Romance Readers Reading Challenges discussion

Team Members

Captain: Lisa
Shannon (pokey)
Becky
Plethora
Caipi
~KarenH~

1. Introduce yourself to your team. Let your team members know where you are from. This is a 'nice to know' when categories are announced and when team-mates can expect other members to post their book choices.

2. Team Captain - reserve a couple of posts in this thread tracking your team's book selection and completion. (Alternatively they could convert a chat comment to the tracking post/s.)

3. Name your team. Using this round's theme of HUNTING, come up with a fun name. Given we are an open/public group with no age limit, so please make sure any chosen name is smart, not smutty ;)

Please PM your name to Jane(PS) by 8 March.

4. If you have a private profile, please 'friend' your team-mates. This is really important, because without this, your team-mates can't see your shelves to select a books under option 2.

5. Please post your book selections/completions in the format provided below. (This format is also posted in both the Q&A and Sign-Up threads.) We need to know the week that each book corresponds to, the page numbers, and how the book qualifies including links to lists/shelves (where applicable), etc. I can't stress this enough. When in doubt - link it*!

* don't link to your review in your completion post - reviews in your completion posts should be included in full in that post.

You don't want to start reading a book and then find it doesn't meet the requirements because some information (eg page count or theme link) was missing from your original post.

I will be monitoring this and your book will not be considered complete until I am satisfied that your selection and completion posts comply with the format rules of the challenge.

Remember - you can ONLY change your book selection in the week that the theme is called.

6. You MUST check in with your team each week, ideally once the theme is announced. Please let your team know if you expect to have spotty communication or are on holidays or having an operation.

7. When you post the completion of your book, you must post a review; enough for us to know you have actually read the book. Please don't link to a review. You must post the review in this thread.

8. Re-reads are allowed but you can't read the same book twice within this challenge.

9. There is no prize for the winning team - bragging rights only :)

10. Each week, the theme will be announced in the Q&A/Announcement thread. The full list of themes announced during this round will be maintained in msg 1 of that thread.


The Rule on the Pass Option
* Each team can only have ONE member using their pass each week.
* Each member can only use that pass once each 5 weeks.
* This means that one or two team members (dependent upon the size of your team) will miss using a pass in each 5 week block.
* No-one can use the pass option in the last week of the challenge.
* In the final week Option 2 has altered and I will be allocating each team another team from which their book selection must be chosen :)

Key selection and completion post information. You must have ALL elements in your book posts.


For the initial selection post Option 1 I need:
Week #
Bookcover/link
Page numbers
How the book qualifies - please insert a link to the qualifying bookshelf/list.
If the theme is based off the bookcover or a letter in the title etc, please just repeat the theme.

For the initial selection post Option 2 I need:
Week #
Bookcover/link
Page numbers
Name of the team-member, their star rating, the date they read the book.


For the completion post I need:
Week #
Bookcover/link
Rating (1-5)
Review


Please DO NOT CHAT in these selction/completion posts. It needs to be super clear.

If you 'waffle' about your decided book - please REPOST your selection once you decide. DO NOT go back and edit your waffling post.

I'll be tracking each team's progress separately, using the Captain's summary in each team's thread to check for accuracy.

Weeks 1 to 6
(view spoiler)[

Week 1. A book which has been nominated or won an award. Completed
✓ Lisa Stay with Me. Option 1
✓ Shannon (pokey) Out of Nowhere. Option 1
✓ Becky Misfits. Option 1
✓ Plethora March. Option 1
✓ Caipi First and First. Option 1
✓ ~KarenH~ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Option 1

Week 2. Fairytales. Completed
✓ Lisa Falling Down. Option 2. Read by Shannon 12/19/16. Rated 5 stars.
✓ Shannon (pokey) Camera Shy. Option 1.
✓ Becky The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks. Option 1
✓ Plethora The Healer's Apprentice. Option 1
✓ Caipi The Missing Butterfly. Option 1
✓ ~KarenH~ UnEnchanted. Option 1

Week 3. Bears. Completed
✓ Lisa Borrowing Blue. Option 2. Read by Shannon. 2/11/17. Rated 4 stars.
✓ Shannon (pokey) Reading the Signs. Option 2. Read by Lisa. 10/15 16. Rated 5 stars.
✓ Becky Beauty and the Blacksmith. Option 1.
✓ Plethora Brownies and Broomsticks. Option 1
✓ Caipi Taming Teddy. Option 2. Read by Shannon. 12/24/16. Rated 4 stars.
✓ ~KarenH~ Just This Once. Option 1

Week 4. Title H. Completed
✓ Lisa Taming Teddy. Option 2. Read by Shannon 12/24/16. Rated 4 stars
✓ Shannon (pokey) Harmless. Option 1
✓ Becky Hotline. Option 1
✓ Plethora Hunt for Jade Dragon. Option 1
✓ Caipi Helping Hand. Option 1
✓ ~KarenH~ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Option 1

Week 5. Cowboys. Completed
✓ Lisa Love Means... No Shame. Option 1
✓ Shannon (pokey) Chase the Storm. Option 1
✓ Becky Roped In. Option 1
✓ Plethora The Valentine Quest. Option 1
✓ Caipi Finding Home. Option 1
✓ ~KarenH~ Saddled and Spurred. Option 1

Week 6. Alliteration. Completed
✓ Lisa Jumping Jude. Option 1
✓ Shannon (pokey) At Attention. Option 1
✓ Becky Shelter the Sea. Option 1
✓ Plethora Miss Buncle's Book. Option 1
✓ Caipi Complementary Colors. Option 1
✓ ~KarenH~ Midsummer Moon. Option 1 (hide spoiler)]

Weeks 7 to 11
(view spoiler)[
Week 7. Published in last 6 months. Completed
✓ Lisa Leo Loves Aries. Option 1
✓ Shannon (pokey) Bonfires. Option 1
✓ Becky Wanted, A Gentleman. Option 1
✓ Plethora Crimes Against a Book Club. Option 1
✓ Caipi Whiskey Business. Option 1
✓ ~KarenH~ The Hot One. Option 1

Week 8. Children. Completed
✓ Lisa By The Numbers. Option 1
✓ Shannon (pokey) Three to Get Ready. Option 1
✓ Becky Borrowing Blue. Option 2. Read by Lisa 3/26/17. 4 stars
✓ Plethora Charming the Prince. Option 1
✓ Caipi The World As He Sees It:. Option 1
✓ ~KarenH~ Fear, Hope, and Bread Pudding. Option 1

Week 9. Recommendation. Completed
✓ Lisa Spencer Cohen, Book One. Option 1
✓ Shannon What It Looks Like. Option 1
✓ Becky Sidecar. Option 1
✓ Plethora The Ghost in Mr. Pepper's Bed. Option 1
✓ Caipi In the Absence of Light. Option 1
✓ Karen H Elements of Retrofit. Option 1

Week 10. Amateur Sleuth. Completed
✓ Lisa The Boy with the Painful Tattoo. Option 1
✓ Shannon (pokey) Gone for You. Option 2. Read by Caipi 3/5/17. Rated 4 stars
✓ Becky Murder Between the Pages. Option 1
✓ Plethora Grimm's Furry Tales. Option 1
✓ Caipi Crossing Lines. Option 2. Read by LIsa. 4/8/17. rated 5 stars
✓ ~KarenH~ The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Option 1 (hide spoiler)]

Week 11
Lisa
Shannon (pokey)
Becky
Plethora
Caipi
~KarenH~

Names:

Lisa We have bears, where are the twinks?
Shannon (pokey) We have bears, where are the twinks?
Becky
Plethora Scoping out the themes
Caipi - We have bears, where are the twinks?
~KarenH~ Rifling through the Shelves

Hi team,
Im Lisa and live in London, England.
I read MM exclusively and have done since April 2013.
When you get a few minutes tell us a little about yourself.

Hi, everyone! I'm Becky, and I live in Indianapolis. That's on Eastern time, instead of Central, as everyone assumes. I'm mainly an m/m reader too, although I have a few m/f authors I really enjoy, and I've been making an effort to try more f/f. This is my 4th PtP, I think.

Hi all! I'm Karen, and I live out in the boonies in the northwest corner of Washington State (about halfway between Seattle and the Canadian border), so that's Pacific time. I recognize everyone's name, but I don't think I've had much (if any) real interaction with any of you, so it will be fun to get acquainted! I read almost exclusively romance, with the very occasional something else thrown in, but under the romance umbrella I'll read pretty much anything. I read more m/f than m/m most of the time, but plenty of both. I've missed a couple of PtP rounds due to RL interfering, but I've participated in most of them.

I have absolutely zero creativity when it comes to names, so I'm drawing a complete blank there...hopefully someone else can do better than me!

Hey team....I'm slammed this weekend.

Oh hey Karen another Pacific North-westerner here (Oregon).

I generally peek in GR all day and night at some point. I hardly sleep at night, 4-5 hours so you will see post from me all over the place.

Well, my preference is Non-Fiction History....but you guys are in luck. With all the team challenges and such I participate in I hardly have time to fit in my NF reads. So you will mostly find YA, light romance, cozy mysteries. Whatever fits a tasks.

Hi everyone! Looking forward to get to know you all and spending this challenge with you. :)

I'm from Germany. At the moment we've UTC+1 so I think it'll be between midnight and 3 am for me when the new themes are announced.
I've been reading mm exclusively for about two years now, so for option 2 only other mm readers will be happy with my shelves.

I'm really bad with team names, not enough fantasy plus the language barrier. I hope one of you guys has some ideas. Or should we ask google?

Hi everyone! I'm Shannon and I also live in Oregon (waves to my fellow water waders) and I also only read mm unless forced to read about girly parts. I can do it but would rather pass.

I'll try to think of some team names but mine tend to be really dirty so I kind of suck at coming up with "clean" ones. :p

Shannon wrote: "Hi everyone! I'm Shannon and I also live in Oregon (waves to my fellow water waders) and I also only read mm unless forced to read about girly parts. I can do it but would rather pass.

I'll try to..."
Hey my friend. So nice to be on a team together.

Here are some pretty lame ideas for names.

Hunting for a good book
Rifling through the shelves

The only name I've come up with so far is Does a Bear Six in the Woods? It's not easy to combine the team number with the hunting theme!

Oh, since so many of us are m/m readers, what if we went with something like Mmm, Bears for the team name? (For those who don't read much m/m, a bear in gay parlance is a big, hairy guy.)

Finally Lisa!!

I just woke up...what, it's Saturday!! Let's see what my not caffeinated enough brain comes up with

6 Babes and a Bearby

Okay, "Bearby" made me laugh and now it's freaking stuck in my head. I'll come back when it leaves my brain. :)

I haven't come up with anything worth mentioning for names - or even anything not worth mentioning, for that matter! Of the ones we have so far though, I kind of like "Rifling through the shelves", but I'm really open to whatever everyone else wants. I can't be picky if I can't even come up with an idea! =P

Ok ladies, lets get those brains going and think of some names...lol

We could have Hunting for A Name's a Pain.

Sorry, I don't have any ideas for a name. So far I like "Rifling through the shelves" and "Mmm, Bears".

I know everybody hates picking names but it would be nice to have a name before the category is called.

So, I am going to list the names suggested so far. Anything also suggested before midnight, eastern Tuesday 7th March (Tues into Weds) will also be added to the list.

If we haven't come to a consensus before 6pm Wednesday 8th March, eastern I will put all the suggestions in the randomizer and choose our name that way.

If anybody has any objections to this idea please speak now. Otherwise the name choosing is just going to drag on.

Hunting For A Name's A Pain
Rifling Through the Shelves
6 Babes and a Bearby
Mmm, Bears!
Does A Bear Six in the Woods?
Hunting For A Good Book
We Have the Bears, Where are the Twinks?

Ill list the choices for everybody in message 7.

I vote for
We Have the Bears, Where are the Twinks?

My choice is Rifling Through the Shelves.

I'm good with any of them so not really much help. I do like "We Have the Bears, Where are the Twinks".

Picking a team name is always the hardest part! I'm good with whatever.

I agree, i'm fine with random picking.

Maybe "Scoping Out the Themes"

So far we have 3 votes for We have the Bears, Where are the Twinks?.
So unless anything changes that will be our name.
If you have any other suggestions please weigh in bbefore 6pm eastern Weds or that will be our name.

Sounds fine to me.

Since I'm sure Lisa is sleeping by now, here's our first theme!


Week 1

Option 1
16. Our theme book won a number of children's book awards. Read a book that has won or been nominated for an award. Optional lists to get you started (not compulsory):
MM Romance Members Choice Awards 2016, 2015, 2014
Goodreads Choice Awards 2016 Also has links to awards back to and including 2009
RITA Award Winners 2016 - 1982
Golden Heart Award Winners 2016 - 1981
Romantic Time Reviewers' Choice Best Book Awards

Option 2: Key date: 7 September 2016


Jane's original post with active links to the shelves can be found here.

Week #1 - Selection Post

Option 1
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
752 Pages (Kindle Version)
Qualification: Winner of the 2001 Hugo Award for Best Novel

Pming Jane with our name.

Initial Selection Post for Option 1

Week # 1
Task: 16. Read a book that has won or been nominated for an award.
Book: March by Geraldine Brooks
Page numbers: 280
Qualifies: Winner of Pulitzer Prize for Fiction - 2006
Goodreads Pulitzer Award Page

Week 1


290 pages

2nd Best Debut Book. 2014 MM MCA 2014

Week 1 Selection Post


Out of Nowhere by Roan Parrish
Pages: 274

Qualifies: Best Dark Theme on MM 2016 Member's Choice Awards

Week #1: Read a book that has won or been nominated for an award.
Bookcover/link: Misfits
Page numbers: 277
How the book qualifies: 2015 Lambda finalist, per the GR blurb

Week #1: Read a book that has won or been nominated for an award.
Bookcover/link: Misfits
Rating: 4 stars
Review: Tom and Cass have been together, and deeply in love, for almost 10 years. And for all that time they've had an open relationship, sleeping with other men on their own or occasionally sharing. It's business as usual when Tom meets Jake, a handsome young man with Tourette's. Jake is less sanguine about it, when he wakes up the next morning to discover Tom gone to work and Cass puttering in the kitchen. Their open relationship doesn't make sense to him, and at first he wants nothing to do with what he sees as cheating. But he has a hard time letting go of his fascination with Tom, and Tom feels a connection to Jake that he's never felt with anyone but Cass. Each of the men had a distinct personality, but one of the things I found interesting is that Tom and Cass both saw in Jake some of the characteristics they appreciated about each other. Tom saw first Jake and Cass's physical similarities, and then he recognized their creative minds and troubled backgrounds. Cass saw Tom's need to caretake in Jake. Which was a good thing, because Cass really needed all that care and attention.

I adore your name

Selection Post
Week # 1

Option 1: Won an Award
First and First by Santino Hassell
Pages: 261
How it qualifies: # 1 Best White Collar on MM MCA 2016


[*book:First and First|29764283]

Stacie wrote: "I adore your name"

Thanks! There are *a lot* of m/m readers in this group, so it fit. :)

Week 1

290 pages

I read this book for a challenge and as a plus it was a new author for me. I see ther is a book 2 in this series and I will certainly be reading that.
This book was GFY, a favorite trope of mine. Mac meets Jordan when he hires him to do some PI work. The two become friends and from there a relationship but because Jordan is straight not everything is easy. Loved the secondary characters in this book. Would like to see more of Nick and Peyton.
A really enjoyable book.

Week 1 Completion Post


Out of Nowhere by Roan Parrish
Pages: 274
Read: 3/10/17
Rating: ★★★★

Colin is Daniel's brother from the first book and a very unlikable character at that. I had my doubts when starting this one whether I would even give a crap about him and whatever demons he's fighting. I will say I did end up tolerating him. I don't know that I ever really liked him though. He's been treating everyone his life so badly for so long, I don't know that he quite groveled enough for me. Yes, he's a truly tortured guy but that was by his own making and it wasn't ever really explained enough to excuse his lifetime of truly awful behavior towards everyone he came in contact with. I did love Rafe though. What a wonderful man. I'm hoping in fiction land that Colin really has changed and will be the man Rafe needs and deserves.

Week #1 - Completion Post

Option 1
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Finished 3/11/17 - 5 Stars

This was a reread...I read the whole series many years ago, and now I'm (very slowly) working my way through it in audio. It's been just shy of 10 years since I read this the last time (when book 7 came out), so I'd forgotten a lot of the details, but the combination of J.K. Rowling's writing and Jim Dale's narration brings it all back. I love this series, and this book is really the point where the battle between good and evil becomes real for everyone...complete with the realization that bad things might happen to good people along the way. It's been quite a while since I listened to book 3, but now that I've gotten back to it, it won't be nearly as long before I continue with book 5!

~KarenH~ wrote: "
Week #1 - Completion Post


Option 1
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Finished 3/11/17 - 5 Stars

This was a reread...I read the who..."

The audio for this series was so well done. I was living in Houston when these books were coming out, with a long daily commute, and Harry Potter was one of my best remedies for all that traffic!

Becky wrote: "The audio for this series was so well done. I was living in Houston when these books were coming out, with a long daily commute, and Harry Potter was one of my best remedies for all that traffic! "

Oh, I sure can identify with that! I had a stretch of over a year (and off and on for a couple of years before that) that I had about a 4 hour round-trip commute, and audiobooks saved my sanity during that time. It also gave me the enforced listening time that I felt I needed to tackle the Outlander series. Before that time I'd listened to audiobooks occasionally when I was driving across the state to visit some friends, but not on a regular basis so never wanted to listen to anything longer than what I could finish in one trip. Having that daily commute got me hooked, and I've never looked back, even though my commuting days are long over!

Audiobooks are great for lots of stuff! I've been known to listen while filing, folding laundry, or while knitting, too.

I've still never listened to an audiobook. Okay, once my mom had one in the car during a road trip. It was her book so I'm sure it was super educational and boring. :p

I'm trying to use audiobooks a bit more. But I find that I've had to start reading the book to set the story and characters in my mind. It also has to be a non-complex book or it loses me and I have to relisten (or read) parts over. I also can't listen while doing most other things. I could listen at work when not on the phone, but I find it hard to concentrate on an account and on the story. I wish. So I have been trying more to help me (in theory) be better at it.

The narrator makes a *big* difference in my enjoyment level in an audiobook. Lorelei King's performance kept me listening to the Stephanie Plum books far longer than the quality of the writing would have. And Jim Dale did an absolutely phenomenal job with the Harry Potter books. He was in the Guinness Book of World Records for the number of distinct character voices he created for one of the later books.

I read far more books than I listen to, and I probably always will. But it's nice to have the option.

Becky wrote: "Audiobooks are great for lots of stuff! I've been known to listen while filing, folding laundry, or while knitting, too."

This is me, too. I have my earbuds stuck in my ears, or at least one ear, more often than not when I'm awake. I don't do well listening if I'm doing anything that really requires thought, but for most housework, yardwork, etc. they're wonderful!

Shannon, audiobooks are definitely not for everybody, but if you ever decide you want to give them a chance, the one thing I would strongly suggest is that you make sure the book you choose has a very good narrator - get some recommendations from someone whose opinions you trust who listens to a lot of them. A narrator can and very often will make or break a book, and if the first one you listen to isn't good, you'll probably never try again, but if they're one of the really good ones, you just might be hooked after just one book!

Becky wrote: "I read far more books than I listen to, and I probably always will. But it's nice to have the option."

I'm just the opposite - I'm in a real reading funk right now, I just last night finished my first book of the month, but I've listened to several. This more extreme than usual, but at my best it's very rare that I read more than 50% of the books I "consume" in a month. =P