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

 

Last Minute Read-A-Thon: Rainbow Book Spine Challenge

The challenge for today is to grab books from your shelf that have the following spine colors to make a rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, & violet.

Here's my rainbow:

BOOKS USED

Riven by Jerry B. Jenkins

Ransome's Honor (The Ransome Trilogy, #1) by Kaye Dacus

Into the Free by Julie Cantrell (Currently free at Amazon & B&N)

Wings of Glass by Gina Holmes

Doctor Who: Dark Horizons by J.T. Colgan

Into the Whirlwind by Elizabeth Camden

PROGRESS SO FAR

I finished Hook, Line & Sinker: A Deep Haven Novella by Susan May Warren, started and am halfway through Waiting for Dawn: A Team Hope Novella also by Susan May Warren, read 30 pages of Endlessly (Paranormalcy, #3) by Kiersten White and read 16 pages of Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #1) by Laini Taylor.

• Pages read: 116

• Books finished: 1

Mind Games (Mind Games #1) by Kiersten White (Review)

Fia was born with flawless instincts. Her first impulse, her gut feeling, is always exactly right. Her sister, Annie, is blind to the world around her—except when her mind is gripped by strange visions of the future.

Trapped in a school that uses girls with extraordinary powers as tools for corporate espionage, Annie and Fia are forced to choose over and over between using their abilities in twisted, unthinkable ways…or risking each other’s lives by refusing to obey.

In a stunning departure from her New York Times bestselling Paranormalcy trilogy, Kiersten White delivers a slick, edgy, heartstoppingly intense psychological thriller about two sisters determined to protect each other—no matter the cost.

I GIVE THIS BOOK:

MY THOUGHTS:
I was surprised by how quickly Mind Games drew me into the story, I was hooked from page one and just wanted to read it all right away - love when I feel that way. I loved how the book shifted the POV between both sisters, but the constant backtracking in time every other chapter or so was a little confusing. Enjoyable, I loved getting to know the things it brought up, but at the same time it would get me out of the story that was taking place and then it would take a bit for me to get back into the story again. That is the only reason I'm not giving this book 5 stars. Everything else in the story was SO good!


Mind Games was a really great read and one that I recommend. I plan to read the next book in this series as soon as it releases.

If you found this review helpful, will you please click yes HERE. Thanks!

Last Minute Read-A-Thon: Goals

I'm hoping to read 6 of the books listed below (three of them are really short so I think this is doable).

Signing Up for TWO Read-A-Thons!!!

I'm signing up for the Last Minute Read-A-Thon hosted by Maria @ A Night's Dream of Books and Vonnie @ Vonnie's Reading Corner. 

Requirements:

• You must post a Sign Up Post and put your link on the linky found on the sign-up page.
• You may put up your post on your blog or Facebook.
• Must have their button with links to the hosts' blogs.
• Once the read-a-thon begins, you must post your launch post with your reading plans/goals.
• Have fun!

I'll be posting my goals for this read-a-thon on the 26th.

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I'm also signing up for the Bout of Books 9.0 read-a-thon hosted by Bout of Books. 

About this read-a-thon:

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

I'll be posting my goals for this read-a-thon closer to the start date.

Doctor Who: The Nightmare of Black Island by Mike Tucker (Review)

On a lonely stretch of Welsh coastline, a fisherman is killed by a hideous creature from beneath the waves. When the Doctor and Rose arrive, they discover a village where the children are plagued by nightmares, and the nights are ruled by monsters. The villagers suspect that ancient industrialist Nathanial Morton is to blame, but the Doctor has suspicions of his own. Who are the ancient figures that sleep in the old priory? What are the monsters that prowl the woods after sunset? What is the light that glows in the disused lighthouse on Black Island? As the children's nightmares get worse, the Doctor and Rose discover an alien plot to resurrect an ancient evil...

I GIVE THIS BOOK:

MY THOUGHTS:
The Nightmare of Black Island was a fun & interesting story and another great installment to the Doctor Who: New Series Adventures. I loved the interactions between the Doctor & Rose, they were done very well, and the way the Doctor behaved was almost spot on - there were a couple of things he did that just didn't seem right. The monsters in this book were quite terrifying, the idea was just so scary, I just loved it!

If you're a fan of Doctor Who, especially the tenth incarnation, I think you'd really enjoy reading The Nightmare of Black Island. I know I did :)

If you found this review helpful, will you please click yes HERE. Thanks!