TART Challenge - Round 4 - Fast like Molasses (4)

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

Task #26 - 101. Read 8 books published in even months and even years.

Book 1:
Book: A Merciful Silence
Page Count: 351
Rating: 4 stars
Completed: Nov 13, 2021
Qualification: First published June 19th 2018

Book 2:
Book: All for This
Pages: 199
Rating: 3 stars
Completed: Nov 13, 2021
Qualification: First published August 2nd 2014

[Courtney]

Completion Post - Task #26

101. Read 8 books published in even months and even years.

Book 1


Boarlander Bash Bear

Pages: 158
Completed: 11/14
How it Qualifies: Published February 2016
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Review:

This was cute, quick installment to the series. What's not to love about Bash? He's a sweetheart who takes care of everyone. An easy guy to root for. I definitely liked that first part of this better, where you see him going after Emerson and they have their little flirty interactions. It does go to full relationship mode pretty quick, which isn't surprising in a shifter book, and a shorter book, too, but it would have been nice to have some more fun "getting to know you" scenes. The end switches gears a bit and focuses more on the over-reaching story of the series, with humans wanting to regulating shifters more and more. I do like where the series is going, but it did make the Bash/Emerson story in this book even more abrupt.

[Courtney]

~KarenH~ wrote: "Way to cover your bases, Courtney! 😁 Of course, the first Kindle edition has the initial pub date of April 25, 2014, so the version you posted above wouldn't matter either way..."

I always end up messing the date ones up somehow, so I wanted to be doubly sure 🤣

[Chan]

i finished mine last night, but passed out before i could post a completion post.
I'll start a third one, but it's okay if we don't need it.

[Elizabeth]

Task #26 - 101. Read 8 books published in even months and even years.

Book 1:
Book:
Page Count: 350
Rating: 3 stars
Completed: Nov 12, 2021
Qualification: First published August 11th 2020

Book 2:
Book:
Page Count: 532
Rating: 3 stars
Completed: Nov 13, 2021
Qualification: First published April 1st 2016

[Chan]

#26 | 101. Read 8 books published in even months and even years | Book 1
Book: Murder's a Witch
Pages: 208
Rating: 🧙‍♀️🧙‍♀️🧙‍♀️🧙‍♀️
Completed: November 13, 2021
Qualifies: published Aug 9, 2016





#26 | 101. Read 8 books published in even months and even years | Book 2
Book: Call Me Maybe
Pages: 220
Rating: 📞📞📞📞
Completed: November 13, 2021
Qualifies: Published Oct 20, 2020





#26 | 101. Read 8 books published in even months and even years | Book 3
Book: The Happy List
Pages: 307
Rating: 📃📃📃📃
Completed: Nov 14, 2021
Qualifies: Published Oct 24, 2020

[Chan]

I'll be done with 3rd in about an hour or two.

[Courtney]

Wow Chan! So fast!

[MountainKat, Moderator]

That was fast! I'll be back in the morning with your last task!

[Chan]

The only one that took some time was The Happy List because i had to read it.

Sped up, the first two books were only about 10 or 11 hours. I am so grateful to audiobooks 🤣 I was listening all day while i ran errands - in Target, Tuesday Morning, The Mall, etc. Then i listened while i cleaned...ugh! Books definitely helps with cleaning.

By the way, Call me Maybe was a fun book. Not sure how it would be reading it, but it had production. Courtney, i know you have aphantasia, but maybe the sounds might help??? 🤷‍♀️

[MountainKat, Moderator]

Here is your LAST TASK! (Sorry, the morning got away from me, had to sit in on a meeting about open enrollment. 🤪)

Task 27 - Last Task. Read books with more than one person on the cover.

Books selected for this task need to clearly and obviously have more than one person on the cover. The cover does not need to show all of both people, but it does need to show enough that it clearly has at least two people on the cover. You can use any edition’s cover to qualify. Please include the qualifying cover in your completion post.

Remember completion posts with errors or missing elements will not count towards your team total or the completion of this task. The task will be considered ‘completed’ when each team member has completed one book for this task, additional books will count towards a tie breaker if necessary. Help each other out by double checking posts are complete with the first edition Kindle page count!

There is no need to post a team completion in the Q&A thread, I will be checking all team threads at the conclusion of the challenge. 😊

[Chan]

I'll get started. i should be able to squeeze in at least three, depending on length.

[Chan]

Starting with these

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

Just so everyone is aware, I looked through Kat's tracking post a couple of days ago and unless I missed something major there's no way we can be involved in a tie unless one of the two teams that are barely ahead of us doesn't complete this final task. So all that's really required of us is for each of us to read one book and make sure our completion posts are correct, plus at least one more book by one of us just in case that unlikely event occurs. That being said, I have several M&G books that have covers with multiple people on them so I'm just going to concentrate on those for the next few days and post however many I finish (probably two, possibly three if life doesn't interfere). I guess my point is there's no need to push hard, just make sure you read at least one book that qualifies and everyone double-check your own (and everyone else's) completion posts!

I'm starting with

[Elizabeth]

Im going to read

[Courtney]

Chan wrote: "By the way, Call me Maybe was a fun book. Not sure how it would be reading it, but it had production. Courtney, i know you have aphantasia, but maybe the sounds might help??? ."

I actually have a really hard time with audiobooks. They just don't hold my attention very well. I think part of it is that they go way slower than my natural reading speed, and if you speed them up, everyone sounds like a chipmunk, which is too distracting 🤣. I actually don't have an inner voice either, so when I read, I don't "hear" the characters in my head, so the sounds of people reading character lines is kind of jarring. I'm not used to a book sounding like people, if that makes sense. When I read, I just see words and know what they mean. Since I'm not building anything in my mind, I think I need to see the words to tie me to the story or something.

The weird thing is that I'm fine with talk radio and podcasts. Maybe it's because I know it's real people talking for themselves 🤷‍♀️

[Courtney]

Do aliens count as people? 🤣

I was thinking to just do my next Icehome book

[Chan]

Thanks, Karen. I finished my book and will post tomorrow.
I'll just read the one book.

[Chan]

#27 | Last Task. Read books with more than one person on the cover
Book: Diamond Rings are Deadly Things
Pages: 320
Rating: 👰👰👰
Completed: November 16, 2021
Qualifies: bride and groom on cover

[Elizabeth]

#27 | Last Task. Read books with more than one person on the cover
Book:
Pages: 348
Rating: 🏄🏄🏄🏄
Completed: November 17, 2021
Qualifies: man and woman floating in the water on cover

[Courtney]

Completion Post - Task 27

Last Task. Read books with more than one person on the cover


Falling for the Groomsman

Pages: 226
Completed: 11/17
How it Qualifies: Two people on cover
Rating: ⭐️⭐️

Review:

I just couldn't get into this couple. What Tyler did in Mexico, then running away for eight years, and then somehow we're supposed to believe he was actually pining for Christine the whole time? Just not buying it. The fact that he ran from her without saying anything, left her crying in a hallway, three months after her parents passed away, and she was so hurt that she had to go into therapy....You can't fix all that with three days of getting it on. It just ended up feeling weird how quick Christine forgave him and how quick Tyler wanted to go all in. And his possessiveness was just way over the top for someone who hadn't bothered to reach out for eight freaking years! I just couldn't root for this couple to get together.

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

Task #27 - Last Task. Read books with more than one person on the cover.

Book 1:
Book: Lover Enshrined
Page Count: 560
Rating: 3 stars
Completed: Nov 16, 2021
Qualification: 2 people on cover above

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

Ok, we've officially completed our last task 😥 but the book I'm working on now qualifies, so if I finish before the deadline (which I should, fairly eaisly) I'll go ahead and post it, just on the off chance that we end up in a tie (extremely unlikely, but not completely impossible...yet).

[Chan]

I finally have a moment to myself. Since Friday I feel like I've been going nonstop.

Karen, thanks for re-explaining the tie breaker. I seem to confuse the end of this challenge with another. There is a challenge where you can read additional books and it will add to your overall score. So, that's what i was thinking when i planned to read at least 3 books. LOL thank you for stopping me

[Chan]

Courtney wrote: "Do aliens count as people? 🤣

I was thinking to just do my next Icehome book

"

I'd say yes! Aliens need love too 😘

[Courtney]

🤣🤣

I've started it today, but I'm not sure if I'll finish in time. I figured I should go with two people-y people first just in case 🤣

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

Task #27 - Last Task. Read books with more than one person on the cover.

Book 2:
Book: Lady Isabella's Scandalous Marriage
Page Count: 338
Rating: 4+ stars
Completed: Nov 17, 2021
Qualification: 2 people on this cover:

[MountainKat, Moderator]

You completed 27 tasks for this challenge and finished the last task with 5 books!

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

Well, I'd say 5th place is not too shabby for a team that was concentrating on just having fun and not COMPETING!! Thanks for another fun round everyone...looking forward to the next one in the spring! 😃

[Courtney]

It was great doing another round with you guys again! It's always so much fun! Look forward to the next one!

[Chan]

Agreed Karen. I was shocked when I saw we came in 5th place. Great job team. This has been fun and I too am looking forward to playing with you all again in Spring. I was hoping to get to Em Petrova this round. I even have her on my MnG. LOL maybe next time.

[Chan]

Anybody know what the next team challenge will be? Is it Bachelor?

[MountainKat, Moderator]

Chan wrote: "Anybody know what the next team challenge will be? Is it Bachelor?"

Bachelor should start in early-ish December, if I can get my act together...

It really doesn't help that we are tearing the kitchen apart one week from today! 🤦🏻‍♀️

[Chan]

Okay cool. well not so cool for you kat lol
Renovations can be fun, but now when you are living in the home. I hope there are no surprises and it goes smoothly

[MountainKat, Moderator]

Chan wrote: "Okay cool. well not so cool for you kat lol
Renovations can be fun, but now when you are living in the home. I hope there are no surprises and it goes smoothly"

Thanks! Hubby didn't want to pay to do the demo, so we are doing it ourselves. Yay?! But we are just replacing the countertops... And the sink and faucet... And the cooktop and downdraft... So yeah, not that much. 🤪

Oh, nearly forgot, we are replacing the bar in the living room too. 🤦🏻‍♀️ But that will only leave old icky tile in the bathrooms and that is a project for another year!

[Elizabeth]

I had so much fun too! I hope everyone has a great holiday. I look forward to the next time we get to team up.

[Courtney]

MountainKat wrote: "Chan wrote: "Okay cool. well not so cool for you kat lol
Renovations can be fun, but now when you are living in the home. I hope there are no surprises and it goes smoothly"

Thanks! Hubby didn't w..."

Wow! You guys are brave! I'm so not good at anything home improvement like. Best I can do is put together IKEA furniture, lol.

[Chan]

Hi Ladies!!! Should we use this thread to start deciding things? Karen pointed out that none of us are in the same time zone so it might be best to get a head start on the tasks that require decisions.

How do we add Tink to this thread?

First up, Name. Do we want to change our name?
I'm kind of liking Fast Like Molasses and would be okay with sticking with it.

[Courtney]

Maybe send her a message with a link?

I like Fast like Molasses, too, so I'm happy with keeping it.

I think main things are everyone coming up with an author and/or series for those tasks.

There are two sub-genre ones. We've always just done contemporary, so should we change or keep the same?

We also need a profession and animal. Last time we did military and dog.

We all hated trying to find a motorcycle last time, so should we do boat, plane, or car this time? I vote boat because at least that opens up to contemporary or historical.

A cover color...we had white last time. Maybe blue or grey would be easier?

And I need Tink's hometown, birth year, and birth month to update those tasks.

[Chan]

Okay so two of us are good with the name. Let's see what Tink thinks. Karen is usually pretty easy unless she has been brainstorming other name ideas.

I'm going to look through my MnG books for the series and author. I'm good with keeping the genre contemporary b/c it is so broad.

I'm good with dog. There are a lot of books with a dog. I'm indifferent about profession. Military is fine with me.

YES, please let's change motorcyle. I'm good with car or boat. I think for car, a wagon would work for historical. We may need to check with Kat first though

for color my vote would be grey.

I'll be back in a few hours with the other stuff.

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

Chan wrote: "Okay so two of us are good with the name. Let's see what Tink thinks. Karen is usually pretty easy unless she has been brainstorming other name ideas.

I'm going to look through my MnG books for th..."

I don't brainstorm names unless I ABSOLUTELY have to...I'm horrible at them! 😂

I just sent a message to Tink letting her know we're meeting here for now, so hopefully she'll stop in soon. I have company arriving any minute, so I'll be back later, but you guys know I'll pretty much roll with anything!

[Chan]

Have fun, Karen!

I think i want to change my suggested book list. Hmm...I'll let you all know.

[Tink Magoo is bad at reviews]

Hi,

Thanks for letting me join in.

England would be my hometown. I'm sure last time that was allowed as our towns are so small here and near impossible to find books based in them. My birth year is 1984 and my birth month is April.

I read across most romance genres apart from suspense usually as I have no patience. I'd go for a car over a boat and any colour is good with me.

[Chan]

For my pick of author, i would like to go with any of the following. I'm putting choices for you all to choose from b/c I'm not sure of Tink's reading preferences:

Ilona Andrews
Nora Roberts/JD Robb
Jayne Ann Krentz
Sarina Bowen
Lucy Lennox

And for series...
Lucky Harbor by Jill Shalvis
Thunder Point by Robyn Carr
In Death by JD Robb
Licking Thicket by Lucy Lennox
Hidden Legacy by Ilona Andrews

[Chan]

Tink Magoo is bad at reviews wrote: "Hi,

Thanks for letting me join in.

England would be my hometown. I'm sure last time that was allowed as our towns are so small here and near impossible to find books based in them. My birth year..."

Hey Tink! Glad to have you with us. Welcome!
Do you have any team name preferences?

[Tink Magoo is bad at reviews]

Chan wrote: "Tink Magoo is bad at reviews wrote: "Hi,

Thanks for letting me join in.

England would be my hometown. I'm sure last time that was allowed as our towns are so small here and near impossible to fi..."

I'm good with keeping the name you had.

My preference would be with

Sarina Bowen or
Ilona Andrews

from the ones you've suggested. But, I'm pretty sure I could find something with the others if they have a few shorter ones

[Chan]

Okay. let's see if karen or Courtney have a preference of those two.

Tink, some of the tasks require us to pick an author or a series to read. A few rounds ago, we decided it was easier to split those tasks up and allow each person to decide for one of those tasks. We usually just pick whatever we want without input, but we know each other's interests and are mindful.

So, you will need to pick a series or an author too. For me, I honestly read almost anything romance related. A big exception is horror, thriller or those very dark stories. Those are a big no go for me. Other than that, i will try anything. Last round Courtney had me read my first Alien novel and it was pretty good! Except the heart eating scene...blech 😝. I think it was a Ruby Dixon novel. or was it Em Petrova. Can't remember now.

I'm excited to see what you might introduce me to 😊

[Tink Magoo is bad at reviews]

I am sooo tempted to make everyone read tentacle sex :D

[Chan]

This will be my new suggested list...I think

- historical
- fantasy MM, MF, MFM
- YA
- historical fantasy MM
- contemporary humor

[Chan]

Tink Magoo is bad at reviews wrote: "I am sooo tempted to make everyone read tentacle sex :D"

What is that? LOL Never heard of it. If it's not a thriller, i would be open to giving it a shot.