January 2025 Reading Wrap-up

January moved at a nice pace. I was busy but I still felt like I had a lot of time to devote to reading.  I read 17 books in January and DNFed 3. Click on the cover of the book if you are interested in the review.

5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐    

 

B is for Bonnet

Title: B is for Bonnet

Series: Amish ABCs 

Author: Shelley Shepard Gray

Publisher: Kensington Publishers

Genre: Christian Fiction, Amish, Contemporary Romance

Source: Author Provided

My Review:

I was thrilled that I didn't have to wait long after reading A is for Amish before starting B is for Bonnet. I highly recommend reading the series in order to avoid spoilers.

Stacking the Shelves #153, Sunday Post #150, Sunday Salon #144

Hey my bookish friends! How was your week? We got more snow, which might be the new normal for a while, LOL! We have had snow on the ground since January 1. We are experiencing our first true Ohio winter since moving here a little over two years ago. I have another decent size book haul this week. My plan for this weekend is to work on a quilt, read, blog, play games with my family, to to Church, read some more, blog more, LOL. Nothing too exciting or stressful.

A is for Amish

Title: A is for Amish

Series: Amish ABCs

Author: Shelley Shepard Gray

Publisher: Kensington Publishing

Genre: Christian Fiction, Amish, 

Source: Library

My Review:

What I love about Shelley Shepard Gray's books is that you are immediately drawn into the story. There are not long descriptions or introductions. A is for Amish is about four siblings thinking about becoming Amish. 

Rendezvous update 2

So, part two of the JustRead Rendezvous 2024 reader event. You can read part one here. After lunch was another reader panel. Kimberley Woodhouse was the moderator of this one. Each author had to pick one of their characters to be and only answer as that character. It was hilarious. Several authors on the panel were suspense writers, and a couple were fantasy. Sara Ella was one of the authors and I loved her answers. She was in character as Alice in Wonderland from her book The Wonderland Trials. While I had read several authors books who were on the different panels throughout the day, hearing all the authors talk and interact made me want to read their books, even though several are genres I don't read. 

 

The Christy Award Finalist Tour

 

Welcome to the Takeover Blitz for The Christy Award Finalists 2024, organized by ECPA and hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours! We extend our sincere and enthusiastic congratulations to the 2024 Finalists!

About the Gala

The Christy Award Gala will be held on Thursday, November 14 at 7 pm central in Downers Grove, Illinois, at the DoubleTree Conference Center, just outside Chicago. Winners from each category, plus the Christy Book of the Year and Amplify Award, will be announced during the celebration.

Top Ten Tuesday- Let's travel!!

Happy Tuesday, my bookish friends!! I hope you all are doing well. Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is Planes, Trains & Automobiles/Books Featuring Travel (books whose plots involve travel or feature modes of transportation on the cover/title) (submitted by Cathy @ What Cathy Read Next) I will do my best to come up with ten!! Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and you can head over there to see what our other bookish friends are up to today.  

Let's Travel-Here are several different modes of transportation

Top Ten Tuesday-My most read authors

Happy Tuesday, my bookish friends!! I hope you all are doing well. Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is Books I Wish Had More/Less [Insert Your Concept Here]. These topics are hard for me, so I am going to go a different route. Today I am going to highlight some of the authors I have read the most (I don't know who originally did this topic, but thanks for the suggestion!) Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and you can head over there to see what our other bookish friends are up to today.

Top Ten Tuesday-Books With Single Word Titles

Happy Tuesday, my bookish friends!! I hope you all are doing well. Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic Throwback Freebie (Pick a TTT topic that has been previously done. Maybe you missed it, weren’t blogging then, or you’d like to update an old list you made.) I missed last week but not feeling that topic. I am going to go with topic #484-Books with single-word titles.  Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and you can head over there to see what our other bookish friends are up to today. 

Top Ten Books I own to read with a single-word title:

 

Stacking the Shelves #116, Sunday Post #113, Sunday Salon #107

Hey bookish friends! How are you doing? I am not as on top of the reading and blogging as I would like to be. This month is kicking my tail. My daughter had a choir concert Sunday night that we went to (an hour away) and she had a musical showcase last night (an hour and a half away) that we went to as well. She is graduating college in 3 weeks and it is A LOT right now, but we don't want to miss all the final things. I am still working 6 days a week, but I think we are almost to the end of that.

Top Ten Tuesday-Bookish Books

Happy Tuesday, my bookish friends!! I hope you all are doing well. Today's Top Ten Tuesday is Books I’m Worried I Might Not Love as Much the Second Time Around. As someone who rarely rereads, I am going to skip this topic. I thought about doing books with "March" in the title, I have exactly zero on my Goodreads account. I also thought about books with "spring" in the title, yeah, it wasn't working either. Instead, I am going to do ten books with "book" in the title. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and you can head over there to see what our other bookish friends are up to today. 

10 8 Bookish Books (clicking on the book cover will take you to my review)

 

Top Ten Tuesday-Favorite Christmas Stories

Happy Tuesday my bookish friends!! I hope you all are doing well. Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is a freebie, so I went in a pretty obvious direction with the season-favorite Christmas stories (so far!) Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and you can head over there to see what our other bookish friends are up to today. 

Top Ten Favorite Christmas Stories (so far!)

 

October Reading Wrap Up 2023

On the personal side, October was a hard month with my son's surgery and ongoing recovery, and having had (and still have) bronchitis for the last two weeks. I had some reading duds, but overall I think I had a decent reading month. I read 22 books and DNFed 1. Click on the cover of the book if you are interested in the review.

5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

An Amish Cinderella

Title: An Amish Cinderella

Series: The Amish of Apple Creek #3

Author: Shelley Shepard Gray

Publisher: Kensington

Genre: Amish, Christian Fiction, Christian Fiction

Source: Author Provided

My Review:

An Amish Cinderella by Shelley Shepard Gray is the third book in The Amish of Apple Creek series. They easily read as stand-alone novels. I have read the second book, but not the first.

Top Ten Tuesday-Fall TBR 2.0

Happy Tuesday, my bookish friends!! I hope you all are doing well. Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is Secondary/Minor Characters Who Deserve Their Own Book. I stink at these lists so I am doing more books on my fall TBR. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and you can head over there to see what our other bookish friends are up to today. 

I already made a September TBR list here, I have read or DNFed 6/10 books from that list. Last week I did a Fall TBR 1.5 list and I have sent back to the library 5 of those books, and read 2 out of the other 5. Here is my fall TBR 2.0 list:

 

Stacking the Shelves #88, Sunday Post #85, Sunday Salon #79

Hey bookish friends! How are you all doing? Any plans for the weekend? I have a headache which is making it hard to want to do anything, LOL! I spent the morning reviewing my book goals for the remainder of the year. I am sending back library books that don't meet those goals, and trying to keep my focus, LOL!!

45 Favorite books

So, today is my birthday and I decided to do a fun post (for me😂), not sure if you will find it fun or not. I have a ton of favorite books (244 (that I have remembered to mark) on my Goodreads shelf), so it will still be hard for me to narrow this down to forty-five...I might cheat a little and say "series," but, it's my birthday and I can do what I want, LOL! So, not in any particular order, or linked to any reviews (because I am lazy), here are forty-five of my favorite books:

 

April Reading Wrap Up 2023

April was a good reading month! I had some days off this month and more time in the car, so I was able to get in a few more audiobooks than normal. I also finished up a few series and tried several new authors.

I finished 22 books this month. I did not have any books under three stars or any DNFs!!! Click on the book cover if you want to read my review.

5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Once Upon a Buggy

Title: Once Upon a Buggy

Series: The Amish of Apple Creek #2

Author: Shelley Shepard Gray

Genre: Amish, Christian Fiction, Retellings,

Publisher: Kensington

Source: Author provided/Net Galley

My review:

When asked if I would review Once Upon a Buggy, I knew I liked the author's books and figured I could squeeze it into my schedule. I had no idea it was a Beauty in the Beast retelling. I have not read the first book in the series, (yet) but Once Upon a Buggy can be read as a stand-alone novel. 

Stacking the Shelves #66, Sunday Post #63, Sunday Salon #57

Hey bookish friends! How are things going for you? This was a long week, but an okay week. I ran errands this morning, but hope to spend most of the weekend relaxing 😀