Romance Readers Reading Challenges discussion
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TART Challenge - Round 6 - Are we there yet? (7)
You aren't due for your next task until tomorrow - I will be back then to check your books and give you a new task. 📚
I've checked all your completions - at least I think I have, so you are good going forward!Here is your next task!
Task 14 - 66. Read over 1000 pages in books with Mystery or Suspense as MPG.
Books selected for this task need to have 'Mystery' or 'Suspense' as a Main Page Genre. Remember to use the first edition Kindle page count.
Task 14. 66-has mystery or suspense listed as a genreQualification: genre =mystery 320+
The Rose Code
Rose Code by Kate Quinn
Pages: 646
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
Date Finished: October 17, 2022
Review: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Much better than ALICE NETWORK, the mystery in this plot is figuring out who the mole is in a Betchley Park code breaking group. Told using a dual time line (during WW2 and a few years after) the historical research about Betchley, WW2 in London, language of that time is spot on. An additional bonus in this book is the author's creative way of fictionalizing real historic characters and included them in the story.
Based in the "Afterword" in this book, I would give it 6 stars if it was on my scale. Author Quinn's most interesting characters in this book were based on real WW2 heroes and heroines who have inspired me greatly. Wow! This book is now in my top 5 books to recommend!
COMPLETION
YouYou by Carol Kepnes
Pages: 432
Qualification: genre marked mystery/mystery thriller 1600+
Date Finished: October 18, 2022
Review: ⭐⭐⭐ YOU is a contemporary cautionary tale of the portal into our lives created by social media, which can be used by those with ill intent. Bookophiles and movie lovers will love the knowing mention of many titles woven into a web of conversation about the way book stores operate with side quips that are critiques on popular culture and American lifestyle. I would tell a friend, who has had trouble in her life with a stalker, skip this book. Well written and audiobook is well performed.
Very impressive for a debut book. #1 of a 3 book unfinished series....#4 expected 2023.
Benita has kindly read our page count requirement so if you haven’t pick a book it can be a short one. Remember just needs to be 150 pages per the kindle earliest edition.Benita - I liked the rose code too! I want to read one of her Roman History novels next!
Jean wrote: "Benita has kindly read our page count requirement so if you haven’t pick a book it can be a short one. Remember just needs to be 150 pages per the kindle earliest edition.Benita - I liked the ros..."
Jean...
OMG! I slogged thru ALICE NETWORK. I picked up ROSE CODE because it met this challenge. Wow! What a different experience! I was firmly in the "very good book" 4.5+ range.
But, then, in the author's notes at the end, to learn that most of the characters were real people, best lines were gleaned from histories and autobiographies, tons of museum curators, government officials and historians fact checked the book...and it is a spellbinding, historically accurate story with human emotions that are so true to life became a more impressive.
After reading the author's notes, I was more super impressed with the book's quality.
Benita
One Sentence Audio wrote: "Jean wrote: "Benita has kindly read our page count requirement so if you haven’t pick a book it can be a short one. Remember just needs to be 150 pages per the kindle earliest edition.Benita - I ..."
So WWII is a genre I read a lot. One of the best I have read recently, also based on real people, is Code Name Hélène if you haven’t read it.
Also if you like British mysteries a really good post WWI series is the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear. I listened to the audiobooks . I think there are 17 books now. Starting at the end of the Great War and it is now into WWII. I could listen to the British accents all day long but their American accents cracked me up. Is that really how we sound to them?
Jean wrote: "One Sentence Audio wrote: "Jean wrote: "Benita has kindly read our page count requirement so if you haven’t pick a book it can be a short one. Remember just needs to be 150 pages per the kindle ear..."Thank you SO MUCH! I have added these to my spreadsheet.
WW2 history was my spouse favorite type of program on thecHistory Channel, so I was very impressed with the accuracy in ROSE CODE.
I appreciate the recs.
Completion Post 
🌹Task: #66. Read over 1000 pages in books with Mystery or Suspense as MPG.
🌹 Finished Date: October 18th
Page #'s: 336 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
How it Fits: MPG Mystery
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Completion posting: Task 14Task: 66. Read over 1000 pages in books with Mystery or Suspense as MPG
Book/cover link: Critical Alliance
Page numbers: 337 no pages in kindle edition on goodreads link to Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09...
How book qualified: mpg mystery
Date Completed: 10/18/22
Rating/review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A race to prevent the sale of drone software technology developed for the military stolen by a cyber thief is the premise of the book. Who the thief is, how he is doing it, what is his end game is all part of the mystery.
Completion Post 
Task: #66. Read over 1000 pages in books with Mystery or Suspense as MPG.
Finished Date: October 18th
Page #'s: 200 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...
How it Fits: MPG Mystery
Rating: 4 stars
Team 7 Are we there yet?Completion posting
Task 14
Crystal pages 336
Allie pages 200
Benita pages 646
Jean pages 337
One Sentence Audio wrote: "Task 14. "Please add the qualification, thanks.
One Sentence Audio wrote: "COMPLETION YouYou by Carol Kepnes
Pages: 432
Date Finished: October 18, 2022
Review: ⭐⭐⭐ YOU is a contemporary cautionary tale of the portal into our lives..."
Please add the qualification, thanks.
I will be back tomorrow with your next task!
MountainKat wrote: "One Sentence Audio wrote: "COMPLETION YouYou by Carol Kepnes
Pages: 432
Date Finished: October 18, 2022
Review: ⭐⭐⭐ YOU is a contemporary cautionary tale o..."
Done. In bold
MountainKat wrote: "One Sentence Audio wrote: "Task 14. "Please add the qualification, thanks."
Hi Kat,
Thank you. Done...in bold.
Benita
Here is your next task!Task 15 - 27. Read a minimum of 750 pages in books published in any one year prior to 2018, team picks the year.
As a team select a year prior to 2018 and then read at least 750 pages in books initially published in the selected year. For this task use the initial publication date. 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 for the qualification. Remember to use the first edition Kindle page count.
COMPLETIONTask 15. #27. team select a year prior to 2018 and then read at least 750 pages. Team picked 2017
Seumas
Seumas by Jane Stain (Dunskey Castle 2 of 19)
How Qualifies: first pub Feb 28, 2017 paperback
Pages: 240 Kindle 1st (source: Goodreads editions)
Date Finished: October 19, 2022
Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a re-read for me. I started the series 13 months ago. But after buying the entire series on Audible I discovered they had changed narrators to one I did not enjoy. (Original was good ..Lucy Rainer. Replacement and the narrator that finished the series...Andrew McDermott...too sing-songy. I bought without catching the change in narrator) So, I am starting over for this very predictable Scottish time travel, archeological, romance series. Stain has one of the most comple series matrixes, with one major series broken into 6 overlapping parts.
Completion Post 
Task: #27. Team reads a minimum of 750 pages in books published any one year prior to 2018. Team chose 2017.
Finished Date: October 20th
Page #'s: 285 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
How it Fits: Published October 24th, 2017
Rating: 4 stars
Completion posting: Task 15Task: 27. Read a minimum of 750 pages in books published in any one year prior to 2018, team picks the year. The team picked 2017.
Book/cover link: After All
Page numbers: 276
How book qualified: published May 2, 2017
Date Completed: 10/20/22
Rating/review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Cute romance featuring a woman raised in a dysfunctional home where her mother controlled her dad’s actions by being endlessly needy. She is afraid of needing other people and relationships in general.
Completion Post 
🌹Task: #27. Read a minimum of 750 pages in books published in any one year prior to 2018, team picks the year. (Team chose 2017)
🌹 Finished Date: Oct. 20th
Page #'s: 324 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
How it Fits: Book originally released in 7/7/2017
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Completion posting: Task 15Task: 27. Read a minimum of 750 pages in books published in any one year prior to 2018, team picks the year. The team picked 2017.
Book/cover link: Shades of Time
Page numbers: 347
How book qualified: published September 2017
Date Completed: 10/20/22
Rating/review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I jumped ahead 3 books in the Sarah Woodbury's After Cilmeri series to read the book from 2017, and it worked well. This is a time travel series which goes back and forth between modern times and medieval Wales, dealing with the monarchies of Wales, Scotland, Ireland and England. Shades of Time takes place simultaneously with Outpost in Time, the previous book in the After Cilmeri series.
Team 7 Are we there yet?Completion posting
Task 15
Crystal pages 324
Allie pages 285
Benita pages 240
Jean pages 276
Here is your next task!Task 16 - 74. Read 6 books published in a teammates' birth month, you may not use your own month.
This is not a team decision, you may read a book initially published in the birth month of any teammate. You may not use your own birth month unless it is the birth month of another teammate as well. Use the initial publication date for this task. 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 for the qualification. Please include the teammate and their birth month in your completion posts.
Completion Post
🌹Task: #74. Read 6 books published in a teammates' birth month.
🥀How it Qualifies: I chose February for Allie and Benita’s birth month.
🌹Pages: 214 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
🥀Date Finished: October 21st
🌹Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
COMPLETIONTavish
Tavish by Jane Stain
Pages: 242
Date Completed: October 21, 2022
How Qualifies: Published December 18, 2016, Teammate Jean was born in December
Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️I am using this challenge to bounce around in Stain's Dunskey Castle series and try to finish it, having bought the entire series without realizing that the boxset audio series was done by a different and mediocre narrator. Tavish is book #19 in the mega Dunskey Castle series and #1 in the Dunskey Castle or Druid Magic section of the Dunskey Castle mega series....yes, series names/structure is very confusing. This story follows a heroine on a Gaelic archeological dig only to become involved with a medieval Scot and time travel.
Completion posting: Task 16Task: 74. Read 6 books published in a teammates' birth month, you may not use your own month
Book/cover link: Natural Born Charmer
Page numbers: 400
How book qualified: published February 2007, Benita and Allie’s birth month
Date Completed: 10/22/22
Rating/review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Cute, funny book about an artist and a professional football player finding family and love.
COMPLETION POSTTask: 74. Read 6 books published in a teammates' birth month, you may not use your own month
Book: Love Beyond Boundaries
Pages Kindle 1st Edition: 304
How Book Qualifies: first pub date February 8, 2020 https://www.goodreads.com/work/editio.... Teammate Allie's birth month. Note: an alternate book publication site gives December 2019 (Jean waa born in December) as the publication month, but that month also syncs with a teammate birth month.
Date Completed: October 22, 2022
Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I now totally understand a statement my teammate Crystal makes on her Goodreads profile about unfinished series. Having not read for pleasure for 40 years because of work reading, I rediscovered reading because of the television series Outlander's covid drought of new episodes. After reading Diana Gabaldon's oeuvre in 3 months, I then went in search of similar authors available in audiobooks. This series by Bethany Claire was one of the first I found. I waited for 2 years for the last few books in the series to be available via library apps, but that never happened. I recently bought the last few titles during an Audible 70% off sale. The series is ☆☆☆ but is entertaining Scottish time travel romances. Plots are not intricate, so allow multi tasking.
This book is #12 of a 12 novel and 7+ novella series and tells the story of Allanah and Ross. Allanah, a modern era physical therapst, and Ross, a medieval Scot, both dealing with personal grief when they meet. I am hopeful their story will help me deal with my own sorrow.
Completion posting: Task 16Task: 74. Read 6 books published in a teammates' birth month, you may not use your own month
Book/cover link: Blaze
Page numbers: 163
How book qualified: published in June Crystal’s birth month
Date Completed: 10/22/22
Rating/review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
This series is about wounded vets searching for retired war dogs that have gone missing. They are feel good books as the vets have are will overcome their combat issues both physical and mental to find their HEA.
One Sentence Audio wrote: "COMPLETION POSTTask: 74. Read 6 books published in a teammates' birth month, you may not use your own month
Book: Love Beyond Boundaries
Pages Kindle 1st Edition:
How Book Qua..."
Benita, you need add the page numbers of 304. And yes you are correct the earliest publication date is December 2019.
Jean wrote: "One Sentence Audio wrote: "COMPLETION POSTTask: 74. Read 6 books published in a teammates' birth month, you may not use your own month
Book: Love Beyond Boundaries
Pages Kindle ..."
Thank you! Done.
Completion Post 
Task: #74. Read 6 books published in a teammates' birth month.
How it Qualifies: I chose June for Crystal's birth month.
Pages: 310 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...
Date Finished: October 23rd
Rating: 5 stars
I had an early start this morning so I will check completions when I am home this afternoon. Here is your next task!
Task 17 - 63. Read a minimum of 1200 pages in books tagged 'magic' or 'magical’.
Books selected for this task need to be tagged 'magic' or 'magical'. Qualification can come from tags/shelves only. Variations of the words and combo tags will be allowed in context. Please include a link to the top shelves page with your qualifying tag along with how many tags and the top shelves page number in your completion posts. Remember to use the first edition Kindle page count.
COMPLETION Task: 17
Option: 63 - a minimum of 1200 pages in books tagged 'magic' or 'magical’🎩
How It Qualifies: listed as "magical" 43+ times on genre shelves
https://www.goodreads.com/work/shelve...
The Dead Romantics
Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
Pages: 365 Kindle first
Date Completed: October 24, 2022
Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 A very popular rom com about the publishing industry ... with ghosts! So a good seasonal book.
My book is 382 pages. The Night Is Alive. Selected in honor of being in Savannah this week. So if Allie and Crystal can read a combination of 453 we only need their books otherwise we will need one more book.
Jean wrote: "My book is 382 pages. The Night Is Alive. Selected in honor of being in Savannah this week. So if Allie and Crystal can read a combination of 453 we only need their books otherwis..."
Magic and magical do not often appear for books I can already access...but I a looking. I will finish Dead Romantics within a hour or so.
It can be tedious to search through pages and pages of tags if you need me to look at a specific book or series let me know. It’s almost never Main page genre unless it is really magically mythical! On my book it is on the 4 page of tags as paranormal-magic or maybe magic-paranormal. But it should work.
As I finish the audiobook for Dead Romantics I am checking books I can already access...several series that have witches and spells...no magic on the genre list. But, I have found a few.
COMPLETIONTask: 17
Option: 63 - a minimum of 1200 pages in books tagged 'magic' or 'magical’🎩
How It Qualifies: listed as "magical" 5+ times in genre of shelving AND "magic" in subtitle and series title
https://www.goodreads.com/work/shelve...
Book Title/Author/Link: A Score to Kettle
A Score to Kettle: The Magical Tea Room Mysteries a.k.a. Crying Over Spelled
https://www.amazon.com/Score-Kettle-M...
(Vampire Tea Room Magical Mystery #3 of 7)
Pages: 172 pages
Date Completed: October 24, 2022
Review: ⭐️⭐️ This is a fun, good witch-in-training, friendly vampire novel with an entertaining lead character. Warning: if you only do audiobooks, the next few in the series are not (yet?) available in that format. Not great literature and needs a bit more romance and/or mystery.
One Sentence Audio wrote: "COMPLETIONTask: 17
Option: 63 - a minimum of 1200 pages in books tagged 'magic' or 'magical’🎩
How It Qualifies: listed as "magical" 5+ times in genre of shelving AND "magic" in subtitle and ser..."
Benita for some reason your link to the shelf here and on the dead romantics doesn’t work. Do you want me to repost with the links or do you want to try to fix, they look like they should work but they must be missing a part somehow.
Jean wrote: "One Sentence Audio wrote: "COMPLETIONTask: 17
Option: 63 - a minimum of 1200 pages in books tagged 'magic' or 'magical’🎩
How It Qualifies: listed as "magical" 5+ times in genre of shelving AND ..."
Oddly, I tried many times to use Chrome to get that link address copied and working, but no luck.
But, I have Firefox Beta on my phone and I got a working link by using that browser.
Thank you for catching that...how strange.
Get out and enjoy Savannah. October is a good month for a cemetery visit ☺️
DRAFT COMPLETIONTask: 17
Option: 63 - a minimum of 1200 pages in books tagged 'magic' or 'magical’🎩
How It Qualifies: tagged as "magical" 4+
https://www.goodreads.com/work/shelve...
Book Title/Author: Ghost and Mrs. Muir by R. A.
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
Pages 1st Kindle: 192
Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Beautifully written, this 1945 bestselling novel was the basis for the award winning 1947 classic movie and the popular 1960's sit com (one of my favorite childhood era shows). Mrs. Muir, a young widow, seeks to escape the smothering love of her husband's family and rents a home inhabited by its builder/owner, a retired sea captain. The charm of the beautifully executed narrative is only surpassed by the author's ability to express life's little tragedies in a loving and empowering way.
Hi Team: Jean is finishing a book of 382 pages of "magical" reading and I did 729 pages. So we have 89 pages of the 1200 "magical" assigned pages to complete. Go Team! 👻🤡👺👩🎓👩💻👩🎨🐈⬛🐈🐒
Benita
Completion Post 
🌹Task: #63. Read a minimum of 1200 pages in books tagged 'magic' or 'magical’.
🌹 Finished Date: October 25th
Page #'s: 236 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
How it Fits: Tagged 'mystery-magic-realism' by 1 person on page 7 *edit: https://www.goodreads.com/work/shelve...
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
❀ Crystal ✿ - wrote: "Completion Post 🌹Task: #63. Read a minimum of 1200 pages in books tagged 'magic' or 'magical’.
🌹 Finished Date: October 25th
Page #'s: 236 https://www.goodrea..."
Crystal can you add a link to page 7 of the shelves to help Kat find the tag?
I’ll finish my book tonight which means whenever Allie gets hers done we will get a new task I will try to check before we leave for the day tomorrow morning.
Romance Readers Reading Challenges
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Task: #83. Read 8 books with a white flower/s on the cover
How it Fits: White flowers on cover
Pages: 424
Date Finished: October 16th
Rating: 2 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...