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?

March End of the Month Challenge Wrap-Up

Well, this month I got my Sunday Posts done, but I don't know if I did that well on my other Challenges.  I also joined a new challenge, the 2016 Discussion Challenge.  I got one post this month, Fiction is Fiction, and as my goal is 1-12 posts, I'd say I've already completed the minimum for that.  Also just by doing this post, I'm keeping up on this goal of doing end of the month posts.  And I'm 5 books ahead on my Goodreads goal, so I'm doing well this month!  So let's check out all my challenge results for the month.

Starting with the new challenge I'm hosting this year.  Unfortunately I didn't really do much towards what I'd planned.  If I change the guidelines like I've said I would, for people to even just try new to them authors, then I can say I got more done this month.  Really, there is only one that fits the original series guidelines HERE.

• Taking Chances by Molly McAdams
• If I count a new author towards this, then I have finally read a book by Wendy Higgins, and love it, The Great Hunt. 

I only got one book again this month, but that's okay since my goal is 11-20, as you can see on my sign up post HERE.  But the one that I did do was on my original sign up list.  I just finished it today, won't have the review up for a week or so though, so I'll link it to the Goodreads info.

•  Broken Trust by Michelle Sodaro

This month I gave feedback on five books, bringing my Feedback ratio up to 70%.  My goal was to try to get back up the 80% ratio, or at least get a total of 10 done for the year, as I listed on the original post HERE.   So I am at least at 7 of the 10.  Three of the books I actually read, and the other two are ones that I couldn't finish, so I went ahead and left that as the feedback.  Here are the 5 books:

• Firstlife by Gena Showalter
• Stone Field by Christy Lenzi
• Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan
• Once Upon a Dream by Liz Braswell
• Hot Pterodactyl  Boyfriend by Alan Cumyn

Well, let's go through what I did this month, you can check out the original post HERE. 

• I'm still doing really well with not downloading tons of e-galleys.  It helps to just write them down in my calendar, and then I don't go to download them until it is closer to the time of publishing/when I'll be reading them.  I'm also trying to make sure I read the Netgalley ones first if I can, so I can work on the challenge I talked about above.
• I still ended up posting almost every day again.  But I am trying hard to not sign up for tours unless they are books I know I'm going to read and really want to promote.  However I did skip one Sunday post, because I had several other things I wanted to post instead.
• Still doing my best to comment on other blogs.  
• Again, using this post monthly to keep up with my challenges.
• I've had two reviews every week this month, although only one so far this week.  I'm planning another tomorrow!
• Personal goals:  Still no money saved, but I have finally decided on what I'm going to do with my air conditioner.  I met my going to the gym and walking once a week goal, and got my reward of a tattoo, which you can see a picture of HERE.  I set a new goal of going to the gym and walking twice a week until the end of May, when summer break starts from school.  I think my reward for that will be buying a new pair of Nike tennis shoes for walking at the Nike Outlet store when my family goes to Branson over Memorial Day weekend for our annual trip.

I didn't really get anything for this goal this past month.  Unless the Maybe series by Colleen Hoover isn't going to have any more than the two books it already has.  And I kind of feel like it is, since there haven't been any more since 2014. 

For April this year, I'm not participating in the A to Z Challenge for a change.  It doesn't go with my goal of posting less.  I'm also really starting to feel like writing again.  I've decided that I am going to go back and finish the NaNo story from several years ago, but re-write it as a New Adult instead of just a straight contemporary romance.  Not sure when I'll find the time to write.  I'll probably just wait till this summer. 

So, how did your March go? 

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?

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2016 and Two New Challenges.

 

It's 2016!  Hopefully a better year for everyone, whether you had a good or bad 2015.  I'm planning to get more organized with my blog this year, and I was already doing  pretty well this past year.  But along with the organization, I'm going to do a couple more Challenges, and part of that organization will include keeping track of how I'm doing with those Challenges at the end of each month.  I already posted about doing the TBR Pile Reading Challenge, as well as my own It's New to Me Series Starter Challenge.  Today I'm going to share two other challenges I've decided to join in on, the 2016 Netgalley Reading Challenge, and the 2016 Bookish Resolutions Challenge.  

2016 Netgalley Reading Challenge:

The purpose of this is to get your feedback rating on Netgalley up to 80%.  I was there at one time.  But I've since dropped to 70%.  I'm going to start out easy on my goal with this one for this first year I'm trying, and try to give feedback on 10 books, new or old requests, on Netgalley.

 

2016 Bookish Resolutions Challenge:

I usually try to do some resolutions for my blog, and when I came across this challenge, it sounded like the right way to go this year.   

Blogging goals:

•  Subscribe to comments - I always make sure to reply to comments on my blog, and I do go comment on other blogs, but I rarely go back and see if I got a reply from the owner of the blog.  So this year, I'm going to subscribe to replies to my comments and be sure to go back and join into any conversations that may start when I post a comment.  
• Only download 2 e-galleys per week - In order to keep myself from ending up like I did at the end of this year, with having to give up and not read everything before it expired, I will only allow myself to actually download 2 e-galleys a week.  In fact, I may only write if they are ones I can download, and only download them when I get to the point where I'm ready to read them. That will help on Netgalley, with not dropping my feedback average anymore.  
• One goal I had last year was to post every day of the week.  I'm not going to keep that up, it just got to be too much.  Not that it won't ever happen, it's just not something I have to do.  In order to help with this, I will not sign up for more than one tour a week, unless, of course, one that I cannot skip comes around.
• This year I will have an end of the month post EVERY month, where I check in with all of the challenges I'm doing and keep track of them.
• I will keep one of my same goals from last year, at least two reviews every week.  I feel that is an important thing, as my blog is supposed to be about book reviews mostly, and that is why I started it.

Reading goals:

• I have several books that were recommended to me, and are actually YA books.  So my goal this year is to read more of my recommended books.  I won't set this one too high, as a lot of my recommendations aren't ones I would normally read.  I think I'll set it at 3 or 4.
• I used to have a goal with classics.  I still have a few on my shelves that I had planned to read before I got stuck on the last classic I tried.  So I will set a goal to get to those this year.  Maybe 3-4.
• Of course my Goodreads goal is 140 books.

Personal goals:

• First, I have GOT to start walking again.  I'm paying for membership at Planet Fitness, which is only $10 a month, but still.  Plus I need to lose weight, and that is the only way to really get it going.
• Save money to fix/replace my air conditioner.  That should have been done last year, but I was able to get through this summer with my A/C working okay.  
• Keep house organized/clean.  Now, part of this has to do with dealing with my dogs.  So that is something I'll have to figure out completely. But my dogs are staying with a friend today and tomorrow, so that I'll have all tomorrow to get at least a start on that.  

So those are my goals.  I plan to check back in at the end of every month to see just how I did this time!