Romance Readers Reading Challenges discussion

Caipi wrote: "Becky wrote: "How's everyone doing? The week after an early theme call is always weird."

Doing well, still in Easter vacation! ;)"

My household is a disabled adult and two seniors. It's always and never vacation around here. :P We had a nice Easter with my brother and sister-in-law, though. Lots of food and board games and fun.

Week 6

Read 04/20/17
4 stars


Im so loving this series.
This book features singer Jude and his bodyguard Derek.
Both are in the closet and are happy to have a friends with benefits arrangement until they both realize that thats not enough. When a stalker gives Jude some pictures takien a long time ago he decides that its time he come out of the closet,unfortunately Derek is not willing to go public.
Cue some angst until Derek realizes that he wants Jude and comes out.
This family are great. Lots of fantastic secondary charcaters like Aunt Tilly you just make you smile.

Week #6 - Completion Post

Option 1
Midsummer Moon
Finished 4/14/17 - 4 Stars

This was very enjoyable for me. Merlin was such a fun character for a math/science geek like me to read about, and seeing Ransom trying to deal with her idiosyncrasies, especially when they bumped up against his own issues, was often hilarious but also quite emotional in places. I forget in between visits with them how much I love the author/narrator combination of Laura Kinsale and Nicholas Boulton...but then Nicholas Boulton could narrate the phone book and I'd happily listen to it! ;-)

Week 7

Option 1
5. Seeker. Read a book published for the first time in the last 6 months.

This means new releases only. Please show the publication date in your selection post.

Option 2
Key date: 19 October 2016


Please ensure you follow the format shown in msg 3 of your team threads.

Week #7 - Selection Post

Option 1
The Hot One
300 Pages (Kindle Version)
Qualification: Publication date 3/25/17

Week #7: Read a book published for the first time in the last 6 months.
Bookcover/link: Wanted, A Gentleman
Page numbers: 155
How the book qualifies: published 1/9/17

Week 7

377 pages
First published; 12/4/16

Oh boy I only have to narrow it down to something new...decisions decisions

Week #7: Read a book published for the first time in the last 6 months.
Bookcover/link: Wanted, A Gentleman
Rating: 4 stars
Review: I enjoyed this one. Martin is a freedman doing very well for himself in London, with his own home and business. His relationship with his former masters is a complicated one. They raised and educated him, chose not to sell him when their own finances were strained, and eventually gave him his freedom. The daughter of the family is a bit like a younger sister to him, someone he looked after and played with when they were young, and he feels protective and a bit affectionate towards her. He feels grateful that they treated him so well, and that their treatment set him up to be so successful in life. But he also feels a deep anger at having been enslaved and that he should have to feel grateful for the human decency he received. And he struggles with feeling beholden to the family for having given him his freedom. So when the family comes to him and asks for his help with the daughter, who has been corresponding with an unacceptable suitor, his sense of obligation and concern for the girl leads him to help her. The family has managed to cut off the letters between the lovers, so they've resorted to placing the nineteenth century version of personal ads, using the names "Troilus" and "Cressida".

And this is how Martin meets Theo. Theo publishes a paper full of ads for marriage, and whatever other questionable ads people submit. And Theo's paper is where the lovers have placed their most recent ads. Martin sees Theo as a weaselly fellow, and it's not that far off. He's desperate, although we don't find out why until the end, and while he wouldn't purposefully harm someone, he doesn't much care if other people's choices cause them problems, as long as he's getting paid. He doesn't know who Troilus is, but for the promise of payment he's willing to help Martin find out. It doesn't hurt that he finds Martin extremely handsome, and that the mystery captures his imagination. And as a secret author of romances, Theo has a significant imagination. The two end up racing to the border after the runaway lovers, and surprising themselves with how well they get along. There are a few more surprises, and the author takes advantage of what an unreliable narrator Theo can be before the couple gets their happily ever after, or at least a solid happy for now.

Week #7 - Completion Post

Option 1
The Hot One
Finished 4/22/17 - 4 stars

This was typical Lauren Blakely, and for me that's not a bad thing! I love catching up with characters we've met in previous books (even though she refuses to call them a series). I generally enjoy second chance romances, and this was a good one. I enjoyed watching Tyler grovel, but that Delaney didn't drag out the groveling too long. Great epilogues (yes, multiple!) too. Can't wait for Nicole's story to come out in a few months!

Week 7 Selection Post


Bonfires by Amy Lane
Pages: 280
Qualifies: First Published 3/24/17

Lisa wrote: "Week 7

377 pages
First published; 12/4/16"

Great pick Lisa! I read that one not too long ago and loved it. :)

Week 7
Leo Loves Aries
5 stars
Date read: 4/23/17

A thoroughly enjoyable book.
Theo and his sister live together and having broken up from their partners and having had a wedding invitation to said partners marriage they decide they need to find dates for the wedding.
Enter Jamie. Theo knows as he was a Economics tutor and he thinks he would be perfect for his sister's date.

I liked this book. Quite funny in places. I was amazed that it took Theo so long to discover Jamie's feelings for him. Maybe because he was straight and didn't think he thought about Jamie like that.
Can't wait to read the next shortie.

Week #7 Selection Post

Option 1
Whiskey Business by Avon Gale
Pages: 117
Qualification: Published 12/28/16


[*book:Whiskey Business|33512629]

Week #7 Completion Post

Whiskey Business by Avon Gale
Rating: 4,5/4stars
Review:
This was really good! Short, fun, sexy,.... the perfect book for in between!

Ryder Waites sells his family's whiskey recipe to a larger company to keep his hometown alive. To achieve this, however, he has to convince Adam Keller that the distillery is worth investing.

A light, easy read, full of macabre puns.

Week 7 Completion Post


Bonfires by Amy Lane
Read: 4/24/17
Rating: ★★★★★

This was just the kind of book I absolutely love. Enough emotion to make it interesting without the melodramatic BS usually involved. No giant misunderstandings or meaningless breakups just a good ole romance. And as a bonus we had ourselves two hotties in their 40's. Yes, please! Oh, and did I mention that one of them was a man-sex virgin? Hell yes!! Loved the drama and family dynamics in this book and the teenagers were just the best kind of supporting characters. Loved, loved it!!

Plethora, please ensure you post your week 7 selection and either your week 6 or 7 completion before the cat is called Friday. Thanks

Anybody else planning to do Dewey's Read-a-thon this weekend? http://www.24hourreadathon.com/ I'm not going to attempt to do 24 hours all in one go. Missing a night of sleep would have my body hating me for days. So I'm going to do my own thing and aim for 24 hours of reading over the next three days.

Week 8

Option 1
10. We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen is a well-known children's book. Read a book featuring kids/children from one of the following lists:
Best Gay Books Dealing With Children
Children in Romance
Best Romance with Children Characters
Romance with Kids in Tow
Historical Romance with Children in the Plot
PNR Urban Fantasy Books w Kids (not YA)

These are compulsory lists. Your selected book MUST come from one of these lists. You must link to the list and note which page/which number it is on that list.


Option 2
Key date: 26 October 2016


Please ensure you follow the format shown in msg 3 of your team threads.

Jane's post with active links can be found here

Week #8 - Selection Post

Option 1
Fear, Hope, and Bread Pudding
140 Pages (Kindle Version)
Qualification: #110 on Best Gay Books Dealing With Children

Just Plethora outstanding. I need your week 7 selection before the end of today Plethora.

Week 8


158 pages /GR
#170 Gay books dealing with children

Jane (PS) wrote: "Just Plethora outstanding. I need your week 7 selection before the end of today Plethora."

Yikes...what happened to this week (and month!), sorry I've been so off this month!

Completion Post for Week 6, Option 1

Week # 6
Option 1 Task: 12. has a lot of rhyming and repetition in it. Read a book where the title has at least two words in a row starting with the same letter (excluding A, An and The).
Book: Miss Buncle's Book by D.E. Stevenson
Read: 04/23/17
Pages: 304
Fits: Two "B" words in a row in the title
Rating: 4
Review:
There is something about older mysteries, not sure how to describe it exactly, but hopefully you get it. What is a woman in a bind to do to make ends meet? Write a novel under a pseudonym as a man of course. Has her sensational book become the obsession of someone as fiction becomes real? Or it because she wrote about the towns people. Humor abounds as her tongue in cheek satire makes light of relationships. Great fun read, now I know why everyone recommends this series.

A Bookworm Reading (Plethora) wrote: "Completion Post for Week 6, Option 1

Week # 6
Option 1 Task: 12. has a lot of rhyming and repetition in it. Read a book where the title has at least two words in a row starting with the same lette..."

Are you working on your selection post for last week P? That's the one I really need :D

Yes. I am getting it together. I was working my way through my stack.

Initial Selection Post for Option 1

Week # 7

Task: 5. Seeker. Read a book published for the first time in the last 6 months.
Book: Crimes Against a Book Club by Kathy Cooperman
Page numbers: 322
Qualifies: Publishing May 1, 2017. [Was Kindle First pick this month]

A Bookworm Reading (Plethora) wrote: "Yes. I am getting it together. I was working my way through my stack."

Goodo!

Initial Selection Post for Option 1

Week # 8

Task: 10. We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen is a well-known children's book. Read a book featuring kids/children from one of the required lists
Book: Charming the Prince by Teresa Medeiros
Page numbers: 354
Qualifies: Book 27, Page 1 on Historical Romance with Children in the plot

A Bookworm Reading (Plethora) wrote: "Initial Selection Post for Option 1

Week # 7

Task: 5. Seeker. Read a book published for the first time in the last 6 months.
Book: Crimes Against a Book Club by [author:Kathy Coop..."

Plethora,
I am not sure this qualifies. It needs to have already been published. Your book doesn't come out until May 1st.
You might want to ask Jane just to be sure.

Lisa wrote: "Plethora,
I am not sure this qualifies. It needs to have already been published. Your book doesn't come out until May 1st.
You might want to ask Jane just to be sure."

Hey Lisa,
Someone in another group asked about that last week - she had an ARC that she wanted to use, and Jane said it was ok. I think it might be in the Q&A thread, but I'm not sure.

~KarenH~ wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Plethora,
I am not sure this qualifies. It needs to have already been published. Your book doesn't come out until May 1st.
You might want to ask Jane just to be sure."

Hey Lisa,
Some..."
Oh ok then.

That's good because I have the book already, Amazon sends it to you before the official publish date if you select it as your Kindle First Book for the month.

Week 8


Read 4/29/17
4 stars

I picked this up for a challenge where there had to be children as part of the story, the book also fitted into another challenge for an animal on the cover.
Deuce comes home one day to find his apartment on fire and good looking fireman, Trey rushes back into the building to rescue Deuce's pregnant dog.
As time goes on, Deuce goes to the fire house to thank Trey and offer him the pick of the litter. Not surprisingly the 2 become friends.
This was an enjoyable story. The little girl was cute but not a real big part of the story.
I have to admit that the beginning of the story was very familiar to me, having read about a fireman and his boyfriend meeting when the fireman attends a fire at the boyfriends house.
Anyway, I see there is a book 2 in the series which I will probably read.

Week 8 Selection Post


Three to Get Ready by Sean Michael
Pages: 212
Qualifies: #376 on Best Gay Books Dealing with Children

Week #8, option 2
Bookcover/link: Borrowing Blue
Page numbers: 282
Name of the team-member, their star rating, the date they read the book: read by Lisa, 4 stars, 3/26/17

Week #8
Bookcover/link: Borrowing Blue
Rating: 3 stars
Review: This was a perfect pick for the readathon. Pure, fluffy entertainment. Blue is dreading his sister's week-long, blow out wedding, because his ex has the bad taste to show up with his new boytoy. (Husband?) Then the handsome stranger sitting next to him in the bar kisses him to give the ex a little of his own back, and we're off to the races. Tristan was kind of improbable, but sometimes reality is overrated. The author also has a short freebie about the ex's boytoy, Brad, that gives a bit more info about how they met and gives him a HEA that he richly deserves after dealing with the asshat.

Week 8 Completion Post


Three to Get Ready by Sean Michael
Read: 5/1/17
Rating: ★★★

Sweet manny story. I was expecting more drama about reconnecting with a past love though. That part seemed glossed over. Dan is hired to be Jack's manny and help him care for his 5 yr old legally blind son and twin girls that aren't born yet. It seemed pretty unrealistic regarding the way Nathan (the 5 yr old) adapted to having twin baby sisters but overall a really cute read. I loved how Dan treated Nathan and made sure he felt as "normal" as possible. No angst, no big fights, a bit of lovely smexing...pretty good.

Week #8 Selection Post

Option 1
The World As He Sees It by A.M. Arthur
Pages: 278/ Kindle edition
Qualifies: #243 on Best Gay Books Dealing With Children


[*book:The World As He Sees It|26805642]

Week #8 Completion Post

The World As He Sees It
Rating: 4,5/4 stars
Review:
Three years ago Tristan suffered a traumatic brain injury in a gay bashing. Since then his short-term memory only keeps for 30 minutes. That means, while he remembers everything until shortly before the attack, the last three years are a blank sheet for him. That's why he writes everything that he experiences on a notepad.
One day he panics in a club and gets rescued by Gabe. And when they meet again some weeks later, Tristan doesn't remember Gabe, but his eyes, Tristan is sure he knows those eyes!

When Gabe rescues Tristan, he's absolutely impressed by him, can't forget him. And after they met the second time he starts a friendship with Tristan, at first only by email, later with Skype. And despite his own problems (he takes care of his alcoholic mother and shoots porn to pay her bills), Gabe can't get enough of Tristan, tries to spend more time with him.

Tristan is so happy about the growing friendship with Gabe and when he gets the opportunity to participate in a clinical trial to improve his memory, he takes it.

Although I am afraid that a lot about the clinical trial is unrealistic, I very much enjoyed this book. OMG, I was so happy when Tristan had his first real breakthrough and remembered what time breakfast and dinner are without checking his notes, that I cried!
My only complaint is that there were so many sex scenes in the second half that I was tempted to skip them.

Week #8 - Completion Post

Option 1
Fear, Hope, and Bread Pudding
Finished 5/1/17 - 4 stars

I don't know why it took me so long to get around to this book...I've loved the previous ones in the series, but somehow just got sidetracked. It was nice seeing Jon and Cole moving forward with their lives together, and seeing how trying to expand their family in one direction actually leads to healing of some old hurts and improved relationships in another direction. And the bonus of a second, "background" romance was great, too!

Plethora
Please can you ensure you post either your week 7 or week 8 before todays category is called.
Thank you.

Lisa wrote: "Plethora
Please can you ensure you post either your week 7 or week 8 before todays category is called.
Thank you."

Sorry....we haven't been home but one night this week....waiting for RL to slow down any day now!!!! Feeling like I'm chasing my tail every day.

Completion Post for Week 7, Option 1

Week # 7
Task: 5. Seeker. Read a book published for the first time in the last 6 months.
Book: Crimes Against a Book Club by Kathy Cooperman
Read: 04/30/17
Pages: 322
Fits: Publishing May 1, 2017. [Was Kindle First pick this month]
Rating: 3
Review: I've had so little good reading time, the I've been feeling like everything is just a so-so read. But maybe once I can slow down and go back and think about the various books I've been reading I'll reaccess some of these. Humours fluffy type of book. Quick fire way to to make enough money for in vitro treatment, invent a face cream to sell to those stupid rich women in your book club. Oh, but what about that secret ingredient that isn't on the up and up.

Week 9


Option 1
6. Treasure. Recommend a book to another member in your team that they haven't read but that you think they should. It may be new to them or already on their TBR. Multiple rec's may be made, but only one book is to be selected and read.

Captains - please make sure everyone has at least one recommendation, but preferably more.

Option 2
Key date: 2 November 2016

Don't know how you'll organize the recommendations, Lisa. So I'll just post one rec for all mm readers before I'm off to bed......

Lisa: Spencer Cohen, Book One
Becky: Out of Nowhere
KarenH: Elements of Retrofit
Shannon: What It Looks Like

Okay then, let me look for something for everyone...

Lisa: Healed Hearts, Packing Heat
Becky: Out of Nowhere, Black Dust
Plethora: Number the Stars, Purrfect Voyage
Caipi: Falling, In the Absence of Light
KarenH: Again, Beyond the Surface

Does anyone else have Kindle Unlimited? That would give us a little more flexibility to recommend titles not currently in the TBR without anyone needing to buy anything. (I have it at the moment, so recommend away!)

I do!

I have Kindle Unlimited.