Category: Challenge Wrap-Up

I recently finished my seventh challenge. I finished Jan’s A Well-Rounded Challenge. The idea behind this challenge was to read 6 books from different challenges that you were currently signed up for.

I read:

1. J.F. Freedman, The Disappearance (Initials Challenge)
2. Alex Kava, The Soul Catcher (Series Challenge)
3. Michael Connelly, The Black Echo (Celebrate the Author)
4. Stephen King, The Shining (1% Well-Read)
5. Kevin O’Brien, One Last Scream (2008 2nds)
6. Dennis Lehane, Mystic River (Book Awards II)

Favorite: One Last Scream (O’Brien)
Least Favorite: Mystic River (Lehane)

I finished my sixth challenge recently. I finished the Series Challenge Season 2 hosted at Crazy Cozy Murders. The goal was to read as many books as you chose in order to be up-to-date with the series that you are reading. I read only two books to make me current in one series. I really feel like I failed in this challenge because I had originally planned on trying to finish 3 series’. (However, to make up for this I will be signing up for the season 3 which starts Monday!)

I read:

1. Alex Kava, The Soul Catcher
2. Alex Kava, A Necessary Evil
   

Finished my fifth challenge today!! I finished Becky’s Initials Reading Challenge. I only kept two of my original 5 selections. But it was only because I was by chance picking up books with authors whose names had initials in them. When I signed up for this one I thought it would be a lot more difficult than it was, but I really enjoyed it!! Here’s my wrap up:

The rules were to read 5-8 books (I read 5) by authors whose names are initials.

I read:

1. M.C. Beaton, The Deadly Dance
2. J.F. Freedman, The Disappearance
   
3. J.A. Jance, Name Withheld
   
4. J.D. Robb, Glory in Death
5. J.T. Ellison, All the Pretty Girls
   

Favorite: All the Pretty Girls (Ellison)
Least Favorite: The Deadly Dance (Beaton)

Finished my fourth challenge! I finished MizB’s Title Master Challenge today. And just barely I might add. I read all four books required for this challenge in the month of June and barely got the last one finished today before the July 1st deadline. Whew!! For some reason when I signed up for this challenge I was really excited, but then when it came down to it I wasn’t thrilled. I ended up changing 2 of my choices and only liking one of the two that I did keep. Oh well, live and learn (to make better selections, lol!!) Here’s my wrap up:

The rules were to read four books with the words in the titles starting with the same letters. Sounded pretty easy and it wasn’t too hard to find books that fit the description.

I read:

1. M.C. Beaton, The Deadly Dance
2. Nora Roberts, Blood Brothers
3. James Patterson, Mary Mary
4. Kathy Reichs, Deadly Decisions

Favorite: Blood Brothers (Roberts)
Least Favorite: Deadly Decisions (Reichs)

Finished my third challenge! I just finished the Eponymous Challenge by Coversgirl.

The rules were to read 4 books whose titles are either the name of a character or a description of a character.

For this challenge I read:

1. Christopher Andersen, Diana’s Boys: William & Harry & the Mother they Loved
2. Carla Neggers, The Widow
3. Nancy Pickard, The Virgin of Small Plains
4. Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas

I only kept two of my original picks. I have a really bad habit of changing my lists! I need to work on that in the future. Overall I enjoyed this challenge a lot. For the most part I enjoyed all of these books.

Favorite: The Virgin of Small Plains (Pickard)
Least Favorite: Odd Thomas (Koontz)

I finished my second challenge! Woo! I just finished the What’s in a Name Challenge hosted by Annie. This one seemed to be difficult for me. I think I changed every single selection that I had made at the beginning of the year. LOL! Oh well. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, though.

As laid out by the rules, the participants were to read 6 books with different words in the titles. Color, Animal, First Name, Place, Weather Event, and Plant were the words that had to be in the titles.

For this challenge I read:

1. Mary Higgins Clark, Two Little Girls in Blue
2. Tom Coffey, The Serpent Club
3. Erica Spindler, See Jane Die
4. Mark Fuhrman, Murder in Greenwich
5. Iris Johansen, Firestorm
6. Ann Rule, A Rose for her Grave

I believe that the Johansen and Rule books are the only ones that were on my original list. The others I exchanged for some reason or another. LOL. Not quite sure why!! Oh well! I thoroughly enjoyed this challenge. I was able to overlap three of these books with other challenges.

Favorite: See Jane Die (Spindler)
Least Favorite: The Serpent Club (Coffey)

Overall, great challenge Annie!!

Well, I have officially finished my first challenge! Tonight, I finished my final book required for Callista’s Numbers Challenge. (Note: There are different links there, one to the challenge page, and one to the hosts’ personal page).

For this challenge, I read:

1. Mary Higgins Clark – Two Little Girls in Blue
2. Harlan Coben – No Second Chance
3. James Patterson – 1st to Die
4. James Patterson – 2nd Chance
5. Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason – The Rule of Four

As laid out in the rules, three were overlapped with other challenges. Those that were for this challenge only were 2nd Chance and The Rule of Four. Through this challenge, I was able to read both of the James Patterson books which had sat on my shelf for at least 2 years. (Not sure why I never picked them up before!). Patterson was a new author for me, as was Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason. It had been a long time since I had read anything by Harlan Coben or Mary Higgins Clark.

Overall, I am quite proud that I was able to finish this challenge so early. I had to change my list once, after I read the rules more closely and realized that they couldn’t ALL be overlapped with other challenges!! (Oops!) I am glad that I chose this challenge as one to participate in!!