Annual reading challenge 2017-come join us

Does anyone know how to change your target # of books on goodreads? Or can you? I'm 3 books ahead of schedule, so I was thinking of upping my schedule. Or like I said, can you even do that?
 
Book #36/50: Down a Dark Road (Kate Burkholder, #9) by Linda Castillo
Book #37/50: Kids is a 4-Letter Word by Stephanie Bond
 
Week 46 - I read five books this week which makes me at 185/204. The books I read this week were:

Canteen Dreams by Cara Putman. Christian romantic fiction. Happy ending.

Noelle's Golden Christmas by Jamie Dearen. Christian romantic fiction. Happy ending and yes, Noelle ends up with a man who's last name in Christmas.

The Body in the Moonlight by Katherine Hall Page. Christian murder mystery.

The Dress in the Window by Sofia Grant. Women's fiction. Set between 1948 and 1952, it tells the story of the lives of three related woman in the aftermath of WWII. I never connected with the main characters and struggled to get through this book.

When I'm Gone by Emily Bleeker. Women's fiction. Wife dies of cancer and the book chronicles the surviving husband's next year as he works through his grief. During the year he keeps getting letters that his dead wife has arranged to have mailed to him containing pages from a secret diary she wrote during her illness. The letters gives him instruction on how to get on with his and their two children's lives. There is also a story line about a secret that his wife had been keeping from him that he unravels.
 
#79/85: The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling (4/5) (British contemporary fiction)
Deals with the lives and secrets of people in a village where there is an opening on the local council. Somewhat dark.

#80/85: The Girl With No Name by Diney Costeloe (3.5/5) (WWII England)
A young German girl is evacuated to England, and she is separated from her foster family when she develops amnesia after she is injured during an air raid. It follows her through the endo fo the war.
 


#15 Below the Belt by Stuart Woods
The latest in the Stone Barrington series. Stone is a very well connected and rich political sort who always gets involved in the underground and shady parts of Washington. I read a few of the books, and I enjoyed this one more than most, involving a rich tycoon who is about to make a run for the presidency and what information sits in a FBI device protected suitcase that falls into Stone's possession.

If anyone is interested, I would gladly send a kindle gift version of any of my works “Written for You”, “Three Twigs for the Campfire”, “Cemetery Girl” or “Reigning”. You can see them all reviewed at Goodreads. If you are interested in reading any just message me.
 
#34 - The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

I've been following her for the past few days. I know where she buys her groceries, where she has her dry cleaning done, where she works. I don't know the color of her eyes or what they look like when she's scared. But I will."

One night, Mia Dennett enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn't show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger. At first Colin Thatcher seems like a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia's life.

When Colin decides to hide Mia in a secluded cabin in rural Minnesota instead of delivering her to his employers, Mia's mother, Eve, and detective Gabe Hoffman will stop at nothing to find them. But no one could have predicted the emotional entanglements that eventually cause this family's world to shatter.

An addictively suspenseful and tautly written thriller, The Good Girl is a propulsive debut that reveals how even in the perfect family, nothing is as it seems.

I thought it good for a debut novel. What I didn't like was how each chapter veered from one character to the other, from past to present and back again. I don't really care for novels written this way. I think I might look into her next written novel just to give her another chance.

#35 - Princess of the Sword; A Novel of the Nine Kingdoms by Lynn Kurland

Evil is still slowly spilling out of Gair’s well, creating havoc in Neroche. But Miach, Archmage of Neroche, is determined to close the well once and for all. Finding—stealing—the right spell isn’t easy, but what proves even more difficult for Miach is the discovery that the only one who can successfully work the spell of closure is Shieldmaiden Morgan of Melksham: Gair’s daughter and Miach’s true love. If Miach allows Morgan to complete the spell, it could save his kingdom, but it could also mean losing the woman he loves. Kurland brings her exquisitely crafted Nine Kingdoms trilogy, which began with Star of the Morning (2006) and continued with The Mage’s Daughter (2008), to a triumphant conclusion. Deftly sifting together love, honor, magic, and danger, Kurland has created a spellbinding, witty, and sweet paranormal romance.

I've enjoyed reading this trilogy and look forward to reading the next trilogy set in the Nine Kingdoms.
 
Book #38/50: The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

From Goodreads:
Ceony Twill arrives at the cottage of Magician Emery Thane with a broken heart. Having graduated at the top of her class from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, Ceony is assigned an apprenticeship in paper magic despite her dreams of bespelling metal. And once she’s bonded to paper, that will be her only magic… forever.

Yet the spells Ceony learns under the strange yet kind Thane turn out to be more marvelous than she could have ever imagined — animating paper creatures, bringing stories to life via ghostly images, even reading fortunes. But as she discovers these wonders, Ceony also learns of the extraordinary dangers of forbidden magic.

An Excisioner — a practitioner of dark, flesh magic — invades the cottage and rips Thane’s heart from his chest. To save her teacher’s life, Ceony must face the evil magician and embark on an unbelievable adventure that will take her into the chambers of Thane’s still-beating heart—and reveal the very soul of the man.
 


17 of 20: At the Table of Wolves by By Kay Kenyon

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy meets X-Men in a classic British espionage story. A young woman must go undercover and use her superpowers to discover a secret Nazi plot and stop an invasion of England.

In 1936, there are paranormal abilities that have slowly seeped into the world, brought to the surface by the suffering of the Great War. The research to weaponize these abilities in England has lagged behind Germany, but now it’s underway at an ultra-secret site called Monkton Hall.

Kim Tavistock, a woman with the talent of the spill—drawing out truths that people most wish to hide—is among the test subjects at the facility. When she wins the confidence of caseworker Owen Cherwell, she is recruited to a mission to expose the head of Monkton Hall—who is believed to be a German spy.

As she infiltrates the upper-crust circles of some of England’s fascist sympathizers, she encounters dangerous opponents, including the charismatic Nazi officer Erich von Ritter, and discovers a plan to invade England. No one believes an invasion of the island nation is possible, not Whitehall, not even England’s Secret Intelligence Service. Unfortunately, they are wrong, and only one woman, without connections or training, wielding her talent of the spill and her gift for espionage, can stop it.

I was kind of disappointed in this book. It spent a good amount of time dealing with higher class England, which I'm not that familiar with. I find the middle to be particularly slow, and the climax rushed. But I enjoyed all of the characters, and basic premise. There is a second book coming, which I will still read in hopes that the plodding middle problem gets rectified. 3 out of 5 stars.
 
Week 47 - I read 6 books this week which makes it 191/204. The books I read were:

Dune, Deck and a Dead Man by Carolyn L. Dean. Murder mystery. Glad it was a free kindle book because it was just okay.

Finding Riley by Dan Walsh. Christian family fiction. Involves a Disney World vacation, a lost dog and homelessness. It was simple but interesting.

Our Finest Hour by Jennifer Millikin. Romantic fiction. Just like Christian romantic fiction with standard happy ending but without anything remotely religious plus sex. Bleah! Part of a series but will not be reading any more.

Seven Days With You by Hugo Driscoll. Romantic fiction set in England with a darker edge. Poor farm hand and rich, university bound girl meet at beginning of summer and fall in love. But he ends it so she is free to head to University and he heads to the city and becomes a business man. She reaches out to him three years later because she is dying of cancer. He drops everything and they spend 7 days in Paris. Then she dies.

A Christmas Surprise by Kimberly Rae Johnson. Christian romantic fiction with happy ending.

Blue Christmas by Diane Moody. Christian romantic fiction with happy ending. This is part of a series set around a very successful rock band, "Out of the Blue". It is a rock band, not a Christian music group but the members of the band are Christians.
 
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Week 46 - I read five books this week which makes me at 185/204. The books I read this week were:

Canteen Dreams by Cara Putman. Christian romantic fiction. Happy ending.

Noelle's Golden Christmas by Jamie Dearen. Christian romantic fiction. Happy ending and yes, Noelle ends up with a man who's last name in Christmas.

The Body in the Moonlight by Katherine Hall Page. Christian murder mystery.

The Dress in the Window by Sofia Grant. Women's fiction. Set between 1948 and 1952, it tells the story of the lives of three related woman in the aftermath of WWII. I never connected with the main characters and struggled to get through this book.

When I'm Gone by Emily Bleeker. Women's fiction. Wife dies of cancer and the book chronicles the surviving husband's next year as he works through his grief. During the year he keeps getting letters that his dead wife has arranged to have mailed to him containing pages from a secret diary she wrote during her illness. The letters gives him instruction on how to get on with his and their two children's lives. There is also a story line about a secret that his wife had been keeping from him that he unravels.
Is the Body in the moonlight a new book? Thank you
 
#43 - Key Lime Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke

#44 - Vengeance in Death by JD Robb

#45 - Conspiracy in Death by JD Robb

#46 - Witness in Death by JD Robb
 
Is the Body in the moonlight a new book? Thank you
It is not new. Published in 2001 and is 10th or 11th in the Faith Fairchild series. I started the series a long time ago but dropped off so trying to pick up from where I think I left off.
 
#40/60

Where They Found Her by Kimberly McCreight

At the end of a long winter, in bucolic Ridgedale, New Jersey, the body of an infant is discovered in the woods near the town’s prestigious university campus. No one knows who the baby is, or how her body ended up out there. But there is no shortage of opinions.

When freelance journalist, and recent Ridgedale transplant, Molly Anderson is unexpectedly called upon to cover the story for the Ridegdale Reader, it’s a risk, given the severe depression that followed the loss of her own baby. But the bigger threat comes when Molly unearths some of Ridgedale’s darkest secrets, including a string of unreported sexual assaults that goes back twenty years.

Meanwhile, Sandy, a high school dropout, searches for her volatile and now missing mother, and PTA president Barbara struggles to help her young son, who’s suddenly having disturbing outbursts.
 
Up to 55/58, wish I could figure out how to change my goal on goodreads.

52/58-Bringing Maggie Home (3 1/2)

53/58-the Sleuth Sisters (1 star)

54/58 The Married Girls (3 stars)-in all fairness, I didn't know that this was the second in a trilogy, maybe I would have liked it more if I'd read the first book

55/58-Troublemaker by Leah Remini (3 stars)-I like her TV show, so I thought this might expand on it, but not surprisingly, but to my disappointment, it was more about her acting career.
 
55/58-Troublemaker by Leah Remini (3 stars)-I like her TV show, so I thought this might expand on it, but not surprisingly, but to my disappointment, it was more about her acting career.

I read this for my book club a couple of months ago and really liked it. While it talked about her acting career, I found it more about how she got into Scientology, her stay there and how she got out. Isn't it interesting how books can't be viewed differently?

#36 - Sweet Salt Air by Barbara Delinsky

Charlotte and Nicole were once the best of friends, spending summers together in Nicole's family's island house, but they have since grown apart. A successful travel writer, Charlotte lives on the road, while Nicole, a food blogger, lives in Philadelphia with her surgeon-husband, Julian. When Nicole returns to the island house in order to write a book about island food, she invites her old friend Charlotte for both sentimental and practical reasons. Outgoing and passionate, Charlotte has a gift for talking to people and making friends, and Nicole would like her help interviewing locals for her book. Missing a genuine connection, Charlotte agrees.
But what both women don't know is that they are each holding a secret that may change their relationship forever. Are the bonds of friendship strong enough to weather past indiscretions and betrayals? Can love survive an honest mistake?

I haven't read Delinsky in quite a while so when my sister in law passed this one on to me I thought it would be nice for a change. And it was. I liked the book for the most part but when I got about 3/4's through I found myself skimming the words till close to the end.
 
#41 The Memory Box by Eva Lesko Natiello

What would you do if you Googled yourself and discovered something shocking?

In this gripping psychological thriller, a group of privileged suburban moms amuses themselves by Googling everyone in town, digging up dirt to fuel thorny gossip. Caroline Thompson, devoted mother of two, sticks to the moral high ground and attempts to avoid these women. She’s relieved to hear her name appears only three times, citing her philanthropy. Despite being grateful that she has nothing to hide, a delayed pang of insecurity prods Caroline to Google her maiden name—which none of the others know.

The hits cascade like a tsunami. Caroline’s terrified by what she reads. An obituary for her sister, JD? That’s absurd. With every click, the revelations grow more alarming. They can’t be right. She’d know. Caroline is hurled into a state of paranoia—upending her blissful family life—desperate to prove these allegations false before someone discovers they’re true.
 
Week 48 - I read four books this week which brings me to 195/204. The books I read this week were:

A Scone to Die For by H.V. Hanna, an Oxford Tearoom Mystery. English murder mystery.

Finding Love At the Oregon Coast - four novellas by four different authors. Christian romantic fiction and all four stories had the happy ending.

I Know You'll Find Me by Jennifer Youngblood. Christian romantic/mystery fiction with happy ending.

The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan. This is an oldie but a goodie as the saying goes. It was an interesting read as I was totally unfamiliar with Chinese or Chinese/American culture. Much of the book is the mother's memories of her life in China before, during and shortly after WWII.
 
#15 Solomons Curse Fargo Adventures #7 Clive Cussler
Another adventure of the Fargo's. They are a rich well off adventures/archeologists. This time come accross a lost kingdom and possible golden treasure, that might have been discovered in part already. Similar to other boks with ususl support chracters from the series.

If anyone is interested, I would gladly send a kindle gift version of any of my works “Written for You”, “Three Twigs for the Campfire”, “Cemetery Girl” or “Reigning”. You can see them all reviewed at Goodreads. If you are interested in reading any just message me.
 

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