Elena's 2020 Reading Challenge

[Elena]

@Brittany Honestly? I don't know, but I'll try :D

[Elena]

A bit late but I want to add my May stats.

Total: 29 books

BRs finished: 6

Re-reads: 2
Series continued: 1
Series added: 2
Series finished: 2
Stand-alone: 22

New genre: memoir 1
Fantasy: 8
Nonfiction: 19
Magical realism: 1

Stars
5: 12 books
4: 1 book
3: 10 books
2: 3 books
1: 3 books

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

29 is a great number! Oooh you read a lot of nonfiction. Nice job Elena!

[Elena]

Thank you, Lil!

[Brittany]

Wow Elena that's awesome. especially all that nonfiction!

[Elena]

Thanks :) Actually I never thought I could read so many nonfiction books.

Finished The Silent Patient today and liked it! Gave the book 5 stars :D and posted a review.

[Elena]

Finished one more read-a-thon! This one was tough as I didn't have much time.
June 06-12 7 books in 7 days (2650 pages)

[HeatherH]

Nice job! I skipped out on this one as had some rough days this week and knew I wouldn't stay on top of it but looking forward to doing more in the future.

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Ohh nice job Elena! I haven't been doing a lot of reading lately, so I'm hoping to sit down this weekend and knockout a few books. Not gonna lie, a readathon would've helped. Lol.

[Elena]

@HeatherH I mostly skip those, but this year decided to dive into and read as much as I can.

@Liliana So true! It always helps to boost your motivation :)

[Elena]

Ohh I felt so strange recently. I still read a bunch of books but didn't want to write reviews or anything. And finally I'm back.

[Brittany]

Glad to have ya back, that happens sometimes

[Elena]

Yeah! Thank you, Brittany. You guys are always so extremely supportive and make me very happy!

[Elena]

I finished Shadow and Bone yesterday and it was a-a-a-mazing! Enjoyed it so much and going to read the next book in July :D

[Elena]

Finished The City of Brass. Amazing! And now I can't read another book for the half of the day. Also posted a review.

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

So glad you enjoyed Shadow and Bone and City of Brass. I enjoyed both of those.

[Elena]

I decided to leave here a post on events and challenges I've participated since the beginning of the year :) Those are closed at this poit.

✔ 1. Blind Date With A Book February - March
✔ 2. The 'April' Challenge April
✔ 3. May's Create Your Garden Bed May
✔ 4. Bookish Blocks 2020 May
✔ 5. Rainbow Read Challenge Vol 3 April - June
✔ 6. Let's have a picnic! June
✔ 7. Social Distancing June
✔ 8. June Word Hunt June
✔ 9. June Cover Hunt June
✔ 10. The Blank Space Challenge June Team reviews and Team chat
✔ 11. June's Beach Fun June

[Elena]

@Kay I've started reading the 2nd book in The Shadow and Bone Trilogy today and already halfway through. I'm just flying through pages. Amazing read.

[Jo]

Elena wrote: "@Kay I've started reading the 2nd book in The Shadow and Bone Trilogy today and already halfway through. I'm just flying through pages. Amazing read."

The second book is my favourite of that trilogy!

[Elena]

@Jo I still can't decide, which one is my favourite, seems like I love both! I also feel like diving straight into reading the third book. Alina's character here is becoming more and more complex and interesting.
(view spoiler)[
I also feel so intrigued with the parts where Darkling appears, so far those parts are my favourite. I really want to know how the story will resolve for both Alina and Darkling.
And finally in this book Nikolai appeared. Love this character.
(hide spoiler)]

[Jo]

Nikolai is my fave! Hope you enjoy the third book just as much :)

[Brittany]

Nikolai is my fave too!

Also awesome job on all your challenges!

[Elena]

Thank you, ladies. You're so kind! I've finished the second book and going to start the third. I'm also going to read The Six of Crows Duology and King of Scars Duology.

(view spoiler)[I loved how the Siege and Storm ended. What a perfect ending! And omg! I really enjoy those tense relations between Alina and Darkling. I don't know how to describe my feelings properly, but... they have passion and a unique sparkle. And despite a common opinion I do like that she has this dark part of hers. Power never comes without consequences. (hide spoiler)]

[Brittany]

Elena agreed! (view spoiler)[ power needs to have consequences otherwise its too easy. I liked Alina's darkness also. (hide spoiler)]

[Elena]

I was so out those days. Don't know if I can meet my goal this month. My grandma passed away recently and it's pretty hard for me to handle.

[HeatherH]

Virtual hugs sent your way. Grief is hard to handle and definitely a distraction from other things in life. Take time to heal ❤️

[Elena]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate your support.

[Elena]

Finished a couple rom-coms recently.
The Bride Test was good, actually helped me to get myself together and uplifted my mood so much!
When Dimple Met Rishi didn't like it.

[Elena]

Oh! And I'm actually finished one more 7 books in 7 days read-a-thon. Though I don't know how I did it :D

[Brittany]

Nicely done Elena!!

[Elena]

@Brittany thanks!

[Elena]

Recently I've finished and the first parts were so boring, but somewhat in the middle I found myself totally drawn into the story and enjoyed reading so much! Looking forward to read the next book.

Also I've finished but here is the opposite thing: I've enjoyed the first part and almost given the book a 5-star rating. But the second part was a bit messy and disappointed me a little.

[Brittany]

Too bad about the end of Uprooted!

You should check out our comments for the ToG series in the readalongs thread.

[Elena]

@Brittany Oh yeah! I'm definitely going to check the thread when I'm back to reading ToG series. Thank you :)

Finished reading and it was amazing! Harry Potter vibes, such a cozy and warm read.

[Elena]

In July I've participated in 6 BRs and 9 challenges.
I've also added 2 new series :D

Buddy Reads and Group Reads:
✔ 1. Crown of Feathers starting on July 06
✔ 2. Ruin and Rising starting on July 06
✔ 3. When Dimple Met Rishi starting on July 14
✔ 4. The Bride Test starting on July 15
✔ 5. Uprooted started on July 16 and July group
✔ 6. Keeper of the Lost Cities starting on July 22

Challenges:
1. Summer Days 2020 June - July Team
2. June and July and Alliteration June - July
3. July Cover Hunt July
4. July Word Hunt July
5. 2020 TBR Series Challenge - July July
6. July Audio Book Challenge July
7. July - National Ice Cream Month July
8. Smokey Bear Fire Zone July
9. The Magic Number Challenge July Reviews and Chat

Series Added:
1. Crown of Feathers Series [1/3]
2. Keeper of the Lost Cities Series [1/9]

[HeatherH]

Keep of the Lost Cities looks so good! After your comment on HP vibes, definitely going to add it to my list!

[Elena]

@HeatherH I hope you enjoy it as much as I did :)

[Elena]

Recently I've been extremely busy with work, streaming, youtubing etc and decided to cut the time spent on goodreads. But basically I didn't even update my reading progress. I'm going to catch up with this task soon :D

[Brittany]

What are you streaming? And that is totally fair. Hope you come back periodically to say hi though!

[Elena]

I definitely will! It was just this week :D I'm streaming programming (web-development).

[Brittany]

Neat, enjoy!

[Elena]

Wow! I've just finished the 2nd book in Kamisama Hajimemashita Series and it's so good! How did I miss this manga? It was published at least 10 years ago and I never heard about it! I'm so happy I found this manga series!

[Brittany]

That sounds cute Elena!

[Elena]

Indeed it is :)

[Brittany]

I've put the first one on hold at the library :)

[Elena]

@Brittany great! Hope you'll enjoy it as I am.

[Elena]

Recently I finished reading and it was fun. Nice light geeky retelling.

And also started reading and for now very disappointed. Not much action (currently on chapter 17). I've enjoyed The Grisha Trilogy much much more! Hope it'll get better.

[Laura ☾]

Elena wrote: "Recently I finished reading and it was fun. Nice light geeky retelling.

And also started reading and for now very disappointed. No..."

Honestly Crooked Kingdom is far better than Six of Crows - and then King of Scars is the best IMO

[Elena]

@Laura I'm glad it becomes better. Because for now it's really hard to read The Six of Crows.

[Elena]

I've never thought that the romantic book could give me a good amount of positive emotions and end this creepy anxious days chain :D was this book! Actually nothing special but it helped me to get back on track.