Romance Readers Reading Challenges discussion

Team members

Presenter:
★ Amanda

Nominees:
☆ bamaace83 (Anna)
☆ Kristen
☆ UnusualChild(beppy)
☆ Stacie
☆ Alice

1. Introduce yourself to your team. Let your team members know where you are from. This is a great to know when themes 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 International Awards, come up with an award from anywhere in the world for your team name. 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 early Wednesday 4 September.

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 names 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 within 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 Annoucement 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 if Option 2 is used, members must select their book from another team. This will be advised in the week 11 announcement.

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


The format for selection posts Option 1:
Week #
Bookcover/link
Page numbers
How the book qualifies - please link or name the qualifying bookshelf/list where applicable (link if possible).
If the theme is based off the bookcover or a letter in the title etc, please just repeat the theme.

The format for selection posts Option 2:
Week #
Bookcover/link
Page numbers
Name of the team-member, their star rating, the date they read the book.


Format for completion posts:
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.

Weekly Theme Announcements

Week 1 - Golden Raspberry
Week 2 - Best in Show
Week 3 - Palme d'Or Cannes Film Festival
Week 4 - Archibald Prize
Week 5 - Olympics
Week 6 - Pulitzer Prize
Week 7 - Global Music Awards
Week 8 - Darwin Awards

Week 1 - Golden Raspberry
Option 2 date - March 8, 2019

✓Amanda: Selection | Completion
✓bamaace83 (Anna): Selection | Completion
✓Kristen: Selection | Completion
✓UnusualChild(beppy): Selection | Completion
✓Stacie: Selection | Completion
✓Alice: Selection | Completion

Week 2 - Best in Show
Option 2 date - March 15, 2019

✓Amanda: Selection | Completion
✓bamaace83 (Anna): Selection | Completion
✓Kristen: Selection | Completion
✓UnusualChild(beppy): Selection | Completion
✓Stacie: Selection | Completion
✓Alice: Selection | Completion

Week 3 - Palme d'Or Cannes Film Festival
Option 2 date - March 22, 2019

✓Amanda: Selection | Completion
✓bamaace83 (Anna): Selection | Completion
✓Kristen: Selection | Completion
✓UnusualChild(beppy): Selection | Selection | Completion
✓Alice: Selection | Completion

Week 4 - Archibald Prize
Option 2 date - March 22, 2019

✓Amanda: Selection | Completion
✓bamaace83 (Anna): Selection | Completion
✓Kristen: Selection | Completion
✓UnusualChild(beppy): Selection | Completion
✓Stacie: Selection | Completion
✓Alice: Selection | Completion

Week 5 - Olympics
Option 2 date - April 5, 2019

✓Amanda: Selection | Completion
✓bamaace83 (Anna): Selection | Completion
✓Kristen: Selection | Completion
✓UnusualChild(beppy): Selection | Completion
✓Stacie: Selection | Completion
✓Alice: Selection | Completion

Week 6 - Pulitzer Prize
Option 2 date - April 12, 2019

✓Amanda: Selection | Completion
✓Kristen: Selection | Completion
✓bamaace83 (Anna): Selection | Completion
✓UnusualChild(beppy): Selection | Completion
✓Stacie: Selection | Completion
✓Alice: Selection | Completion

Week 7 - Global Music Awards
Option 2 date - April 19, 2019

Amanda: Selection | Completion
✓Kristen: Selection | Completion
✓bamaace83 (Anna): Selection | Completion
✓UnusualChild(beppy): Selection | Completion
✓Stacie: Selection | Completion
✓Alice: Selection | Completion

Week 8 - Darwin Awards
Option 2 date - April 26, 2019

✓Amanda: Selection | Completion
Kristen: Selection | Completion
✓bamaace83 (Anna): Selection | Completion
✓UnusualChild(beppy): Selection | Completion
Stacie: Selection | Completion
Alice: Selection | Completion

Res

Hi all! I'm Amanda and I live in New England. I'm a bookseller at an adorable bookstore and a book reviewer. One of my recent great reads was The Blacksmith Queen by G.A. Aiken.

If any of you have any team name ideas, feel free to suggest them!

The romances awards are the RITAs and a funny take on that could be the PITAs (pain in the asses).

Hey everyone! I'm Anna and live near Louisville Ky. I work in a local medical clinic and work five days a week and off on weekends. My hours vary and I pop in at random times throughout the day. I love to read almost anything but always tend to lean towards romance. I literally sped through Rebecca Zanetti's books this month and loved every single one of them. Nora Roberts has always been one of my favorite authors. I think PITA is really clever for a team name.

Hey!! I'm Stacie, I live right outside of DC, in College Park, MD. I love the name suggestion!

Hi, I'm Beppy.

I'm generally well prepared for this challenge, with my lists of potential reads already in place, but time seems to have slipped away on me on this one. I WILL get organized, though, so you won't have to worry about me lagging too far behind. :)
I live wayyyyyy up north in Northern British Columbia. For most of this challenge, I will be on PST, but once the time changes in November, since we don't where I live, I will be on Mountain time. I generally don't have access to Internet on the weekend or evenings, but I do during the week when I work. I work as a Staffing clerk for our health authority, which is a nice way of saying that I try to get nurses and other support staff to fill vacant shifts at the various hospitals and care homes in our purview, and do data entry for time cards.
I read just about everything, with emphasis on romance, including m/m romance, which makes up a large portion of the romance I'm reading right now. I do read some m/f, some days more than others, but if you don't read m/m, my read shelf might not be the first place to start. I read all other genres of m/f: urban fantasy, PNR, contemporary, historical, NA, YA, fantasy, science fiction, romantic suspense, etc, etc.

PITA sounds good to me, since I am horrible with team names.

UnusualChild{beppy} wrote: "Hi, I'm Beppy.

I'm generally well prepared for this challenge, with my lists of potential reads already in place, but time seems to have slipped away on me on this one. I WILL get organized, thoug..."

Dang beppy - I was thinking you were leaning more toward mf at the mo! Sorry!

@Jane: am I leaning more toward m/f now? *runs and checks* I think normally it's a 90/10 split with m/m and m/f, and lately it might be a 85/15 split?
No worries on my end, though. I'm sure I have MORE than enough books on my shelves to provide me with lots of choices for the categories.

UnusualChild{beppy} wrote: "@Jane: am I leaning more toward m/f now? *runs and checks* I think normally it's a 90/10 split with m/m and m/f, and lately it might be a 85/15 split?
No worries on my end, though. I'm sure I have..."

LOL - no idea what I was drinking!!

Hi all, I'm Kristen. I've backed off the challenges lately because of some personal stuff in my life but figured this would be a good chance to jump back in and make sure I read at least one book a week. I pretty much only read m/f.

I like the name PITAs, I don't have any other suggestions, fresh out of creativity :)

I think we're still waiting on Alice to check in and then I'll put in for our team name.

Hi All, I'm here! Sunday is pinochle with MIL day, which also means super clean everything. I'm a long time Victoria Holt fan. I read and write everything, but met up with some romance writers a few years back and just published my first romance - Runaway Hearts by Alice Kay. I need to get back into reading more and writing less. Looking forward to my first challenge.

Oh and - where I'm from... Western Slope of Colorado now, but grew up on the Texas Gulf Coast and lived a few decades in Seattle.

Alice wrote: "Hi All, I'm here! Sunday is pinochle with MIL day, which also means super clean everything. I'm a long time Victoria Holt fan. I read and write everything, but met up with some romance writers a fe..."

Congrats, Alice! Finishing a book is always a feat.

I'm all in for the Pita award. How do you all go about choosing your books? I'm not sure where to start.

I'm a book reviewer as part of my day job, so when a theme is announced, I try to see if any of my upcoming assigned books will work.

Sometimes I try to find books for all the categories ahead of time. Other times, I just go to my next shelf to see if anything matches the call.

For finding books, I usually have looked at all the categories and the lists, and picked out books for that theme. Then, when the theme is called, if I feel like it, I'll read one of those, or I'll wander off and choose something else that I do feel like reading.

ETA Or I find something that is on my "currently reading" list that qualifies, since it's got a lot of books on it.

Thanks everyone for sharing with me on how you find your books. I guess I'm being kind of lazy since I'm used to book clubs telling me exactly what to read. This should be fun though - like a treasure hunt. There's just so much treasure to find!

well I'm sure that I've read some of the books on these lists so I will pass recommendations along!

Week one has been called! Don't forget to post your selections!

Week 1

Option1
10. Golden Raspberry
The Golden Raspberry Awards is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements.
* Read a book from one of the following lists:
Guilty Pleasures - Crap You're Embarrassed to Love
Male characters you would run from if they tried to date you
Would Rather Pluck My Eyebrows
Most Unappealing MM book covers of 2015
Most Unappealing MM book covers of 2014

If you use this option please quote the list and page number where the title is found. A link would be even better!


Option 2
Book chosen from a team member's shelf that was read on the date below or more recently and rated at least 3 stars.
Key Date: March 8, 2019


Please ensure you follow the format shown in msg 3 of your team threads. when you post your selection and completion posts.

the listopa names are hilarious

Selection Post -- Week 1 -- Option 2
Book:
Sapphire Flames Ilona Andrews
How it fits: Kristen read it on May 24 and gave it 4 stars
Pages: 384

Week 1 - Option 1



Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
337 pages

From Listopia - Male Characters You Would Run From If They Tried To Date You - #66 on List

Alice wrote: "Week 1 - Option 1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...

Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
337 pages

https://www.goodrea..."

Hi Alice - could you please insert a link to the book you are going to read? To do that, please refer here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

And please note the number that the book is on the list.

Thanks :)

Week 1 Selection Post - The Golden Raspberry
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
435 pages
Qualification - #121 on Male characters you would run from if they tried to date you

Week 1 Selection Post 1 Option 1

Book:
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Page Count: 335 pages
Qualification: #24 on the following list
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...

Jane - I edited my original post. Using a Goodreads link instead of Amazon makes more sense! Let me know if I need to do anything else.

Alice

Completion Post

Week #1
Ugly Love
Rating (1-5) 5 Stars
Review - Ugly Love kept me reading past midnight, and it did make me cry. It takes a special kind of book to do that. It isn’t that I loved the book. It’s because I loved and hated the book at the same time. How is that even possible?
Tate makes it possible with her insta-crush on Miles Archer, a pilot living across the hall who wants nothing to do with her, unless it involves no strings attached sex.
“Don’t ask about my past,” he says firmly. “And never expect a future.”
She’s got it so bad for him, she gives it a try even as she knows “this will end badly.”

Stacie wrote: "Selection Post -- Week 1 -- Option 2
Book:
Sapphire Flames Ilona Andrews
How it fits: Kristen read it on May 24 and gave it 4 sta..."

fingers crossed you like it Stacie!

Selection Post - Week 1 - Option 2


Bookcover/link: War by Laura Thalassa
Page numbers: 427
How it fits: Stacie read it July 27, 2019 and rated it 4 stars view

Alice wrote: "Jane - I edited my original post. Using a Goodreads link instead of Amazon makes more sense! Let me know if I need to do anything else.

Alice"

Thanks :)

Completion Post -- Week 1 -- Option 2
Book:
Sapphire Flames Ilona Andrews
How it fits: Kristen read it on May 24 and gave it 4 stars
Pages: 384
Rating: 4 stars

Review:
What a wild ride this was. Catalina has certainly changed from previous books. She's different than Nevada but I enjoyed the different. I did feel like it would have been better had Nevada not made the tiny appearances. I also now know way more about the design of JC Penney and Sephora than I ever needed to. Cannot wait for book 5.

Week 1 Completion Post Option 1

Book: Obsidian
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Pages: 335
Date Completed: September 11, 2019
Rating: 4 Stars
How it fits: #24 on the following list https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...

Review:
Ok, so this was my first time reading from this author that I can remember. I really liked this book. I loved Daemon from the beginning. He was the kind of boy you wanted to chase you but also wanted to run away from at the same time. I really liked how Katy and Daemon's relationship in the book. Without giving away spoilers, Ash is a bad-ass that I wish had more of a presence in the book. I hope to see her later on in the series because I am totally going to keep reading it. First time that I've read a book about aliens and want to go back and finish the series. Definitely worth a read.

Heads up that I reached out to Beppy to check in with no response just yet.

Week 1: Selection Post - Golden Raspberry

The Do-Over
Pages: 227
How it qualifies: #150 on Crap You're Embarrassed to Love

[*bookcover:The Do-Over|18660750]

Just FYI, I'm out of town the 16th to the 20th. I'll be able to pick a book after tomorrow's call so no worries. Just if you don't see a completion post until the 20th/21st, that's why. I know it's okay in this challenge but I also feel like I should let you know I'm out of town.

Thanks!

Week 1: Completion Post

The Do-Over
Rating: 4 stars
Review:

Kyle never sleeps with the same woman more than three times, because after the third time, they start making noises about commitment since he is SUCH a catch, and all women want is to be paired off. He's always looking for his next score, and has a certain body type that he looks for. When his best friend Brad asks him to go on a date with his girlfriend's sister, even though she isn't good looking, Kyle agrees. But the date is not what Kyle thinks it is.
Lanie works with Brad, and has been in love with him for awhile. She doesn't want to cut her sister out, because she figures that Brad will eventually see what kind of person her sister is, but when that happens, she wants to be prepared for the possibility that Brad might look at her and really see her. To that end, she wants to pick the brain of his best friend to find out things about Brad, and how to catch his attention while still being herself.
Kyle is stymied by Lanie, since she doesn't react the way he thinks she should toward him. And the fact that she's interested in Brad and doesn't want to sabotage anything is something else he can't understand, especially since her sister is not the nicest person. Kyle agrees to help Lanie, and in return, gets the interview of a lifetime. As he and Lanie spend time together, first with Brad and her sister, and then by themselves, Kyle becomes more and more intrigued by the conflicting things about Lanie that he discovers.

I actually enjoyed this one, even though both Kyle and Lanie, for being such educated, intelligent people, drove me a little nuts with thinking that they would turn out like the parent they didn't like. Seriously, I've read several books with that theme in it lately, and it's just so...wrong. My dad is a farmer, through and through, and guess what? I am NOT a farmer!! Just because a parent is something or other does NOT mean that the kid will necessarily be that. Especially since the "good" parent is nothing like the other one. (Although poor Lanie had an uphill battle with both of them, she was definitely more worried about the one parent and inheriting those genes.) It's not a singular conception; presumably the other parent has something to contribute, too. Sorry, off my soapbox now.
The build in friendship between Kyle and Lanie was gradual and heartfelt, so you could believe it when they started calling each other best friends, and then, perhaps, had deeper feelings. I liked the fact that Kyle kept finding new "favourite" things about Lanie.
I also liked that Lanie didn't really change. Yes, she dressed differently, but she was still socially awkward and she never lost her confidence in herself as a professional.

Week 2

Option 1
14. Best in Show
"Best in show" is the title that is given to a winning animal in an animal show/competition, such as a dog show, cat show, or horse show. (Source: Urban Dictionary)

* Read a book with a dog, cat or horse on the cover.
Please post the bookcover in your selection post.

Option 2
Key Date: March 15, 2019

I had a hard time finding books with horses or cats or dogs on the cover when I was looking for books for this category to have options before the challenge started, so this just happened: Me, casually looking over my "currently reading" shelf: is that a horse on the cover? *enlarges page* That IS a horse on the cover! Hahahahahha!

Week 2: Selection Post - Best in Show

Brothers of the Wild North Sea
Pages: 409
How it qualifies: horse on cover

[*bookcover:Brothers of the Wild North Sea|17433996]

Week 2 Selection Post: Best in show
Book:
Then Came You Jill Shalvis
Pages: 304
How it fits: Dog on cover

Week 1 Completion Post - The Golden Raspberry
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Rating: 4 stars
Review: I feel so bad for sleeping on Naomi Novik because her writing is so beautiful. I had a few pacing issues at the start and then 3/4 through, but this was such a romantic and magical read.

Week 2 Selection Post: Best in show



Good Guys Love Dogs Inglath Cooper
356 pages

It qualifies by having a dog on the cover.