guys come in, which book do you think I should read?

It's between or as the original runners up for the October book poll.

[Brittany]

I disliked Thunderhead and wish Scythe had been a standalone. I'm in the minority here though. So although I haven't read it I'd say read Devouring Gray

[Jo]

Started today, already three chapters in, I love short books!

[Brittany]

Sometimes a good short book is exactly what is needed!

[Jo]

Yes definitely!

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

I love short books! It's one of the reasons why I love R.L. Stine books. I can literally read one in like 1.5 hours lol.

[Jo]

I read a lot of longer books (big fantasy fan) so short books are definitely a welcome break!

[Jo]

I've finished today, I enjoyed City of Ghosts more, I just think that the story was a little more creepy, but I still really liked Cassidy and Jacob's second adventure and I'm looking forward to reading the third book next year. I'm going to go with as my replacement October TBR book and will be starting that later today.

[Kayleigh {K-Books}, YA Fantasy Fan]

So glad you liked Tunnel of Bones. I agree, I liked City of Ghosts more. I'm really looking forward to reading book 3 when it comes out.

[HeatherH]

Jo wrote: "I've finished today, I enjoyed City of Ghosts more, I just think that the story was a little more creepy, but I still really liked Cassidy and Jacob's second ad..."

Definitely agree with you and Kayleigh on City of Ghosts being a bit better than book two, but really enjoy the series and can't wait for book three.

Did you finish Devouring Gray? It's one of the many many owned but not read books I have so curious to hear your thoughts on it!

[Jo]

I finished today actually Heather! I have to admit I was pretty disappointed though, sadly. It wasn't nearly as spooky as I was hoping for and the chapters were ridiculously long so it took me much longer to read than I was anticipating.

I'm glad I read both City of Ghosts and Tunnel of Bones this year so the wait for Bridge of Souls isn't as long!

[Jo]

Started my November read today.

[HeatherH]

Jo wrote: "I finished today actually Heather! I have to admit I was pretty disappointed though, sadly. It wasn't nearly as spooky as I was hoping for and the chapters w..."

That's disappointing! I am not a fan of super long chapters - makes it drag :(

[Jo]

I feel the same way! It's only 22 chapters but they are chunky!

[Jo]

Okay has anyone read Assassin's Apprentice and can you tell me if it gets better? I'm kind of loathe to DNF it because it's a challenge book and I don't have another backlist book here in Stirling to swap it out for, but I'm getting super bogged down by it because the chapters are SO LONG (it's taken me since last Wednesday to read two chapters), so I kind of want to know if it's worth pushing through or if I should just swap for another book I have here?

[Brittany]

I haven't read it but bought a copy and heard good things about it

[Jo]

Yeah I have too, I'm just kind of struggling to connect with it atm. I think it's just my mood, I just came off a book with very chunky chapters and I don't really feel like facing another one. It's taken me almost a week to get through two chapters of this book! I think I'll put it aside for now and come back to it when I'm in a better mood for it.

[Elena]

@Jo I've read it some time ago (the whole series) and it was very good yet (agreed here) a bit slow. It goes sometimes slow and some parts are fast and full of events, the book has lots of twists. Also I feel you on the mood theme, for me it was the same. I started reading several times and never finished till I get this perfect mood for the book.

[Jo]

I think I'll definitely come back to it at a later date, I don't want to try and push through now and not enjoy it because my mood is spoiling it. It might mean that I finish my challenge at 11 rather than 12 books this year, but I won't beat myself up for that!