2022 ONTD Reading Challenge discussion

Share what you read for this month! If you liked it, would you recommend it, etc.

I read The Tourist Trail, which is an eco-thriller featuring the perspectives of 3 different characters. Angela, a naturalist, falls for Aeneas, an animal rights activist. Robert is a federal agent on a mission to arrest Aeneas, and also is grieving for a lover, Noa, who he lost on a previous failed mission. Then we have Ethan, who is infatuated with an animal rights activist. When I started the book I didn't realize it would be so romance-heavy but it was done well and was a mix of fuck em both and love is lit, lol.

I read The Princess Bride and ended up with so many conflicted feelings along the way.

Some scenes were better in the movie, some were better in the book, and I did like that all the characters got a bit more depth to them (even if that did Buttercup zero favours).

But mostly it's this specific edition I have a beef with. Almost 20% of the book are either author forewords and afterwords, although we do get the first chapter of the sequel (which I quickly decided not to look up properly because it was some deus ex machina bull with a twist that pushed some Twilight-primed "run the eff away" buttons, lol).

I had been planning on reading Wuthering Heights but then my copy the font was too small and then after checking it out from the library I decided I wasn't in the mood after all.

Ended up reading Faro's Daughter (Lea recommended it to me!) which was a lot of fun and really cute. I'll have to read some more Heyer, maybe Arabella next since she was introduced in this book.

I might read 99 Percent Mine since it's waiting for me at the library and I had fun reading The Hating Game. I've heard mixed things about this one so I'm curious what I'll think.

Dainey wrote: "I read The Princess Bride and ended up with so many conflicted feelings along the way.

Some scenes were better in the movie, some were better in the book, and I did like that all t..."

The author bits are part of the book! I mean it, they're all part of the story, it's all fiction. There are no editions without them (although the author did write an additional intro for the 30th anniversary edition, which is ALSO fictional). And there is no sequel either, it's fake! There is only that "one chapter", because the sequel is supposed to be "long lost" (but it never existed).

The whole thing is basically a huge practical joke, and that's part of the charm of the Princess Bride. Here is more about this whole thing: https://tothelamppost.wordpress.com/t...

Sophie wrote: "Ended up reading Faro's Daughter (Lea recommended it to me!) which was a lot of fun and really cute. I'll have to read some more Heyer, maybe Arabella next since she was introduced in this book."

I'm so glad you liked it! The Arabella in Arabella is a different one though. However it is a really great book and I definitely recommend it if you want to read it next! ;)

I read The Wedding Date and hated every second of it, even if it was a quick read. I wish I had read something different but can't go back now.

Lea wrote: "Dainey wrote: "I read The Princess Bride and ended up with so many conflicted feelings along the way.

Some scenes were better in the movie, some were better in the book, and I did ..."

Aye, I'm aware, but there's only so much "my son is so utterly terribly fat" and "I'm being inexplicably seduced by young women" I'm willing to humour before getting to what I picked up the book for, y'know?

I read When Katie Met Cassidy.

This is a typical rom-com book, or so I assume having not read many other romcoms. I admit I only read this one because of the f/f relationship representation. I'm happy to see lgbt couples featured in all genres and I admit I was rooting for these too. While some of the writing was cringey (the predatory lesbian trope needs to die tbh) overall, it was a nice, light read.

I finished Wuthering Heights and it was my second time reading it. I think what I enjoy about this book is that in one instance you'll kind of feel sorry for someone only in the next paragraph hate them, like Emily sure knows how to write god awful people that makes you want to strangle all of them to get some common sense. This book truly is the embodiment of fuck them for truly thinking they could be happy lol.

February has been a rough reading month after a really good / productive January. The first book I read was The Pisces for the romance theme and lol I hated it. Probably didn't help with the whole "lack of motivation to read" thing. I picked it for the cover alone and the first half was okay but it's just too self-indulgent and ramble-y.

I read In the Tall Grass in an hour as a palette cleanser immediately after and it was good but too short.

Just finished My Sister, the Serial Killer today and I loved it. If I'd been making time to read more actively, I'd probably have zipped through it but yeah, really liked this one and now I feel more positive about reading for the remainder of the month.

I read One Day in December in one sitting, basically. It was cute, and I could definitely see it being a fun holiday rom-com. I took serious issue with Silver's ridiculously flowery and wordy sentences in the first few chapters. They seemed to lessen as the story went on but as I read the first chapter I thought, "this is how someone who wants to be the next Helen Fielding writes". I definitely enjoyed it, but it was nothing special. I recommended it to my sister because she loves fluff, rom com books, but I'll probably tackle Norwegian Wood during my commute to school for the next week or so.

Read the kiss quotient and sadly I hated it

I read Dumplin'. I remember reading if it had romance in the top 3 bookshelves, it counts, right? There is love of self, love of family, love of friends, and romantic-ish love. (kinda-sorta, lol) I haven't seen the Netflix movie yet and I thought the drag queens would have more of a presence in the book but they don't. Anyway, it's cute. I would have liked to have seen more followup with the grieving aspect, as it feels like Will and her mom are on the right path, but I wanted to read more about that.

I finished all 5 of my picks for the month!

Next Year in Havana - Amazing, loved this story. It was definitely my favorite of the month.

Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating - Really fun quick read!

Unmarriageable - Interesting setting but clumsy execution at times.

99 Percent Mine - Spunky and sweet.

Persuasion - Good story but lawd JA books are hard to read lol. I think I'll stick to audio books in the future.

I read From Lukov with Love, which I was very much looking forward to prior to reading and I'm happy to say it lived up to the expectations.

As a huge fan of The Cutting Edge, it was such a great companion to fill the enemies > friends > lovers trope. I think the epilogue was a bit heavy-handed and unnecessary, but I honestly had so much fun reading the book and there were so many moments that really warmed my heart and had me getting all gooey.

I don't really read romance but I loved the banter between the two main characters and the way their relationship progressed throughout the book was really enjoyable. If you like slow burns, this one is definitely one I'd recommend!

I read 99 Percent Mine and it was ok. I think the author had a lot to live up to after The Hating Game and this book didn't quite get there for me. It was still enjoyable to read, though.

I finished 99 Percent Mine too and I thought it was cute but also there was just something kind of bland about the book too.

I read Any Old Diamonds, which I loved, and Can You Keep a Secret? and Insert Groom Here, which were okay.

The Proposal finally came in from the library, so I'm going to try to read that real fast before the end of the month (shouldn't be too hard!) But I'm glad I had To All the Boys I've Loved Before to read for challenge. It was a really sweet book (though I think I liked the movie better)

Dainey wrote: "I read The Princess Bride and ended up with so many conflicted feelings along the way.

Some scenes were better in the movie, some were better in the book, and I did like that all t..."

One of my favourite movies but the book went in the bin after i read it. I hated the "author" and the concept that cute lil fred savage grew up so annoying.

Ok I finished The Proposal. I know everyone here hated The Wedding Date but I thought it was ok. I did not think The Proposal was ok. The plot was cute but the writing was terrible

Also read Say Yes to the Cheerleader which was a fluffy f/f YA. And currently reading The Kiss Quotient but I'll be finishing that up soon (maybe tonight?). I surprised myself by reading more books for this challenge than I thought I would.

Sasha wrote: "Also read Say Yes to the Cheerleader which was a fluffy f/f YA. And currently reading The Kiss Quotient but I'll be finishing that up soon (maybe tonight?). I surpri..."

Just added Say Yes to the Cheerleader! Thanks for the link :)

For this month's challenge, I read The Sun Is Also a Star, Wuthering Heights and The Kiss Quotient. I'm also currently reading Sense and Sensibility and Heartburn. I think I can manage to finish them bu Thursday.

I'm surprised at how many books I read considering that February is such a short month and that I'm not big on romance novels. But all the books were fast reads. I liked Wuthering Heights the best, even if, ironically, I hated its protagonists the most. The Kiss Quotient was nice but predictable and the ending felt unnecessarily dragged out by the "miscommunication" trope. TSIAAS was okay, and cute.

Heartburn is hilarious, and I'm LOVING Sense and Sensibility. Jane Austen is really a master at the "everything is chill and quiet until an impactful telenovela twist" stuff. Also, I love her and her writing.

I read 99 Percent Mine and didn't like it very much. The end was okay, and the writing was decent, but the MC was strange and her brother was an asshole, idk, I just felt like everyone was kinda giving her shit she didn't deserve all the time and it stressed me out.

I read 99 Percent Mine too and I agree. I feel like they were trying to emphasize how much of a trio they were (and like at the end when (view spoiler)[they all went on the cruise together and being all oh we won't split up etc (hide spoiler)] but I didn't feel that connection and yeah he was just too much of an asshole.

I read 99 Percent Mine, Serious Moonlight, The Unhoneymooners, Meet Cute, Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee, The Perfect Date (which was not good), Waiting for Tom Hanks, and I'll be finishing Accidental Groom: A sizzling, sexy contemporary romance novel by tomorrow. I also tried to read Let's Talk About Sext but it was a DNF for me because it was just bad.

Yes, I did go above and beyond this month but basically all the books I read this month had romance. Lol

I read I Can't Think Straight and Annie on My Mind this month. Both were great! AOMM is a YA lesbian romance while ICTS is an adult lesbian romance, but both had similar themes of self-discovery and being true to yourself. There were some laugh out loud moments in ICTS and AOMM made me cry at the end. I definitely recommend both, but especially AOMM as it was such a trailblazing book, having been written in 1982!

I read up a Cat Sebastian romance marathon lol (I do enjoy romance but I AM picky, so sticking with an author I know I’ll like was a good choice)
- The Lawrence Browne Affair and the The Ruin of a Rake, books 2 and 3 in her M/M romance Turner series. They were nice, inclusive and well-written but also not very memorable, so just a solid 3 stars
- And then It Takes Two to Tumble and A Gentleman Never Keeps Score, her the Seducing the Sedgwicks books, which I enjoyed IMMENSELY more bc they played into all my favourite romcom/histrom tropes

I read:

Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Legendary by Stephanie Garber.

I am not a massive fan of romances so I decided to go for books I know had big romance plots but wasn't exclusively romance.

Obsidio is the last book in the Illuminae Files trilogy. It's sci-fi novel but I can't really go into detail with the plot as it's full of spoilers. But the previous books had a very strong romance side-plot so I knew that this one would too, so I picked it up.

Legendary is the second novel in the Caraval trilogy. Same reasons for Obsidio, the previous book had a good side-plot of romance so I thought this one would be really good.

I enjoyed both books but didn't feel like they matched up to their predecessors.

I could not for the life of me find the willingness to read a romance novel in February. So on the last day of the month I settled on Carol and I'm still reading it.

Whew, I finally read a romance. The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer was a hilarious romantic adventure.