I finished the edit of Against the Magic, and it's with my editor now. Phew. I'm feeling pretty good right now, and I have lots of other projects to work on. The year 2018 should produce a bumper crop of books for me.
*crosses fingers*
I'm a goal-oriented person. One goal I had for 2017 was through Goodreads and its Reading Challenge. I set a goal of reading 50 books, and I read 127. Yay for audiobooks! Here are my titles.
I haven't decided what number of books to read should be my 2018, but I will be publishing at leave FIVE books in 2018. Three of them before I retire in April. Yikes!
What are your hopes/dreams/goals for the New Year?
Every year for the last several, I've joined in on the Goodreads Reading Challenge. I think I've mentioned that I read 106 books last year. With the move and it being an election year for me, I set a lower goal. Only 50 this year. As of today, I've finished 29, and I have 3 in process. lol
Only 8 of them were ebooks. All the rest were audiobooks
Second Wandering ...
Have any of you heard of Kindle Scout? Amazon defines it as:
Kindle Scout is reader-powered publishing for new, never-before-published books. It’s a place where readers help decide if a book gets published.
What's cool about it is that once a book is submitted for consideration, it's live on the Kindle Scout board, and readers can "nominate" it. Now, voting by readers is not the only thing that Kindle uses to decide on a book, but if the book you've nominated is chosen you get a copy of it for free. Nice, right?
When Hailey Baker receives the call that her beloved Gramps has suffered a debilitating stroke, she’s determined to help. Putting her career at risk, she seizes the opportunity to leave her recent heartbreak and addiction to Netflix behind. She arrives in Florida only to discover her grandmother is neck-deep in matchmaking schemes for the retirement community, and Gran’s next victim is Hailey. Once Gran meets the handsome speech therapist, neither he nor Hailey stand a chance.
Notice on the page the various categories the book fits in.
Notice that I got to read a book that's on preorder.
One widow, one killer—who will die first? Gutsy, grieving Anna is determined to find who murdered her husband. Hampered by agonizing loneliness, her obsessive-compulsive mother, and her over-controlling father, she defies convention, and the law, to investigate on her own. When she runs up against Lee Adams, a handsome police detective who’s determined to save Anna from herself, she has to step up her rogue search for the killer, before time and dwindling leads run out.
Kindle Worlds
In case you find a book you really like, note that they also have something called Kindle Worlds. That's where different authors write within the world of one of the books. It reminds me of how tons of SciFi authors got into writing Star Wars stories.
The only world I follow is The Royals of Monterra. Sariah Wilson is the original author, and her books are considered "canon." It's fun to see what other authors do with characters from a world you enjoy.
Anyway, now that you know more than you ever wanted to about Kindle Scout, you can click here to check out other books that are up for nomination. You can scroll through the books and see if there's anything you might be interested in. I've read quite a few KS books.
Today is reveal day for the trailer of a book I loved.
Here's my review of the audiobook:
WHAT IT'S ABOUT Nine is the ninth female born in her batch of ten females and ten males. By design, her life in Freedom Province is without complications or consequences. However, such freedom comes with a price. The Prime Maker is determined to keep that price a secret from the new batches of citizens that are born, nurtured, and raised androgynously.
But Nine isn't like every other batcher. She harbors indecision and worries about her upcoming Remake Day -- her seventeenth birthday, the age when batchers fly to the Remake facility and have the freedom to choose who and what they'll be.
When Nine discovers the truth about life outside of Freedom Province, including the secret plan of the Prime Maker, she is pulled between two worlds and two lives. Her decisions will test her courage, her heart, and her beliefs. Who can she trust? Who does she love? And most importantly, who will she decide to be?
MY TAKE I've been wanting to read this book since it first came out earlier this year, but it wasn't until I was able to get my hands on a copy of the audiobook that I was able to. The narrator did a fabulous job and really added to the experience.
As for the story, it resonated with me on a number of different levels. My heart was totally engaged in the characters--the friendship Nine has with Theron (I hope I spelled it right since I only had the audiobook and not the paper one), the family who takes her in after she's shipwrecked, and Kai. I loved these people.
Todd totally pulled me into the little island society. I've lived in the tropics, and I have a daughter who lives in Hawaii. Todd's writing made me feel so much like I was there with Nine; I could taste and feel it all so vividly.
***Spoiler Alert*** (you'll need to highlight the text to read it)
I may not be giving much away, and I will be careful not to say too much, but I did want to give the warning.
The thing that struck me the most was one of the themes of this story. Yes, it's another dystopian society that's just gotta be brought down (I'm so glad this is the first of a trilogy). There was a feel for me of Logan's Run and even one of Anne McCaffrey's Killashandra books. But most of all, I loved it because it made me think. There's one point where Kai is talking about the problems of the society in Freedom, that the people are offered a "false freedom".
It struck me that too often anymore people are offered "freedoms" that lack authenticity. They are shallow substitutes for more substantial things. One of those is the other theme: family. And the power of a loving one. I loved this about Remake.
And I loved the satisfying ending. While it was obvious there's more to come in the story, I wasn't left hanging. I'll be in a hurry to pick up the next book.
And I have some hopes for a certain best friend of Nine's and a sister of Kai's ...
To celebrate the release of the trailer, the author is having a giveaway.
I've been so busy with other things that I've forgotten or been unable to talk about the books I'm reading. I'd been trying to keep track of them by month. Yeah. That didn't work. Here's what I'm currently reading:
What do I think?
Daughter is YA fantasy about the daughter of a king who was forced to abdicate so he could marry her mother (a mage). The daughter is placed in a similar position (choosing position/love or the magic inside her). I love Mansfield's books.
Match is a prequel novella to Miss Match which comes out later this month. Armstrong is fabulous with voice, and her characters are so real.
Dragon is one I'm reading to hubby. Alex has grown so much as a writer; this is his best yet. The story is a wonderful mix of character growth and action. We're loving it.
Shadows is a collection of short stories from the Mercy Thompson world. I'm listening to the audiobook. This first story is how Samuel Cornick (a very old werewolf) and Ariana (a fae) fell in love a very long time ago. They meet again in Brigg's Silverborne, so I know this does not end well. Briggs said she only wrote because her fans asked for it so much.
For the Goodreads 2015 Reading Challenge, I've read 29 of my 75 books. Here's what I've read so far this year:
What have you been reading?
Anyone see the new Avenger's movie this weekend? We're hoping to go in the next week or two, when the crowds thin out a bit.
First and foremost, I'm a reader. A voracious reader. When I started writing, the amount of time I had to read decreased. Thank heavens for audiobooks!
In 2013, I took Goodreads Reading Challenge. I thought, if nothing else, it's a great way to keep track of the books I've read over the course of the year.
Since I've done so well, I've upped my challenge for 2015. I'm going to read (listen to) 75 books this year.
Here's what I've finished so far in January. Kind of a nice variety.
Yeah, I'm trying to beat Medeia Sharif. That woman is a reading machine! And a prolific writer as well.
And speaking of Medeia, she's got a blog tour going on right now for her newest release, 52 Likes. *shivers* I've only had a chance to read the very beginning--just to tease myself. It's a chilling premise.
Today's the last day to sign up for her giveaway, too. So drop by and congratulate her and check out the books she's read.
After a brutal rape and near-murder, Valerie wants to get past feelings of victimhood from both the assault and her history of being bullied. She’s plagued by not knowing the identity of her rapist and by the nasty rumors in school about that night. Valerie follows clues from ghostly entities, past victims of the rapist-murderer, contacting her through a social media site—why do all of their eerie photos have 52 likes under them? Their messages are leading her to the mystery man, although he’ll put up a fight to remain hidden.
