Bout of Books Day 4 Update

Day 4 Update: Only listened to a bit of my audio. This was my long day at work and then I did not have Internet at home, so I am just now updating!

Bout of Books Day 3 Update

Day 3 Update: I completed the 5 Favorites challenge by posting a comment on the page. I chose 5 Favorite Myths retelling including Lightning Thief and Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan, Goddess Test by Aimee Carter, Touch of Frost by Jennifer Ester, and Abandon by Meg Cabot. I listened a bit to the Shattered Dreams audio and hope to read a few more pages in By the Shores of Silver Lake tonight.

Bout of Books Day 2 Update

Day 2 Update: I managed to listen a bit to my audio, but that was it. I was too stressed out about my decision. I also forgot to link and post yesterday's update. So I am flailing a bit!

Bout of Books Day 1 Update

Day 1 Update: I completed the #insixwords challenge on Twitter, handle @sarahflood. I managed to listen a bit to my audio and I am going to try to read a bit before bed. I completely forgot the Twitter chat :(, but otherwise not a bad day as far as reading goes. I have to make an important decision tomorrow and it is occupying all of my time at the moment. Here's hoping I do the right thing!

May My TBR List

This is hosted by Michelle @ Because Reading. Each month you pick three books on your TBR list and people vote on the one you should read that month. I finished last month's book, hooray! This month I am picking books from the series Once Upon A Time, which is retellings of fairy tales by different authors. This will help with the Retellings Challenge that I signed up for this year.

First Choice:

Simon Pulse

I haven't heard of the story "The White Bride and the Black Bride," but supposedly this has a Cinderella twist too.

Second Choice:

Simon Pulse

This is not as much a fairy tale twist as it is a retelling of the story of Anastasia, one of the murdered Russian family and what might have happened if she survived.

Third Choice:

Simon Pulse

This one is a retelling of the Little Mermaid in which she is raised by a family after being rescued from the sea.

Bout of Books 16 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, May 9th and runs through Sunday, May 15th 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 16 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Hooray! I love Bout of Books and this will be my eleventh one. I didn't sign up to be an expert this time, since work will be crazy next week, but I still plan on cheering people on, reading a bit, and hopefully chatting on Twitter. I will be listing my reading list soon!

Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan

I read this for the Reading Assignment Challenge and it is also a Once Upon a Time read for mythology. It also fits the Prequels and Sequels challenge, the Series Enders challenge, Flights of Fantasy challenge, Full House Challenge for Laugh Out Loud Moments, and Reading Bingo as Read a Middle Grade book. It also works for the purple path on Story Sprites for Tight Male/Male friendship and there are actually several of these in the book, but I think Jason and Leo would be the best example. This will have spoilers for the rest of the series.

Disney-Hyperion

 The 7 demigods are slowly making their way to Athens to face the giants and Gaea where the prophecy that one of them will not make it ways over their heads. While they fly and sail on the Argo 2, Reyna, Coach Hedge, and Nico are shadow traveling the Athena Parthenos back to Half-Blood Hill in the hopes of avoiding a war between the Greek and Roman demigods and to heal the gods. All of the demigods must face their biggest faults and fears if they can even hope to defeat the earth mother and her children. With August 1 looming over their heads, can the crew sacrifice one of their own to save the world and will the world fall to fire or storm?

Perfect ending! I love Riordan's books and even though the final books in his series usually make me cry, they always end with hope. I also loved the humor in this series and the clean and not overly romantic moments. The action is perfect and I loved hearing from 9 different characters. I don't know how Riordan managed to keep them all in character, but it was well done. I really can't decide which character is my favorite, but I am hoping that some of them will return for The Trials of Apollo. I think Annabeth is probably still my favorite, but Leo was also fun. I feel like we saw Percy's flaws more with this series, which I liked and I feel like he became more of a traditional hero with flaws that could have caused a really bad ending. I think the pairings of characters works well and that we will see some of these couples again soon. I recommend this series to tweens all the way to adults and I love how Riordan tackles issues in his series and does so seamlessly with his plot. This is obviously a 5 cups of cocoa read for me and will definitely take the top spot for favorite middle grades read this year and possibly will take the top spot for my favorite read of the year. Keep the books coming Rick!