Romance Readers Reading Challenges discussion

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Hi Karen, Just quickly saying Hi before I go to bed. I always see you around challenges but we've never talked before.

Shall we compare books and see what we both have to read or do you have another method in mind?

Hi Tink, I don't really have a specific plan in mind...I did a quick compare of our books and we have amazingly few in common.

Here are my "short list" shelves...especially the first one, but if you see anything on either of them that looks interesting to you, Also, I'm open to rereads.

cant-wait-to-read
mng-2

If you want to post shelves you'd like me to look at, hopefully we can find something we're both interested in!

I've taken a look and any of the following sound good to me -

Throb
Beat
Sway
or The Downs



My shelves are Meet and Greet or M & G Alternatives if you want to have a look. I'm quite happy to do rereads.

I finally had a chance to take a look at your shelves, and found several on your Meet & Greet shelf that interest me. The two that I'm most interested in are Play On or The Score. The others that would also work for me are Drive Me Wild, My Life with the Walter Boys, or Deep.

Since the ones from you shelves are all picked for the next M&G round and the ones from my shelves aren't, I'm happy to go with one of these so at least one of us can knock one off the list! =P Let me know what you think.

Sorry it took so long to get back to you...it's been one of those days!

How about we go with The Score then?

Sounds like a plan! =)

I really enjoyed the first book so I don't know why its taken me so long to get around to this one.

I'll be away tomorrow, Friday and Saturday, back Sunday evening so will start after that.

Hows it going with the puppy?

Ok, I'll plan on starting it around that time, too. I tend not to be a huge fan of most college romances, but enjoyed the first one of this series also. I'm listening to the 2nd one now to set me up for #3 (can't make myself read a series out of order even if "they" say it's ok to do). I'm not sure if I'll be reading or listening to the next one...I'm not impressed with the narrator but since I don't have nearly as much reading time as I do listening time it usually takes me a lot longer to read a book than to listen to it.

The puppy is doing ok, although she's not much of a puppy anymore, almost a year old. She's been sick though, and is finally starting to feel better, so I think she's having some of those "it feels so good to feel good again" bursts of energy, and they seem to always hit at the most inconvenient times!

I don't read out of order either unless they're complete standalone in a series. I have The Score lined up on audio and ebook so will probably flit through both between projects. And like you I'm not that keen on college books as they often have the men sleeping around a lot.

What breed is she? I thought our dog would be out of the puppy stage by now (he'll be 3 in July) but he gets so hyped up sometimes just going around the sofa in circles and bouncing off everything. It's like having another child. What was wrong with her, if you don't mind me asking?

She's a mixed breed rescue, I was told she was a basset hound/lab mix, but after doing some research I think she has more german shepherd than lab in her. She actually looks to me like a shepherd/lab mix only with shorter legs (but not as short as a basset) and she has more of a basset hound personality...very mellow and easy-going. She's been battling a bladder infection since around Christmas, on her 2nd round of antibiotics, and last time I took her in they found a bladder stone, too. Fortunately it's one that will dissolve so won't require surgery, just special food for a while. What breed is yours?

He's a pug cross but the only pug in him is his tail.

Sounds like yours has gone through the rounds, hopefully she'll be back to normal soon poor thing.

Had a mad weekend but I've finally started on audio.

I've finished up my previous book and ready to start this one. I'm glad there's a narrator change from book 2. I wasn't impressed with the 2nd book's narration - it was SO SLOW! I ended up listening at 1.5x and it still seemed on the slow side. We'll see how this duo does - I'm not familiar with either one of them.

I'm really picky with audiobooks. If I don't like their voices I tend to give up so I can understand how that must have been if they read it too slowly.

What did you think of the first 2 books in this series?

I'm not terribly picky about narration. I started listening to audiobooks back when I had a 4 hour (round trip) daily commute. They not only saved my sanity during all that driving time, but got my reading fix that I didn't have time for otherwise. This was back before they exploded in popularity, and there wasn't the choice there is now, so I learned to be pretty forgiving. I no longer have the commute to deal with but still have a lot more time to listen than to read, so unless the narration is truly awful I can generally deal with it.

I liked the first 2 books - the first more than the second, but I'm not sure if that's because it was actually better or just that I have less tolerance for the genre. I think as I get older I don't have as much empathy for the issues involved...too often I just want to smack the characters and scream "What were you thinking???" They were thinking the same things a lot of college-aged kids think - I'm just too far away from my college days, I guess! I do like some - I love everything I've read by Sarina Bowen that's in that setting, but those are the exceptions. It's going to be very interesting to see how the author manages to turn Dean around, because going into this book he doesn't have a whole lot of redeeming qualities!

That was one long commute you had, at least you could get some form of reading in during it.

I enjoyed the first 2 books, the opposite way around from you but so far I'm finding this one a bit boring. I'll carry on and see how it goes as quite a few people said the start was slow.

I've just finished and I'm off to bed. How are you getting on?

I have about an hour left, I think...I'll finish this afternoon/evening easily and probably be back with some comments before you see this! =P

I finished, and I'm having trouble deciding how I feel about this book overall. There were aspects of it that I had trouble with, the first thing that pops in my mind is the sex was just overboard. I do like my books spicy, but it got to the point in this one where things would heat up and I'd be thinking "Again???" I don't know if it was really too much or if the way the scenes were written wasn't working for me, but I don't remember having that issue with the first two books in the series. I also didn't completely buy Dean's transformation...not that it happened, but how quickly he changed from a total horndog to having no interest in any woman other than Allie. As much as I didn't like it when (view spoiler)[Bowen died (hide spoiler)], it was a great catalyst to force Dean to figure out what was really important and make it happen. I did like the way it all ended...and the mini spoiler that forced me to put book 4 on my wishlist! I'm sure there's more, but it's getting late and I'm drawing a blank right now. I'm sure I'll come up with more after I see your comments.

I could not agree more on the sex aspect, I skipped a few scenes towards the end because I found them boring and for me, I think it was the way they were written because I was reading another book with lots of sex and didn't have the same problem with that one. I kind of expected more from Dean in that area because he was so promiscuous.

As for what happened to Beau - I even wrote in my review that I enjoyed the book from that point onwards a lot more than the rest of it because I actually felt their emotions and something was happening if that hadn't have turned things around I would have rated this lower.

Tink Magoo is bad at reviews wrote: "As for what happened to Beau - I even wrote in my review that I enjoyed the book from that point onwards a lot more than the rest of it because I actually felt their emotions and something was happening if that hadn't have turned things around I would have rated this lower."

Yes, that was my thought too...even though I didn't like that it happened, it really was needed. And I guess I'm going to have to start checking the written copy of a book before writing comments about it - I got my Bowen/Bo/Beau characters from other books mixed up since I only listened to it! =P

I took a peek at your review, and it seems that I liked Allie a bit better than you did. Not my favorite heroine of recent times by any means, but I did like the way she handled all the various issues she was dealing with - her father's health, her career, and Beau's melt-down. Also, the fact that even after he started getting his act back together she still took the time she needed for herself rather than just running back to him. Not particularly exciting as a romance heroine, but for the most part agreed with and respected her actions.

I did like her a bit better when she walked away instead of just carrying on and letting him drink himself silly. She wasn't annoying or anything like that, she was just okay but I do tend to like quirky heroines more.

And like you said before, I'll probably pick the next one up to see whats been going on with Tucker but who knows how long that will take me to get too.

Have you read the Rugby series by LH Cosway? I know it's not college but is sport themed and they're manhos like these boys.

I read the first one maybe a year or two ago, don't remember exactly, but I actually have the next one on my M&G list for this round. It's one of several series that I've started and am finally getting back to thanks to Audible's new Romance Package.

They have a romance package? -- I just looked it up, yet again my little country doesn't get it. So annoying.

Anyway, I enjoyed that series and the second one is really funny.

Yeah, I didn't know for sure but suspected it was US only...it only started a couple of months ago though, so hopefully it will work well and they'll expand it. Kindle Unlimited was originally only available in the US, and this is basically the same thing only for audio, so chances are probably pretty good.

I cancelled my subscription before because I did find it worth it, but the package idea sounds good. I'll have to keep an eye out.

I'll keep my fingers crossed! ;-)