Bout of Books Read-a-thon (2019)

"The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 7th and runs through Sunday, January 13th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 24 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team"

I'm so excited to sign up and participate in the upcoming Bout of Books Read-a-thon!  This is one of my favorite read-a-thons to participate in, and is a great way to jump start my year of reading in 2019!  I'm not great about participating in the daily challenges per se but I do enjoy the extra push to read, read, read!  

My goals for this read-a-thon are to read at least two books!  I'm going to be working a TON of overtime next week so I can't see myself being able to finish more than that but you never know.  The kids also start back up to school next week so back to the busy schedules we go!  I'm looking forward to it though (I'm weird like that) and also really looking forward to using this read-a-thon to push me to read more!  I'm not sure what I'm planning on reading.  I have a huge stack of books that I would "like" to read this month so I'm sure that I will choose from those and my current library stack.  Here are the two library books that are currently calling my name the loudest though so they are strong possibilities:

I'll keep you posted as I'm sure this will all change (as my reading moods do) by the time the read-a-thon actually begins.  Are any of you planning on participating with the Bout of Books read-a-thon as well?  Let me know so that we can cheer each other on!!

Happy Reading!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (November 19th)

"It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn here at The Book Date."

It has been awhile folks!  Life just doesn't slow down really when you have three kids even when you expect it to.  Alas, I'm perfectly okay with this and am just now trying to figure out ways for next year to be different.  I'm not ready to give up blogging - I love sharing my thoughts on books too much.  And honestly, I really enjoy being able to go back and read my thoughts on a book years later.  I think my plan is to call 2018 blogging a wash and start fresh in the new year.  I have a couple of reviews I still plan on sharing with you so I won't be completely silent here the next month and half.  But I just think that I'm going to start working ahead and prescheduling posts for next year.  Maybe then I won't have only three posts a month or go weeks without blogging at all.  Ha!  Who knows if that will really happen but it still will be fun to try and get ahead.  I've got plenty of reviews waiting to be written - some of those I will post in the next month or so (just not regularly) and the rest I will save for the new year.  So there are my blogging plans in a nutshell!  I'm not going to lie - I'm already starting to think about reading plans in the new year as well.  LOL!

Reading wise, I've really slowed down these past two months dramatically.  According to Goodreads I'm about four books behind schedule with my reading challenge - I've been ahead all year until now. I'm not too worried about it because really what can you do?  I'm not as fast of a reader as some and I'm perfectly okay with that.  Not much else is new bookwise.  I'm still checking out WAY too many books from the library.  I'm still adding books to my TBR list on an almost daily basis.  And I'm still enjoying reading although I was starting to slump there for awhile (hence, the drop in the number of books I've been reading).  I don't think I'm going to attempt to catch you up on all of the books I've read since my last reading update - instead I'm just going to share with you the books that I'm currently reading and what I finished last.

I'm currently reading the following books:

Can you tell I was in a reading slump?  I NEVER read four books at a time to be honest but here I am.  I'm off this entire week so I'm really hoping to finish up a couple of these but only time will tell.

A Duke Changes Everything by Christy Carlyle is my current print read and a review copy courtesy of the publisher.  I needed a change of pace from the mysteries and thrillers so I'm excited to read this one.  I've just barely begun it so I'll keep you posted on my thoughts.

It's a Charmed Life (The Grimm Files) by Selene Charles is my current kindle read thanks to Kindle Unlimited (of which I'm trying thanks to a great deal for the next three months).  I'm loving this one so far!  I don't even know how to explain this one or describe it - it has characters from all of the Disney movies you know and love but is so much darker.  I am so glad that I heard about this one and that there is another book for me to look forward to after this!

Watch the Girls by Jennifer Wolfe is a book that I stopped reading only because it was due back at the library and I couldn't finish in time.  I instantly put it back on hold and just picked it back up this past week.  I'm ready to dive back in as it has been really good so far, but I want to focus on finishing up one of the above two books first.

In The Darkest Hour by Anna Carlisle is a NetGalley review copy that is currently languishing on my Kindle.  I loved the first two books in this series but this one just hasn't pulled me in.  It could be because I was trying to read it right in the middle of my reading slump - or maybe it was part of what put me in my reading slump.  I'm not really sure so I moved on to It's a Charmed Life and will be going back to this one afterwards to try again.

I just finished reading:

Too Far Gone by Allison Brennan was such an enjoyable read.  I read this one as part of an upcoming book tour so my thoughts will be posted on it soon.  I've never read anything in this series but I definitely plan on reading more now!  I love when I find new series to read and follow like this!

Up Next:

I'm not too sure what I will read after these four books but these two are currently calling my name the loudest.  Or my mood will change and I will read something completely different (that's what usually happens with me being such a moody reader).

One's a library book and one is the next KU book that I've downloaded to read.  It has been fun chatting with all of you again!  I'm off to work around the house a bit and get ready for Thanksgiving.

Happy Monday and Happy Reading!

#COYER Winter Switch (Reading Plans)

#COYER is here!  I need this in my life (and so does my kindle lol).  I feel like my stack of e-reads is always growing - my "pile" as you will is overflowing.  Time to make a dent and get some of these books read.  I really appreciate that it starts in December and then carries on to the new year.  This means that I can end my reading year strong and then begin 2018 this was as well!  I'm following the Basic COYER rules which are:
 
"This is good old strict COYER. The rules:

1. Every book you read must be an eBook or audiobook.
2. Every book must be either free or less than $5.
3. No library books, borrowed books, or Kindle Unlimited."

I've come up with a ridiculously large pool of possibilities to choose from.  I seriously could have kept going but I found a little self control in me and made a list of 24 to start with.  This isn't to say that I will only choose from these books, but I would like to think it will help me make my reading choices a bit easier having a pile to choose from.  It's a mixture of 2018 releases and older books as well that I've been wanting to read for some time now - all e-books in the hopes that my kindle unread pile will get just a tiny bit smaller.  Enough rambling though....here is my COYER reading pool:

Whew!  That's quite the pile!  And the funny thing is I came across at least twenty more books that could have easily been on this list as well.  My reading goal for this challenge is to read at least ten books for COYER this time around.  More would be great (obviously) but I would really like to hit my goal so I'm starting with ten.  I can bump it up if needed.  Ideally I will also write up reviews for all books read for this challenge as well.  Other than that, I just plan to read to my heart's content!

Happy Reading!

#COYER Summer Reading List!! (My Reading List)

I was just saying how much I needed the next #COYER challenge and here it is!  Serendipity!  This time around they are changing it up with two different options.  The first one is to just read and everything counts.  I love the sound of that because really that is exactly what I need the most.  To just read, read, read!  The second option is to create a summer reading list of 30 books to read from.  This completely appeals to the list making side of me who just can't resist coming up with a pile of books (despite the fact that I rarely ever follow through on these types of things).  Oh heck, I'm going to create that list- you guys should know that by now.  LOL!  I'll count it a success no matter what as long as I really do get some reading done. 

My summer reading list is going to include the following books (which I will create a page for as well):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow - that's a lot of books to get through!  I love a good challenge though.  The best part is if I read five books off this list - I can add five more.  So if I need a little more romance added to the pile, there is that possibility to help with my reading moods.  I picked only e-books which is obviously not the only way I read.  I will count the print books towards the first part of the challenge but I would really like to focus on the summer reading list as much as possible.  I can't wait to begin!

Are you participating in the #COYER summer reading challenge?  Let me know if you are so we can support each other in having a bookish summer!  Happy Reading!