March wrap up - Emoji-a-thon and March Mystery Madness

I can't believe that I read six books this month.  I think that's a record for me, at least over the last several years.  I read a couple of amazing books, and I think that's one reason for my high number.  I participated in two readathons this month.  Both of the them were month long readathons which I think is what I like best. 

I was so excited for March Mystery Madness.  I've said it before, but I love mysteries.  It's my favorite genre, and to find an entire month readathon dedicated to it really had me pumped.  Although I only met two of the challenges, I read several mysteries over the month.  The three challenges I met were:

New:  I read Pretty Girls Dancing by Kylie Brant.  I gave this book 3.75/5 stars.  I enjoyed the book, but one reason I like mysteries is to put the puzzle together and figure out the answers to the crime.  I felt in this book the answers came from so far in left field that no one could have figured it out.

Borrow:  I borrowed The Girl in 6E by A. R. Torre from my library and gave it 4.5 stars.  I loved this book and couldn't put it down.  It was so suspenseful and creepy.  I loved it.

Shelf:  I read a book from my TBR shelf for this challenge, Paging the Dead.  It is the 1st in a cozy mystery series.  I gave it 3.5 stars.  Although I had the murderer picked from pretty early in the book, there were still twists that I didn't see coming and really enjoyed it.

The other readathon I participated in was Emojiathon.  It was a cute readathon where the challenges were based on emojis.  I completed six challenges and some overlapped with the March Mystery Madness challenges.

Mental illness:  The Girl in 6E.  The main character is a psychopath.

Out of my comfort zone:  Before She Ignites - I received this book in an OwlCrate box, and it was definitely out of my comfort zone.  It's a high or epic fantasy which I do not read very often.  I gave the book 2 stars.

Ebook:  The Room on Rue Amelia which I received from NetGalley to read and review.  It's a historical fiction set in World War II, and I absolutely loved it.  It's everything I want in a historical fiction book, and I gave it 5/5 stars.

Started but hadn't finished:  Pretty Girls Dancing - I started this in February and finished it in March

Never heard of before:  Paging the Dead - This was a new-to-me series that I had never heard of before.

Mystery/Thriller:  Keep Her Safe - This was another 5/5 mystery/thriller book for me.  It kept me on the edge of my seat, and I loved the different perspectives and two different time settings.

So that's it for me.  I loved my books from March.

February Wrap up

I read another four books this month, making my total for the year at eight.

1.  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (4/5 stars) - Yes, as unbelievable as it sounds, I had never read The Hunger Games.  It was a lot of fun to get the "rest of the story" that wasn't in the movie which I have seen several times.

2.  The Fisherman's Daughter by Melinda Sue Sanchez (3/5 stars) - I was hoping for a great historical romance with a focus on the historical part.  Instead a got a lot of romance which really isn't my thing.

3.  Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills (4/5 stars) - I would have given this YA contemporary 5/5 stars if the language wasn't so inappropriate.  I loved the story though.

4.  Grievous Sins by Faye Kellerman (3/5 stars) - It's been a long time since I read the first books in the series, and I was really loving forward to continuing it.  However, this isn't the best one of the series, and I even found it a little boring.

So I had hoped to participate in the Thrillerathon, but February was just crazy busy, and even though I had started two different thrillers, I was unable to finish either one during the week of the Thrillerathon, but that's OK.  Now I can get ready for March Mystery Madness!

Contemporary-a-thon Wrap-Up and OwlCrate-a-thon update

Contemporary-a-thon ended today, and I only read one book.  The only good news for this is that with one book I completed 5 challenges.  The book also counts for OwlCrate-a-thon too!

I finished Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills in two days which for me is pretty good.  I really enjoyed the book and gave it 4/5 stars.  Really, the only reason I didn't get it 5/5 stars was because of the language.  I subscribe to OwlCrate and read YA books in order to recommend them to my students and to include them in my library, and I'm not sure I'll be able give this book to a students because of the language which is very disappointing since it's such a great book.

For Contemporary-a-thon, Foolish Hearts fulfilled these challenges:

1.  New acquired - I received it in the Dec. OwlCrate box
2.  Pink on the Cover - It was the exclusive OwlCrate book cover which including pink
3.  Most Hyped - This book was all over Booktube at the end of 2017
4.  Diverse - The "it" couple that broke up at the beginning of this book was actually a lesbian couple
5.  Recommended - Since OwlCrate sent it out, I considered it recommended

I did start Before She Ignites for OwlCrate-a-thon as my second book, but I'm not sure I'll be able to finish it before the readathon is over.  It's really not the kind of book I read, but I'm trying.

Next up is Thriller-a-thon which started yesterday.  Since Thriller/Mystery is my favorite genre, I have to participate in it.  I started Grievous Sin by Faye Kellerman today and have read about 50 pages.  I used to read the Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus series by her years ago, and this is the next book in the series where I left off.  I also plan on continuing Pretty Girls Dancing on my Kindle.

It's going to be another busy week for me, but hopefully I can get at least one of these books read.

OwlCrate Readathon

I'm going to try and participate in a couple of readathons this month, and the first one is OwlCrate's Readathon that started today, February 10 and runs until the 24th.  I've been a subscriber to the OwlCrate boxes since July, and I really enjoy them.  I use my goodies as prizes for my students for reading each week.  So far it's really been a good incentive.  Here are the challenges and the books I intend to read for them:

Challenge #1 - Read two books
Challenge #2 - Read two different challenges
Challenge #3 - Read my oldest OwlCrate book

My oldest OwlCrate book is Before She Ignites by Jodi Meadows.  I will also be using this book for the other two challenges.  It's genre is fantasy, so the other book I'm going to read is Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills which is a contemporary book. 

I started Before She Ignites today and read the first 100 pages.  I don't know how much I will get read tomorrow because I'll be going to see the Broadway tour of School of Rock with my mom and my daughter.  I'm going to start reading Foolish Hearts on Monday because I'm using it for the Contemporaryathon and will post my TBR for it later in the week.

January Wrap-Up

I'm so proud of my January reading.  I read four books, which for me, is very good.  My goal was to read two books a month, so it was a great start to actually double it.  So here is a quick wrap-up.  I've joined several challenges on Goodreads, so I'm also going to list what challenges I used the book for.

Six of Crows by Leah Bardugo (4.5 stars) - I wasn't sure if I would like this book or not when I started it, but since everyone I watch on Booktube seemed to love it, I thought I would give it a try.  Plus, several items I've received in my OwlCrate boxes referenced this book, and it's gorgeous with the black pages.  I LOVED it and was so surprised.  I immediately gave it to a student as a prize because I wanted someone else to love it too.  I loved that every chapter was from a different character's POV, as well as, the characters themselves.  Anyway, I used this book for the following challenges:  White book cover for the Color Challenge, Fantasy for Genre Bingo, Gem's Task for the Member's Task, A book involving a heist for the Popsugar Challenges.  All those challenges are for the 2018 Reading Challenge group.  I'm also participating in the Seasonal Reading Challenge group and used this book for challenge 5.3

The Hearts We Sold by Emily Lloyd-Jones (5 stars) - Again, I wasn't sure about this book before I started it.  I received it in an OwlCrate box.  I can't believe how much I loved this book.  I even cried at the end which I was definitely not expecting.  This is exactly the reason I joined OwlCrate, to get me to try books out of my comfort zone.  For challenges:  Red book cover - Color Challenge, Paranormal Romance - Genre Bingo, April's task - Member's Task, and boarding school for Places and Spaces (another challenge from the 2018 Reading Challenge group.  For the Seasonal Reading Challenge group, I used it for challenge 30.8.

Drowning is Inevitable by Shalanda Stanley (3.75 stars) - This is a YA contemporary which is one of my favorite genres, but I didn't like it as much as the two fantasy books that I read this month which isn't one of my top genres.  I had a hard time with how the parents were portrayed in this book.  They were all awful, and as a parent of a teenager and a high school teacher, I really don't like books that do that.  I couldn't use this book for as many challenges just Adriana's task - Member task, a book about death or grief - Popsugar, a river for Places and Spaces, and I used it for the second half of 30.8 for the Seasonal Reading Challenge.

The Memory Painter by Gwendolyn Womack (3.5 stars) - My final read was also my most disappointing.  It was my only adult novel, and it had mystery elements which is my favorite genre.  However, it just fell a little short.  I loved the idea that this painter gets his inspiration from dreams of the past.  That being said, I felt that it took it too far.  Maybe it's my Southern Baptist upbringing, but I just couldn't get into it once it took the main characters to the time were Egyptian Gods ruled the earth.  I also felt like the author just ended it without wrapping up everything.  For challenges I used it for:  Yellow - Color Challenge, Science Fiction - Genre Bingo, Claire's task - Members task, Time travel - Popsugar, studio apartment - Places and Spaces, and 20.1 for the Seasonal Reading.

That's it!  I hope this trend of good books and twice my goal continues!

Cramathon wrap-up

My first readathon has officially ended, and even though I didn't finish all the challenges or read as many books as I had hoped for, I'm still happy with what I did accomplish.

I had set a goal of six books/challenges.  I only finished two, but I did come very close to finishing a third one.  Here's my wrap-up:

Challenge #1 - Read a book under 200 pages.  (Read Inconvenient Murder by Amanda A Allen 2/5 stars)

Challenge #2 - Read a book with LGBTQ+ representation. (Read Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo 4.5/5 stars)

Challenge #3 - Read a book with my favorite color on the cover.  (Almost finished The Hearts We Sold by Emily Lloyd-Jones about 120 pages left.)

I'm so glad I participated in this readathon.  It really helped me kickstart my reading for the year.  I hope I get to participate in my throughout the year.

Thanks to all the hosts for a great experience. 

Hosted by @dylanthereader5, @hardbackhoarder@theawkwardbookw, and @juliasapphire_ !

Cramathon challenge #2 finished

So it took me a little longer than I had hope, but I finally finished Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo for my second challenge - LGBTQ+ representation.  Although the book didn't have much of a discussion of LGBTQ+, there was a character that was gay.

I really enjoyed this book.  I liked all the characters.  I liked the plot, especially the idea of the heist.  I gave the book 4.5/5 stars.  It would have gotten 5, but I hate cliffhangers.  I know the second book is already out, but I prefer to have my books end neatly with everything taken care of and wrapped up in a nice, neat package.

There is still one more day for Cramathon, and one more day of my Christmas vacation, so I hope to get a lot more read in The Hearts We Sold tomorrow.  After that book is finished I will be participating in the JanuaryJamJar.

Next readathon

Although I haven't finished my TBR, I've really enjoyed my first readathon, Cramathon, so I've signed up for another one.  This one is Bout of Books, and in case you are interested in joining, here is the information.

 The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 8th and runs through Sunday, January 14th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 21 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I'll be posting an update of my Cramathon progress later today.