Bout of Books ~ Goals

Bout of Books is coming next week! BoB 10 was my first BoB and was a huge success for me. I am blessed with the time to read, a lot. I can sit around every day reading all day, and I do. So, my reading and my goals aren't typical of most people. I would much rather my life be different, and I could go out and do fun things, but I can't, so I enjoy my books. That being said, my goals are going to be pretty lofty. We'll see how I do.

With the last BoB RaT, I ended with these stats ~

• I completed 4 BoB RaT Challenges
• I read for 47 Hours
• I completed 17 books
• I read 4796 pages
• I completed 7 novels, 2 novellas & 1 short story on my Kindle Fire
• I listened to 7 audiobooks (the Lemony Snicket series)

I was, for this one, going to not worry about books and try to beat my page count, but I'm currently doing a team challenge at GoodReads, where it's all about the amount of books we read. The last 4 weeks have had me reading 10-12 books a week, this week I'm aiming for 15. So, instead, I'm not going to pay attention to page counts, and I'm going to go by books. So, here's to seeing if I can surpass last time!

My Bout of Books Goals

Time devoted to Reading 

• Daily, except for updates, challenges, and time spent at GR challenge

GOAL

• Complete at least TWENTY (20) books
• Complete at least 5 challenges, if possible (I don't do photo ones)
• Complete at least 2 series in which I only have 1 book left to read

Books to Read

• I don't like to plan ahead, so my books will be chosen as I go

SOOOOOO looking forward to this RaT. I love visiting blogs as much as I love reading. I follow blogs only through Bloglovin', so if you follow me there, I'll follow you back. If you follow through something else, let me know you are following and I'll add you to my Bloglovin'. I don't use Twitter at ALL, so I won't be joining in any of the activity there. I look forward to finding more blogs I can follow.

Monday

Night Time Audio listening time/pages: 1 hr 30 min / 70 pages
Day Time Audio listening time/pages: 5 hr 30 min / 434 pages
Kindle reading time / pages: 5 hr / 378 pages
Number of books I've read today: 3
Total number of books I've read: 3
Current Book: Cursed by Benedict Jacka
Pages Read Today: 812 pages (90 pages - Our Broken Sky, 234 pages - Fated, 230 pages - Dead Don't Lie, 200 - Chosen, 58 - 2 DNF books)
Total Pages Read: 812
Time Read Today: 12 hrs
Total Time Read: 12 hrs
Challenges Participated in today: My Book Scavenger Hunt
Today's Completed Books:

Today's Completed Comics: (not counted towards page/time counts)

Tuesday

Night Time Audio listening time/pages: 1 hr / 104 pages (finished Chosen)
Day Time Audio listening time/pages: 4 hr / 304 pages (Cursed)
Kindle reading time / pages: 6hr / 571 pages (Blackbird, With Open Eyes, Dirty Little Secrets)
Number of books I've read today: 5
Total number of books I've read: 8
Current Book:
Pages Read Today: 979 pages
Total Pages Read: 1791
Time Read Today: 11
Total Time Read: 23 hrs
Challenges Participated in today: none
Today's Completed Books:

Today's Completed Comics:

Wednesday

Night Time Audio listening time/pages: 45 min / 70 pages (Taken)
Day Time Audio listening time/pages: 4 hr /250 pages (Taken)
Kindle reading time/pages: 3 hr 15 min / 348 pages (A Dirty Shame)
Number of books I've read today: 2
Total number of books I've read: 10
Current Book:
Pages Read Today: 710 pages (320 - Taken, 348 - A Dirty Shame)
Total Pages Read: 2501
Time Read Today: 8 hr
Total Time Read: 31 hrs
Challenges Participated in today: none
Today's Completed Books:

Today's Completed Comics:

Thursday

Night Time Audio listening time/pages: 1 hr / 80 pages (One Kick)
Day Time Audio listening time/pages: 1 hr / 80 pages (One Kick)
Kindle reading time/pages: 8 hr 30 min / 753 pages (The Testing Guide, Taken, Stolen, Frozen)
Number of books I've read today: 4
Total number of books I've read: 14
Current Book:
Pages Read Today: 913
Total Pages Read: 3414
Time Read Today: 10 hr 30 min
Total Time Read: 41 hrs 30 min
Challenges Participated in today: My If you like this, Try this
Today's Completed Books:

Today's Completed Comics:

Friday

Night Time Audio listening time/pages: 1 hr 45 min / 150 pages (One Kick, Clean)
Day Time Audio listening time/pages: 3 hr 15 min / 224 pages (One Kick, Time's Echo)
Kindle reading time/pages: 2 hr 45 min / 304 pages (Nerve)
Number of books I've read today: 3
Total number of books I've read: 17
Current Book:
Pages Read Today: 678 pages
Total Pages Read: 4092
Time Read Today: 7 hr 45 min
Total Time Read: 49 hrs 15 min
Challenges Participated in today: none
Today's Completed Books:

Today's Completed Comics:

Saturday

Night Time Audio listening time/pages:
Day Time Audio listening time/pages: 4 hr 30 min / 301 pages (Clean)
Kindle reading time/pages: 4 hr 15 min / 423 pages (Sweet Dreams)
Number of books I've read today: 2
Total number of books I've read: 19
Current Book:
Pages Read Today: 724 pages
Total Pages Read: 4822
Time Read Today: 8 hr 45 min
Total Time Read: 57hrs 45 min
Challenges Participated in today: My Spell-it-out Challenge
Today's Completed Books:

Today's Completed Comics:

Sunday

Night Time Audio listening time/pages:
Day Time Audio listening time/pages:
Kindle reading time/pages: 4 hr 15 min / 295 pages (Dirty Rotten Scoundrel)
Number of books I've read today: 1
Total number of books I've read: 20
Current Book:
Pages Read Today: 295
Total Pages Read: 5117
Time Read Today: 4 hr 15 min
Total Time Read: 62 hrs
Challenges Participated in today: none
Today's Completed Books:

Today's Completed Comics:

It's Monday! What are you Reading?

It's Monday! What are you Reading? ~ Hosted by BookJourney


Well, our 4th week wasn't as good on our challenge. I read a ton, but we fell to 2nd place. The other team went sneaky, not posting everything they were reading. We did the same thing, but our team just didn't read as much. :( Stinks cuz we had three weeks in the lead. Ah well, all I can do is read. Can't make everyone on the team step it up. I'm aiming for 15 books this week, we'll see!

So here is what I am reading right now ~

Audio & Kindle



Here is what I read this past week, yup, it's a lot. Hope to do better this week tho!






Quick thoughts on the books I read ~

• S.E.C.R.E.T. ~ a good erotica ~ 4 stars
• Three ~ good conclusion to the Chandler series ~ 4 stars
• The Big Blind ~ good story about poker player ~ 4 stars
• Silent Echo ~ not my normal thing, but ok ~ 3 stars
• Gray Justice ~ unmemorable ~ 3 stars
• Stephen Frey ~ expected so much more ~ 2 stars
• Taking it All ~ disappointing Maya book ~ 1 star
• Gray Resurrection ~ BORING book, 1 star
• S.E.C.R.E.T. Shared ~ a great follow up to the first book ~ 4 stars
• Stirred ~ no words for the stuff he put in this book ~ 1 star
• Forgotten ~ fantastic book! Really enjoyable! ~ 4.5 stars
• The 100 ~ Meh. Too much going on. ~ 2 stars
• The Midnight Palace ~ couldn't get into it at all ~ 2 stars
• Dead Weight ~ not bad, good storyline ~ 3.5 stars

Reviews I posted ~

• Private Down Under by James Patterson & Michael White ~ 3 stars

What have you been reading lately?

Book Review ~ Private Down Under by James Patterson

Finished ~ Private Down Under (AKA Private Oz) by James Patterson & Michael White
Completed 6/2/13
3 of 5 stars
368 page Kindle book


I had read this book last year, so when I saw it on NetGalley, I decided to request it to give it a review.

The Private series is a series about the Private Detective Agency, a group run by Jack Morgan with offices expanding all over the globe. In Private Down Under, Craig Gisto has just opened up the office in Australia, having Jack's 2nd in command, Justine Smith, come out to help them, and they are going to need the help.

At their celebration party, a dying boy crashes in, and thus starts a very busy week at Private. They are soon wrapped up in figuring out who the boy is, and why he was killed, a rock star who thinks that someone is out to get him, and the brutal murders of some rich wives, and a missing man. It's a book packed with action from start to finish, in Patterson signature way of short chapters.


This book was OK. It wasn't my favorite Patterson, and it wasn't my least favorite. I felt like the 4 different storylines was a bit too much!! It's like none of the stories got developed enough because he was telling too many, they were all just rushed. The parts that I liked best about it were the rock star, who thought his manager was trying to kill him, and the serial killer of the rick wives. The gang angle, with the dead boy at the beginning was slow moving and dull and the missing business man seemed more like an afterthought.

I really enjoy this series, but sometimes so much can be too much, and it was in this book. It easily would have been a 4-5 star book if there had been more detail on 2 of the cases, with less on the other two, or not even in the book at all, it could have been saved for a follow up book. I guess since the foreign offices are, so far, just one book, they wanted to cram as much as they could into one very action packed book. If you like crazy non-stop action with a bunch of people going a bunch of directions, than this book is for you. :)


Setting = A+
Plot = B
Conflict = B-
Characters = A
Theme = B

It's Monday! What are you Reading?

It's Monday! What are you Reading? ~ Hosted by BookJourney


4th week of our GoodReads Team Challenge has started and my team has been in FIRST place all of the 1st 3 weeks. Our lead was cut a little bit over the 2nd place team, they are just 10 points behind us (the 3rd place team is almost 200 points behind us) so we're reading lots this week and gonna try to keep up our lead. We would have kept our lead, except I slacked off the beginning of last week with a headache for two days, so I gotta bring it back this week! :) Here is what I am currently reading ~

Audio & Kindle


The books I finished since last Monday ~







Quick thoughts on the books I read ~

• Last Little Blue Envelope ~ Not as good as the 1st ~ 2.5 stars
• Born of Illusion ~ more of a history lesson, boring ~ 2 stars
• The Naturals ~ fantastic read, really enjoyable! ~ 4.5 stars
• The Testing ~ yes Hunger Games like, but REALLY good ~ 5 stars
• Independent Study ~ Not as good as the first, but still good ~ 4 stars
• Graduation Day ~ A great ending ~ 4 stars
• No Show ~ an ok thriller type ~ 3 stars
• Kiss Me, Kill Me ~ another good suspense ~ 3 stars
• An Evil Mind ~ my favorite serial killer series ~ 5 stars
• The Philanthropist's Danse ~ soooo very boring ~ 1.5 stars

Reviews I posted ~

• Do or Die (Reluctant Heroes 01) by Suzanne Brockmann ~ 3 stars
• Nothing to Lose (Grey Justice 01) by Christy Reece ~ 4.5 stars
• Close Your Eyes & Sight Unseen by Iris Johansen ~ 5 stars

My July Reading Log (36 books) and Monthly Wrap-Up


What have you been reading?

Beat the Heat Read-a-Thon ~ Sign up Post

Just a quick post to say I'm signing up for the Beat the Heat Read-a-Thon hosed by A Novel Heartbeat and Phantasmic Reads.

It's runs 3 weeks and will run through my GoodReads Challenge and Bout of Books, so there's going to be a TON more reading done!! :) I'm looking forward to it. I'm hoping it will be an active RaT with tons of other blogs to visit. Socializing is almost as fun for me as the reading is!

Hope to see you all join up!

July Reading Log & Monthly Wrap-Up

This is my Monthly Reading Log, posted for a swap at Swap-Bot.  My month of reading this time was QUITE long.  I've been REALLY REALLY stingy with my 5s lately, so you're going to see a lot more 3s.  That doesn't mean I didn't like it, most of my 3 ratings are books I really enjoyed and liked a lot, I just didn't LOVE them.  So, I recommend most books 3 stars and up.   I hope you enjoy reading about what I've been reading!  From ~ ImzadiRose.  Below the log is a re-cap of what I've posted this month.

July ~ New Color Coding  ~  5★,  4★,  3★,  2★,  1★

01 ~ Nil by Lynne Matson

Completed 7/1

4 of 5 stars

               Really good book.  Called Lost meets Survivor but I didn’t think it was like either, besides the fact of being on an island and weird things were happening.  It was unlike anything else, and really good.

02 ~ Innocent Prey (Brown & De Luca 03) by Maggie Shayne

Completed 7/1

5 of 5 stars

               An ARC I received from NetGalley.  Rachel De Luca was blind for years before getting her sight back.  Her new sight comes with a “gift”.  Mason Brown is a cop, who asks for Rachel’s help from time to time.  In this one, a blind girl is missing.  Really great series!

03 ~ Obsessions (Faces of Evil 01) by Debra Webb

Completed 7/4

4 of 5 stars

               I’ve had this one for a while and just hadn’t tried it.  It was good and I look forward to more.  Jess comes back to her hometown when her former lover calls and asks for help to find 4 missing girls.

04 ~ The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman

Completed 7/5

3 of 5 stars

               This was a fun middle school book.  It’s about a library of sorts, but the library doesn’t have books, they have items from fairy tales.  The most famous is the Grimm Collection and someone is stealing the items.

05 ~ One Perfect Night (The Sullivans 08.5) by Bella Andre

Completed 7/6

1 of 5 stars

               Sucky erotica.  Sucky sucky

06 ~ The Library of Shadows by Mikkel Birkeggard

Completed 7/9

3 of 5

               Another book about books.  In this one, a bookseller dies and his son finds out that the bookshop is so much more than it seems.  He’s soon fighting to stay alive.  Different and interesting!

07 ~ Invisible by James Patterson

Completed 7/10

4 of 5 stars

               Emmy believes there is a serial killer loose.  Everyone thinks she’s nuts and that what she says is the work of a serial killer are just random accidental fires.  They were wrong.  Creepy great book!

08 ~ Not your Damn Submissive by Amy Valenti

Completed 7/10

2 of 5 stars

               Another dumb erotica.  Liked him, hated her.  She was an idiot.

09 ~ A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff

Completed 7/12

2 of 5 stars

               A cute middle grade book, definitely for kids.  A weird book, too hard to explain.  It was cute and ok.  Nothing I’d suggest to anyone above the age of 10.

10 ~ Power Play (FBI 18) by Catherine Coulter

Completed 7/12

4 of 5 stars

               Another great FBI book.  Love this series.  Always two storylines, I liked one better than the other.  Davis is protecting Natalie and her daughter Perry as Natalie has had attempts on her life.  In the other (more boring) storyline, a killer from the past comes back and tries to kill Sherlock.

11 ~ Deadly Sins (Callahans 02) by Lora Leigh

Completed 7/13

2 of 5 stars

               Meh.  I just couldn’t get into this one at all.  2^nd in a series, of which I loved the first one this one just wasn’t as good, or I just wasn’t in the mood.

12 ~ Nothing to Lose (Grey Justice 01) by Christy Reece

Completed 7/14

4 of 5 stars

               Great start to a new series by one of my favorite authors.  Kennedy lost everything and vows revenge.  Nick & Grey step in to help out.  Great story, great characters.  Really good!

13 ~ Those Who Wish Me Dead by Michael Koryta

Completed 7/15

4 of 5 stars

               Another really good story.  Jace is being hidden away in the mountains with a wilderness guide after he witnesses a murder. 

14 ~ Impulse (Faces of Evil 02) by Debra Webb

Completed 7/15

3 of 5 stars

               The next in this series, not as enjoyable as the first.  In this one Jess is racing to safe a detective who got abducted by a killer who is taunting Jess.

15 ~ Close Your Eyes (Kendra Michaels 01) by Iris Johansen

Completed 7/17

5 of 5 stars

               I’d been hoping that there’d be a new series for this character.  She’s awesome.  Kendra Michaels was once blind.  Now that she is able to see, she still uses her other senses and helps out law enforcement from time to time.  Her regular job is music therapy.  She’s great.

16 ~ Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts

Completed 7/18

3.5 of 5 stars

               A book about smoke jumpers.  Really enjoyable book, as Nora’s books usually are.  The killer was too predictable, I knew it early on, but other than that, it was a good book.

17 ~ Do or Die (Reluctant Heroes 01) by Suzanne Brockmann

Completed 7/18

3 of 5 stars

               I received this book for my review from NetGalley.  It was OK.  At GoodReads it says that it’s a book about Ian who is tasked by the government to go into an embassy to rescue some kids who were kidnapped.  Great.  Except THAT doesn’t actually start to happen until 75% through this long book.  So it was weird that way.  So many other things going on before the thing it was supposed to all be about.

18 ~ The Immortal Circus: Act One by A.R. Kahler

Completed 7/19

3 of 5 stars

               A very different read for me.  Found it on my free month of Kindle Unlimited.  Vivienne wanted to escape her life and joins a circus, but it’s not a normal circus and people are starting to die.  Good book for paranormal fans.

19 ~ Be My Everything by Ella Jade

Completed 7/19

2 of 5 stars

               Meh.  Erotica. 

20 ~ Behind the Lies (Montgomery Justice 02) by Robin Perini

Completed 7/20

4 of 5 stars

               Another great Montgomery brother book.  This one is about Zach, who is the black sheep of the family.  Jenna is running from her abusive husband.  Jenna and Zach help each other out through everything happening.  Really great book.

21 ~ Sight Unseen (Kendra Michaels 02) by Iris Johansen

Completed 7/20

5 of 5 stars

               Another great Kendra book.  In this one, a killer is revisiting the cases that Kendra helped solve and is recreating them.  Really great!

22 ~ Against the Wild (Brodies of Alaska 01) by Kat Martin

Completed 7/21

4 of 5 stars

               Dylan brings Lane up to his new lodge in Alaska to do the interior decorating.  Strange things are happening around the lodge, and soon there’s a murder in town.  Great book!

23 ~ The Immortal Circus: Act Two by A.R. Kahler

Completed 7/21

2.5 of 5 stars

               Next book in the Immortal Circus.  It wasn’t bad.  It’s not normally my thing, but it was a good quick audio read. 

24 ~ The Immortal Circus: Final Act by A.R. Kahler

Completed 7/22

2.5 of 5 stars

               Final installment, good conclusion for the most part.  An ok series.  Good for fans of fae and demons and such like that. 

25 ~ Vanished (Mason Callahan 01) by Kendra Elliot

Completed 7/23

4 of 5 stars

               Mason is a detective, though in this book his wife’s stepdaughter is missing and Mason takes some time off to help try to find her.  Good start of the series.  Looking forward to more.

26 ~ My Liege of Dark Haven (Dark Haven 03) by Cherise Sinclair

Completed 7/23

3 of 5 stars

               Erotica.  Not bad, not my favorite of hers.

27 ~ Hunting Eve (Eve Duncan 17) by Iris Johansen

Completed 7/24

3 of 5 stars

               I got bored with the Eve Duncan series a while ago, but wanted to finish them out since I had read the first one of this 3 book little part of it.  It was ok.  Not bad and enjoyable as an audiobook.

28 ~ Unfair Advantage (Diablo Blanco Club 01) by Qwillia Rain

Completed 7/24

1 of 5 stars

               Crap crap crap erotica.  Yuk. 

29 ~ Silencing Eve (Eve Duncan 18) by Iris Johansen

Completed 7/25

3.5 of 5 stars

               The final book of this little trilogy which is part of the bigger series.  It was a good ending, and pretty enjoyable.

30 ~ Timebound (Chronos Files 01) by Rysa Walker

Completed 7/26

4 of 5 stars

               Really great, and really different.  Kate finds out that her grandmother, as well as herself, have the ability to time travel.  Some changes have happened to life as they know it, and it’s up to Kate to go back and save the timeline.  REALLY great book, so enjoyable!!

31 ~ 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

Completed 7/27

3.5 of 5 stars

               A cute story about a girl following a scavenger hunt of her aunts.  Interesting as she did all the things and all the places she went.  Wish I could have done that when I was 17, or any age really.  Enjoyable.

32 ~ The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson

Completed 7/28

2 of 5 stars

               Not nearly as good as the first.  Everything was different and I felt it was pretty pointless for it all to be so different, then for it to end up the way it did.  The end was ok, but the rest was unnecessary. 

33 ~ Born of Illusion (Born of Illusion 01) by Teri Brown

Completed 7/28

2 of 5 stars

               This wasn’t at all what I thought it would be.  It seemed to be a history lesson and advertisement for old things that masqueraded as a novel about an illusionist.  I didn’t hate it, but it wasn’t great.

34 ~ The Naturals (Naturals 01) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Completed 7/29

4.5 of 5 stars

               I loved this book.  It’s about a group of teens who are chosen by the FBI to help out to solve old cold cases.  These teens have the natural ability to perceive people, such as telling if someone is lying or profiling. 

35 ~ The Testing (The Testing 01) by Joelle Charbonneau

Completed 7/30

5 of 5 stars

               I LOVED this book!  Reviewers complain it’s similar to Hunger Games, and it is in some ways, but it’s also different.  No idea is going to be a new idea, so I hate it when people complain about that.  Anyways, this book was great.  Those chosen, go through a Testing, to see if they can precede on to college.  Great characters and enjoyable story.

36 ~ Independent Study (The Testing 02) by Joelle Charbonneau

Completed 7/31

4 of 5 stars

               A good second book in the series.  Not as much action as the first book but it was still really enjoyable. I liked it a lot, and I’m looking forward to the next one.

What I posted in July

Books I Reviewed in July ~

• Innocent Prey by Maggie Shayne
• Not Your Damn Submissive by Amy Valenti
• Do or Die by Suzanne Brockmann
• Nothing To Lose by Christy Reece
• Close Your Eyes & Sight Unseen by Iris Johansen

My "It's Monday! What are you Reading?" posts ~

• Monday July 7th
• Monday July 14th
• Monday July 21st
• Monday July 28th

Other bits of Randomness ~

• Bookish Bingo, Summer Edition
• My Challenges Update
• Life of a Blogger ~ Tattoos
• Sex Me Up Read-a-Thon
• Sex Me Up Read-a-Thon ~ Erotica I Read
• Sex Me Up Read-a-Thon ~ Let's talk about Sex
• Sex Me Up Read-a-Thon ~ Let's talk about BDSM
• Bout of Books ~ I'm Participating post