Category Archives: reading challenges
Reading Challenge 2015
So as part of my reading goal for 2015, I have decided to take part in a reading challenge that I found on the Under the Covers blog.
Romance Roundabout Reading Challenge
http://www.underthecoversbookblog.com/2014/12/romance-roundabout-challenge-sign-ups.html
These are the categories that the ladies at Under the Covers gave:
Paranormal Romance
Urban Fantasy
Young Adult
New Adult
Erotic Romance
Sci Fi Romance
Historical Romance
Steampunk
Contemporary Romance
Romantic Suspense
LGBT
Fantasy Romance
I am however modifying this challenge a bit. I think that contemporary romance is too broad of a genre. And since this is a romance sub genre reading challenge I decided that I’m going to add in a few things like military romance, biker romance, rocker romance. I also do not read young adult so I am taking that out. So is this really putting more read in me? No, I see this challenge as a great way to not only keep me on my toes in my reading, but to keep me more organized as well.
Paranormal Romance
Urban Fantasy
Rocker Romance
New Adult
Erotic Romance
Sci Fi Romance
Historical Romance
Steampunk
Contemporary Romance
Romantic Suspense
LGBT
Fantasy Romance
Biker Romance
Military Romance
Cowboy Romance
Now we are to choose 1, 3 or 5 books for each category. I am gonna go with a minimum of 3 per category. However I feel that number with be much higher. I am also going to make a page here on the blog tho keep track of my progress. Good luck to everyone in your reading this year!!
King of the Unblessed by Michelle Pillow
King of the Unblessed
Realm Immortal, Book 1
Audiobook Review
Michelle M. Pillow
Immortality has a way of changing fate.
The choice is simple: go with him or die.
Merrick, dark elfin King of Valdis, had once been heir to all that was good–happiness and pleasure his domain. Now, trapped as the ruler of mischief, king of necessary evil, he stands on a precipice of choice. On one side, his estranged brother, now ruler of what should have been Merrick’s, and on the other, King Lucien of the Damned. Both would sway him. Damnation is winning.
Lady Juliana of Bellemare is from a human family, protected by the Blessed, coveted by the Damned. Betrothed to an old friend of her father’s, Juliana is resigned to living out her days close to her childhood home, longing for an adventure, never dreaming she’d get what she wished for. When her fiancé is murdered and the children of Bellemare are stolen, Juliana is sent on a quest in a strange realm where appearances are deceiving.
Merrick brings more adventure and passion than any woman could want. Can she withstand the temptations of the Unblessed king? The spell she weaves over him is more than he can resist and, desperate to be the one to rule her, Merrick offers her a choice; either come with him until he tires of her…or die.
Warning: This book contains hot sex, violence, trickster goblins, overly helpful sprights, a king of necessary evil who lives to get his way and a woman who would dare to deny him.
Rating: Contains graphic sexual content, adult language, and violence.
4 of 5 Stars
Ms. Pillow recreated what I call the adult version of Labyrinth with KING OF THE UNBLESSED! I don’t know how she did it, but she even came up with a sexier “goblin king” than David Bowie! Yes, I believe I blushed more than once.
Lady Juliana of Bellemare, wants nothing more than a grand adventure before she is to be married. When one lives in the land of the Fae, one must be careful of what they wish for. She is a bit naive and does not know the really know what the world hold. As there were times I really wanted to grab a hold of the girl and shake her and say get it together chicka! I truly loved Juliana. She was a woman thinking outside the box and wanted what she wanted. In many ways she did get them!
Merrick, the King of the Unblessed, is dark, sexy and powerful. OMG, the long blond hair, I just wanted to run my finger through it. He is one of those Alpha’s alphas! He wants something and he gets it no matter what. But God, those eyes that make you want to melt. Kings have to do what kings have to do! I so fell in love with him!!
Merrick gave Juliana the adventure she wanted. Along with magic, deception, a bunch of magical creates to guide her along the way and passion beyond what Juliana could have imagined, she unknowing walks right in to the Unblessed Kings waiting hands. Merrick’s own deception turns on him, when he realized Juliana just might be more to him than her though she should be.
I want to start out by saying I am not much of a Historical romance reader. It’s not that I don’t like that aspect of romance, I have a tendency to get lost in it, but do I love the way they speak. I am however a huge paranormal romance fan. KING OF THE UNBLESSED was a surprisingly exciting read for me. Not only was it paranormal and fantasy together and had this wonderful historical setting that just blew me away. Mega props to Ms. Pillow for this awesome world building in the series. Yes I am a huge fan of world building. Not only is this Merrick and Juliana story, but you can see so many other story lines that could very well be a good book coming in this series!!
I listen to the audio version of this book. I have to be honest I had a little trouble with the narrator. Please do not give me wrong, Ross Pendleton, did an excellent job narrating. I had a hard time getting used his style. Upon the second listen of the book I was very much able to enjoy the wonderful enchanting tale that was told.
If you want to get lost is a fairytale that will heat up the pages as you are turning them, I suggest you go with the KING OF THE UNBLESSED.
Up From the Grave By: Jeaniene Frost
Up From The Grave By: Jeaniene Frost
As most readers of the Night Huntress series, I have come to love Cat and Bones. Know the series was going to end sadden me a bit. Ms. Frost created some amazing stories and gave us characters that we will be taking about for years to come.
With that said, Up From the Grave was everything that I expected from a Night Huntress novel. A great plot, that had twists that this reader did not see coming. Surprises around every corner. Lots of hard core vampire action that Cat and Bones are known for. We get to visit with Cat and Bones friends that we have come to know and love. The only thing that I can truly say that I was disappointed with in the book was it did kinda lack in the steamy scenes that has made me love Bones.
Ms. Frost did a wonderful justice to the ending book of the Night Huntress. I got all my questions answered. We went on hell of a ride. Over many books in the series Bones asks Cat over and over to trust him. He asked one more time for Cat to trust him and she does. I was so happy to see that Cat did trust the one she loves and with that trust Cat and Bones got their happily ever after.
Lilith Enraptured by Michelle M. Pillow
Lilith Enraptured
Divinity Warriors #1 by Michelle M. Pillow
Published January 16th 2012 by The Raven Books
Sorin of Firewall lives in a land forever at war. In fact, the Starian men are so busy fighting, their marriage ceremony has been reduced to a “will of the gods” event where they simply pick a woman out of a lineup and claim her as a wife. With women becoming scarce, it’s necessary to trade the offworld Divinity Corporation for brides. Duty-bound to attend the ceremony, Sorin has no intention of picking a bride, let alone one from another dimension. That is, until he sees Lilith, the bewitching woman sent by the gods to reward—or punish?—him.
Lilith, a data analyst for Divinity, is betrayed by the Corporation and wakes up in a primitive, uncharted dimension filled with warriors who know only war and duty.Her fear of becoming a sex slave to a big, beefy knight becomes all too real when a warrior of god-like proportions claims she’s his new woman. As Lilith discovers, there are worse fates than being the focus of Sorin’s skillful and earthy seduction.
4 STARS
Lilith Enraptured is a fine example of awesome world building with a great story and steamy love to go with it. The book starts off as a futuristic sci-fi story, filled with medical and technological advances. Then thrust us back in time to a medieval love story. I loved the warriors of Starian. Loyal and honor bound to fight the ongoing war that is known to their land. They are Alphas all the way. All the know is duty, war and honoring ones family. Too many in need of a loving woman.
Lilith, taken from all she knew and left to a race of warriors who “claim” their woman in marriage. Yes, I found her whiny at times, but then I know I would be too. She fought a battle within herself, while knowing that was not her home, she couldn’t keep herself from loving him. Then the battle became how do you love someone who doesn’t know the concept of love.
Sorin, is like a dream on a stick. The perfect Alpha male. He is big and built, a leader in battle, but war is all he knows. He says, the Gods told him that she was the one to be his wife. I believe that it was love at first sight. In a race that in so wrapped up in war and the females a few, preserving the race is a forbearer to love. He had a need to protect her at all cost and I believe that there was more than just duty and honor to it.
I had the pleasure of listing to Lilith Enraptured as an audiobook. I thought it was a pleasant listen. The narrator did a good job delivering this tale. She did a great job of distinguishing who was who and brought the emotions of the written word to life with voice.
Ms. Pillow delivered a great story with Lilith Enraptured. The more I listen to the book the more I wanted to hear. Super steamy love scenes with hot warriors will have you fanning yourself. Yes the book is HOT! A wonderful mixing of genres that gives the reader a very unique world to explore. Well done, Ms. Pillow.
I was given an audio copy of this book from the author for an honest review.
Dark-Hunter Reading Challenge
I am a huge Dark Hunter fan! Sherrilyn Kenyon was one of the first PNR authors that I discovered. I fell in love and devoured the series. I even have my very own bow and arrow tattoo!!! When I started reading about the Dark-Hunters, Ash’s book has been out a few months. Needless to say I had a lot of reading to do. I read 9 books in 2 weeks. That was a record for me at the time. I have read every book, some more than once. If you count all the short stories, there are thirty-two stories in this series to date.
When I finished reading Styxx’s book, I was almost floored. I loved the book so much it made me want to go back from the beginning and get lost in this adventure all over again. So I decided to make my own reading challenge this year!
Welcome to my Dark-Hunter reading challenge!
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1. FANTASY LOVER |
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2. DRAGONSWAN |
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3. NIGHT PLEASURES |
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4. NIGHT EMBRACE |
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5. PHANTON LOVER |
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6. A DARK-HUNTER CHRISTMAS |
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7. DANCE WITH THE DEVIL |
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8. KISS OF THE NIGHT |
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9. NIGHT PLAY |
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10.WINTER BORN |
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11.SEZIE THE NIGHT |
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12.SINS OF THE NIGHT |
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13.SECOND CHANCES |
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14.UNLEASH THE NIGHT |
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15.DARK SIDE OF THE MOON |
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16.A HARD DAYS NIGHT SERCHER |
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17.UNTIL DEATH WE DO PART |
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18.THE DREAM HUNTER |
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19.FEAR THE DARKNESS |
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20.DEVIL MAY CRY |
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21.UPON THE MIDNIGHT CLEAR |
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22.DREAM CHASER |
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23.ASHERON |
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24.WHERE ANGEL FEAR TO TREAD |
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25.SHADOW OF THE MOON |
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26.ONE SLIENT NIGHT |
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27.DREAM WARRIOR |
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28.BAD MOON RAISING |
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29.NO MERCY |
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30.RETRIBUTION |
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31.THE GUARDIAN |
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32.TIME UNTIME |
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33.STYXX |
The goal is to read all the Dark-Hunter books including the shorts in order this year. With a series this big, sometimes you need to go back, revisit a few people and remember how events have unfolded.
According to www.dark-hunter.com and www.wikipedia.com this is the reading order:
I have made a page on my blog under Reading Challenges to keep track of my progress. I will also blog about each book. This is going to be such a fun challenge. To go back and meet all the Dark, Dream and Were Hunters all over again. I can’t wait to fall in love all over again!
So if you are a Dark-Hunter lover and wanting to partake in this challenge. Leave a comment below. Sorry peeps, I am new to the blogging world and don’t know how to make one of those awesome button thingies yet. LOL! Make a shelf on your goodread.com or booklike.com page and put a link to it in your comment. Those of you who complete the challenge, I will put you in a drawing for some Dark-Hunter swag!!
Audio Book Reading Challenge!
I came a crossed this today and I just had to do it! I’m an audio book junkie and this a great challenge for me! If you are a lover of audio book or looking to expand you reading horizons, Check out The Book Nymphos challenge!
http://thebooknympho.com/2014-audiobook-challenge/
2014 Reading Goals!
A new year is beginning,that means it’s time for more books. As a self-proclaimed avid reader, I love the beginning of the year for setting new goals. This year I wanted to do something different for my reading goals. I want to do more than just set a number of books to read. This year I am setting goals with in the books that I will be reading. Also with starting the book blog this year I want to include that with in my goals. I maybe biting off more than I think I am but I sure gonna give it a try.
So here are my list of goals.
1.To read a total of 80 books. This is the number of books I set for 2013 and achieve that goal. I am not increasing the number because of the other goals I am setting for myself.
2. To find ten new to me authors to read and talk about on the blog.
3. To review at least half of the books I read.
4. To branch out of my reading comfort zone. I started reading contemporary romance this year and have enjoyed it. I want to include reading more contemporary, romantic suspense, and some steampunk added in there.
5. Read my first Nora Roberts book this year.
6. To reread the Dark Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon. I have read all the books and short stories of this series. After reading Styxx in 2013 (OMG, That book!!!), and reliving some events of the past, I feel it is time to start over again!!
7. And last but not least get caught up on all my series that I little behind on.
This is my list so far. Some goals may be added or changed. That is the way life goes! It’s a start and that is what counts. I am keeping my finger crossed. I will keep everyone posted as to how my year in reading progresses. Good luck to everyone in your own reading goals.
Coffee Books Life 