The Challenge Factory discussion

Team 4 Members
Captain: Susan A (view spoiler)[ (Prearranged vacation (Aug 25-Sept 11) (hide spoiler)]
Amanda A
Nikk
Heather
Denise (TCF Mod)

Helpful Links:

Dice Roll (2 dice on Fridays US Central Time)
Post Your Spot
Discussion Thread

ALTERNATE LIST:

Each number corresponds with the spot on the board.
For colors: The cover has to be at least 50%
For locations: As long as the book takes part at all in the given location
For Shelves: Any book on the given shelf
For Publication Years: I'll be using how GR has it's publication date listed.
For Authors Names: The first, middle, or last name of the author is ok.
For Cover Items: Must have the given item on the cover
For Titles: Only the first word of the title. A, An, And, and The do not count.
So if the letter is B: The Best Day would be ok. Dear Betty would not be ok.

**5 links where gotten from RRRC's Let's Partner Up! challenge which I am currently enjoying**

1. Title D
2. Cover: Black
3. Goodreads Choice Awards 2015
4. England
5. I Saw the Movie & Read the Book
6. Cover Item Vehicle
7. Author M
8. The Ultimate List of Fighter Romance
9. California
10. Cover Purple
11. 2001
12. Title L
13. Author J
14. Cover Item Weapon
15. Goodreads Choice Awards 2014
16. Texas
17. New Release in 2016
18. Cover: Gray/Silver
19. Geek/Nerd/Genuis Romance
20. Cover Item Food/Drink
21. Title W
22. Best Book Boyfriends
23. Author H
24. Tattoos
25. Released the month you rolled (year doesn't matter)
26. Science Fiction
27. Cover: Orange
28. Athletes or Sports. This link might help Athletes, Sport stars etc
29. Title T
30. Cover Item Water
31. Author L
32. Mental Illness
33. On Teammate's shelf
34. Cover: Red
35. Law Enforcement/Military
36. Audiobooks
37. Title B
38. Cover Item Building(s)
39. Amazon 2016 Bestsellers
40. Artist/Dancer/Musician
41. Enemies to lovers (must state how book qualifies i.e. listopia or precis)
42. Friendship
43. Road trip
44. Sequel in a series you've already started. Must have read a book in that series already.
45. Freebies
46. New to me Author
47. Humor
48. New York
49. Author I
50. Fairy Tale Retellings
51. Man Protagonist
52. Favorite Author
53. Title R
54. Cover Item: 2 or more People
55. Tagged DNF
56. Second chance love (must state how book qualifies i.e. listopia or precis)
57. Florida
58. White
59. Goodreads Choice Awards 2012
60. Title S
61. Cover Item An Animal
62. Author Z
63. Best Book Ever
64. Title E
65. College
66. Mexico
67. Beautiful covers
68. Cover: Green
69. Priority Reads
70. Cowboy (girl) take me Away (western)
71. Historical (fiction, nonfiction, romance etc)
72. Author S
73. suspense thriller
74. Multi-Colored (3 or More Colors)
75. 2009
76. Has at least one child
77. Title C
78. Cover Item No People
79. Author A
80. Standalones
81. Europe
82. Cover: Yellow/Gold
83. LGBT
84. I Don't Understand All That Fuss
85. Title M
86. Cover Item Moon
87. Author F
88. Amnesia/Memory loss (temporary, real, faked)
89. Reader's choice
90. Cover: Blue
91. 2013
92. Author E
93. Title G
94. Cover Item Weapon(s)
95. Detective
96. Non-caucasian author
97. Illinois
98. Cover: Purple
99. Character has a pet
100. Amazing
(view spoiler)[ [101. Cover: Brown
102. Author M
103. Multicultural
104. Seasonal Theme (i.e Christmas, Halloween, Valentine etc)
105. Wisconsin
106: 2008
107. 3 Star
108. Canada
109. Cover: Pink
110. Book read by anyone (regardless of team) in this challenge this round (hide spoiler)]

hi all :-)
Just checking in!

This is my first time playing so I am a little excited :-)

Hello everyone! I can't wait to start! I like the list of tasks.

Welcome Nikk! I hope you enjoy this challenge. It was one of my first group challenges and I love it. This will be my fourth time playing.

Hi team! I've played once or twice before.

I noted at sign ups that I'll be on vacation Aug 25-Sept 11. When it gets closer, I'll decide whether I need a vacation pass.


Archived sample captain's post

WEEK Roll XX, Spot XX

Series number

Alternate:

Amanda A: Review Msg
Nikk: Review Msg
Heather: Review Msg
Denise (TCF Mod): Review Msg
Susan A: Review Msg

✔

Hi Susan! An end of summer vacation? Gives you something to look forward to!

Hi team! Looking forward to a new round - I think I've played almost every time we've run this challenge, really enjoyed it every time. :)

I'll probably be on vacation first or second week of August - we're being adventurous and planning on grabbing a last minute offer this year, so I can't quite say for sure which of those weeks it'll be. (I'll be out of the country next week too, but will definitely have internet and be able to get my book read and reviewed then, so no need for a vacation pass there.)

Any volunteers for being captain and spontaneous ideas for a team name? :D

Heather wrote: "Hi Susan! An end of summer vacation? Gives you something to look forward to!"

Disney World for 2 weeks, plus 2 days to drive there, and 2 days to drive back. I'm not looking forward to the driving, but the rest will be fun.

Susan A wrote: "Heather wrote: "Hi Susan! An end of summer vacation? Gives you something to look forward to!"

Disney World for 2 weeks, plus 2 days to drive there, and 2 days to drive back. I'm not looking forwar..."

My favorite place to vacation! No matter how old I get . Lol Which doesn't work well with my hubby's favorite vacation spot which is camping In the mountains. NOT in a camper but in a tent.

We have a house inspection on the 30th July so the week leading up to it may be a little challenging for getting reading done. I work very long days so my reading time may be taken up by cleaning but I will let you know if I think I am going to have an issue

Other than that and the fact that I think I may be in a slightly different time zone, I should be right for the whole challenge :-)

Denise I'm horrible picking team names. :(

Slightly different time zone here too, I'm in GMT+2.

Heather, me too! XD Anyone else got naming skills?

Umm ...something with a play on the number 4. I'll try nagging my kids. I'm terrible at names too

Hi team! Looking forward to playing this round! I am also terrible at coming up with team names.

Spontaneous terrible name suggestions:

Fantastic Four
Lost 4 Words
Champion Pageturners
Readers 4 Life

... uhm, yeah. That's all I've got. XD Anybody else wanna chime in? We also still need a captain, anybody want the job?

A few more terrible names coming your way - some more terrible than others...

4 books are better than 1
crazy 4 reading
4 readers and a captain
serial readers

Out of all of them I think my favorite is...

4 readers and a captain

What does the captain do?


I definitely will not be able to handle captain duties during my vacation, but I think I could do the rest. I am not in Central time.

I like Lost 4 words

Susan A wrote: "What does the captain do? "

Essentially, the captain rolls the dice (though you can have someone else as designated roller if after midnight US Central time is inconvenient for you), posts the spot we're on in our thread and the Post Your Spot thread, keeps track of our book choices and reviews in one post (and, if necessary, nags stragglers via pm :D), and posts our reviews along with the new spot in the Post Your Spot thread. You can have a look in the archived threads from the previous rounds for examples. :)

Amanda & Nikk, what are your votes on the team name?

I like Lost 4 Words for a team name.

I also like lost 4 words so i am good with that as a team name :-)

Looks like Lost 4 Words it is!

I can do the captain bit, except for during my vacation. (If anyone else wants to captain, please do so.)

Dice Roll --
I'm in EST. It's unlikely that I will stay up to 1am every Thursday and I am not an early riser if I can avoid it.

Any suggestions on how to handle the dice roll?

Denise wrote: "Looks like Lost 4 Words it is!"

Love it!!!

I can do the week you're on vacation, no problem.

You could have someone else roll and post it to our thread, then you just do the "official" post in the Post Your Spot thread when you're up, that's what my team did last time around. Who's awake at (or soonest after) that time? (It's 8am for me, but I'm on holidays for the next 4 weeks, so I'm probably not gonna crawl out of bed at that time yet... :D)

I could do the rolling if you want. Im central time. I'm almost always awake at midnight. And I wake up at 5am daily without any alarms.

ok, so I'll do the reporting and Heather will usually do the rolling. The first roll is tonight as Thursday turns into Friday? Is that right?


Just to be clear -- Heather will post our roll here, but I will post our roll and link to our completed reviews in the POST YOUR SPOT thread.

Roll #1

7 in series

Alternate: Author M

Selection Post ~ Week 1

7 in a series


The Girl's Got Secrets by Linda Kage

Selection Post - Week 1

7 in a series

I will be reading

Goddess of Legend by P.C. Cast

Omg! The Goddess Summoning series are some of my favorite books ever! I'm excited because I've never met anyone who has read them except people I've recommended them too. I wish she would've written more.

I love the series too and I read all of them except this one initially a few years ago as my library didn't have it. Now it does and just in time :-)

I was thrilled to realise I actually WAS up to book 7 in this series :-)

Selection post - Week 1

7th in a series

Smoke & Mirrors by Charlie Cochet THIRDS series #7

I plan to read (Soul Screamers #7).

Week 1

Rolled 7; spot 7.

7th in series or Author M

Amanda A: With All My Soul (Soul Screamers #7) review msg 48
Nikk: Goddess of Legend (Goddess Summoning #7) review msg 44
Heather: The Girl's Got Secrets (Forbidden Men #7) review msg 49
Denise (TCF Mod) Maelstrom (Whyborne & Griffin #7) Review msg 46
Susan A: Smoke & Mirrors (THIRDS #7) Review msg 42

Hmmm, I'm still contemplating (probably won't get around to starting my book until Monday, when I have many hours of travelling to fill with reading), but most likely I'll go with Maelstrom (Whyborne & Griffin #7).

Wow! I can't believe we all found a #7 to read!

Heather wrote: "Wow! I can't believe we all found a #7 to read!"

I love that. I try to never use alternates and get rid of series on my shelf. It's hard when you are on spot 88 or 89 but I try my best

I wasn't sure I was going to initially and I nearly nominated an author m book but decided to hold off and recheck my book case when I got home. So glad I did because I am really excited about my read this week :-)

COMPLETION POST

Week 1: Spot 5


Smoke & Mirrors by Charlie Cochet THIRDS #7
My Rating: ★★★
Date Finished: 7/16/16

I just need to stop with this series. I did like the beginning, but I haven't liked the last 3 books. I can accept over the top plots at times, but I can't accept this overwhelming ridiculousness. (view spoiler)[ The MCs mother is murdered when he was 5. She hid some important documents inside his favorite toy. She left him a recorded message because "I know how much you love your Dad's mixtapes, so I'm confident you'll never get rid of them." Seriously? He's 5...my son had lots of favorite things was he was five and both of us no longer know what there were and he's only 10. So, this annoys me and just ewww. It's a lame lame plot. The woman goes on to give the details of the nefarious activities of the bad people who are going to murder her...but of course, she doesn't give all of the details. No. She hid a list. So she's going to be murdered and she's leaves her 5 year old a recording telling him where the list is ...WTF? What is a 5 year old supposed to do with this? She tells him that she hid it in "his most prized childhood possession" Seriously what utter drivel and bullshit. He is 5...he hasn't had a whole childhood yet and why would anyone think that their 5 year old would hold onto to his child possessions forever? See, when this message was recorded, the kid was 5, however, the mom was speaking as if she knew he wouldn't find it until he was an adult...which just doesn't work. If you thought he wouldn't find it until adulthood, you wouldn't hide it in the kids toy. And guess what? this isn't even the worst part of this ridiculous plot-line. But, I'm making myself angry,so I'm done with this (hide spoiler)]

Ughhh...I've got lots of other things I really disliked. I was miserable reading it. I really have to learn how to DNF a book.

Lol. I know! I hate to dnf a book too. I think i have maybe ten books i couldnt finish after so many years. Im pretty easy to please when it comes to books though.

Completion Post

Week 1: Spot 7



Goddess of Legend by P.C. Cast
My Rating: 3 1/2 stars
Date Finished: 19th July 2016

I read the first 6 books of this series about 3 or 4 years ago and I remember really enjoying it. So I was really excited to read this, the seventh and last book in the series. I think though , I may have been remembering them better than they were because whilst I did still enjoy it, it wasn't quite as good as I was hoping.

The story flows well from beginning to end and I breezed through it pretty quickly and there is a lot of humour in this book, particularly in the dialogue and I found myself laughing out loud at times and there may have been a snort of laughter or 2 (though I am not admitting anything. I did find that some of jokes were a little bit on the repetitive side so while it was funny the first couple of times, it was used a little too much so instead just got annoying. Others were pretty much funny every time. Pickles anyone?

I mostly liked the main character Isabel but at times I struggled with the way Arthur and Guinevere were depicted, especially Guinevere. At times, her actions, which I think were supposed to mark her as very young just made her character look somewhat inconsistent and at times confusing.

I think as well because there have been a lot of stories about the Arthur legend, including time traveller stories such as a Yankee in King Arthur's court by Mark Twain, the stick with which I was measuring the story was a little higher so the story was relatively fun and simple, I think certain elements of the story such as Mordred were over simplified to make the story work.

Overall, it mostly gave me the warm and fuzzy feelings I had been hoping for and expecting from it though I wasn't as satisfied with the ending as I wanted to be. So for these reasons I give this story 3 1/2 stars

Nikk, I dont think its been too long since you read them... I didnt really love Goddess of Legend as much as the others either. Maybe thats why she didnt write another one?
Have you read her Partholon books? They were really good too.

Sorry it's taken me so long to get my review up, I just couldn't be bothered to fire up the desktop computer at my parents' place before I absolutely had to (it's ancient and takes forever to boot up). XD

Week 1
Spot: 7
Alternate: Author M

Book: Maelstrom by Jordan L. Hawk
Qualification: Whyborne & Griffin #7
Finished: 18 July 2016
Rating: ★★★★★

Review:
Griffin is hired to investigate the theft of a historical map, for which a man who can't remember a thing about it is being blamed. Something supernatural may be at work - a suspicion all but confirmed when another person connected to the case turns up brutally killed in a way that all but proves something not quite natural is at work. Meanwhile, Whyborne is feeling deeply suspicious of his father's attempts to reach out to his friends, including offering up his manor for Christine and Iskander's upcoming wedding.

As always, a great read, with an unexpectedly epic and revealing climax shadding more light on Whyborne's stranger and magical connection with the town of Widdershins. I really loved seeing Christine's wedding (and the preparations thereof) as well as Persephone interacting with "real" life.

@ Heather I loved the Partholon books, its what got me on to this series in the first place. I had a look through other reviews of goddess of legend after I had posted my own and the consensus seems to be the same that it isn't as good as the other 6 :-/ its a shame especially given its the last book of the series

Spot 7

Date Read: 7/21/16
Rating: ★★★★

I thought this book was a great ending to the series. Kaylee has been through a lot throughout this series and I was always amazed by her willingness to sacrifice herself to protect her family and friends. It was a satisfying conclusion for all of the characters and very sweet to see Kaylee finally get her HEA. I look forward to reading this author's recent YA paranormal series as well.

Completion Post

Week One
Spot 5


The Girl's Got Secrets by Linda Kage
Pages: 426
Date Read: July 21
Rating: 3*
How it fits: #7 in Series

Review: Oh No! A 3* rating from me on a Linda Kage novel?!?! One of my favorite, always go to authors? I can't say exactly what my problem with this one is. Maybe it was too long? There was a few chapters I felt a bit bored. Maybe the girl pretending to be a boy seems silly especially for as long as it lasted. Maybe I feel if it'd been me I would have been able to tell he was a she immediately....especially after the shower scene! Maybe as much as I've Asher before (& during) this book, I didn't fall in love with Remy like I loved all the other women. Perhaps, its a little of them all which is how I came to 3*.

Week Two - Rolled a 6, puts on on spot 13

1, 3 or 13 in a Series

Alternate: Author J