Showing posts with label reading challenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading challenge. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 30

Urban Fantasy & Paranormal Romance Reading Challenge


Here's my list for Book Chick City's Urban Fantasy & Paranormal Romance 2013 Reading Challenge. I'm so glad they combined my two favorite genres. Hopefully I'll have better luck than last year and the year before! I'll be updating this list each month as I complete new novels. Let me know if you're participating as well!

To Be Read:
  1. On The Edge by Ilona Andrews
  2. Dark and Stormy Knights Anthology
  3. On the Prowl Anthology
  4. Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong
  5. Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs
  6. River Marked by Patricia Briggs
  7. Summer Knight by Jim Butcher
  8. Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
  9. Blood Noir by Laurell K. Hamilton
  10. Skin Trade by Laurell K. Hamilton
  11. Royal Street by Suzanne Johnson
  12. Edge of Destiny by J. Robert King
  13. Stripped by Julie Leto
  14. Wynter's Captive by Milly Taiden
  15. Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig 
  16.    
  17.  
  18.  
  19.  
  20.  

Completed (in order of read):
  1. Blood Drive by Jeanne C. Stein
  2. Ghosts of Ascalon by Matt Forbeck
  3. Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong

Monday, January 30

Books I've Read this Month

I hope everyone is having a Happy Monday! So, I was doing Meme Monday, but I'm not crazy about keeping that going. Instead, I decided that since I want to do more reading this year, that maybe the last Monday of the month I can talk about the books I've read in that month. So, here goes!

First of all, this has been an odd month for me. Normally, I don't read this many books in a given month, but it just turned out that way, and I've really enjoyed the time spent reading.

1st book - Stolen by Kelley Armstrong (Horror & Urban Fantasy Challenge): Wow, I only read Bitten last month, and I adored it. So I grabbed it the next book as soon as I could. I love Elena and Clay. I'm looking forward to more information on Paige, but the werewolves rock in this! This book was action packed, and I seriously wondered on occasion how Elena would ever get herself out of her predicament. I really enjoyed it. (Side note: I did start it at the end of December, but since I finished it in January it counts. lol) 5 stars.

2nd book - Fool Moon by Jim Butcher (Horror & Urban Fantasy Challenge): I love Harry Dresden. I wish the TV show wouldn't have been cancelled before it had gotten off the ground, but ah well... I thought the first book was amazing. This book was really cool as well, but I thought it wasn't as awesome as the first one. Still gets a 4 star rating though. I love that it dealt with werewolves since I'm totally a werewolf fan.

3rd book - Dark Lies by Vivi Anna (Speculative Romance Challenge): I have to be honest. With this book, I've had it for a while and when I picked it up, I didn't realize it was book 2 in a series. I'm a stickler for reading series in order. If I haven't read the first one, etc., I won't read a book even if I want to unless I'm caught up. I didn't track down the first book here, I decided to pick it up and read it since I'd started it a few years ago and then got sidetracked. I didn't feel like I was lost having not read the first book here. I appreciated that. It also had an interesting plot. Although, the villain isn't handled fully but a minor villain is, so I think he's either in all the books or some more. I'm not sure. It was a good book though. I'm glad I finally read it. 4 stars.

4th book - Hexed Anthology (Horror & Urban Fantasy Challenge): I read Magic Dreams by Ilona Andrews and Ice Shards by Yasmine Galenorn in this book. I'm not going to read the other novellas, yet at least. I'm in the process of reading the Anna Strong books (just picked up book 2 from the library), so I'd prefer to read it when I get to that point in the series.

Magic Dreams by Ilona Andrews - 5 stars. I absolutely loved it! I love Ilona Andrews, but I wasn't completely sure how I would like a Dali/Jim story since I adore Kate/Curran. But this was SO good. I'd totally want to read a full Dali/Jim novel now.

Ice Shards by Yasmine Galenorn - 4 stars. I really enjoyed this story. I mostly read it because it had the Finnish element to it, and I love Finland. This was different than something I would normally read. Felt very fantasy-ish. I hadn't read the other books in the series, but I didn't feel clueless about what was going on. In fact, it made me want to read the other books.

Overall, I'd give the book 4.5 stars. Easy to figure out since I'd read two of the stories. lol

Currently Reading - Touch of Darkness by CT Adams and Cathy Clamp (Speculative Romance Challenge): I started this book in June of last year, but my time with it since I checked it out at the library expired, so I decided recently to get it off my "Currently Reading" and finally finish the series (hence I re-checked it out). I'll tell what I think about it next month since that's most likely when I'll have finished reading it. :-)

So, what have you read this month?

Monday, January 23

Speculative Romance Challenge 2012

Okay, so here's my list for Book Chick City's Speculative Romance Challenge 2012. I'll be updating it each month as I complete new novels. I'm going to try to go the distance with reading and do better this year than I did in 2011. Let me know if you're participating as well!

To Be Read:
  1. Night Embrace by Sherrilyn Kenyon
  2. Stripped by Julie Leto
  3. TBA
  4. TBA
  5. TBA
  6. TBA
  7. TBA
  8. TBA
Completed (in order of read):
  1. Dark Lies by Vivi Anna
  2. Touch of Darkness by C.T. Adams & Cathy Clamp
  3. Tor by Lynn Lorenz
  4. Night Thief by Lisa Kessler

Wednesday, January 18

Writer Wednesday: Reading Challenges

Hey everyone! I hope you're having a fantastic New Year so far! Welcome back to Writer Wednesday. Reading is important to writers because it helps them hone their craft. Hence why I'm discussing it today.

With a fresh new year here, I know I've been thinking about what I want to accomplish in it. One of those things is read more. Last year, I failed with my reading goal, so this year I'm setting a new one. Probably one that's more ambitious, but I'm hoping to stick to it. Yes, it's... 36 books (novels, more specifically). No, no, please don't start laughing...

Anyways, I'm a slow-ish reader. If I don't do anything but eat, drink, use the restroom, and read, I can finish a book in one day if it sucks me in. Otherwise, a little over a week is my pace. Yes, writing, and then computer games, take up the other portion of my time. *grins*

So, I've been looking at quite a few blogs recently, and I've seen a lot of people doing a wide array of reading challenges this year. The three that I'm doing are:

Goodreads' 2012 Reading Challenge: Pretty simple, all you need to do is join Goodreads, set a goal for yourself, and read those books. It keeps track by you specifying "read" and when you read the book. Their widget shows if you're ahead or behind of your goal.

Book Chick City's Horror & Urban Fantasy Reading Challenge 2012: This is a genre based challenge. To sign up, you just go to the website, fill out the linky, etc. and read the books!

Book Chick City's Speculative Romance Challenge 2012: The same as above here, except this one is for all kinds of romance like sci-fi romance, paranormal romance, fantasy romance.

Book Chick City also has other Reading Challenges. There's more here, and I'm sure if you typed in reading challenge (romance, sci-fi, etc.) that you'd find more.

So... who else has taken the dive to read more this year and joined a reading challenge? If you have, which ones?

Monday, January 16

Horror & Urban Fantasy 2012 Reading Challenge

Okay, so here's my list for Book Chick City's Horror & Urban Fantasy 2012 Reading Challenge. I'll be updating it each month as I complete new novels. I'm hoping to do better this year than I did in 2011. Let me know if you're participating as well!

To Be Read:
  1. Dark and Stormy Knights Anthology
  2. On the Prowl Anthology
  3. On The Edge by Ilona Andrews
  4. Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
  5. Blood Noir by Laurell K. Hamilton
  6. Skin Trade by Laurell K. Hamilton
  7. Blood Drive by Jeanne C. Stein
  8. Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong
  9. Royal Street by Suzanne Johnson
  10. TBA
  11. TBA
Completed (in order of read):
  1. Stolen by Kelley Armstrong
  2. Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
  3. Hexed Anthology
  4. Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs
  5. Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
  6. Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs
  7. Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews
  8. Hunt the Moon by Karen Chance
  9. Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs
  10. The House at Cobb End by Karen Chance
  11. A Family Affair by Karen Chance
  12. The Burning Times by Jeanne Kalogridis
  13. Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig
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