Tag: 2015 Reading Challenge

2015 Reading Challenge Review

Posted January 19, 2016 by Holly in Discussions | 2 Comments

2015 reading challengeRowena and I both signed up to do the 26 Books in 2015 reading challenge. Sadly, I didn’t get all 26 books marked off my list. I cheated a little to get some of these.

The two I didn’t get to? A Book You Learned About Because of This Challenge and A Book Based on a True Story. I have several books marked TBR from this challenge, but I didn’t get to them. Same with a book based on a true story. Let’s hope 2016 is a better reading year for me.

1) A Book you own but haven’t read | Hostage to Pleasure by Nalini SinghI had this book in my TBR pile for years. I’m so glad I caught up on the series in 2015.
2) A Book that was made into a movie | Beastly by Alex FlinnI still haven’t seen the movie, but, hey, I read the book!
3) A Book you picked solely because of the cover | The Friend Zone by Kristen CallihanYum.
4) A Book your friend loves | Honor’s Splendour by Julie GarwoodRowena loves this book. I’ve read it before, but it’s worth listing here since I know she adores it.
5) A Book published this year | Midnight’s Kiss by Thea HarrisonIs it cheating if it’s a series I’m already invested in? Eh…I’m counting it.
6) A Book by an author you’ve never read before | Black Wolf’s Revenge by Tera ShanleyI didn’t love the book, but I may try the author again.
7) A Book by an author you love | Archangel’s Enigma by Nalini SinghSeriously, does the woman write anything that isn’t amazing?
8) A Book at the bottom of your “to be read” pile | Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews – I bought this book ages ago but didn’t read it. I’m glad I finally dug into the series.
9) A Book with a color in the title | White Out by Linda Howard – An old Howard favorite. 
10) A Book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit | Heart Legacy by Robin D. OwensThe Planet of Celta is one of my favorite fictional places. I would love to visit it.
11) A Book you started but never finished | Undressed by Shannon RichardI started this one several times and just couldn’t get into it. I’m glad I stuck with it, though, since it turned out to be a cute read. 
12) A Book with a lion, a witch, or a wardrobe | Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews – Curran, Kate’s leading man, is a Lion. 
13) A Book with a female heroine | Magic Rises by Ilona AndrewsThe books are all about Kate and her personal journey. This is one of my favorites of the series.
14) A Book set in the summer | Suddenly One Summer by Julie James And it has Summer in the title. Bonus!
15) A Book of poems | The Complete Works of Emily DickinsonI loved revisiting some of my favorite poems. Full disclosure: I didn’t read the entire book. Only my favorites. 
16) A Book you learned about because of this challenge
17) A Book that will make you smarter | Saving Grace by Julie GarwoodI know this seems like a strange choice for this category, but Johanna’s personal journey, and her struggle with her place as a woman in the church, really spoke to me.
18) A Book with a blue cover | Soaring by Kristen Ashley
19) A Book you were supposed to read in school, but didn’t | The Awakening by Kate ChopinI don’t know how I missed reading this in school. It was wonderful.
20) A Book “EVERYONE” but you has read | Branded by Fire by Nalini SinghI’m not sure that this specific book is one everyone but me has read, but I finally read the entire series this year, and I feel like I’m the last one, so I’m counting it.
21) A Book with a great first linePride and Prejudice by Jane AustenThis was hard for me, because I don’t really pay attention to first lines, until I remembered I re-read P&P over the summer. Love.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

22) A Book with pictures | Go The F*ck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach – This is a hilarious book given to me by a friend just after my youngest was born. Every parent knows the struggle. For real.
23) A Book from the library The Foot Book by Dr. SuessMy daughter and I visit the library once a week and we always get several books, but most of them are children’s books for her. I love this book, so I decided to list it rather than one of the adult books I picked up for myself.
24) A Book you loved….read it again | Fall Into Me by Linda Winfree – I adore this book. I read it at least once a year. I recently learned Winfree is writing again and plans to release a book this year. So.Effing.Excited.
25) A Book that is more than 10 years old Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase – This might be cheating a bit since it’s a re-read, but it was published 20 years ago (1995!) so it counts.
26) A Book based on a true story

24 out of 26 isn’t too bad considering my sad reading mojo in 2015.

How about you? Did you complete your 2015 reading challenges or meet your goals? 


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My Book Challenge So Far…

Posted July 23, 2015 by Rowena in Miscellaneous | 6 Comments

In the beginning of the year (or maybe it was the ending of last year), Holly and I set some reading goals and this book challenge was one of them. I haven’t been paying any attention to what I’m supposed to be reading for this challenge so I thought I’d write up a post and find out.

2015 reading challenge

Here goes nothing…

1) A Book you own but haven’t read | The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West
2) A Book that was made into a movie | The DUFF by Kody Keplinger
3) A Book you picked solely because of the cover | Chaos by Jamie Shaw
4) A Book your friend loves | Sincerely, Carter by Whitney Gracia Williams
5) A Book published this year | Trade Me by Courtney Milan
6) A Book by an author you’ve never read before | Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
7) A Book by an author you love | Suddenly One Summer by Julie James
8) A Book at the bottom of your “to be read” pile | Mine to Possess by Nalini Singh
9) A Book with a color in the title | The Duke and the Lady in Red by Lorraine Heath
10) A Book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit | Hard Rock by Nalini Singh (New Zealand)
11) A Book you started but never finished | Visions of Heat by Nalini Singh (started it last year but never finished it so I picked it up again this year and not only did I finish it, I loved it too!)
12) A Book with a lion, a witch, or a wardrobe | Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison
13) A Book with a female heroine | Midnight Pursuits by Elle Kennedy (Juliet set out to avenge her brother and protect some innocents, she was definitely a heroine)
14) A Book set in the summer | Open Road Summer by Emery Lord
15) A Book of poems | I’m low key curious to see if I’ll ever do this. I don’t really have an interest in reading a book of poems, not even for this challenge. Ha!
16) A Book you learned about because of this challenge
17) A Book that will make you smarter
18) A Book with a blue cover | We Can Work it Out by Elizabeth Eulberg
19) A Book you were supposed to read in school, but didn’t
20) A Book “EVERYONE” but you has read | Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh
21) A Book with a great first line
22) A Book with pictures
23) A Book from the library | I’m probably not going to do this one either since I don’t have a library card. I have issues with returning books so I gave this one up a long time ago.
24) A Book you loved….read it again | Before Jamaica Lane by Samantha Young and Frigid by J. Lynn (I read both books this year just because I felt like it. Ames was reading the Samantha Young book for the first time and enjoying the heck out of it so I thought, why not? I read it too. I loved it all over again and Frigid, I read on a whim. A whim that ended with me quite satisfied with Kyler and Sydney’s story yet again)
25) A Book that is more than 10 years old
26) A Book based on a true story

Hmmm, not nearly as bad as I thought. I thought that I wouldn’t have read anything but as you can see, I have. I’ve completed 17 of the challenges and only have 9 challenges to finish before I’m completely done. I still have 5 months to finish too.

Go me!

Are you participating in this challenge? How are things looking for you? Do you have a lot of work to do or are you on track..like me?


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Reading Goals: 2015

Posted January 16, 2015 by Holly in Discussions, Miscellaneous | 10 Comments

Reading+Challenges

Holly: I never used to set reading goals/challenges for myself, because I would always end up with reading anxiety when I did. “I’m supposed to read 100 books this year and it’s December and I’ve only read 75!?!?!” Then I’d get so freaked out I’d give myself readers-block (it’s a real thing!) and not be able to read at all.

The last few years I’ve done a number challenge (211, 200, 200, etc), and did pretty well with it. I didn’t freak myself out because I just considered it a way to track my reads, which I’ve been doing for years now. This year, however, I’m going to set a few reading goals. I want to broaden my reading horizons, and get out of my comfort zone more.

In an effort to do that, I plan to continue to read new-to-me authors. I read 48 new authors in 2013 and 46 in 2014. That averages out to about 4 per month. Not terrible, but when you consider I average approximately 20 books per month, I feel like I could be doing better. I’m also going to try to branch out and read things beside contemporary romance. I read 136 contemps in 2014, and less than half that many paranormals. The numbers of historical, rom-suspense and other sub-genres was negligible. I also joined a reading challenge to help me cull down my TBR pile and motivate me to read outside my comfort zone. I found this challenge on Pinterest. Rowena has agreed to do it with me. (I ‘m also considering this challenge, also found on Pinterest. I haven’t decided if I’ll do one or both.)

2015 reading challenge

To summarize, or the TL;DR version:

1. Read more sub-genres  
2. Read more new authors
3. Finish the 2015 Reading Challenge

Rowena: 2015 was going to be the year that I take a break from reading challenges. It was going to be the year that I read whatever I want, whenever I want and not be bogged down with review books and whatever else but I can’t help myself. I like reading challenges. They’re good for variety because like Holly, I read a lot of contemporary books so the goals I’m setting are to get me out of my comfort zone and try new to me things. I won’t know if I like something until I try it, right?

I have a tendency to stick to what I know and what has worked with me. So if a new to me author is popular, I won’t try them out until someone I know personally recommends them. And even then, it might take me years. Haha.

I belong to a book club that meets once a month to discuss books and last year, there were a few times that I didn’t read the book and couldn’t participate in the discussion. That ends this year. I will read and discuss every single book that we choose to read as a club.

So aside from the 2015 reading challenge with Holly, my reading goals are:

  1. Read more new to me authors
  2. Read more sub-genres
  3. Read all of my book club picks
  4. Read more for me and not anyone else

Did you join any challenges in 2015? What are your reading goals?


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