Bout of Books 13 (Sign-up Post)

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, May 11th and runs through Sunday, May 17th 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 13 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I'm excited to join in this read-a-thon again.

My Goals:

• Read 1500+ pages
• Participate in at least three of the challenges

A Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon

I'm joining the A Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon. My goal is to read 5 books and I'll be keeping track of my progress on this post.

Here are the details:

Happy New Year! I know a lot of you have probably been wondering when I would get this posted. Well, here it is...finally! The official sign up for A Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon! It's just a little under a month away on January 27 - February 2, starting at 12:00am Monday and ending at 11:59pm on Sunday. Times are central standard time so adjust your times accordingly. Of course, like most read-a-thons, the books read must be novels or novellas, adult or young adult are fine, and you can read children's books too (as long as you do read some novels too). Note: Non-Fiction is also okay! You DO NOT have to participate the entire week. Join in when you can, start in the middle, end early...whatever works best for your schedule. As long as you sign in at the sign-in post and do some kind of wrap up post, you're in for the big giveaway at the end. As with my previous read-a-thons, it will be a week of relaxed reading during which we can personally challenge ourselves and whittle away those ever looming TBR piles/shelves/libraries. I hope you will join me! I will not be hosting any mini-challenges. However, if anyone else would like to host a mini-challenge or giveaway, you are more than welcome (Contact me using the contact form above). We will have a few scheduled Twitter chats. Dates/Times will be announced at the sign-in post. Our twitter hashtag is #WintersRespite

Books read:

I was busy a couple days and that kept me from reading. Also I just didn't feel like reading this week, so with that in mind I'm happy with the amount I was able to read.

Love for Books Readathon

I'm signing up to participate in the Love for Books Readathon. I'll keep track of my progress on this post and will add my goals closer to the start date.

Here are the details:

• The Love for Books Readathon runs from Monday, February 17th at 12:01 am through Sunday, February 23rd at 11:59 pm. 
• We will have at least one mini challenge sometime during the week for you to participate in!
• There will be a giveaway at the end of the readathon for all participants.
• Sign up at Novel Heartbeat or Confessions of a Bookie Monster. You may join whenever you like, but to be eligible for our grand prize giveaway, you must sign up by February 18th.
• To join, all you have to do is make a sign-up post and add your post URL to the linky below! You can put your goals and progress (will be required for the final giveaway) in your sign-up post, or you can make it separate. Totally up to you! 
• In order to enter for the grand prize, you must have a post to keep track of your progress so we can see that you participated.

My goal:

Read 5 books. 

Books read:

Pages: 1,585

Last Minute Read-A-Thon: Wrap-up

Hosted by Maria (A Night's Dream of Books) and Vonnie (Vonnie's Reading Corner)

Total pages read: 306

Total books read: 3

Books finished:

Books read but not finished during the read-a-thon:

I definitely didn't make my goal, but it didn't matter too much as this read-a-thon was a lot of fun. I loved doing the daily challenges and got to read some great books.

Last Minute Read-A-Thon: Remembering 2013

The challenge for today is to answer the following questions about the books I've read in 2013.

Best Book of 2013

This is a tough one, as I've read quite a few excellent books this year, but I'm going to go with The Dance (The Restoration Series #1) by Dan Walsh and Gary Smalley. This book completely wowed me.

My review for The Dance can be found HERE.

Worst Book of 2013

This is super easy for me to decide. The worst book I've read this year was You Are Not So Smart by David McRaney. A lot of people seemed to love the book, but I just couldn't stand it. I found it to be very annoying and condescending.

My review for You Are Not So Smart can be found HERE.

Favorite New Author

This one is exceptionally tough, I've read over 100 new-to-me authors, so I'm going to list six of my favorites (alphabetically) along with the first book I read by them. 

Sandra Byrd (REVIEW), Jessica Dotta (REVIEW), 

Cara Lynn James (No review), Krista McGee (REVIEW), 

Serena B. Miller (REVIEW), and Kiersten White (REVIEW).

Book that surprised you

The book that surprised me the most, because I actually loved it, was Perfectly Matched (The Blue Willow Brides #3) by Maggie Brendan. I had read the first two books in the series, the first was okay but the second was terrible, and I wasn't expecting much at all with this one. I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I loved reading Perfectly Matched.

My review of Perfectly Matched can be found HERE.

Book that disappointed you

The most disappointing book I've read would have to be Afloat by Erin Healy. I had read the books she wrote with Ted Dekker and very much enjoyed them, so I was expecting to enjoy this book - I didn't. In fact, thinking back on it, I could almost say I hated it. 

My review for Afloat can be found HERE.

Last Minute Read-A-Thon: Love It or Hate It Challenge

Hosted by Maria (A Night's Dream of Books) and Vonnie (Vonnie's Reading Corner).

Today's challenge is to post book covers that you love and hate, explaining why.

Here are the covers I love:

Review

This is one of my favorite covers, if not my absolute favorite. I love every thing about it (the colors, the flowers, the dress, that it matches the story). Not only is the front beautiful, but the back cover is gorgeous with items from the book on it and that makes it even more wonderful after you read it.

Review

I think this cover excellently portrays the story of the book. The book is about a husband and wife trying to mend their family after the husband has an affair. I love how the cover not only shows the man being remorseful but also shows that their marriage is suffering because of the husband, since his is the band that is cracked and breaking.

Review

I love how the cover of this looks like a Currier and Ives Christmas card. A perfect cover for a very sweet story.

Review

Even though this story wasn't a favorite, I still love this cover so much! The lighting is great and I love the buildings in the background.

I love all the covers of the Irish Brides trilogy. It's so nice how these covers all look as if they could be a specific scene in the book. I also loved how each had a ship on it, as that played a huge role in the overall story.

Review                                                                                                                        Review

I just love the covers for The Ruby Red trilogy. They just look so beautiful and when you are actually holding them you see all the exquisite detail. The stories are also great! :)

Here are the covers I dislike/hate:

Review

I actually really like this cover, think it's beautiful, but the only reason I slightly dislike it is that the model isn't wearing gloves. The book mentioned a few times how the main character always wore both a hat and gloves when going outside and the only time she didn't wear gloves was when she also wasn't wearing her hat. So that's the only reason I putting it on this list.

Review

I think this cover is kind of dull and not that interesting, but it's not terrible and is slightly pretty in an old world way - so if the book were historical I would like it more. The only reason I picked it up to read is because I read and enjoyed books by this author in the past. This cover also has a big discrepancy between the inn on the cover and the actual inn. In the book, the inn is a Georgian mansion with over 2,000 sq. ft of decks and balconies alone! Yet the cover shows a house that looks very much like a Victorian and doesn't seem anywhere near the size of the house in the story, which sounds huge as it has 15 bedroom suites.

I don't like this cover at all. The large writing over the person's face is just ugly in my opinion. I wouldn't have read this book if I hadn't needed an X book to complete a challenge, which would have been a shame as I ended up really enjoying the story.

Review

The story for this book is very touching, but this cover is not that good. I don't like the blurry picture of the child and the rest of the cover is pretty boring.

Review

I don't really know why I don't like this cover, but I just don't.

Review                                                         Review                                                            Review

The first book in this series was all right, I didn't really like it but it sort of fit the story, but the other two I think are terrible. I don't like the models or the lines and circles, it just is really boring.

PROGRESS SO FAR

I haven't read much at all since my last update. I started The Glassblower by Laurie Alice Eakes, read about 10 pages, and read a few more pages of Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #1) by Laini Taylor. So not much at all! Hoping to get a lot more read this weekend.

• Pages read: 131

• Books finished: 1