2018 Blog Challenge Sign Up Post

Okay, so I've thought long and hard about what challenges to sign up for in 2018.  I've decided on four.  All ones I've done in the past.  I have some ideas on how to be more successful on them as well.  So watch for my goals with each one.  I'm going to start with the ones I actually completed last year.

What I like most about this challenge hosted by Nicole at  Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon at  It Starts at Midnight, is that it keeps me from just doing promos or reviews.  It gives me a chance to talk about things I might not have anyone in my "real" life to talk about. And I always like to get fun gifs to go along with them.  My goal last year was 4 discussion posts.  I'm going to stick with that number, which makes me a Discussion Dabbler according to the sign up site that I've linked the button to.

I'm not going to list off the series I intend to finish this year, just because I don't want to limit myself, and I haven't had the chance to sit down and write them all down.  Of course there are a few from the past year that I still didn't complete, but I will try those.  This one is hosted by Sandy at Somewhere Only We Know and Holly at Words Fueled by Love.  You can click the button above to sign up.  I'm only signing up for level 2 this year, which is 5-10, and my goal is 6. 

I always like this challenge, hosted by Michelle at Because Reading is Better than Real Life and Laura at Trips Down Imagination Road.  Even though I don't always quite make my exact goals, it often leads me to find other ways in which I can improve my reading, blogging, or writing.  And so that is why I am signing up again.  If you like the sound of it, click on the button above and go to that site to sign up.  Here are my three goals for the year:

1.  Complete one of my WIP romance stories.  Preferably one by the end of January to enter a contest, but just one of them during the year works for me.

2.  Read the books suggested by friends.  For example, a friend at work has challenged me to read one DC comic and one Marvel comic, and see which I actually prefer, based on the comics and not just the movies.  I've also had other books recommended, such as a Kurt Vonnegut book, and I bought it, but have yet to read it.  So those are my three books I plan to read for sure this year as recommended.

3.  Cut back on tours.  I am scheduled, way over scheduled.  It cuts into writing time, and commenting on other blogs, as well as doing any extra work on my own blog.  I asked for a book on HTML for Christmas, since I want to learn how to do some of the coding myself.  So I  need more time to work on that.

So, I kind of failed miserably at this challenge last year, and I think it was because I named off what books they would be. This year, I am not going to name them ahead of time, just note them as being for this challenge as I pull them off the TBR shelves.  Once again I'm sticking with the lowest level, the Pike's Peak level - 12 books off my TBR pile.  I'm making it of course that they have to have been purchased in 2017 or earlier.  This is hosted by Bev at My Reader's Block, and you can sign up by clicking on the link in this paragraph.

2017 Challenges Wrap-Up Post

Well, let's just say I didn't do that great on my challenges.  :-(  At least not with the lists I posted in my sign up link last December, HERE.

Let's recount my failures:

The four books I listed were Lair of Dreams, Places No One Knows, and Stealing Snow.  All are still waiting to be read.

Okay, this one I actually met my goal of four discussion posts for the year.  Here are links to them if you'd like to check them out:

1. I Just Can't Seem to Get Enough - Books - Or When Should I Quit Entering Giveaways for Books?

    2.  Say What You Want to Say and Let the Words Fall Out - or Is There One Right Way to Write a Book Review?

   3.  Don't Judge a Book By Its Cover - Or What's With All the Identical Covers?

   4.  So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish - Or When Should I Give Up on Blog Tours?

    

   

    

   So, for this one, I got a few of the ones I'd planned done: 

   The Countdown by Kimberly Derting, Sentinel by Jennifer L. Armentrout, and Ashes by Laurie Halse Anderson were all reviewed HERE.   

   Fire and Ash by Jonathan Maberry I reviewed HERE.  

   None of the other series ending books I read were on my original list, but I did get others finished:

   Returned by Kimberley Griffiths Little, Buns by Alice Clayton, Salvaged by Jay Crownover, The Sacrifice of Sunshine Girl by Paige McKenzie, The Keep of Ages by Caragh M. O'Brien, Shadow by Colleen Oakes, Wild by Sophie Jordan, and that is really all I can count.  The other series enders I read are actually series I just started in 2017, so I don't count them.  So I missed my goal of 12 by 1.

   

   I only got 3 of the 12 books on my list done for this, and they're all mentioned above:  The Countdown by Kimberly Derting, Fire and Ash by Jonathan Maberry, and Tease by Sophie Jordan.  Another fail.

   

   
   

   Okay, of my three blogging resolutions, I completed one, sort of completed the second one, and didn't do the third one, or keep track of it anyway.  I made sure to label the titles of all the posts with "Review" or "Discussion", etc.  I got images created for my stars, but haven't started using them.  Here is one:

   
   I really need to start using them!  The third one that I didn't complete, or at least didn't keep track of to know if I even got close, was to comment on 7 different blogs every week.  I did do a lot more commenting this year, though, so I am glad I did do some of it.
   

   
   

    My writing goals didn't go much better. I didn't finish either of my NaNoWriMo stories that I'd started.  And when I tried to do the short stories, I got caught up in the very first story.  Now, I've added to that one, and even got it started posting on Wattpad, but I need to finish a story!  So failed, for the most part.  I did get a lot of writing time in for the year, even though I lost my writing partner, when I lost that friend who didn't like one of my reviews of her books.  I did pick up a new writing partner though, and have recently found some possible new partners or a group even on Facebook.  

    

   I'm still debating about what challenges I'm going to sign up for in 2018.  I need to change the way I do some things on my blog.  I want more time to write, and want to keep to no more than one post a day, whenever possible.  I have to quit signing up for tons of blog tours, as one of my discussion posts talked about.  I also am still trying to decide how high to set my Goodreads reading challenge.  I always try to increase my goal each year. This year they started allowing you to post that you'd read a book more than once, so a few of my reads this year were re-reads, but I did go over my goal of 250.  I'm thinking to set my goal right where it is again for next year.  We'll see.  Expect a post on all that kind of stuff probably on the 1st or 2nd.

    

   So, how did you do on your challenges in 2017?   How are you planning to challenge yourself in 2018?

January End of the Month Wrap-Up Post

Hmm, my life doesn't seem to slow down!  Oh well, going to try to do better with the end of the month posts, but am not going to stress about the weekly posts all the time.  I've been a bit stressed because my Goodreads goal has me 7 books behind at the moment, but I've only got it set at 5 books over how many I read last year. We'll see how that goes.  Let's do an update of all my challenges.

Well, I'll keep hanging my head in shame.  Goal of 4 books, but none of this done yet!

My goal for this one was 4 discussions for the year.  Haven't done one yet, but do have a couple ideas to do one in February.

My goal was 12 books for the year, and so far I've done 3!!  Totally on track with this one.  Although I don't have all the reviews posted yet.

1. The Countdown (The Taking #3) by Kimberly Derting
2. Sentinel (Covenant #5) by Jennifer L. Armentrout
3.  Ashes (Seeds of America #3) by Laurie Halse Anderson

My goal for this was 12 as well, only one done so far, but that is still on track.  And it is one that counted for the last challenge.

• The Countdown (The Taking #3) by Kimberly Derting

My two categories that I picked were blogging and writing.  Here's how I'm doing on them so far.

1. Blogging - I don't think I'm going to keep up with the labeling all my posts whether they are ARCs or etc.  I put that in my book info at the beginning of the reviews, I figure that's good.  I think I'm commenting on 7 blogs a week?  Not positive.  Need to keep better track of that this month.  I am working on getting an image for my blog made, so that is in the works.  
2. Writing - I'm also giving up on the writing a short story every week.  I tried the first week, but it is going longer than a short story, so I'm just going to keep working on it.  I do need to work on finishing my past NaNoWriMo stories.  But I kinda want to finish the short story I started on first, make it a very short one.  Maybe get it fixed up and see how it does on Amazon or something.  :-)  As for spending an hour a week at least on writing, I'd say that's been at least every other week.  So going to keep up with that.

I'm so glad that is all the challenges I'm doing this year.  Although I am going to participate in the Mini-Blog ahead challenge at the beginning of March, which will be really helpful for when I go to ApollyCon at the end of March.  I can't believe how close it is getting!  I've started getting all the books I want signed together, and I think I might need to take a suitcase just for that.  :-)

Alright, here are some statistics from January:

• # of books read:  15, that is down from the 19 a month I was doing before Christmas.
• # of full reviews posted on blog:  8-10, if you count the two I did for two of JLA's books in one post
• # of mini-reviews posted on blog:  19-21, again depends on those two I mentioned above

Possible February October TBR (that hasn't already been read):

• The Wish Granter by CJ Redwine
• Long May She Reigh by Rhiannon Thomas
• Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller
• Sad Perfect by Stephanie Elliot
• Reignited (Reawakened #0.5) by Colleen Houck
• The Great Pursuit (Eurona Duology #2) by Wendy Higgins
• The Beast is an Animal by Peternelle van Arsdale
• Geekarella by Ashley Poston
• Max by Sarah Cohen-Scali
• Lifeblood (Everlife #2) by Gena Showalter
• The Shack by William Paul Young
• Denton Little's Still Not Dead (Denton Little #2) by Lance Rubin
• Wrong Bed, Right Guy (Come Undone #1) by Katee Robert
• The Cinderella Arrangement by Vanessa Waltz
• Screwdrivered (Cocktail #3) by Alice Clayton
• Neil Patrick Harris:  Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris

We'll see what else I end up with time to read!  Hopefully I'm not missing any review books in that. 

If you've done your own January Wrap-Up Post, be sure to go link up at Feed Your Fiction Addiction so you can get entered into a giveaway, as well as get more visitors to your post!

2017 Challenges Announcement Post

Well, tomorrow a new year starts.  And everyone is hoping for 2017 to be better than 2016 seemed to be.  I haven't quite figured up how I've done on all my 2016 challenges yet, I figure I'll do that tomorrow. I do know that I will not be hosting any challenges next year, probably not even my usual September is for Sequels.  But today I want to share the different challenges I plan to participate in for the coming year for sure.

The Blogger Shame challenge is a cheeky way to admit our guilt...and go about fixing it. Tackling those review books that have slipped through the cracks over the years. Any review book over 4 months past due is game!  This is hosted by Herding Cats and Burning Soup.  I am going to try to work on the books that I downloaded to Kindle from Netgalley, because they don't expire, and that way by participating in this, I will also help my Netgalley score!  There will be two check-ins for this challenge: 

Mid Year Check In: First week of June

Wrap Up Post: Last week of December

• My goal is 4 books for 2017:  Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray, Places No One Knows by Brenna Yovanoff, The Giant by Lex Thomas, Stealing Snow by Danielle Paige

This challenge is to help get us discussing books and book blogging, so talk about whatever you want as long as it’s relevant to book blogging. Discussions can be book related or book blogging related (or generally blogging related—no discussions about things that are completely off-topic like travel or fashion, etc). Discussions can also be about you personally if it’s a get-to-know-you type post.  This one is hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight.  I tried this one last year, but didn't quite reach my goal,  so I'm going to set it a little lower this year.

• My goal is to do 4 discussion posts throughout the year, which makes me working towards the Discussion Dabbler level of 1-10

This challenge is hosted by Somewhere Only We Know and Words Fueled by Love and 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.   I fall into the last group, I just never seem to get to the last one at times.  Partly because of all the new books coming out.

• I plan to do level 3 and get 12 done.  Here are the series I'm hoping to finish:  The Taking by Kimberly Derting, Covenant series by JLA, The Last Star (5th Wave series) by Rick Yancey, The Crown (The Selection series) by Kiera Cass, The Black Key (The Lone City series) by Amy Ewing, Untamed (Splintered series) by AG Howard, Dead Ever After (Sookie Stackhouse series) by Charlaine Harris, Eternally Yours (Immortal Beloved series) by Cate Tiernan, Fire and Ash (Rot and Ruin series) by Jonathan Maberry, Rogue (Croak series) by Gina Damico, Third Strike (The Slayer Chronicles) by Heather Brewer, Reborn (Altered series) by Jennifer Rush, and Library of Souls (Miss Peregrine's series) by Ransom Riggs

This challenge that is hosted by My Reader's Block ties in well with the fact that I have a whole 5 shelf bookcase that is full of TBR books. And not just nice even rows of books on each shelf, but books piled in until there is no room to set anymore books on the shelves.  I have over 300 physical books, last time I counted, waiting for me to read.  Books I've won, from past BEAs, books I HAD to buy when they came out, or books I found for a great deal at either Half Price Bookstores or Dollar Tree stores.  I've decided to start out with the lowest level and if I do more, I do more.  Some of these will be for another challenge too.

• Pike's Peak: Read 12 books from your TBR pile/s:  Here are my proposed 12 books:  The Countdown by Kimberly Derting, The Crown by Kiera Cass, Untamed by AG Howard, Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris, Eternally Yours by Cate Tiernan, Fire and Ash by Jonathan Maberry, Rogue by Gina Damico, Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova, Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes, Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray, Tease by Sophie Jordan, and Maplecroft by Cherie Priest

If I can get more read than those 12, I definitely will.  

I participated in this challenge last year.  Hosted by Because Reading and Trips Down Imagination Road, it is a challenge where you can set different types of goals, blogging, writing, reading, and even personal.  This year I've chosen blogging and writing goals.

1. Blogging:   Label all post titles to whether it is an ARC, e-book, or an audiobook.  Comment on at least 7 different blogs a week - which includes answering all my own blog comments every day instead of letting them add up.  Get an image created to show the number of stars I give a book.  I have an idea, just need an artist to do it for me.  Had my sister in mind, but I suspect that is no longer an option after a falling out we had in November, not that I had any idea when/if she might ever get to it anyway. 
2. Writing:  Finish my NaNoWriMo story from several years ago,  Digging Up Love, and see if I can also finish this past year's NaNo, Fault Lines.   Write a short story every week according to a challenge my writing partner and I have thought about doing.  Set up at least one hour a week that is dedicated to writing every week.

I will set up a Goodreads goal as soon as the website opens it up for the 2017 goals, and I plan to set it at 250 books for the year.

Whew!  Those are all my challenges for 2017.  While you're here, today is the last day to enter my Let's Get 2016 Over With Giveaway Part 4.  But come back on Sunday for a new giveaway, Book of Choice, sponsored by FLYLeF.

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?