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

[Courtney]

Elizabeth wrote: "I posted the correction in the main thread."

Thanks Liz! Sorry about the mix up. I blame pregnancy brain for not catching it 🤣.

[Courtney]

Ok, so next task is the Seattle Sharks one.

Seattle Sharks

I'm going to do Book 4, Rookie.

[MountainKat, Moderator]

Thanks Liz - I've got you complete for the first task now. 😊

[Courtney]

MountainKat wrote: "think you could go either way with that series, read it prequel first or in the order they were written. Maybe Karen has more input, I know we've both read them."

~KarenH~ wrote: "I agree with Kat, you really could go either way. "

Thanks! I started a series last year at the prequel, and there were so many references to other things I hadn't read that I was totally confused, so now I always question it 🤣.

[Elizabeth]

Courtney wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "I posted the correction in the main thread."

Thanks Liz! Sorry about the mix up. I blame pregnancy brain for not catching it 🤣."

Congratulations, that is so exciting. No need to apologize, it’s not your fault, I should have caught that too. That’s what I get for not looking closely at the details. Plus, I got to read another great book so no harm. I’m just glad that it didn’t cause us a delay.

[Courtney]

Thanks! I figured I needed a challenge, so why not be pregnant in my 40s in the middle of a global pandemic 🤣🤣🤣.

We'd actually been hoping to have a third, so it was a nice surprise. The kids are super excited. Going to doctor appointments by myself kind of sucks, though. But doctor said next month, they're allowing more people to come at once (there were limits because the country was in Level 3 all summer...announced the same week I found out I was pregnant of course 🤦‍♀️), so everyone will be able to come to my next appointment and see the ultrasound, so that's really exciting.

[Elizabeth]

Courtney wrote: "Thanks! I figured I needed a challenge, so why not be pregnant in my 40s in the middle of a global pandemic 🤣🤣🤣.

We'd actually been hoping to have a third, so it was a nice surprise. The kids are..."

That’s great. I feel for you I was a nervous wreck before each appointment, and don’t know what I would have done if my husband didn’t get to come to each appointment. Although, that was my first baby. Needless to say, I read too many horror stories. I’m hoping when my husband and I decide to have another it will be better.

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

Courtney wrote: "Thanks! I figured I needed a challenge, so why not be pregnant in my 40s in the middle of a global pandemic 🤣🤣🤣.

We'd actually been hoping to have a third, so it was a nice surprise. The kids are..."

Congrats, Courtney! You do have interesting timing, but I'm glad to hear that things are finally getting better there so the rest of the family can be there for the ultrasound. Can't say the same here...although fortunately my state is in better shape than many, but it's still scary out there.

[Elizabeth]

Completed Task 2 - 9. Each player reads a book in the same series, teams decide. No pass for this task.

Pages: 208
Completed: 9/24
How it Qualifies: Series selected Seattle Sharks Series book 1 https://www.goodreads.com/series/1815...

Rating: 😍😍😍

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

Task #1 - 0. Each teammate reads a book initially published in a fall month, teams decide which month
Team chose Seattle Sharks

Book: Enforcer
Pages: 232
Rating: 4 stars
Completed: Sept 24, 2021
Qualification: Book 2 in the Seattle Sharks series.

[Courtney]

Completion Post - Task #2

9. Each player reads a book in the same series, teams decide. No pass for this task.
Team chose Seattle Sharks


Rookie
Pages: 216
Completed: 9/25
How it Qualifies: Book 4 in the Seattle Sharks series

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Review:

This was a cute, little second-chance romance. I'm not usually a fan of the altruistic "I'm breaking up with you because it's better for you, but I'm not going to tell you why" thing that happens in a lot of second-chance romances, but I do think that it actually made sense in Chloe's case with what was happening with her family and how devoted of a guy Bentley was. However, Bentley's reciprocal altruistic breakup near the end of the book was...



(view spoiler)[He's worried about Chloe losing her job and not having enough money to keep her mom in the care facility.....when he's a millionaire? He literally pays for her mom's care three chapters later, so why wouldn't he have thought of that before breaking up with Chloe so she wouldn't risk losing her job? Made no sense. (hide spoiler)]

For me personally, the extra drama with Chloe's ex was a bit much and didn't really feel as flushed out as everything else in the story. Maybe because there was already so much focus on other things. I'm not sure. But it felt like too much happening.

Overall, I did enjoy this. Not my favorite book in the series, but it was a sweet read.

[Courtney]

Elizabeth wrote: "That’s great. I feel for you I was a nervous wreck before each appointment, and don’t know what I would have done if my husband didn’t get to come to each appointment."

Yeah, I'm really glad this is my third and not my first. I think it would be so much harder if I didn't already know what to expect. And I'm going to the same clinic with the same doctor, so I feel super comfortable with her. My friend is due with her first any day now, and it's been really hard for her. At least she wasn't due in summer, though. For a while, they weren't allowing fathers in the delivery room either! That would be such a nightmare. Her husband is going to be allowed in, but he needs to take a COVID test when they check in and that's it.

[Courtney]

~KarenH~ wrote: "Congrats, Courtney! You do have interesting timing, but I'm glad to hear that things are finally getting better there so the rest of the family can be there for the ultrasound. Can't say the same here...although fortunately my state is in better shape than many, but it's still scary out there"

Thanks! Definitely the weirdest time to have a baby I'm sure! 🤣.
I am grateful to be here, though. I'm in a pregnancy group online, and most of the mommies are in the US, and they're so worried about hospital overcrowding when the time comes. I can't imagine having to worry about that on top of everything else! We have things pretty well contained her now. One or two scares this month with things slipping through quarantine, but they've managed to catch them before too much spread.

The hardest part here is that we just don't have many vaccines coming in, so only about 8% of the country is fully vaccinated. That's why they're being so strict at the border especially. Luckily, they put pregnant women as a top priority group, so I managed to get mine. Makes me feel a bit better, but it'll definitely be more of a relief when more people are covered. Our hospitals are good, but we have a huge elderly population here, so if there was a big outbreak, I really don't know how well we'd do.

[Chan]

#2 | 9. Each player reads a book in the same series, teams decide.
Team chose Seattle Sharks
Book: Grinder
Pages: 208
Rating: 🏒🏒🏒🏒
Completed: Sept 25, 2021
Qualifies: Book 1 in Seattle Sharks

[MountainKat, Moderator]

Congrats Courtney! I'm glad things are better there and your family can start coming with you to appointments!

We are doing better here, but still so many uncaring and selfish people making it hard on everyone. I don't mind the restrictions and will probably mask up forever in closed places during the flu/cold season - it's been so nice NOT getting sick all the time! (And I'm not around littles a lot like I used to be, and I would still get the colds going around!)

I know one of my neighbors has taken a different approach to her birth - we are delivering her at home. 😊 At least she doesn't have to worry about hospital space. 😉

[MountainKat, Moderator]

Here is your next task!

Task 3 - 5. Read 4 books first published within the last year.

To qualify for this task, the selected books need to have been initially published on or after September 25, 2020. If there is a date listed at the top of the editions page use it. Otherwise I will be looking for the earliest dated English language edition regardless of format as the qualification. Please include the initial publication date of your selected book in your completion post.

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

Found one that someone on my PtP team is reading for the current task there that fits this one too, so I'm going with it!

[Courtney]

Oh yay! I was holding out on PTP hoping I could double up.

I'm going to do .

[Chan]

Hi. Can I pass this one?

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

I have a 2nd book already lined up that I can read for our 4th book - the one I was planning on reading before I found the one that I'm reading now. 😁 Chan, I'm not sure if Kat requires a completion post for a pass like Jane does in the PtP, but why don't you do one just in case...

[Courtney]

Ugh, my book is sooooo cheeseball. It's not bad, but the cheesiness is strong!!!

[Courtney]

Chan wrote: "Hi. Can I pass this one?"

All I found about passes was this,

Each teammate will need to participate in each task, but may take a pass for one task during the course of the challenge.

So, I guess just make a post saying you're passing for this task?

[Chan]

I was going to make a post, but I wanted to make sure it was okay with the team for me to pass this task because someone would need to read two books.

[Chan]

#3 | 5. Read 4 books first published within the last year | Pass
Book:
Pages:
Rating:
Completed:
Qualifies:

[Elizabeth]

5. Read 4 books first published within the last year

Pages: 384
Rating: 😍😍😍😍😍
Completed: 9/26
Qualifies: published September 14, 2021

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

Task #3 - 5. Read 4 books first published within the last year

Book 1:
Book: The Highland Fling
Page Count: 349
Rating: 3.5 stars
Completed: Sept 26, 2021
Qualification: First published August 24th 2021

Book 2:
Book: Right Behind Her
Pages: 315
Rating: 4 stars
Completed: Sept 26, 2021
Qualification: First published September 14th 2021

[Courtney]

Completion Post - Task #3

5. Read 4 books first published within the last year.


Duke of Disrepute

Pages: 213
Completed: 9/27
How it Qualifies: Published April 6, 2021

Rating: ⭐️⭐️
Review:

I wanted to like this, but it's just so surface and cheesy that it was really hard to get into. And so much in here just doesn't make sense.

For example, the book starts with the reason why Weston became the "Duke of Disrepute", and it's honestly just ridiculous. He catches his fiance with another man, doesn't want to marry her (obviously), but doesn't want to tell anyone that he caught her doing this.



For some reason, he agrees to let his now ex-fiance make up whatever story she wants, and she tells him that she's going to spread rumors that he's a horrible man-whore. So, Weston just decides to make her lies true and so starts his life of debauchery and shagging every woman he sees.



Eventually he starts getting sick of his lifestyle and wanders off to work for a farmer, where he learns that all women aren't horrible and decides he wants to get married. He returns home, and lucky for him Elise and her daughter have a carriage accident right down the driveway, and he knows after one day that they should be married. But don't worry, he's still jaded and doesn't love her, and tells everyone he'll never actually love her, but she's smart and pretty, so he knows she's the best match he'll ever find.



Anyway, then our Duke comes up with a plan to pretend to have Elise help him find a wife, and he'll help her find a husband. While secretly he'll be trying to get her for himself. But, here's the problem...Elise LIKES the Duke. It makes no sense that he would need to trick her when she would have been happy courting him from the beginning. If the author had done a better job building up some of the drama, making Elise wary of him because of his past man-whore ways or something, perhaps the story line would have worked. But it doesn't work because Weston is always devoted to her and her child, and Elise has feelings for him as soon as they meet. Unfortunately, there's really not much relationship building in here, and the entire relationship is very surface-level, so I'm not sure WHY they love each other or WHY they know the other person is better than everyone else, but whatever the reason, there's just no drama that worked to have actually kept them from marrying that first week they meet.

Eventually, we do get to the end, but just like in Duke of Renown (I didn't read book 2, so I'm not sure about that one), the author continues the book for several chapters after the story actually ends for no reason. The entire story is supposed to be about Weston getting Elise, so the story should have ended the night he proposed and they go and move her out from her in-laws house...But it doesn't. There are a few useless scenes where they go shopping and whatever, and then randomly some guy mentioned as having a grudge against Weston tries to harm Elise. WHY? It makes absolutely no sense. The hostility between the two men is barely touched on in the story. One or two little mentions, but nothing super fleshed out. Surface. It's all surface drama with no substance. And it's resolved in a matter of pages, so there's no point to the entire episode.

I didn't hate the idea of the story; I just don't think it was put together well enough to work. There need to be more tension between the MCs. We needed to see them actually learn more about each other and fall in love. And if the whole bad guy thing was going to be added in, it needed to be a more robust storyline. It's too much telling and not enough showing.

And OMG the cheesiness in this thing!!! If you've read the first book, then you know about how Phoebe's husband and child died. Guess who's husband died in the same accident? And when the women find out they're all hugging and start talking about how now they're great friends and bonded through tragedy because they both lost people and lost their babies that they happened to be carrying at the same time.



And also, I'm not sure who wrote the precis for this book, but it's wrong. Elise and her first husband had a daughter already, and she was pregnant with a second child when her husband died. That child was a boy (view spoiler)[who died of SIDS. And then Weston and Elise have a baby in the epilogue who dies of SIDS, too. (hide spoiler)]. I personally felt the inclusion of that was a bit much. Something like that really needs to have more healing time in the book. Just felt like more surface drama for drama's sake 🤷🏼‍♀️.

I won't be continuing with the series. I think I've gotten the feel of it after two books, and it's just not a style that works for me.

[MountainKat, Moderator]

Here is your next task!

Task 4 - 23. Each teammate reads a book that has been read by one of the RRRC moderators. No pass for this task.

To qualify for this task, the selected books need to be marked as read by one of the RRRC moderators. There is no date requirement for this task, but the selected book must be marked as read and rated. Please include a link to the moderator's review or read shelf in your completion posts. To make your searching easier - Fran, Jane, Karen and I all read MM Romance, but Jane reads MM exclusively. Fran, Karen and I read both MF and MM.


Karen, you may not reread a book you have read unless it was also read by another moderator.

Chan, I have it down that you have used your pass for this round.

[Chan]

Howdy! I'm back and ready to read. I had a fantastic vacation, but I ate something, touched something or it could have been florida water and was having an allergic reaction. The medicine knocks me out and i feel like i'm in a fog for about 48 - 72 hours.

It's over now and I'm feeling super good. Off to rummage through the RRRC's shelves. primarily Karen and MKat's shelves hehehe.

[Chan]

Thought this might be helpful:

23. Each teammate reads a book that has been read by one of the RRRC moderators. No pass for this task.
Jane’s Shelf
Fran’s Shelf
MKat’s Shelf
Karen’s Shelf
Yz the Whyz’s Shelf

[Chan]

I've been wanting to reread this for a while - Forgotten Sins

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

[Elizabeth]

I’m so excited Karen read the Highland Fling for the last task! It’s been on my TBR for a little while, calling my name. I kept picking up other books. I guess it was just meant to be lol.

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

Elizabeth wrote: "I’m so excited Karen read the Highland Fling for the last task! It’s been on my TBR for a little while, calling my name. I kept picking up other books. I guess it was just meant to be lol."

Glad it worked out for you, Liz!

And for my part, I'm going with Fakers off Kat's shelves. Not exactly a hardship for me to find something on her shelves that works for me! 😁

[Courtney]

Just got up, so I'll look through the shelves,

Glad you're feeling better Chan! Getting sick on vacation is the freaking worst!

[Chan]

Thanks, Courtney. It did suck, but i still had a good time. We went to universal studios and i was amazed by how the pandemic has changed everything. before covid, we could be in line for over an hour. But last week, the shortest line was 5 mins and the longest line was 30 mins. I was very happy, but that can't be good for their bottom line :-(

[Courtney]

Oh, that's great! I remember when Disney opened back up there were videos of these insane lines to get in, and I could not figure out how anyone would want to deal with that! I hate crowds so much. Looked like my worst nightmare 🤣

Do they have the Mario land at the Universal Studios there? They opened one in Japan last year, and we're dying to take the kids. Hopefully next year 🤞

[Courtney]

Well, I was all set to just go ahead and do Wilde in Love since it's burning a hole in my ereader, but I found on both MKat and Fran's lists and they both rated it 4 stars, so I'm thinking it must be good. Not sure why I'm in a Christmas mood already, that's two Christmas books this month 🤣.

[Chan]

I didn't see mario land, but they did have harry potter. We were trying to get to it, but we kept walking past it. LOL it was so funny. They had a 'secret' passageway for it. It was cool.

[Chan]

i've been wanting to reread book 1 of Sin Brothers because i rated the other books higher. I was thinking maybe i was being too cynical, but my feelings are the same so far. I'm about 3/4 through and I still think Zanetti did not fully use Shane's ability. She focused more on his fighting than the supernatural ability...his hearing. And to me that is what makes him so cool. There are plenty of fighter novels, but the heightened hearing is special. And then there is Josie. i'm not as aggravated with her this time around, but I did want to throat punch her a couple of chapters ago 😂

[Courtney]

MountainKat wrote: "Congrats Courtney! I'm glad things are better there and your family can start coming with you to appointments!

We are doing better here, but still so many uncaring and selfish people making it ha..."

Thanks, MKat! (Sorry, I didn't see your post before 🤦‍♀️.)

Super grateful that at least masks aren't a big deal here. Everyone wears them when they're sick under normal circumstances, so getting everyone on board on isn't hard. It's just normal SOP. Actually, with my past pregnancies, my doctor always recommended masking in crowded areas anyway since being sick when you're pregnant sucks so bad 🤣. So I'd likely be a wearing a mask indoors either way anyhow.

It seems like the birthing center here will be pretty normal. I've heard of moms having to labor with masks on in the US 😳. That sounds tough! I'm not sure if I could do the home birth, though. I definitely needed that epidural with my other two!🤣

[Courtney]

Oh shoot!

So, when I clicked the book from the shelves, it said it had 166 pages, but when I went to link it now, it says 84! I checked and there were two versions published on the same day! 🤦🏽‍♀️

[Chan]

#4 | 23. Each teammate reads a book that has been read by one of the RRRC moderators
Book: Forgotten Sins
Pages: 401
Rating: 👂👂👂
Completed: September 28, 2021
Qualifies: Karen read and rated the book

[Chan]

I forgot to say congrats, Courtney. I hope everything goes smooth for you!

[Chan]

oh yeah. i just looked. use the one with 166 pages

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

Chan wrote: "oh yeah. i just looked. use the one with 166 pages

"

Yes, as long as there's one that qualifies, it doesn't matter that there's another version that doesn't!

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

Well, shoot! I misread the date on my book and it doesn't qualify! Actually, I was going back and forth in my M&G picks between the 1st and 2nd books in the series and I think I looked at the date for the 2nd book and in my mind gave it to the first book. Oh well, I'm home all day today still trying to create order out of chaos, so I'll just move on to the next book in the series and barring something totally unexpected happening, should be able to finish easily by this evening.

[Chan]

~KarenH~ wrote: "Chan wrote: "oh yeah. i just looked. use the one with 166 pages

"

Yes, as long as there's one that qualifies, it doesn't matter that there..."

Yeah. i doubled checked - one has 84 pages and the other has 166 pages and they both were published Nov 21, 2019 which is the earliest publication date at the top of the page.

That's kind of weird though

[Chan]

~KarenH~ wrote: "Well, shoot! I misread the date on my book and it doesn't qualify! Actually, I was going back and forth in my M&G picks between the 1st and 2nd books in the series and I think I looked at the date ..."

I do stuff like that quite often. I hope you at least enjoyed the book.

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

Thanks Chan, I definitely did. I really like Lucy Lennox though, so I would have been shocked if I didn't like it! I'm really glad the next book in the series qualifies...makes things really easy!

[Elizabeth]

#4 | 23. Each teammate reads a book that has been read by one of the RRRC moderators
Book:
Pages: 349
Rating: 🥰🥰🥰
Completed: September 28, 2021
Qualifies: Karen read and rated the book https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4...