Beat the Heat Read-a-thon Updates

 

Day 1:
Currently Reading: Earthbound
Pages/Percent read: Earthbound-5%
I got home a little late from work and did not feel much like reading. We had to take the cat to the vet and she has a virus, so two shots for her, plus her normal medicine for asthma. She had a rough night, but just seems tired this morning.

Day 2:
Currently Reading: Earthbound, Will of the Empress
Pages/Percent read: Earthbound-2%, Will of the Empress-26 pages

Day 3:
Currently Reading: Will of the Empress, Once a Witch, Cuckoo's Calling, Hero
Pages/Percent read: Will of the Empress-32 pages, Once a Witch- 46, Cuckoo's Calling- 3%, Hero-16 pages

I was able to get a ebook copy of Cuckoo's Calling through the library, so I HAD to start on it immediately. You only get so much time with them. Also I have heard such good things about the book, I probably would have started it anyway. I was really in the reading mood yesterday, so I feel like I accomplished alot. I hope to go back to Earthbound tonight, I did most of my reading during lunch at work, and did not have my Kindle with me, so I could not continue Tavia, Benson, and Quinn's story.

Day 4:
Currently Reading: Earthbound, Cuckoo's Calling
Pages/Percent read: Earthbound-5%, Cuckoo's Calling-5%
Mini-challenge: Jessi's YA Cover Challenge

I had to attend a Back to School Open House for the library and did not get much reading accomplished. It was good to see the children though and I can't believe it is already time for them to go back to school!

Day 5:
Currently Reading: Earthbound, Cuckoo's Calling
Pages/Percent read: Earthbound-15% and finished!, Cuckoo's Calling- 28 pages
Books finished: 1 Earthbound

Day 6:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling
Pages/Percent read: Cuckoo's Calling- 29 pages

Day 7:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling, Girl With the Iron Touch
Pages/Percent read: Cuckoo's Calling-7 pages, Girl With the Iron Touch-23%

Day 8:
Currently Reading:Cuckoo's Calling, Girl With the Iron Touch
Pages/Percent read: Cuckoo's Calling-14 pages, Girl With the Iron Touch-10%

Day 9:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling
Pages/Percent read: Cuckoo's Calling-11 pages

Day 10:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling, Girl With the Iron Touch
Pages/Percent read: Cuckoo's Calling- 35 pages  , Girl With the Iron Touch- 8%

Day 11:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling, Girl With the Iron Touch
Pages/Percent read: Cuckoo's Calling- 10 pages , Girl With the Iron Touch- 3%

Day 12:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling, Girl With the Iron Touch, Hero
Pages/Percent read: Cuckoo's Calling- 35 pages , Girl With the Iron Touch- 10% and finished!, Hero- 17 pages
Books finished 2 Earthbound and Girl With the Iron Touch

Day 13:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling, Hero
Pages/Percent read:Cuckoo's Calling- 18 pages, Hero- 4 pages

Day 14:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling, Hero
Pages/Percent read:Cuckoo's Calling- 25 pages, Hero- 8 pages

Day 15:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling
Pages/Percent read:Cuckoo's Calling- 20 pages

Day 16:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling, Once a Witch
Pages/Percent read: Cuckoo's Calling- 26 pages, Once a Witch- 65 pages

Day 17:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling
Pages/Percent read:Cuckoo's Calling- 15 pages

Day 18
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling
Pages/Percent read:Cuckoo's Calling- 43 pages

Day 19
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling
Pages/Percent read: Cuckoo's Calling-102 and finished!
Books finished-3 Earthbound, Girl with the Iron Touch, and Cuckoo's Calling

Day 20
Currently Reading: Once a Witch, Hero
Pages/Percent read: Once a Witch- 138 pages, Hero- 10 pages

Day 21
Currently Reading: Once a Witch, Chaos of Stars
Pages/Percent read: Once a Witch- 38 pages

Bout of Books 8.0 signup

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, August 19th and runs through Sunday, August 25th 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 8.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I will chose a reading list and set goals at a later date!

Beat the Heat Readathon Starting Line

This is hosted by Jessi at Auntie Spinelli Reads and Reanna at Phantasmic Reads. My goal is to read 500 pages, to participate in at least one mini-challenge, comment on a few blogs, and to find some new blogs to follow. I hope to finish Earthbound and maybe one more book.

My reading list:
Finish Earthbound by Aprilynne Pike

The Girl with the Iron Touch by Kady Cross
Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough
Defy the Dark-edited by Saundra Mitchell
Will of the Empress by Tamora Pierce

Starting August 1
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein-my August Random Read
Chaos of the Stars by Kiersten White
Hero by Althea Kontis
Awaken by Meg Cabot

Novella
Shadows by Jennifer Armentrout

High Summer Read-a-thon Wrap-up

I set a goal of 300 pages read and maybe one book and one novella finished and I was able to meet my goal! I finished My Soul to Take and already reviewed it! I also finished the Dark Discovery of Jack Dandy and Son of Sobek, so two novellas finished. I read a total of 341 pages, not bad for working all week and for having a few busy nights. I really enjoyed the read-a-thon and wish I could have attended the Twitter chats. Maybe next time around! I was able to comment on quite a few blogs and found a couple of new blogs to follow. Thanks again to Michelle for hosting!

My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent

I have been wanting to read this series for awhile and decide Rachel Vincent would be a good author to add to the New Authors challenge I signed up for and I used this for one of everyone but you has read this square for Book Bingo. I love the concept of a book about banshees and there were some great twist in this first book.

Kaylee Cavanaugh knows she is different, because not everyone knows when someone is going to die and not everyone has to hold in a scream when they have this vision. Kaylee thinks her first experience is just a panic attack or some mental disorder she has, but when she has a second attack in the club Taboo, she realizes she is wrong. Kaylee does not know why she has this gift and only confides in her best friend Emma and her new boyfriend Nash. Nash is the only one who can calm her during her episodes and little does she know that is because he is like her. Neither one of them are human, they are both bean sidhes or banshees. Kaylee does not want to just sing for the dead's souls she wants to save them, but Nash convinces her of their real duty by introducing her to Tod, a reaper. Tod tells her about the exchange, if she saves a soul, it will lead to another person's death and the first person would live on borrowed time. Unfortunately for Kaylee, a reaper has gone rogue and she will stop at nothing to find the reaper and prevent wrongful deaths. When the reaper strikes close to home, Kaylee will make a major sacrifice that could cost her dearly.

I loved the twists in this story and was surprised by the end. This had a great deal of suspense as well as being about paranormal beings and I loved the suspense and mystery. Kaylee and Nash are an interesting combination, but there are hints that she may be drawn to Tod as well. I was surprised at the twist with Tod as well, but I won't give that away, since the surprise comes close to the end of the book.

Favorite Character: Emma. I loved her humor and her willingness to be there for Kaylee and her willingness to believe her friend. She is loyal and fun.

Favorite Quote: "You'll have as much of a happy ending as you're willing to work for. And from what I've seen so far, you're not afraid of a little work."

Nice suspense and mystery with an interesting paranormal twist. 4 cups of cocoa.

Stacking the Shelves #4

 

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and is a meme for sharing books you've purchased, borrowed, or been sent for review. They can be physical or e-format. I went just a little overboard this week in review books this week, because of SummerTeen. SummerTeen is an online conference of sorts, mainly for librarians, where we can chat with authors, publishers, and attend webinars to count for continuing education credit. School Library Journal hosts the event and several publishers help sponsor the event, so that librarians can attend for free! These publishers have some of their authors come and chat with librarians and the publishers also giveaway free egalleys. My favorite part was the keynote speaker, Tamora Pierce, who was amazing!

Won:
I participated in the Hot Summer Reads Read-a-thon and won Jen @ YA Romantics prize of a $15 gift card to Amazon. I purchased Game by Barry Lyga. I am listening to the audio for review for SLJ, and I love having the print copy to follow along and to spell names correctly. The first book gave me nightmares, so I am sure this one will too!



Little, Brown Young Readers

I also won an e-copy of the Boys of Summer by C J Duggan from Jennifer @ Some Like It Paranormal as part of a mini-challenge she hosted for Hot Summer Reads Read-a-thon.


CJ Duggan

So thanks to Jen and Jennifer!
For Review:

Review from Edelweiss: Thanks to Simon and Schuster, EgmontUSA, and Edelweiss for these great titles!

Simon and Schuster

EgmontUSA

EgmontUSA

Review from Netgalley: This was the big haul from SummerTeen. Thanks to Little, Brown Books, Penguin Young Readers, Putnam Juvenile, Candlewick Press, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Books, Disney-Hyperion, and Netgalley for these great titles! I was really excited to get Hero by Althea Kontis, because I really liked Enchanted. I also got to participate in a chat with Jennifer Lynn Barnes and now I really want to read The Naturals!

From Little, Brown Books

 

   

 

From Penguin Young Readers
   

 

From Putnam Juvenile


From Candlewick Press
   

   

From Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Books
  

From Disney-Hyperion
  
 

High Summer Read-a-thon Mid-week Check In

I had a really good reading day on Monday and actually finished My Soul to Take! I liked it and hope to review it very soon. Tuesday I read more from Earthbound, which I am really enjoying. I am not for sure what Tavia is yet, but I am very intrigued. I loved Aprilynne Pike's Wings series and liked Life After Theft, but I think Earthbound is going to be my favorite of hers. Wednesday I read just a little more of Earthbound, I visited with my grandparents after work, and really did not read much after I came home. I also participated in School Library Journal's SummerTeen online conference and had so much fun! I think I was able to get like 20 egalleys, because you know I really really needed them! We got to chat with Jennifer Lynn Barnes about her new book and listening to panels presented by authors. I also listened to Tamora Pierce's Keynote speech, which was amazing! I just started her books last year and I am almost done with the Circle series. I love her writing and world building and am so excited that she is writing Battle Magic, which is part of the Circle books. It is sort of a flashback book. Thursday I forgot to take a book with me to work, so I went off list and read part of Hero by Althea Kontis, an egalley I put on my phone from the SummerTeen event. It is good so far. I loved Enchanted, so I have high expectations for Hero. I went out to dinner with friends and it was really late when they left, so no more reading last night. I hope to read more today after work. Hope everyone else is having a good reading week!