October End of the Month Wrap-Up Post

October was very busy, but I intend for November to be crazy busy with writing for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  So.... I will most likely not be doing any weekly posts, and very few posts that will require me to go return comments.  Instead I'm hoping to just go comment on blogs when I have time instead of feeling like I have to go comment on all the WOW or Sunday Posts that come up.  Also, I'm doing my October wrap up a day or two earlier than normal, because I want to be done with it before November starts as well!  This will probably be another quick post like last time, and I might also do some normal Sunday post topics in this as well.  We'll see.

Another month where I didn't get a discussion post done.  Not sure I'll meet my goal for the year, as I don't know how I'll get a discussion post done in November either.  Maybe December will get a few instead.

I got a few in this month.  If you're wondering what this challenge is about, you can go check it out HERE.

1. Hudson Valley series by Alice Clayton
2. Wendy Darling series by Colleen Oakes
3. There's Wild, Then There's You by M. Leighton
4. Six of Hearts by LH Cosway

Only one that I think counts this month.

• Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles #2) by Marissa Meyer 

Two books this month:

• The Row by JR Johansson
• Glitter by Aprilynne Pike

Got three of these this month.

• Deep (Stage Dive #4) by Kylie Scott
• Illusion (The Heirs of Watson Island #3) by Martina Boone
• One King's Way (On Dublin Street #6.5) by Samantha Young

I'm going to skip my Bookish Resolutions wrap-up for the month, which means I'm not meeting some of them kind of.

Some Statistics from Last Month:

• #of books read:  20 as of today, maybe one or two more by actual end of month
• # of full reviews posted on blog:  14
• # of mini-reviews posted on blog:  6

So that's my month at a glance.  Not going to list out a possible TBR either.  Just know that I'll hopefully be writing my 1,667 words every day in November in hopes of getting 50,000 done by the end of the month!

April End of Month Wrap Up Post

So I've been good about the Sunday Posts again this month, however not as great with my challenges I think.  But let's do a recap.

I signed up for this challenge last month, and if you click on the image above you can see my sign up post.  My goal was to do about one a month, and so far I'm on top of that with my April post:  It's In The Stars - Or Why I Don't Give Ratings On My Blog.  I even have already come up with a discussion topic for May!  It's fun to talk about these things, and then see what others think, as well as going and reading other blog's discussion posts.

Of course my next challenge I'm going to talk about is the one that I'm hosting.  If you click on the image above, you can go see my sign up post, and you can still sign up yourself!  Not only that, but those of you who have been participating already, or start in May, can go HERE, and add in links to your reviews for this challenge, and enter another giveaway!  I have surpassed my goal of 4 new series, and have reached to 6 new series. And I don't think I'm done!  Most of these are also authors that are new to me, and I am going to get to meet them in September at the NOLA Story Con.   Here are my posts that meet this challenge from April:

• Losing It by Cora Carmack
• On Dublin Street by Samantha Young
• Calendar Girl Vol. 1 by Audrey Carlan
• Rule (Marked Men #1) by Jay Crownover
• The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

 

You can see my original sign up post HERE, and see how many I've signed up for again this year. I'm not doing as well with this challenge as others, I need to get caught up on this, maybe this summer.  

• The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh - This book has been sitting on my TBR shelf since last year at this same time!  It was one of them that was on my list in the sign up post though, so that is good.

 

My feedback ratio is still at 70%, and I've requested a few more unfortunately, but at least I'm keeping at 70% and  not dropping.  I've reached my goal number of 10 feedback for the year, but still working on the ratio.  You can see my original sign up post for this HERE.   

• Elementals 2:  The Blood of the Hydra by Michelle Madow (7 days left on Giveaway)
• Flawed by Cecilia Ahern
• Love, Lies and Spies by Cindy Anstey (3 days left on Giveaway)

 

Okay, so we'll go through these one by one, and HERE is the original post of my resolutions.   

• I'm doing better with the not downloading a ton of e-galleys.  Still making note of them in my blog planner, and only going back and downloading them when it gets closer to time and I know I'm going to read them, unless of course it is one I know I have to read.
• I posted every single day this past month.  One thing that is nice though, is that I did have some weeks where I was able to post for almost the whole week ahead of time, so I wasn't as stressed about it.  
• But, because of the end of the school year getting busier, and probably all the posting I was doing, I don't feel like I got as much commenting done as I wanted.  
• Still doing my monthly wrap up post, as you can see with this post!  
• I have beat my goal of 2 reviews a week, with doing at least 3 each week!  Yay me!
• Personal goals:  No money saved, but I borrowed the money I needed from my mom to get my air conditioner fixed, so I'll just be paying her back over the summer, and it will be nice to not have to sweat in my house when the summer temps really get here!  My new walking goal is to walk twice a week, and I've done that so far this month!  This goal will be met in May, hopefully, and then my reward is to maybe upgrade to the new Alta Fitbit.  

 

You can see my original sign up post for this challenge HERE.   And I'll just say I've not done any this month.  So far I've only done one this year.  I've really got to get a move on this!  I have The Raven King sitting on my shelf to read, I think I'm having trouble picking it up knowing that it will mean the end!

I think I'm going to get some writing done this summer, I may even add a goal for that next month, as a summer type of goal.  I've got another story idea, plus a picture book that I want to finish and submit!  I also have my NaNoWriMo from several years ago that I'm posting on Wattpad that I'd like to get finished this year as well, if you want to check it out so far, go HERE.  I've decided that I kind of need a "me" vacation, where I go away from home, so not a staycation, but I also have no dogs and no family and no big plans.  I used to go to a library conference every year in April, and that was always nice to be at a resort, and have the evenings to myself to write, or just be alone with no stress.  I have a friend who has a cabin in Colorado, and she's offered to let me borrow it. So I just have to plan when I'd like to use it and see about getting it set up with her.  

My April was pretty busy.  How was your April?

It's New to Me Challenge First Check-in and Giveaway

I'm not doing as great as I wanted to with this challenge with keeping my participants up to date and involved.  If you haven't joined in yet, the basic idea is to try to start those series or authors that you haven't read yet, but you keep saying you're going to read.  For example, since last year I've been saying I'm going to read The Wrath and the Dawn, and I finally got to it just this past week. And now I can count it for this.  Originally I planned this for starting a series, but now I think it can just be a new author, or that you can start with any book in the series, you just have to have not read any part of it yet.  If you want the full break down, other than the changes I just listed, go HERE.  If you haven't signed up yet, it's not too late.  I've added the link up right  here if you want to join in!


I also would like to have a giveaway for those of you who are participating.   So, everyone who participates and shares the link to one or more of their reviews can enter in the Rafflecopter below.  I'll run this contest until June 1st.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Okay, below is the Linky to add your reviews to!

February End of the Month Challenge Wrap-Up

So this month I didn't do very well with my normal Sunday posts.  It just didn't seem to work out.  So there are a lot of books I did get this month that I haven't shared.  I'm going to try to start again next week, with the first Sunday in March and get back to that.  But for my one goal of doing the monthly wrap ups of my challenges, I'm still on track this 2nd month of the year.  Last month at this time I was behind on my Goodreads goal, but this month, due to my picking up and devouring a  new series, I am ahead.  Only one book at this moment though because that series has created a huge obsession to where I am listening to the audiobooks of the books that I've already read because I need my #Hessa fix.  More about that in a bit.

As usual I'm going to start with my own challenge.  My goal for this challenge was to start 4 new series this year.  You can read about the challenge if you click on the button above, you can even still sign up yourself!  I started one new series last month, The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd.  This month I started, and finished, a new series that wasn't even in my original plan.  It is the series I am now seriously obsessed with.  I think about the characters all the time.  I'm listening to the audiobook of the 2nd book, even though I actually read the 2nd book, and will probably soon listen to the audiobook of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th as I am able to get them!  I own all the books now, and probably am going to try to buy the digital downloads of their audiobooks because of how much I love listening to the story. They make walking at the gym go by so fast!  Here is that series:

• After by Anna Todd 

I loved it so much I'm offering a giveaway of any of the books in the series that you want, it is international as long as The Book Depository ships to you.  You can enter by clicking on the link above, you have until the middle of March to enter.  I loved the book so much, I even spent time at work one day making a Someecard for it:

And if you follow me on Twitter, you'll probably see lots of tweets from me about this.  Usually with the tag of #Hessa.

Okay, how am I doing on this one?  Well, none of my choices which you can see in the original post HERE, were ones that I got to.  The only one I think I can count is one that I got an ARC of last year towards the end of the year.

• Titans by Victoria Scott

During March I will have a week of spring break, and even though I told my part time job that I had all the days free to work, looks like they still only have me working 2 days that week.  So my goal for that week is going to be to try to finish 5 books, which is about a book a day.

Yeah, none this month.  So let's move on from the depressing part of not doing what I needed.  :-(

• My goal about not downloading egalleys is going well.  Now when I find them on Edelweiss or Netgalley, if they are ones I don't have to request, then I just write them down in my calendar in the month they'd be published and wait to download them, just in case I can't get to them.  If I have to request them, then they have to be ones that I really, really want.  
• I've tried harder about not having to post every day of the month, and have continued to do better about it.  Both Friday and Saturday of this past week, I didn't post.  And while in the back of my brain I was thinking about what can I post, I just took a break.  
• I'm trying harder to go comment on other blogs, going through my GFC scroll on nights that I don't have a post to get done, and trying to click on more of the emails I get to go to the posts and comment more.  
• This post keeps me up to date with my end of the month challenge post.
• For the most part I've done 2 reviews a week.  If you average out how many I've done for the month, then I'm good.  But this After series obsession is really hurting me on the audiobook and reading in bed at night fronts.  I often go to bed listening to the audiobooks instead of reading like I was doing.  So that is something that needs to be worked on in March!
• For personal goals I still haven't saved any money. Although I'm hoping to be good with my tax return, depending how much it is, and spend it to get a new air conditioner for my house.  Although I do really want the new Fitbit that comes out this next month.  That goes along with my other personal goal of getting to the gym.  I've been once a week this past month, and I have the goal of doing that until spring break.  If I do, then I am going to start saving money and thinking about my next tattoo.  :-)  Hoping that after spring break, and during, I'll start going to the gym, or walking twice a week.  

You can see all of my goals by clicking HERE.

Hmm, this is an interesting one.  I just signed up for it last month.  I set my goal at Level 3, which was to read 10-15 this year, more specifically 12.  I got one done last month.  The only thing I can possibly count for this month is finishing the After series.   So, again, hoping March and spring break will get me back on track!  In fact maybe I should do some planning on what to read in March, especially during spring break week, like I see some blogs doing. 

That's my progress this month.   How did you do with your challenges?  One other thing I'm planning to do is set up another giveaway for my It's New to Me Challenge that I mentioned at the top of this post.  It will be for participants only, and I'll have them link up to their reviews!

January End of the Month Challenge Wrap-Up (and One New Challenge Sign-up)

Hello everyone!  Since one of my blog goals for the year was to make sure I was keeping up on my challenges every month, I'll be posting an end of the month wrap-up, discussing my challenge achievements today instead of a Sunday Post. I'm also going to join into another challenge today and use this as my sign up post for it.  I'm actually a book behind on my Goodreads Chalelnge goal today, and I'm going to blame it on a book that gave me a severe hangover this past week, November 9.   I did a Stacking the Shelves yesterday, so that won't be included here either.  So, hang on, I hope you'll wade through my long post!

I think we should definitely start with my own Challenge.  I know I called it a series starter challenge, but the more I've thought about it, the more I think it is either a series, or an author maybe that is new to you.  So if you haven't joined in yet, please do HERE!  At the end of February I'll probably be hosting another giveaway for the people who are participating.  My goal was 4 new series this year.  And I would say I'm right on track with that.  Here is the link to the review of the one series I started this month:

• The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd  

If I choose to do the new author idea for myself for this series, I will have another one to include for February, and will also have to probably up my goal of 4 for the year at that rate.   If you've joined my Challenge, how did you do this past month?

For this challenge I have to actually use the same book as above.  It was actually one of my planned books from my original sign-up post HERE.  So I won't add it again to this post since you can just go click on the link above.  I'm right on track with this one as well, as my goal was only 11 most likely.

Now, for my goal on this, I was going to give feedback on 10 books to try to get my feedback rating back up to 80%.  I've got two books that I've done this with so far.

• Elementals by Michelle Madow  
• Firsts by Laurie Elizabethy Flynn

There are other books that I didn't finish, and I did try to go back and add feedback on them.

• The Borden Murders by Sarah Miller - I didn't finish it, but reviewed it as a good book on Netgalley because it is something I would purchase for my school library.
• Sneak Peek:  Soundless by Richelle Mead - I didn't even start this. When I first requested it, I thought it was the full book.  I don't like sneak previews.  I prefer to wait until the whole book is available to read.  And so that is what I added to the feedback on Netgalley.

I haven't actually raised my rating because I have added a few new books as well.  Oops.

• My first goal was to subscribe to comments.  Well, unfortunately, I did this.  The reason I say unfortunately is because most of the time it isn't just subscribing to replies to my comment, it is to all comments on the post.  So I had to stop doing it.  :-(
• I'm doing better about not actually downloading every egalley that I think I might want.  I am still writing all that are available down in my calendar.  What I need to do this month is make a mark of some sort on which 2 I actually have downloaded.
• My next goal was about not having to post every day of the week this year.  It's really  hard to get out of that routine.  So much so that I've had to even take breaks, make myself take breaks and skip a day when I was feeling a bit overwhelmed.  I've still got to work on not signing up for tours unless it is a book I already know I'm going to read or am dying to read.  And I've gotten better about that.  I've stopped looking through all the tour emails I get other than a quick perusal.  
• Then my goal of an end of the month challenge post is starting out great with this post!
• The two reviews a week goal, still doing well with keeping it up!
• On my reading goals I haven't done any of that really, no recommended books, no classics, but I have worked on my Goodreads goal, one book behind though!
• For my personal goals, I have actually been to the gym once, so kind of working on it.  Haven't done well with saving money though.  I did get some organizing done in my house, got my bookshelves worked on one weekend.  Shared some pictures of that back then as well.  

If you want to check out what my actual goals were, go HERE.

 

I've decided to go ahead and join into this Challenge again as I have at least read one to get going.  Here is the info on what it is all about:

This challenge is for all of you series readers who are scared to death of that last book in the series. You anxiously await it. You stalk it. You get your hands on it as soon as possible. But then…you put off reading it for fear that it might not be everything you thought it would be. Or, maybe you just have a backlog of series started and you need to finish that last book. 

Levels: (how many series enders you are planning to read)
Level 1: 1 – 5
Level 2: 5 – 10
Level 3: 10 – 15
Level 4: 15+

My goal is going to be Level 3 as I have about 12 or 13 I want to read.  One is already done, and I'll put the link below.

1. Will to Survive (Rule of Three #3) by Eric Walters
2. The Countdown by Kimberly Derting
3. Yellow Brick War by Danielle Paige
4. The Crown by Kiera Cass
5. The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
6. Lady Renegades by Rachel Hawkins
7. Reborn by Jennifer Rush
8. Graduation Day by Joelle Charbonneau
9. Revolution by Jenna Black
10. Redemption by Debra Driza
11. Illusion by Martina Boone
12. The Shadow Cabinet  by Maureen Johnson
13. United by Melissa Landers

If you want to join in, go HERE to the sign-in page.  So I'm already ahead with even just signing up right now!

So there you have it.  A really long end of the month challenge check-in post.  Maybe next month I'll figure out a more streamlined way to do it.  How did you do on your challenges this past month?

Review: The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd (TBR Pile Challenge and It's New to Me Challenge)

The Madman's Daughter is a book I'd wanted to read for a long time.  I believe some time last year I won it in a giveaway on another blog.  But I keep forgetting to leave notes in those books to remind me when I blog about them.  This is the 2nd book by this author that I've read.  The first was The Cage, which is not related to this story at all.  Once again though, this author has written a story that is very unique.  I love that it is a retelling of a classic story, while not a fairy tale, still a story that is great to have more insight into. 

Basically it is kind of a retelling of The Island of Dr. Moreau.  Or more precisely not necessary a retelling, but some additions to the story.  The main character for us is Juliet, who is the daughter of Dr. Moreau.  Her father left her and her mother when she was just a girl.  He left because whatever kind of experiments he was doing were considered against the laws of nature, and he was chased out by the other doctors and scientists of the time.  As far as Juliet knows, he is dead.  Because she and her mother had to work at horrible low paying jobs, and lived terrible lives.  Juliet is 16 years old, and of course has an interest in medical science, as well as quite a vast knowledge of it thanks to her father.  But all she can do now is work as a maid at a college nearby.  But one day she discovers her father's old assistant is in town.  Montgomery was about her age, but because he was a boy, her father took him in and taught him to be his assistant.  She finds out from Montgomery that her father is still alive, and on an island where it seems he has continued his experiments.

As I mentioned, she works as a maid.  And one of the men she works for is kind of a jerk.  After she has a bad interaction with him, she decides she must leave town, and so she insists that Montgomery take her back with him.  They do, but the ship ride is long, and it is on an older, sketchier ship.  On the way the ship rescues a man who is floating by himself on a raft in the middle of the ocean.  His name is Edward, and he says he's from a well-to-do family back in London.  While they are on the island, her father tries to get Juliet and Edward together, as he feels they would be a good match, and he could take care of her back in town.  But Juliet still feels an attraction to Montgomery, which she's unsure if he reciprocates.

Now the island is full of genetically modified animals that are now very human like thanks to her father.  While they mostly seem to follow his rules, some are growing uneasy and unhappy.  Not to mention there is someone or something on the island that has begun killing.  Dr. Moreau takes the medicine away from his creatures in punishment, and then all chaos breaks loose.  Making it a fight to stay alive, and figure out how to get off the island.

Really an interesting way to make this story come alive.  I've never actually read the original story, but have seen the movie, the newer one.  This story makes me want to go back and watch the movie again, especially since I didn't really enjoy the movie, but think maybe now I will.  Maybe watching the original instead.  I'm looking forward now to reading the next book in the series, and I was glad to read that it would be based on another story instead of just a continuation of this one.

And this book also will count towards two of my challenges:  TBR Pile, as well as the challenge I'm hosting this year:   It's New to Me.  It's not too late to enter into my challenge either!

2016 TBR Pile Reading Challenge #2016TBRPile and 2015 TBR Challenge Wrap-up

     

Now, I tried this last year, and my goal was to do 11-20 books.  I ended up doing 11, only 4 of which were ones I'd listed in my original post.  But here are the ones I did:

• Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix
• Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer
• Broken Symmetry by Dan Rix
• Cinder by Marissa Meyer
• World After by Susan Ee
• Fallen by Lauren Kate
• Landry Park by Bethany Hagen
• Messenger of Fear by Michael Grant
• The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
• Arianna's Destiny by Michelle Sodaro
• The Walled City by Ryan Graudin

I'm joining up at Bookish Lifestyle again this year, and setting my goal the same at 11-20:  A Friendly Hug.  As I mentioned last year, I often read whatever I feel like, so my choices may not all make it again.  But I'm going to try to combine some of them with another challenge I am hosting myself this year, It's New to Me - Series Starter Challenge.  Here is my proposed list for the 2016 TBR Pile Reading Challenge:

• Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
• The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd
• Zodiac by Romina Russell
• Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray
• The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
• Until the Beginning by Amy Plum
• Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout
• Broken Trust by Michelle Sodaro
• Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris
• The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury
• Hunter by Mercedes Lackey

And as I think about it, there may be more, I may actually make it to the 20 instead of just 11 this year.

So, what challenges are you doing this year?  If you want to join in, you can click on the banner at the top to go sign up!

Introducing the "It's New to Me" Series Starter Challenge - #Giveaway

So, if you have been reading my Sunday Posts lately, you'll notice that I've been thinking about creating a year long challenge for a few weeks now.  It stemmed from all the other blogs I visited during the Waiting on Wednesday posts.  There would be so many books other bloggers were talking about, and they were in series that I hadn't started, but kept saying I needed to start.  And I would read other comments where people would say the same thing, sometimes they'd say it on my WOW posts. And there are even books that I've bought to start a series, and still have yet to pick them up! So I decided that I'm going to plan a challenge next year to do that.  I'm hoping to get some followers and fellow bloggers, people who are thinking about this, to join in.  I'm going to make the rules pretty easy to follow, and since it is my first year long challenge, I'll probably do an update post about every 3 months, where people can link to their books and enter to win some kind of prize.  Haven't decided yet what those prizes will be, probably gift cards or else maybe books.  So, here are my plans, and I hope these rules seem fair!

This challenge isn't about finishing a whole series, it is about starting a new series, and seeing just what all the fuss is about.  Maybe you'll read the first book, and decide the rest of it isn't for you.  Which is totally okay! I even feel like if you get started, and decide you don't like it, you can do a DNF post of some sort explaining your thoughts about why you decided that.  I just know I want some extra incentive to get those series started.  For example, this year I finally got around to reading Cinder, and while I enjoyed it, I wasn't as blown away as everyone else. BUT!  I am intrigued enough to go on.  So those are the kinds of things I'm trying to get started this coming year.  I have The Madman's Daughter sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read for another example. So that will be one that I will do for my challenge this year.  I also want this to be open to people who don't have blogs.  So here are the rules.

Rules:

• All books must be read and reviewed in 2016.  
• You don't have to have a blog, you can keep track of your progress on another site like Goodreads, Shelfari, Booklikes.  You'll just have to make a shelf for this if you can, and then you'll link to that on updates.  You'll have to make that shelf public so that we can see it when you link to the updates.
• You can pick any series you want, it doesn't have to be a brand new one, maybe you've always wanted to read the Lord of the Rings series.  My only qualification is that there already be more than one book in the series out, or maybe the 2nd book is being published in 2016, that is okay as well. 
• Pick your goals below and put it in your post if you have a blog, along with the button above, and then you'll link to your post at the bottom of this post.  You can change your goal any time up until November 1st, 2016.
• You need to follow my blog in some way so that you can be aware of any updates. 
• You can sign up any time up until November 1st, 2016, but to enter into the contest below for entering the challenge, you must sign up by January 1st. There will be other giveaways throughout the year though, if you sign up later.

Levels:
Because you're "exploring" new territory with series that are new to you, I've named each level after the NASA manned space missions from oldest to most recent.  You can see them below.

	Mercury:   1-2 new series
	Gemini: 3-4 new series
	Apollo: 5-6 new series
	Skylab: 7-8 new series
	Space Shuttle: 9-10 new series
	International Space Station: 11-12 (or more) new series

       So what do you think?  Is this something you'd like to join with me?  I feel like the levels are pretty easy.  The highest level is even just one new series a month.  The link-up will be below.

My goal:  I am going to try for 4 new series this year.  Here are my proposed series:  Throne of Glass, The Madman's Daughter, Zodiac, The Ward are probably the ones. But there may be others!  

Giveaway:
But first, whether you plan to sign up or not, I have a giveaway for you!  First I'd ask everyone to at least tweet about this Challenge.  That's the only required entry for the giveaway below.  Anyone who does that will be entered into a drawing for a $5 gift card to Amazon.  Now, if you choose to join in, everyone who has signed up and linked up below for the challenge, will be entered to win their choice of book up to $15 from the Book Depository, you could maybe use that to get one of the series you need to start!  There are also other options for entering the giveaway.  If you are participating you'll be following me some way, so that will get you an entry as well.  Feel free to do as many as you want, or just the first tweet.

a Rafflecopter giveaway