I have recently discovered this group of writers that put together collaborations of short stories. Until last month I had only read Tracy Lorraine's books, but I thought I'd give some of the others a go when I stumbled across them on Booksprout. I only read a few of the Matchmaker series, but this time around I decided I would give them all a try!

I was inspired to add this category into the challenge after I'd read 'Wives of War by Soraya. M. Lane' last year. I really enjoyed going back in time and reading fiction based on real-life events. I knew I wanted to read 'The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris' at some point (although I have chosen this for a different category) and that many of the books on my scratch off bucket list poster were historical. So I was actually spoilt for choice, once again, for this category (isn't that always the way!).

The next category in the 2019 Reading Challenge is a book made into a movie you’ve seen. When I was first choosing my book to read for this category, my mind went completely blank, and I couldn’t think of one! So I asked Morgan for his help, and he recommended ‘One Shot by Lee Childs’. This is the first Jack Reacher movie that was released in 2012. I then came to write this blog and realised I had such a plethora of choice, that I might change my mind on the book I read for this category! Watch this space!

The third category in the reading challenge is to ‘read’ an audiobook. I must admit I’ve not listened to a lot of audiobooks. I think it’s because I like to be lost in the world of a book and not have it broadcasted outside for anyone to hear! You can’t keep reading until 2 am without either earphones or disturbing the rest of the house like you can with a good old book.

As I have mentioned a few times, my favourite book of ALL time is ‘Heaven by Virginia Andrews’.
I’ve been trying to think about why this is my favourite book, and the only thing I can think of is because I have read it so many times I feel like I know the characters.

The first book of the 2019 Reading Challenge is a book intended for children. There have been a lot of books over time that were initially intended for children but that adults have enjoyed too. So, for this category, I felt spoilt for choice but settled on ‘Winnie The Pooh by A. A. Milne’. It’s going to be so nice to settle down into a book that isn’t too heavy and is meant for light reading.

I love going through a new Reading Challenge list and deciding what books to read. I get to go all researcher mode on it and do loads of internet searches. It's become a new Christmas tradition, and I've started to look forward to it each year! Now, I'm excited by my choices!

I’ve just been looking back over all the books I’ve read this year, and I’m so glad I decided to keep this record. Some of them feel like years ago since I read them, some I can’t remember what they were about, and others have really stuck with me throughout the year. Without this record, I wouldn’t be able to remember half of what I had read!

I really enjoy snuggling up at this time of year with a good Christmas themed book. I much prefer reading a Christmas book to watching a Chrismas movie! However, this year, I've been really struggling to find ones that carry you away to that magical place that only exists for a few weeks a year. I've read a couple of short ones that were ok, and they can be seen over on the 'book review' page of the site, but there was just something lacking from them all, and only one of the books I've read has made the cut for this blog.

I’ve been doing a reading challenge for a few years now, and I find it really pushes me to try new books that I wouldn’t have usually considered. I get very excited each year when a new challenge is released, and I get to sit and coordinate the books that I fancy reading. The organised side of me comes out, and I start making lists and doing research into the books I want to read, and it’s so much fun for a book geek like myself!

So I only have one book left to read of my original reading challenge that I started back in January. That is ‘a book that has more than 500 pages’. I originally choose ‘Outlander by Diana Gabaldon’, and it’s been sitting there on the challenge waiting for me to read all year. However, I’ve been putting it off and off, until I’ve come to December and have run out of time and had to start it this month or fail my challenge (not an option!)

The winners of the Goodreads Choice Awards 2018 were announced this week. It was the 10th year these awards have run, and all of the winners are chosen by the readers on Goodreads. I must confess I haven’t heard of any of the winning books, and none of the books I voted for won. However, that means that I get to discover some new books this way as some of these look really interesting and different from my usual reads. So a couple of these have found themselves onto my TBR list ready for next year. What do you all think, are any of the winning books your choice, or do you think another book has been unfairly overlooked?

The nights are starting to draw in, and it is currently blowing a gale outside which are perfect reading conditions. It is also the middle of October and the bewitching hour is nearly upon us, which got me to thinking about spooky books.

I’ve finally set up my new website as I’ve been posting my reviews up until now over on my academic site. That wasn’t very appropriate, especially when I was reviewing Tracy Lorraine’s books that have very hunky naked men on the cover!

So I’ve just finished the 24 book challenge of books £1 or under from Amazon! I can’t believe how quickly I have read them; it’s crazy, I’m like a machine! What is even more crazy is all the new authors I am discovering along the way! I have read some fantastic books in that batch (and some real duds too!) My TBR list has exploded with my new found authors back catalogue of books!

I’ve almost finished my two reading challenges and even though I have a list of books that I would like to read I don’t want to rush through them especially with the speed I’ve been reading this year! With my holiday fast approaching, I started to think about what other books I could read and started to look around for new authors. I found a number of kindle books on Amazon that were either free or that were under £1, so I decided they would make an excellent new reading challenge! So I have a list of 24 books (because for some reason I tend to read books in sets of 12) that met that criteria:

I’m coming to the end of the two reading challenges that I’d set myself; I only have four books left to read! I’ve been super speedy as I never expected to have them done this soon in the year so I need to start thinking of other books to read to keep me occupied so my blog posts of books might start veering off list for a little while.

I have been doing a reading challenge for the past two years, and this year I have decided to keep a blog about each of the books. I find that as time goes on, I forget about how I feel about books that I have read. So I thought keeping a log of them would be a nice reminder. The list I get is from another blogger called the Modern Mrs Darcey, the link can be found here http://modernmrsdarcy.com/reading-challenge-2018/, and it really makes you step out of your usual comfort zone of books that you would typically read. Over the last two years, I have discovered a couple of new authors by doing the challenge and found that the books that I would have expected to hate were, in fact, the ones I enjoyed the most! So this year’s books are: