Bout of Books 9.0: Double Date Book Challenge

Hosted by Bout of Books

The challenge for today is hosted by Writing My Own Fairy Tale and it's a Double Date Book Challenge!

The Rules for the Challenge:

You must pick two books that you would recommend someone read together (like a double date!) and explain your reasons for the recommendation. You can recommend the books because they are in the same genre, one is a retelling of the other, they deal with the same issues, or maybe they're complete opposites, whatever you want as long as you can explain why they should be read together. Just one exception: they cannot be books from the same series. You can leave your answers in the comments or post your answers wherever you're posting your Bout of Books updates and leave the link in the comments. Then make sure you fill out the Rafflecopter! And don't forget to have fun with it! I can't wait to see all the pairings you guys come up with!

The Dance (The Restoration Series #1) by Dan Walsh & Gary Smalley and Contingency (Covenant of Trust #1) by Paula Wiseman should be read together since they both deal with a marriage in crisis, though for different reasons, and are both AMAZING!!!

Bout of Books 9.0: Introduce Someone to Your Favorite Genre

Hosted by Bout of Books

The challenge for today is hosted by Doing Dewey and it's to introduce someone to your favorite genre.

I read a wide variety of genres but for sure my favorite genre is historical fiction.

Julie Klassen is like the Jane Austen of today. I love the way she writes and even though her books are long, 400+ pages, I just fly right through them!

I love Sarah Sundin's books, great WWII fiction!

I also LOVE Julie Lessman's O'Connor series, a fabulous family saga!

Jody Hedlund is another favorite of mine, I love how she can take an historical event and bring it to life!

And finally, Elizabeth Camden. Her books are great, even the one I wasn't too thrilled with was still written beautifully.

Bout of Books 9.0: Mad Libs Challenge!

Hosted by Bout of Books

The challenge for today is hosted by Cheap Thrills and it's a Mad Lib!

Here's my list:

Character name: The Invention of Sarah Cummings by Olivia Newport
Adjective 1: Beautiful Chaos by Gary Russell
Adjective 2: On Distant Shores by Sarah Sundin
Item: Martha in the Mirror by Justin Richards
Occupation: The Tutor's Daughter by Julie Klassen
Act of violence: The Poison Diaries (Poison Diaries, #1) by Maryrose Wood
Adjective 3: Dangerous Passage (Southern Crimes #1) by Lisa Harris
Noun 1: The Pawn (The Patrick Bowers Files, #1) by Steven James
Noun 2: Emerald Green (Precious Stone Trilogy, #3) by Kerstin Gier

Here's the story:

I just read the greatest book!

This girl, Sarah Cummings, ends up in the middle of a beautiful conspiracy. Turns out her ancestors were pirates, and she might be the key to finding the distant mirror. It’s a mythic artifact that disappeared centuries ago, and now a shadowy group of tutors are looking for it. No one knows what uncovering it might do, but these guys are willing to poison for it.

I won’t say anything else. But believe me, if you like dangerous stories with pawns and emeralds, you have to read this one.

Bout of Books 9.0: Goal

Hosted by Bout of Books

My goal for this read-a-thon is to read 6 books. I don't like to post a list of books, since once I do I never seem to want to read those, so I'll just post the books as I read them. I'll be updating my reading progress on both Twitter and Goodreads throughout the day and will post my complete totals for each day HERE.

British Books Challenge 2014

Hosted by Feeling Fictional

About the challenge (copied from the sign up post):

So what is the British Books Challenge?

The BBC is a reading challenge that was created by Becky from The Bookette in 2011 as a way to encourage people to read more books by British authors. The challenge was taken over by Kirsty at The Overflowing Library for 2012 and has been hosted here at Feeling Fictional since 2013.

The books can be in print or out. Old or new titles. They can be from any genre and for any age range. Becky and Kirsty's blogs both focus on YA books but I read a mixture of adult, NA and YA so you can expect to see reviews of both on my blog. Obviously it's entirely up to you if you want to read adult, NA, YA or children's novels - or a mixture of them all!

If you sign up for the Challenge you will be aiming to read at least 12 books by British Authors (which works out to one a month). For every book you review each month you will get an entry into the draw to win a monthly prize pack. Therefore the more you read the more entries you will rack up. Towards the end of the year I hope to do some kind of special prize draw for those who have gone to the most effort over the year managing to read 50 or more British Books. As prize packs are mainly being sponsored by British publishers I'm afraid that some of the prizes will only be available for UK participants but I hope that international bloggers will still take part. I will try to host a couple of international giveaways throughout the year but it will depend on finances and whether I can afford postage costs for sending out the books.

If you have any questions about the challenge then make sure you check out the FAQ page HERE.

Sounds fun! I'll be keeping track of my progress on my 2014 Reading Challenges page, found HERE.

Books I might read:

1. The Darcy Cousins by Monica Fairview
2. The Slitheen Excursion by Simon Guerrier
3. Peacemaker by James Swallow
4. Snowglobe 7 by Mike Tucker
5. Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter
6. Witchstruck (The Tudor Witch Trilogy #1) by Victoria Lamb
7. The Other Countess (The Lacey Chronicles #1) by Eve Edwards
8. Fallen Grace by Mary Hooper
9. Numbers (Numbers, #1) by Rachel Ward
10. The Declaration (The Declaration #1) by Gemma Malley
11. Judgement of the Judoon by Colin Brake
12. Prisoner of the Daleks by Trevor Baxendale

How I Did with my 2013 Reading Challenges

These are the challenges I signed up to do in 2013:

2013 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

January 1, 2013- December 31, 2013

Hosted by: Historical Tapestry

Ancient History - 25+ books
   COMPLETED

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.