Romance Readers Reading Challenges discussion

The Amazing Race Team Challenge - Round 8
September 23, 2023 through November 19, 2023
Run Like There's a Hot Guy in Front of You and a Creepy One Behind You.

Team:
★ Tracy
✓ R~wka
✓ Christene Paula
✓ Aoife

The Amazing Race Team Challenge - Round 8
September 23, 2023 through November 19, 2023
Run Like There's a Hot Guy in Front of You and a Creepy One Behind You.

Tracking:
Task 1 - 0. Each teammate reads a book tagged ‘family’ or ‘holiday’ - teams decide. 9.23.2023 - 9.26.2023
Task 2 - 4. Read 4 books tagged/shelved as PNR or fantasy. 9.26.2023 - 9.28.2023
Task 3 - 11. Read 4 books in continuing series, one that has not been completely published. 9.28.2023 - 10.3.2023
Task 4 - 14. Read a minimum of 1000 pages in books with Contemporary Romance as MPG. 10.3.2023 - 10.5.2023
Task 5 - 12. Read a book recommended to you by a teammate - no pass for this task. 10.5.2023 - 10.10.2023
Task 6 - 9. Each player reads a book in the same series, teams decide. No pass for this task. 10.10.2023 - 10.15.2023
Task 7 - 49. Each teammate reads a book published in the same month and year, teams decide. No pass for this task. 10.15.2023 - 10.20.2023
Task 8 - 41. Read 6 books with over 10,000 ratings. 10.20.2023 - 10.24.2023
Task 9 - 63. Read a minimum of 1200 pages in books tagged 'magic' or 'magical’. 10.24.2023 - 10.27.2023
Task 10 - 70. Read a minimum of 1200 pages in books of the same sub-genre, but by different authors. 10.27.2023 - 10.30.2023
Task 11 - 54. Read 6 books set on a beach or in the mountains, teams decide which. 10.30.2023 - 11.4.2023
Task 12 - 68. Read a minimum of 1200 pages in books with one word titles. 11.4.2023 - 11.7.2023
Task 13 - 39. Read 6 books set outside of the US. 11.7.2023 - 11.9.2023
Task 14 - 61. Read 4 books rated over 4.5 on GR. 11.9.2023 - 11.12.2023
Task 15 - 72. Read 4 books published in the decade of a teammate's birth, team decides which teammate. 11.12.2023 - 11.15.2023
Task 16 - 88. Read 6 books with a boat, plane, car or motorcycle on the cover, teams decide which. 11.15.2023 - 11.18.2023
Task 17 - Last Task - Read a book featuring a wealthy character. 11.18.2023

Information required when posting your completion/s:

Task
Book/cover link
Page numbers with source
How book qualified, with links or cover as necessary.
Date Completed.
Rating/Review.


**Remember to use the first edition Kindle page count only! If your page count comes from a Kindle edition published on the initial publication date on the editions page, it will count. If your page count comes from a Kindle edition labeled '1st edition', it will count. If your page count comes from the earliest dated English language Kindle edition, it will count. I am looking for one of those three things when confirming your books! As long the page count you list is correct, I will accept any link to the book. Ebook page count will be acceptable if no Kindle page count available. The acceptability of other page counts will be made on an individual basis.**

Please note that a rating is now required in your completion posts! A small review is also welcome. 😊

I think most of you know each other, at least a little, but feel free to introduce yourself again. Please give any relevant information, especially time zone as that helps know when it is best to communicate. 😊

Please select a team leader to help keep track of where your team is in any given task. And as necessary guide discussions for task decisions. Any teammate can report your completions though.

Remember, it is the team's responsibility to notify the host (me) if a teammate fails to complete the task in a timely manner or otherwise goes missing! I am not checking all the team threads regularly to notice and may only check when notified a task is complete.

PS - If you want to be known as anything other than Team 12, you are free to come up with a team name. 😉

Team Choice Tasks

1. Each player reads a book by the same author, teams decide author - no pass for this task. Eloisa James or Lisa Kleypas
9. Each player reads a book in the same series, teams decide. No pass for this task.
12. Read a book recommended to you by a teammate - no pass for this task.
27. Read a minimum of 750 pages in books published in any one year prior to 2018, team picks the year. 2016
29. Read over 750 pages in books about the same profession, teams decide which profession. Detective
33. Read 6 books in the same sub-genre, teams decide.Fantasy Romance
49. Each teammate reads a book published in the same month and year, teams decide. No pass for this task. August 2023 August 2023 Most Anticipated Romance Releases
50. Read 6 books set in the same location, teams decide the location. London
52. Read 6 books with the same color cover, teams decide color. Blue
53. Each teammate reads a book set in one of your teammates' home town (born in, raised in, currently live in - all work), teams decide. No pass for this task. Seattle, Washington
54. Read 6 books set on a beach or in the mountains, teams decide which. Mountain
55. Read 6 books set in the same country outside the US, teams decide country. England
56. As a team, pick a list with over 100 romance books on it, each member reads a book from that list. No pass for this task. Villain Gets the Girl
58. Read 6 books published in the year one of the teammates joined RRRC, teams decide which teammate. Aofie, 2022
71. Pick another team and each member reads one book that was read by a member for this challenge. No pass for this task.
72. Read 4 books published in the decade of a teammate's birth, team decides which teammate. 1990's
73. Read a minimum of 1500 pages in books by the same author, teams decide author. Eloisa James or Lisa Kleypas
75. Read over 1000 pages in books that start with the same letter (no articles), teams decide letter. S
76. Read 6 books with a specific item on the cover, team selects item. Sword
79. Read 6 books that have the same romance trope, teams decide which trope. Fake Dating
82. Each teammate reads a different book from the same series.
88. Read 6 books with a boat, plane, car or motorcycle on the cover, teams decide which. Boat
90. Each member reads a book published in sequential months, i.e. June, July, August and September 2019. Teams decide which months. No pass for this task.
92. Read over 1500 pages in books set in the future or the past - teams decide. Past
93. As a team, pick a Romance List from GR Listopia with less than 100 books on it, each teammate reads a book from that list. No pass for this task. Letterwriting couples (Historical Romance)
94. Read 6 books published in sequential years, teams decide years. S
95. As a team, select an animal. Read 8 books tagged with that animal. Cat
96. Read a minimum of 1200 pages with the sun or the moon on the cover, teams decide which. Moon
99. Each teammate lists 5 favorite books. Select books from 2 different teammates and read them.

Team-based non-group-decision tasks
19. Each teammate reads a book another teammate read and rated 4 Stars or higher in the last 3 months. No pass for this task.
28. Each teammate reads a book from a teammate's to-read shelf, no pass for this task.
62. Read a minimum of 1000 pages in books written by an author whose first or last name begins with the first letter of a teammate's screen name. A, C, R, T
64. Read 6 books not set on a continent of a teammate. Space does not count - must be a real continent.
Africa, South America, Australia or Antarctica
74. Read 6 books published in a teammates' birth month, you may not use your own month. January (Tracy), February (R~wka), December (Christene)
77. Each teammate reads a book that the teammate after them alphabetically has rated 5 stars. No pass for this task
91. Add up the years of the teammates' births and each teammate reads a book with that minimum number of pages. 90(R~wka) + 91 (Tracy) + 95 (Christene) + 97 (Aofie) = 373

Recommendations for #99 & #12
R~wka's Recommendations
Tracy's Recommendations
Aofie's Recommendations

Hi team! I’m so stoked for this challenge!

We’re super international and all in different time zones, so it makes sense for us to make as many decisions as we can ahead of time— I volunteered myself to make a list and keep track of the tasks we’ve decided on, if that’s cool with everyone.

Right off the bat I’m going to pretty confidently suggest we do Fantasy Romance for #33 🤣

For #1/#73, both same author, I’m going to throw out Eloisa James for an idea as I think at least three of us have her on our shelves

For #27, how do we feel about 2016? And for #49 how about August of this year?

For #53, hometowns, my available choices for cities are Washington, DC and Seattle. I suspect that Seattle may be the easiest— where else is everyone born/currently?

For #72, I think we’re all 90’s babies unless my ability to do math has departed me completely

I’ll throw out some more suggestions later after other folks have had a chance to chime in.

Hi team. New to this challenge but can easily adapt lmao. And can easily find new books to read, I read almost anything. :)

For #1/#73 No prob. I see she had a lot of series can you recommend me one to start with

Aoife and I also need to work books for our trip to Italy lmao.
Team name...not so good at it so yeaaa

Hi . Looks like I'm not the only one excited about this game.

I vote for Tray as a captain, but I think we all can make the announcement post, better time management is that the last one that post the completion post to announce it.

Hey everyone!

I've done this challenge once before but everyone else seemed to know what to do so I mostly just followed directions lol

I am sorry if we get the "read a book another player has rated 4 stars or higher in 3 months" I have not been finding gems this year really, everything is about a 3* rating so the pool will be smaller lol

Eloisa James works for me! I am open to most authors - I have only like 2 I don't read but they aren't super popular anyway

Does anyone have a series they're in? Christene this could come in handy for Italy if we get to that section :D

#49. will be harder to pinpoint different books for!

#53. My home place is Meath in Ireland but finding books for there will be hard (I only know kids ones), I live in Dublin tho so there are a few books there

When did everyone join RRRC? I joined last year I believe if not the very end of 2021

Tracy we might be revisiting those 90s books again :P

for 79 - does anyone have a trope they despise? It's so broad

Tracy wrote: "Right off the bat I’m going to pretty confidently suggest we do Fantasy Romance for #33 🤣

For #1/#73, both same author, I’m going to throw out Eloisa James for an idea as I think at..."

#1/#51/#73 Eloisa James is one of my favorite
(I also like: Amanda Quick, J. R. Ward, J. D. Robb, Gena Showalter, Julie Garwood, Julia Quinn, Lisa Kleypas, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Colleen Hoover .... )
#27 I'ok with 2016
#33 I'm ok with Fantasy Romance
#49 August 2023 is perfect, I have some new books
#53 Seattle is ok, https://www.goodreads.com/places/1137...
#75, yep, all from '90

R~wka wrote: "Tracy wrote: "Right off the bat I’m going to pretty confidently suggest we do Fantasy Romance for #33 🤣

For #1/#73, both same author, I’m going to throw out Eloisa James for an idea..."

Oh I didn’t realize there were *three* separate same author tasks, I vote we pick Lisa Kleypas as our second team author if we get more than one of them!

Aoife wrote: "Hey everyone!

I've done this challenge once before but everyone else seemed to know what to do so I mostly just followed directions lol

I am sorry if we get the "read a book another player has r..."

Look, 90s I can do as long as it’s classic bodice rippers, just NO LAWYERS please and thank you 🤣

I mostly only actively avoid secret baby tropes — although lately I’ve also been steering clear of enemies-to-lovers not because I dislike it but because so many things get the trope tag when they’re disgruntled coworkers at *most*

Lately I’ve been digging fake dating and marriage of convenience, are other people into that?

I’ve *apparently* been a member since 2014, which may also be the year I joined Goodreads, but I didn’t actually start participating until this year— go figure?

Tracy wrote: "Aoife wrote: "Hey everyone!

I've done this challenge once before but everyone else seemed to know what to do so I mostly just followed directions lol

I am sorry if we get the "read a book anothe..."

I vote for fake dating

Aoife wrote: "Hey everyone!

I've done this challenge once before but everyone else seemed to know what to do so I mostly just followed directions lol

I am sorry if we get the "read a book another player has r..."

I've also done this challenge one time before, but in the team I was, we decided when the task was called, and we lost time deciding one some tasks....

my vote for other tasks:
#29 – pick MC profession: detective/PI ? doctor? profesor ?
#50 – pick an location - London ?
#52 – pick a color for cover: blue?
#54 – beach or mountain: mountain ?
#55 – pick country outside the US: England?
#75 – decide start letter title: letter "S"?
#76 – pick a specific item on the cover: sword?
#79 – pick romance trope: Fake relationship?
#88 – pick cover: boat, plane, car or motorcycle : Car or boat?
#91 - Add up the years of the teammates' births and each teammate reads a book with that minimum number of pages: 91+90+97+96=374 ? (+-2)
#92 - future or the past : past!
#95 – pick an animal: cat, dog, horse ? (I personally love cats but I'm ok with every pick)

Thats are my picks, but I'm ok with others :)

Fake dating works for me! I also don't like surprise baby but it's not immediate DNF I just never find it works well

I'll go through the list and make a list like R~wka :)

#1/51/73 Eloisa James, Jennifer L Armentrout, Lisa Kleypas, Grace Goodwin
#9 not sure on series, do we want to start a new one? I have so many started it's a bit all over
#27 2016 is grand
#29 chef/baker, doctor, detective, BnB owner, tech start up owner,
#50 Dublin, London, New York, Australia, Paris
#52 blue, white, red
#53 Dublin (for ease)
#54 easy either way but I'll say mountain for the season
#55 Italy, Scotland, Australia
#71 haven't looked through the other teams
#72 1997
#75 S, M, L
#76 flower, bag, vehicle, weapon (sword, dagger)
#79 fake dating,
#88 boat
#92 past for the HR

For #76 it's says object.... I've thinked about flower too, but I think are not ok.... 🤔

About the name of the Grup...
We are all 90s.... What's about...

"the Nineties"

🤔😁 Or something... I'm not good with titles ideas

For #76 I think sword is a really good choice! I think weapon might be too broad, and I know there are non-team-choice tasks that ask for flowers, but swords gives us a lot of options to play with

I've updated the task list with what folks have suggested-- I either went with whatever overlapped or picked arbitrarily when you gave more than one.

For the series tasks, I'm looking at #9 and #82 and thinking we should pick one series for both/either of those tasks that can be read out of order, since for #82 we'll need to read *different* books. Does anyone have a suggestion for a standalone series?

For my personal recommendations, I think I'm going to go with these:

which are I think a good mix of moods and are all pretty easy to get a hold of-- Dark Rise and The Fire's Stone are both on KU, and the rest I got from my local library, and they're all 5-star reads for me.

The Fire's Stone isn't really a romance novel, it's more of a fantasy novel with a strong romantic subplot, but it's a truly remarkable novel with two bisexual male leads. It was first published in 1990, and I only read it last December, but it made a huge impression on me and I want more people to know about it! Plus it's a 90's novel that I can actually wholeheartedly recommend.

What about Married to Magic (https://www.goodreads.com/series/3034...) for a standalone series?

#12 - Recomand Books to Teammates:

Tracy:
Christene Paula:
Aoife:

#19 - My 4 & 5 stars in last 3 months: 4 & 5 *
#74- published in a teammates' birth month: February
#77 - Each teammate reads a book that the teammate after them alphabetically has rated 5 stars. all my 5 Stars books
#99 - Each teammate lists 5 favorite books.

Popular Series sugestion:
Mystery: In Death by J.D. Robb
Paranormal Romance: Psy-Changeling by Nalini Singh or Black Dager Brotherhood by J. R. Ward
Historical: Wallflowers by Lisa Kleypas or Bridgertons by Julia Quinn
Fantasy: Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Other series of standalones
Retellings: Romance a Medieval Fairytale
Books with different romance trope: Heart of Hope

Sugeston for lists:

#56. As a team, pick a list with over 100 romance books on it, each member reads a book from that list. No pass for this task.
Best Book Boyfriends - 10189 Books
Best Paranormal & Fantasy Romances - 5209 Books
Villain Gets the Girl - 515 Books

#93 - Romance List from GR Listopia with less than 100 books on it, each teammate reads a book from that list.
2016: What People Born in the 1990s Have Read in 2016 - 99 Books
Letterwriting couples (Historical Romance) - 62 Books
Best Near Death Angst Books (Romance/Historical Romance) - 62 Books

Lots of planning going on and everyone has checked in - off to a good start!

R~wka wrote: "Popular Series sugestion:
Mystery: In Death by J.D. Robb
Paranormal Romance: Psy-Changeling by Nalini Singh or Black Dager Brotherhood by [author:J. R. Ward|35552833..."

For standalones, I’m down to try either the Demelza Carlton fairytales (I checked and my library does have the first four) or Ajme Williams’s Heart of Hope— and they’re both composed of significantly shorted novels, so they might be a better choice than my pick!

I’d be happy to do a Brigerton re-read, but I’ve read the Wallflowers super recently, so I’d prefer we maybe do the Ravenels if folks wanna do a Kleypas series? I’m not the biggest fan of Armentrout or JD Robb, but I’ve actually never read either Singh or J R Ward, so I’d be happy to try them out!

R~wka wrote: "Sugeston for lists:

#56. As a team, pick a list with over 100 romance books on it, each member reads a book from that list. No pass for this task.
Best Book Boyfriends - 10189 Books
Best Paranorma..."

These are great finds! I vote for Villain Gets the Girl and Letter Writing Couples, personally, but I’m fine with any of them, they’ve all got stuff on my tbr

Tracy wrote: "For standalones, I’m down to try either the Demelza Carlton fairytales (I checked and my library does have the first four) or Ajme Williams’s Heart of Hope— and they’re both composed of significantly shorted novels, so they might be a better choice than my pick!...."

if it's helps, the first 3 books of Romance a Medieval Fairytale Series are advaible togheder as Once Upon A Time: A Collection of Folktales, Fairytales and Legends

Tracy wrote: "What about Married to Magic (https://www.goodreads.com/series/3034...) for a standalone series?"

this works for me! I have the first in my library so I should be able to get it when needed

R~wka - amazing on the recs!! Fair play for the planning I'll do more over the weekend, I had an exam last night after work for the next stage in community first aid so it's been a little mad

Villain Gets the Girl & Best Paranormal & Fantasy Romances would be my choices for the lists

R~wka wrote: "Sugeston for lists:

#56. As a team, pick a list with over 100 romance books on it, each member reads a book from that list. No pass for this task.
Best Book Boyfriends - 10189 Books
Best Paranorma..."

I'll vote for Villain Gets the Girl for #56 and for #93 they almost have the same books but I'll go with Letterwriting couples (Historical Romance)

Alright! We're in super good shape for the weekend, I think. Great job jumping in and suggesting things, all! I updated my tracking post with everything we've settled on-- let me know if anything is objectionable or I've missed something.

Christene, I don't know how you generally get your books, so I don't want to pick a series that isn't easy for you to get ahold of. Are you a library user? Do you do KU? And do you have strong feelings on any of the series mentioned so far?

Tracy wrote: "Alright! We're in super good shape for the weekend, I think. Great job jumping in and suggesting things, all! I updated my tracking post with everything we've settled on-- let me know if anything i..."

Dont worry I can easily get books. Usually read ebook copy. Yes and yes, I am a library user and KU.

Rec'd books

Bringing Down the Duke - historical, set in London during the Suffragette movement
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches - modern, urban fantasy, set in England/UK, fantasy, found family
The Highlander's Accidental Marriage - Historical, Scottish highlander & English noble
The Stand-In - contemporary, set in Canada,
The King's Captive - urban fantasy, set in the US, clean romance, cat shifter, hidden identity

For names the only one I can think of is the 90s Nerds or the 90s Nobles (for the historic romance?)

Aoife wrote: "Rec'd books

Bringing Down the Duke - historical, set in London during the Suffragette movement
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches - modern, urban fantas..."

I'll be reading the last one for sure. I didn't found till new a good cat shifter book (tiger, lion.. are tagged generally as cat shifter in GR)

Yeah "cat" is near impossible to find - always big cats but never the street kind
I'd love more books with pet cat shifters for the fun it can bring. I really enjoyed the king's captive and it was really fun read

Aoife wrote: "Yeah "cat" is near impossible to find - always big cats but never the street kind
I'd love more books with pet cat shifters for the fun it can bring. I really enjoyed the king's captive and it was ..."

I recomand to you Have a Hellish, Lousy Christmas if you are ok with MM romance. Is a sweet Cat shitfer story, mostly contemporary that paranormal

Aoife wrote: "For names the only one I can think of is the 90s Nerds or the 90s Nobles (for the historic romance?)"

I like 90s Nobles
Other ideas:
The 4 Millennials
90s Nerds sounds a little...strange in my ear.... 😅....
Or maybe 90s Booksworms

My partner suggested “The Genre Globetrotters” because I mentioned none of us are in the same country

I could get behind 90s Nobles but it doesn’t sound *quite* right to me — maybe something like Nobles of the Nineties? Nineties Belles?

I like Nobles of the Nineties

Christene Paula✨ wrote: "I like Nobles of the Nineties"

It's sound good. I like it too

Nobles of the Nineties is is! I’ll let Kat know 👍

Tracy wrote: "Nobles of the Nineties is is! I’ll let Kat know 👍"

Done. 😊

Task 1 - 0. Each teammate reads a book tagged ‘family’ or ‘holiday’ - teams decide.

As we head into fall this year, I am really looking forward to gathering with family especially for the holidays! So for this task teams need to decide if they are reading books tagged as ‘family’ OR books tagged ‘holiday’. Tags are the only qualifier for this task. Include the team decision in your completion posts. Also, please include a link to the top shelves page with your qualifying tag along with how many tags and the top shelves page number in your completion posts.

I wold prefer holiday, but I'm OK with both.

Let's go with holiday, it's an easier tag!

Holiday works for me!