Romance Readers Reading Challenges discussion
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TART Challenge2 - Bookin' It (17)
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Katelyn
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Oct 14, 2020 04:48AM
I prefer to read books that are like 250-300. IDK why, but anything over that makes me super overwhelmed and will take me even longer. It is so weird how our minds work when it comes to these things.
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Hi team, I just wanted to check up and see how everyone was doing. 😁
Sorry it is taking so long! I am just having a hard time getting into this book.
Task: Each player reads a book in the same series, teams decide. No pass for this task.Series: The Dogmothers by Roxanne St. Claire
Book/cover link: Hot Under the Collar
Page numbers with source: Kindle Edition, 374 pages
How book qualified, with links or cover as necessary: Book 1 of the Dogmothers series.
Date Completed: Oct 16th, 2020
Rating/Review: 3 stars
So, I feel like an awful human for not enjoying this book. I tried guys. I truly tried but something was putting off me. Probably because I pretty much got confused with relationships and names unable to understand why they act a certain way. For eg, like Yiayia: I truly loved her, but Cassandra drilled her down with too many shots to come out clean for around 20 chapters. I mean, I wanted to yell at someone to stop Cassie behave that way. I didn't like that she was beating down an already surrendered person! The book began truly good, giving the Garden Spells vibe, slow, natural, different characters, and people facing their own set of a troubled life. Then Cassie came and spoilt it all. I couldn't connect with her. Should she be fickle-minded for 24 chapters long? I enjoy conflicts and life-choices affecting relationships, but I just couldn't make myself connect with Cassie. It was so troublesome to read her inner-monologue. And the twists literally threw me off. It was written for the sake of extending pages. Why couldn't they figure it out like matured, 30 year-olds?
But I loved JB. I loved how dynamic and different and awesome in his own ways he was. Jazz, Jazz, Jazz. She needs her own book. I wanted to know more about her. Also, thank the lord for developing the OW-Simone with a good side. I made peace with her. I guess Braden should've given her a chance and dumped Cassie. There was other amazing stuff written, like how families cope during firefighting, or how arson-detecting dogs are trained. I had no idea of what happens to those people. This book showed me a diff life. Also, Braden was a well-rounded and well-developed character.
Yiayia and Finnie should have given more pages.
I should finish today, but I am with you Jans. I really wanted to like this, but it is just way to long. I just want to get it done and move on to the next one!
@Jans Cassie def wasn’t my favorite but I gave her the benefit of the doubt because she was working with imperfect information. Yiayia was clearly just a very different mean spirited manipulative person in her previous life. I can see why if I was in her shoes I would be sorta skeptical too the random sudden change like is she just playing a long con and trying to sabotage my mom’s engagement?!? I feel like if Yiayia was more forthcoming with her health issues AND Cassie still acted that way, then I would have been really annoyed.@Katelyn I do agree the book could have been shorter. I will be honest the book is sorta a blur at this point so I can’t recall specific parts that they could have cut.
Guys, I am so sorry this is taking me so long! I feel like I am majorly holding us back. Everything has just been crazy so trying to find time to read has been sooo hard. But I will get better once I finish this forever long book.
@Katelyn: Don't push yourself, Kat. We have to enjoy the process of reading. I really don't care about the competition. None of us actually care. We as a team have the same goal. And in aspect to this book, I had the same problem. Take your time. Do only when you are mentally ready for it. @Kitty: Totally, agreed. I couldn't understand the history or how worse Yiayia was in previous books. Which was why I felt lost associating with the character's flow.
Totally agree with Jans to take your time. I have been introduced to so many new books, series and authors from this challenge. Plus I have been able to clear out my TBR (but adding more from the recs 🙈) which was really what I wanted out of this challenge!
Task: Each player reads a book in the same series, teams decide. No pass for this task.Series: The Dogmothers by Roxanne St. Claire
Book/cover link:Hot Under the Collar
Page numbers with source: Kindle Edition, 374 pages
How book qualified, with links or cover as necessary: Book 1 of the Dogmothers series.
Date Completed: Oct 17th, 2020
Rating/Review: 3 stars
I really wish I liked this book more, but I had such a hard time connecting and getting into it. I just really could not connect with Cassie. Most of the time she just drove me absolutely crazy. I felt like this book was way too long and would have been so much better with things cut out of it. Not sure if I am going to continue the series or not.
Jans, Kitty, I agree. No rush to complete challenges. I have been introduced to many new authors and series. My TBR has increased.🙈
I took the last week of October off, so I am hoping to get some reading and deep cleaning done. That way once I go back to work and I can actually enjoy my time when I come home and get reading done. I really am enjoying this challenge. I also want to thank you guys for being such great teammates! I don't think I could do this with any other team.
Here is Task 9:16. Read a minimum of 750 pages in books tagged/shelved as children.
The qualification for this tags can come ONLY from tags/shelves. Your selected books need to be tagged 'child', 'children', or 'kids', variations of the words are allowed. Please include a link to the top shelves page with your qualifying tag along with the page number and number of tags in your completion posts.
If I pick the 4th Harry Potter book, that is 734 pages lol
Alright, I am going to try and read
. It will fit for one of my other challenges and was tagged/shelved under the word children at least once.https://www.goodreads.com/work/shelve...
Lol! Let us know if you actually end up going the Harry Potter route Hayde.
I am going with The Graveyard Book. Figured I would get into the Halloween theme. The Kindle edition is 336 pages so we should be good from a page number perspective even if Hayde decides not to read HP haha.
You know I never read a Percy Jackson series. For that matter neither did I do HP or Narnia. I am going to do PJ for this challenge.The Lightning Thief
Top Shelf Link for PJ
Ooooohhh so it just needs to have the word children as a tag. Here I thought it had to be a children book 🤦🏽♀️
Nope, just tagged. I just looked at some of my single parent romances to see if I could find one tagged by at least one person.
I went with Katelyn’s route. Actually read a book she already read RoomHate. It’s been tagged/shelved under the word kids. https://www.goodreads.com/work/shelve...I’ll write my completion post tomorrow
@Hayde HP is definitely children in top shelf list. Buy if you've changed then that's fine.
Task 9 Completion Post:Task: Read a minimum of 750 pages in books tagged/shelved as children.
Book/cover link: The Lightning Thief
Page numbers with source: Kindle Edition, 396 pages
How book qualified, with links or cover as necessary: children/kids shelf
Date Completed: Oct 20th, 2020
Rating/Review: 5 stars
Awarding this 5 stars would mean HP would get 10 stars for originality. But as I am extremely weak in Greek Mythology, various portions of this book was extremely superb to read a twelve-year-old going on an adventure with his friends. My problem was, it had a few HP repetition. But I loved how the Gods were described. Zeus, Hades and Poseidon were all on their own skin. Mr D, still cracked me up. So, I enjoyed reading. I guess everyone should read this book once. It is good.
Task 9 Completion Post:Task: Read a minimum of 750 pages in books tagged/shelved as children.
Book/cover link: The Graveyard Book
Page numbers with source: Kindle Edition, 336 pages
How book qualified, with links or cover as necessary: https://www.goodreads.com/work/shelve...
Childrens tagged by 1390 people.
Date Completed: Oct 19th, 2020
Rating/Review: 5 stars
It takes a village to raise to raise a child...or in this case it takes a graveyard. The Graveyard Book was such a beautiful and magical read and I'd undoubtedly reread it again in years to come.
The story starts off with a family murdered and one of the intended victims, an one year old toddler, unknowingly escapes and finds himself under the protection by the ghosts in a graveyard. Adopted by a kind ghost couple who never had children of their own, they named the toddler Bod (short for Nobody). The Graveyard Book is broken up into chapters each with their own individual stories showcasing Bod's adventures as he is growing up. The overarching mystery of who killed Bod's family looms above all these chapters and is written so well. As it is a book intended for children/YA, I can see parents reading each individual chapter almost as its own story.
While the themes of the books are a bit dark for a children's book, the underlying message is about growth and living life to the fullest. Bod is a living boy traversing the lives of the dead. Growing up in the graveyard, he has these wonderful mentors such as the vampire (?) Silas who looks after him and teaches him valuable life skills. But ultimately, Bod has to leave the graveyard and begin his life. The very end of the book was so touching to me. While I'm not a parent, I'm sure it must be how they feel when their child "leaves home". You can tell the Graveyard and all its inhabitants are proud of who Bod has become, and while they're worried for his safety, they've done all they can. It's up to Bod to live his life.
This was such a beautiful book. I am so glad I departed from my normal reading to pick this up. I'd just highly recommend to anyone and everyone. Just read it (or listen to it)!
Busy Right Meow wrote: "Task 9 Completion Post:Task: Read a minimum of 750 pages in books tagged/shelved as children.
Book/cover link: The Graveyard Book
Page numbers with source: Kindle Edition, 336 pages..."
I checked out that this is Neil Gaiman's. Recently, I read Coraline, one of his similar story book. Little bit of horror in it but he has written an amazing child character. Can't wait to pick this one, Kitty. Thanks for that review.
Yes! I saw he wrote Coraline so that’s on my list now to read. Also Bad Omens which I guess is also a TV show haha. I am a sucker for books being made into live action.
Task 9 Completion Post:Task: Read a minimum of 750 pages in books tagged/shelved as children.
Book/cover link: RoomHate
Page numbers with source: Kindle Edition, 281 pages
How book qualified, with links or cover as necessary:/kids shelf
https://www.goodreads.com/work/shelve...
Page 2, kids-11
Date Completed: Oct 18, 2020
Rating/Review: 4 stars
If I had not purposely looked for a book tagged kids, I would have been surprised at the twist in this book. Even knowing that, I still didn’t get the twist correctly.
This novel is about childhood friends, Amelia & Justin who have a falling out and meet years later when the Amelia’s nana leaves them a beach house they have to co share. Justin shows up with a girlfriend and Amelia has recently gotten out of a relationship. What follows is an extremely slow burn. Is there something slower than that? Because if there is, picture it. I won’t spoil the book and mention when the couple gets together but I’ll just say to make yourself comfortable.
At times the book was a bit annoying as Justin and Amelia did not communicate their like of each other. It was specially frustrating after they have a talk and realize they had crushes on each other back when they were teens and mention how life would have been different if only they had spoke. By the time the couple gets together it was a mixture of finally and I don’t care anymore.
Reading this review you might think, then why you give it 4 stars, first for the twist, second and most importantly for the “kid”. The kid was ADORABLE 🐝🐝🐝🐝. It was nice seeing both Amelia and Justin interact and alter their life to Bumblebee (that’s the kid’s nickname). The flashbacks to Amelia’s and Justin’s childhood friendship were also cute and funny.
Jans wrote: "Task 9 Completion Post:Task: Read a minimum of 750 pages in books tagged/shelved as children.
Book/cover link: The Lightning Thief
Page numbers with source: Kindle Edition, 396 page..."
I know what you mean Jans. The Percy Jackson mythology is so nice, and well developed but when compared to HP, there just something missing. I was thought that it was just the fact that I read HP as a kid while Percy Jackson came out when I was a teenager.
Busy Right Meow wrote: "Task 9 Completion Post:Task: Read a minimum of 750 pages in books tagged/shelved as children.
Book/cover link: The Graveyard Book
Page numbers with source: Kindle Edition, 336 pages..."
Kitty, can I just say I love how you write reviews! But I also need you to stop writing nice reviews as my TBR is getting unmanageable 😂 Now excuse me while I go add The Graveyard Book
Have you guys every been reading a book and you feel like you have read a big chunk only to see that you have read a small percentage? That is how I am with this book. I will read for an hour only to read like 7%.
Katelyn wrote: "Have you guys every been reading a book and you feel like you have read a big chunk only to see that you have read a small percentage? That is how I am with this book. I will read for an hour only ..."All the time. Sometimes I disable the progress option in kindle to not worry about how much I have gone only to end up getting disappointed in seeing 5% for an hour's read. Take your time, Kat :)
Haha. I did end up disabling it a few books ago to help. I think that is why I struggle with physical books because you can see how much is left. I am stupid hard on myself for everything lol
We got out our Christmas books today at work and of course I brought a chunk of them home. I can't wait to start reading those. There are so many I want to read I am going to have to start in November. ha
Task 9 Completion Post:Task: Read a minimum of 750 pages in books tagged/shelved as children.
Book/cover link: Marek
Page numbers with source: Kindle Edition, 226 pages
How book qualified, with links or cover as necessary:/kids shelf
https://www.goodreads.com/work/shelve...
Date Completed: Oct 21, 2020
Rating/Review: 3 stars
Yea, I did not really love this one. I wanted to scream at Marek through most of the book. I just did not like the way he treated Gracen. I really wish there was more hockey in this story. All we got was him going to training camp and them attending 2 games. I read hockey romance for the HOCKEY! I also wish we got to have more of Marek and Lily bonding with each other.
So I finished my audio book on my way home from work and it just so happened to have a kid in it. So I decided to just go ahead and use this one instead.
Here is Task 10:51. Each teammate reads a different book by the same author, no pass for this task.
As a team, select an author - then make sure you all select a different book by that author.
New task! :) So originally when we answered the questions, we agreed to Nora Roberts. Does that still work for everyone or does someone want to suggest a different author?
None of hers really jump out at me, but I can try to find something if that is what everyone want to do.
Katelyn, do you have an author you would like to read?
I am trying to think of some popular ones that everyone can get their hands on. Do you have any that come to mind? I just have more than 2,000 items on my TBR and I like to pick away at some of that. Lol. Let's just say I have a problem and it may include working in a library haha
I was thinking maybe Lauren Blakely. I know we didn't do her for the series, but I am down to read one of her other books instead.
I am fine with Lauren Blakely too. She has a good amount of books to choose from.
So, this task asks for different book each. Can I take the first book Big Rock series??
Fine with me! I think I am going with Dear Sexy Ex-Boyfriend but not starting till tomorrow morning so someone just let me know if they want to read it instead.
I think I am going to read The Sexy One.
I just went to a different library and got more Christmas romances. Like I am going to be able to read all of them. I think I have a problem. haha.
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