Bout of Books 9.0 - Final Progress and Wrap Up

Days 6 and 7 Progress Report: 

I've been a bit behind the last few days. Things have been busy and I've been distracted by things other than reading. Sadly I've petered out here at the end of the Bout of Books.

On the 6th Day of reading I read: 

The Complete Sherlock Holmes: 11pgs
Girl of Nightmares: 20pgs

Total: 31pgs
Total Pages overall: 834

On the 7th Day of reading I read: 

Scorched: 18pgs

Total: 18pgs


Total Pages read during Bout of Books: 852

Wrap Up:

I'm a little disapointed in myself becuase even though I was busy this weekend I could have read more. I was sucked into a new television show and let that be a total time suck. Overall I had a lot of fun doing the challenges and I finished two books this week which makes me very happy.

I finished reading Vampire Academy and Frostbite by Richelle Mead. I experimented with marathon reading for the first time and it worked very nicely for me so I'm very pleased. I also made progress in my Complete Sherlock Holmes which was another one of my goals. I read about 100 pgs during this week of that book. I did not reach my goal of finishing five books and I didn't read any of the books I said I would. This only further proves my theory that I can't tell the internet what I'm going to read. As soon as I do, the book is suddenly unappealing.

Anyway, I'm planning on participating in the next Bout of Books next time in May. If you are interested in checking out the next readathon you should check out their wrap up post for details. Thank you to everyone who organized the event because I had a lot of fun!

. 

Bout of Books - Day 5 Update

Day 5 Progress Report! 

Today has been an awesome reading day for me! Yesterday I finished Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead early in the evening. I planned to pick up The House of Hades when I started reading today, but something got in my way this morning when I woke up. Frostbite by Richelle Mead got in my way! I had to see where this story was going and I ended up reading the entire book today. 

I am so excited that I made such great progress today with my reading. I think I am going to take the rest of the evening off from reading. I don't want burn myself out tonight. I'm not sure what I'm going to read tomorrow. I could either pick up the third Vampire Academy novel or continue reading something I've already started. We shall see! 

I also participated in one of the challenges and crated a story with some of the words from a page from my book! It was fun and actually really difficult. 

What I Read Today:
1) 23 pgs of House of Hades 
2) 327 pgs of Frostbite

Total Pgs I read today: 350 
Total pgs I read overall: 801 

See you tomorrow with another update! 

 .

Bout of Books 9.0 - Create a Story Challenge

Today's challenge for the Bout of Books Readathon is to create a story! This challenge is being hosted over at Never Too Fond of Books. I think this challenge seems like a lot of fun!


The rules are simple:

1. Open your current book to the last page you read.
2. Using the last word of every line, create a poem or story. You must use every word (but they do not have to be in order), and you may add punctuation as necessary. If a word is split between the end of the line and the beginning of the next one, you may choose whether or not to use it.
3. Create a post (or tweet or video) that showcases your masterpiece. If you don’t have anywhere else to post it, you can add it as a comment here and use the comment link as your entry.
4. Add it to the linky on this post.

Currently I'm reading The House of Hades by Rick Riordan. I'm on page 86 right now. 

My Words:  which, his, over, trail, they, follow, fell, towers, anything, watchtowers, a, car, they, and, disappeared, windows, those

My Story:

those towers
they follow anything
a car over a trail
windows
his watchtowers
they which fell and disappeared

Bookish Five Fridays (9) - Ways to Find Out About New Books

I love to find out about new books even if I don't end up buying them to read or even looking into them farther. Sometimes just hearing a good synopsis will remind me of a book I have and inspire me to pick it up. Of course most of the time finding about about new titles often just leads me to buying more books. These are my top five favorite ways to find out about new books.

1) Booktube - Youtube is full of amazing people who will talk about books all day. They do book reviews, book hauls, wrap up videos, tags and discussion videos. I love to listen to these guys and girls talk about the new books they've discovered. Here are some links to my favorite channels: Ariel Bissett,  Katytastic ,BookRatMisty, Elizziebooks, Bookables, and Marlinelina

2) Blogs - Of course, I love to read blogs as well. People around the world share what books they are reading on blogs as simple as tumblr or as complex as their own site. Reading reviews or discussions can be a great way to find out about new books.

3) Goodreads/Booklikes - These are two sites I know about that contain some of the most complete information about a book that you can find. Need to know which book comes next in a series or if a book is part of a series? Check out these sites and they will tell you where a book fits in and show you some reviews about it as well as give you recommendations based on what you've read.

4) Shopping - Either in store or online, you can find new books by simply browsing. I can spend hours searching a new website for books or kill thirty minutes in a bookstore. I like to look around used book shops as well. They often have really good prices and a lot of times you can find something you've never heard of.

5) Friends - I have several friends who will talk books with me. I love to get recommendations from my friends because they know what I like and they are a lot better at pitching a book to me than a synopsis online.

Bout of Books - Update Days 3 & 4

My Progress Report for Days 3 & 4 

Sadly there was not much to report about Day 3. I did not read a single page on the third day of this readathon. So today I've been trying to make up for that. I finished the Vampire Academy! This is the first books I finished during the readathon. I'm very excited about that and I'm making progress on the other books as well.

Today has been a successful day for my reading and I feel like I'm back on track with my reading.

What I Read Today
1) 10 pgs of The Complete Sherlock Holmes 
2) 133 pgs of The Vampire Academy (Book Complete)
3) 62 pgs of  The House of Hades 

Total Pages Today: 205
Total Pages Overall: 451

I'll probably read more before I go to sleep but that is where I stand at this point!

 .

Mr. Darcy's Noble Connections - Review

 by Abigail Reynolds
 

   

Kindle Edition -242 pgs. 

Published: June 2013
Series: Pemberley Variations  

There’s only one fact that notorious rake Lord Charles Carlisle and his cousin, Fitzwilliam Darcy, can agree upon: a house party given by the Marquess of Bentham is bound to be intolerably dull. That’s why Lord Charles is delighted to accept a bet that he can seduce his sister’s pretty friend during their stay at Bentham Park. After all, it’s easy money for an experienced seducer, and it will relieve his boredom. Why should he care if his staid cousin Darcy disapproves? But when Darcy discovers that Lord Charles’ new target is none other than Elizabeth Bennet, the woman who just refused Darcy’s offer of marriage, he cannot stand by and watch as the woman he still loves is callously ruined. What he doesn’t know is that Lord Charles has a dark secret, and that his attentions to Elizabeth may not be what they seem.

But Darcy has a secret agenda of his own at the house party, one that could change everything change everything at Bentham Park. Add in a midnight rescue, clandestine meetings, a long-lost son, conspiracies, blackmail, and an attempted elopement, and suddenly this house party is anything but dull.

Like all of the Pemberley Variations that I've read by Reynolds, this variation on Pride and Prejudice was a fun, quick read that satisfies my need for a Jane Austen fix. Back in early December all of Abigail Reynolds' books were on sale for $1.99 on Kindle. Since I know I love her stories, I decided to stock up.

Reynolds always manages to capture the misunderstandings that Darcy and Elizabeth have of each other. The will they, won't they moments are always fun to read and keep me flipping the pages whenever I read these. The characters in this particular book are diverse to say the least. I was disappointed that none of the other Bennetts were not in this book at all! So often in other variations of Austen's works I find that when authors adapt her characters they often feel a bit flat. I think Reynolds really captures the characters while still making them her own. There is a lot going on in this book and there are lots of twists and turns.

Personally this is not my favorite of the Variations. Like I mentioned, I missed the rest of the Bennett family especially Jane. Also the characters in this book take away from the romance of Darcy and Elizabeth. A lot of time the story is about other romances or other characters' family relations. Because this book was only 242 pgs. that took a lot of time away from Darcy and Elizabeth. They don't get a lot of time alone together which disappointed me because that is normally the part of her books that I like.

Even so, this is a fun read and well worth the time I spent reading it and the money I spent to get the book. I will definitely be checking out even more of Reynolds' writing!

Rating: 3/5

Bout of Books 9.0- Update Day 2

DAY 2 Progress Report! 

I felt like today did not go quite as well as yesterday. I've been feeling a bit under the weather which I think is why I actually overslept a bit this morning! So my day was off to a bad start and I couldn't quite catch up. Anyway I filmed a video update to let you know a little more about yesterday and today's progress.

I have read more while I was waiting for the video to save and then upload. So today actually turned out to be a good reading day. I only participated in one challenge but it is still fun to look at everyone's responses. 

What I read today: 

1) 118 pgs. of Vampire Academy 

2) 9 pgs of The Complete Sherlock Holmes

Total Pages Today - 127

Total Pages Overall - 247 

.

BoutofBooks 9.0 - Day #1 Update

At this point I am 22.5 hours into this event and I am exhausted but pleased. I feel like I read a lot today and I took every opportunity to read and I'm very glad I did. I managed to read  two Sherlock Holmes stories which doesn't make a huge dent in the 1000 page book, but I find it easier to read when I read it in chunks.

Today I read: 

- Two Sherlock Holmes Stories (30pgs) 

- Continued Reading Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead - which I now realize wasn't in my photo of the books I was going to read, but I had only read 10 pages before today. (90pgs) 

Total Pages Today: 120 

Total Pages Overall: 120

My Goals: 
1) Finish 5 books
2) Make progress in the Complete Sherlock Holmes (read 10 stories)

3) Don't start any more books until I am finished with at least two of these because all 5 of these are started and I need to finish something!

I also participated in a challenge from BoutofBooks. The challenge includes a giveaway and can be found here. I thought this was fun and the contents of my cart was as follows:

 

Tomorrow I'll try to make the update a little prettier. Tonight I am too exhausted.

.

Bout of Books 9.0 - Reading Goals

 I've only participated on the fringes of read-a-thon's before. I think i am being a little over ambitious, but I really want to tear through some books this week!


These are the books I'm planning on choosing from to start with, but since I have a bad habit of never reading what I tell the internet I will, I am going to keep it open ended.

My Goals: 
1) Finish 5 books
2) Make progress in the Complete Sherlock Holmes (read 10 stories)
3) Don't start any more books until I am finished with at least two of these because all 5 of these are started and I need to finish something!

That's it for me! It's rather low key.

Enjoy Reading!

Bout of Books 9.0!

I'm planning on participating in the Bout of Books reading challenge! I've heard about this so many times so now I'm going to join in. I'll be reading as much as I can, but I have to work this week so most of my reading will be done in the evenings.

If you don't know what the Bout of Books is here is the official blurb about it. 

"The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 6th and runs through Sunday, January 12th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 9.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team"

Check out their blog here:  

.

My Goals will be posted here. 

Frigid - Review

   

by: J. Lynn 

Genre: New Adult 
Kindle Edition- 252 pgs.
Published - July 2013

For twenty-one-year-old Sydney, being in love with Kyler isn't anything new. They'd been best friends ever since he pushed her down on the playground and she made him eat a mud pie. Somewhere over the years, she fell for him and fell hard. The big problem with that? Kyler puts the 'man' in man-whore. He's never stayed with a girl longer than a few nights, and with it being their last year in college, Syd doesn't want to risk their friendship by declaring her love. 

Kyler has always put Syd on a pedestal that was too high for him to reach. To him, she's perfect and she's everything. But the feelings he has for her, he's always hidden away or focused on any other female. After all, Kyler will always be the poor boy from the wrong side of tracks, and Syd will always be the one girl he can never have. 

But when they're stranded together at a posh ski resort due to a massive Nor'easter, there's nothing stopping their red-hot feelings for each other from coming to the surface. Can their friendship survive the attraction? Better yet, can they survive at all? Because as the snow falls, someone is stalking them, and this ski trip may be a life-changer in more ways than one.

This is one of the first New Adult books I've ever read and it is the first one by J. Lynn (aka. Jennifer L. Armentrout) I love the Lux Series (Daemon! swoon) and Jennifer's writing is so much fun to read. I only finished this about an hour ago so forgive me if I ramble a little.

First of all Sydney is me and I am Sydney except I don't have a smoking hot stud as a childhood best friend. She is awkward, funny and oh so easy to relate to that I couldn't help but love her. One thing I love about Armentrout's writing is that her characters often talk to themselves when we read from their perspective. When I read from Sydney's (or Katy's) perspective I feel like they are confiding in me. It might seem weird, but it submerses me in the story so well. Whenever I read one of her books I get sucked in, and when I emerge later, its like I'm waking up from a long afternoon nap. I'm groggy and confused because I've gotten lost in the writing.

Now that I've fangirled over the writing....back to Sydney. I loved her so much, but she was slightly annoying. She isn't a very complex character, but she wasn't supposed to be. This is a short, romantic, steamy read. I understood that she was suspicious of Kyler a lot because of his past behavior. However, some of the doubting was a little annoying at times. It didn't deter me from liking the book though. I liked the duel perspectives. It made it much easier to like Kyler because you know what he is thinking which made Sydney's doubting all the more irritating. I should hate Kyler because he is such a player at the beginning of this book, but I just couldn't. Even when he's being a player, he's watching out for Sydney. He is sweet and I could drool over this boy for ages.

I read this book in one sitting in about 4 hours. I loved it. There is romance of course, but there is also some mystery and suspense. It was a fun read and apparently there is a sequel coming according to Goodreads. You know I'll be picking that up when it comes out. It does have a lot sexy times in it though and it definitely a New Adult book.

Rating: 4/5