R13: SS Team 2 - C-JA(A)BS

[Shan ~A~]

Completion Post ~ Week 11
Spot: 87
Task: Read 7th book in a series
Book: Wild Hunger
Author: Suzanne Wright
Finished: 04/04
How it fits: 7th book in The Phoenix Pack series
Rating: 5 stars
Review: Trick is the only wolf I've met who is so ready to meet his mate. Yes, most shifters are ready to meet their mates, but none has been exactly like Trick.

As soon as he sees Frankie, as an adult, he knows. He also knows that their are things in Frankie's life that is going to keep the mating bond from fully developing. So he does something un-Trick like that goes against what he and his wolf wants to do: Give Frankie time to get comfortable with him.

Frankie is half shifter/half human. Her father was accused of killing her mother, and then killing himself in front of Frankie when she was about 3. She is the only witness, but she doesn't remember what happened.

The Newman's took her away from her pack and her father's family and feed her their own story of why her parent's weren't in the picture.

Now, 20 something odd years later, she's finding out the truth and she doesn't know what to do. Whatever she decides may cause a fissure in one side of her family of the other.

Once ALL of the truths were revealed my heart was split in two for everything that she had to go through.

Still, even though she went through enough to make most people shut down, Frankie was strong and pragmatic, which I loved about her.

The author, as always, did a good job with these characters, and I was glad to see that the relationship that Trick had with Marcus wasn't swept under the rug. It was one of the things I was concerned about, unnecessarily.

[Apoorv]

AnnMarie wrote: "Just wondering will we be using the bonus points in this week's roll?"

We might as well. A few teams have just entered the 90s, so the next week might very well be the last week - so depending on our roll, if the additional 6 bonus points pushes us past 100, then we will definitely use it.

Then it becomes a race of which team reads super quickly to get past the finish line.

[Christina T]

Completion Post ~ Week 11
Spot: 87
Task: Read 7th book in a series


Book: Up from the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
Finished: 4/5/22
Rating: 4 Stars
Review: what an ending to one of my favorite series! Is been awhile since I read book 6 and I was a little worried if I'd remember everything. I did ok but wasn't as invested in the perilous situation of Cat's friends as I might have been had I read each book closer together.

I felt the ending was satisfying but I'm a bit sad it's all over. The author introduced us to a new character this last book and now I'm wondering where that character will go. I mean is it really just The End or The End (for now.)

[Apoorv]

Week #11 - Roll #11
Spot: 87

Book Read: Smoke & Mirrors | Charlie Cochet
Date Read: 07-Apr-2022
How it Fits: THIRDS #7
Rating: ★★★

Review
So, this series is now starting to feel a little jaded. There is only as much angst you can add amongst all that testosterone - and now the characters are bordering on whiny. The main plot itself felt very wafer-thin and unfortunately neither the emotions felt particularly appealing. My biggest problem was how the more I continued to read, it kept feeling like the book did not know where it wanted to go - the backstories or histories of the characters' past suddenly become important which may question their future, while their present is all in emotional shambles. The Dex and Sloane, that I came to love from in the first couple of books, now felt like teenage kids who just needed to complain about how they are treated while they themselves are not in anyway being the epitomes of emotional maturity.

The side characters were truly relegated to the side this time around, which sucked because it something the author was particularly good at incorporating in the previous books. The one redeeming factor was that the last quarter of the book seemed to pick up steam and kept me from wanting to give up on the series. Dex and Sloane and the whole THIRDS team has been a favourite, so I will gladly go through the remaining 3 books of the series, but I really hope we end up as strongly as we started.

[Apoorv]

BarbaraAnn, feel free to roll after you post your review.

This week will be the last week of the challenge, a couple of teams have used their bonuses and rolled past 100 - so we will use our 6 bonus points as well and see where it takes us.

[BarbaraAnn]

Week #10 - Spot #87

Callahan's Legacy by Spider Robinson

Completed 4/8/22
Qualification - #7 in the Callahan series
Rating *****

I know I've read this book before, but it was in the 90's and it felt like reading a new exciting book. The series revolves around a bar. In that respect, it's a bit like the Cheers tv series. a place where everybody knows your name. The difference is in the people. Jake originally found the bar planning his suicide (took place in another book that I haven't read in a lot of years so may be off on timeline). Anyway, he got drunk and noticed people were making toasts and throwing their glasses into the fireplace. He did that, thinking he would kill himself later in the night, and ended up becoming the barkeep. An alien came to destroy the human race and he also became a friend. Reading this book again reminded me of how much I love this series and Spider Robinson's books. I'll have to go back and re-read the rest.

[BarbaraAnn]

I rolled 4 & 3 for the next roll, but it looks like another team has already won. This was a great team!

[Apoorv]

I don't see anyone has won yet - it is a race to the finish from what I see between a few teams, and it might be over in a few hours.

But, with the 7 roll and our 6 bonuses, we are at exactly 100!

[Christina T]

Did we get the bonus point for not using any alternative choices? I only did series number the entire challenge.

[Apoorv]

Christina T wrote: "Did we get the bonus point for not using any alternative choices? I only did series number the entire challenge."

We did! We got all the 6 bonuses available! :D

[Christina T]

So we are at 100. Bummer we had to have one more to qualify as finishing. So we need to read a 1 or 10 or standalone?

[Apoorv]

Week 12 - Roll 12
Number Rolled: 7 + 6 Bonuses = 13
Post Your Roll - Post

----------------------------------------
Spot: 100

Book Choice:

Read a standalone book.
Read 1st book in a series

Alternate Choice:

Read a book with an author "J"

Note the bonus points!
-----------------------------------------
Books Read (Alphabetically)

AnnMarie | | | Review |
Apoorv | | | Review |
BarbaraAnn | | | Review |
Christina | | | Review |
Jennifer | | | Review |
Shan ~A~ | | | Review |

[Jennifer]

Read: The Dilemma

B.A. Paris
Read 4/8
How it fits: Standalone

Wow. I feared this book was going to be just so much navel-contemplation as each of the main characters struggled with the secrets they were keeping from each other, but I was riveted from first page to last. It helps that the secrets were significantly worse than what I expected. The last third of the book especially was a roller-coaster. There were some difficult scenes between the central characters but the author handled them very well. I see more of this author in my future.

Apoorv, thank you so much for running this show so well! I really enjoyed this challenge!

JA

[Shan ~A~]

Completion Post ~ Week 12
Spot: 100
Task: Read 1st book in a series
Book: Love, Chocolate, and Beer
Author: Violet Duke
Finished: 04/08
How it fits: 1st book in the Cactus Creek series
Rating: 2 stars
Review: The idea of a romance competition is cute, but some of their antics felt juvenile.

I will say that there were some intense emotional moments in the romcom, that I wasn't expecting, which saved the story for me. From the title I was expecting light and fluffy, but I was pleasantly surprised.

There were times that I found myself skimming, instead of reading. I disliked the scale Luke used to determine the rating on his chocolates, especially since he's pursuing a relationship with Dani. I would have felt better if I saw that addressed at some point: coming up with a different method would have went a long way and discussing his past relationship with his friend with his new love interest.

Maybe he did both those things, but it was in a part I skimmed over.

[BarbaraAnn]

I’ll read Blood Heir by Ilona Andrews. #1 in Blood heir series

[AnnMarie]

Week #12
Spot #100


Lost In Time by A.L. Lester
Qualification: #1 in the Border Magic series
Finished: 4/8
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Review: This was just okay for me, probably would have been a 2 star rating but I really liked the narrator so bumped it to 3 stars. I also think I may have enjoyed this better had I read the prequels (yes, 2 of them apparently) but I didn't realize they existed until after I finished. I may continue the series at some point, it wasn't terrible but I cannot imagine someone going from 2016 to 1919 and having no issues whatsoever assimilating. Also the main characters had very little interaction for most of the book. If you do give this a go then definitely read the prequels first.

[AnnMarie]

I think there is a winner but I finished so I posted lol It's been fun, this was my first time playing and will definitely do so again, thanks all :)

[Christina T]

I just got home and haven't even had the opportunity to pick a book lol. If one of the teams already won I'll probably forgo reading a book for this week. Thank you Apoorv for been our captain! Thanks everyone for being such a great team.

[Apoorv]

Thank you everyone for being so diligent with all your completion posts - it was just super easy to then put everything together. You folks are awesome, and I have had a great time playing another fun round of this lovely challenge.

We were so close, so extra happy that we made it through! :D