Helloooo February! I can’t believe the first month of 2015 zipped by as quick as it did! January was a pretty good month for me overall, especially reading wise. I also started crocheting a lot and have completed quite a few projects so far. I intended on taking pictures but I have been under the weather for the past few days and I just didn’t have the energy to get it done. Ah well, maybe next month. I started getting back into audiobooks as well, which I’m excited about. I spend a lot of time crocheting, which I normally spent on reading time, so instead of getting hooked on more TV shows I decided to listen to audiobooks and it’s working out quite well. I am on a massive Parenthood hangover though and I’ve started rewatching again on Netflix. Ah, the finale was so heart-wrenching, but I loved it. So sad that show is over … there just aren’t enough shows like that on the air!
*Click for review. Non reviewed reads link to Goodreads.
Dear Daughter by Elizabeth Little ★★★★
The Body Electic by Beth Revis ★★★★★
Magnolia by Kristi Cook ★★★★
The Wicked Awakening of Anne Merchant by Joanna Wiebe ★★★★
Whispers from the Dead by Karen Ann Hopkins ★★★★★
Twisted Fate by Norah Olson ★★½
The Young Elites by Marie Lu ★★★★★
Never Never by Colleen Hoover & Tarryn Fisher ★★★★
*More information on the individual challenge pages – title links to challenge progress.
Goodreads Challenge: 8/100. I am so fantastically excited about my progress so far. I am exactly on point with this challenge which thrills me. I think I spent the whole of 2014 behind, but I am so excited about reading this year that I’m hoping this won’t happen!
2015 Debut Author Challenge: 1/12. I read one book so far for this challenge, Twisted Fate by Norah Olson! It wasn’t one of my favorite debuts so I’m hoping February is better in this category!
2015 TBR Pile Challenge: 1/20. I’m just so happy to see progress in this category no matter how small! I did so terribly at this challenge in 2014, but this year I am more focused on my TBR. I read Magnolia by Kristi Cook and it was fabulous!
Fairytale Challenge: 0/4. Didn’t get to any fairytales this month, which is fine because I wasn’t expecting to.
The Re-Read Challenge: 0/10. I also didn’t get to a reread this month, which is also fine with me. I wasn’t really expecting to because I had some other books lined up so hopefully I will have some progress for this in February!
2015 Prequel and Sequel Challenge: 4 points/76 points. YAY! I read The Wicked Awakening of Anne Merchant by Joanne Wiebe and Whispers from the Dead by Karen Ann Hopkins, both second books in series I am loving. I also started a few series which have 2015 releases for the second books so hopefully I will get to read the next installments towards this challenge!
Flights of Fantasy Challenge: 1/15. I read The Young Elites by Marie Lu which blew me away. I loved this first book and I sobbed so hard in the end. I want more now!
Book Blogger Organization Challenge: I was really satisfied with my progress in this challenge for January. The January focus was Challenges and Resolutions, and I got all of my reading challenges organized and spreadsheets made! There are still some tweaks and editing to be done for a few of them, but for the most part I have everything all organized.
2015 Discussion Challenge: 1/12. This was probably the biggest step I took towards my 2015 goals, posting a discussion. I have huge issues with my own discussion posts and basically all of the ones I draft never get posted. I sucked it up and posted about my bookish spending in 2014 and how I want to change it in 2015, and I was so happy!
I participated in two tours in January, The Body Electric by Beth Revis and Whispers from the Dead by Karen Ann Hopkins. Both books were fantastic and FIVE STAR reads for me, so I was beyond thrilled. I was kind of expecting to love Whispers from the Dead by Karen Ann Hopkins because her books never let me down and I adored the first book in that series. The Body Electric however was a wonderful surprise. I am not super well read in the science fiction genre and while I figured that I would like it because her books have such great reviews, I didn’t expect to love it as MUCH as I did!
I participated in quite a few posting events in January. The second Countdown Survey, 2014 End of Year Book Survey, and the 2014 Statistics Survey. All three were so much fun to fill out! I love doing these types of posts, and even though it takes me hours to complete they are SO much fun. I already can’t wait to start filling them out for 2015 haha.
I talked about my Reading and Blogging Challenges for 2015 in one huge post. I love challenges, and this year there are just SO many amazing ones to choose from!
Along with my reviewed reads, I also posted my review for Mistletoe and Mr. Right by Lyla Payne which I read during my Christmas holidays.
I posted my picks for Most Anticipated Debut Novels of 2015, 2014 Releases I Meant to Read but Didn’t Get To and Books I’d Love To Read If I Had a Book Club.
My incoming books has come down considerably compared to 2014 (which is my goal) but I did still receive some fantastic books which I shared in two separate posts here and here.
And… I finally posted a discussion post: Book Spending in 2014 and How I Plan To Change That. I had so much fun making all the charts and finding out the results for this post, and I have a few others planned that are chart-like and stats related as well.
Books & Reading
- Paperback or Hardcover? at Boricuan Bookworms
- Why Researching Debut Novels is One of the Most Important Things I Do All Year at The Librarian Who Doesn’t Say Shhh!
- 5 Ways to Avoid Book Amnesia at Oh, The Books!
- Reading With No Obligations at Respiring Thoughts
- When It Clicks at Fiktshun
- Do You Read the Reviews Before the Book? at YA Asylum
- In Defense of Unhappy Endings at Respiring Thoughts
- I Hate It When I Don’t Like a Book at Oh, The Books!
- Do I Enjoy Books Less These Days? at Novel Heartbeat
- Snobbery and Elitism in Reading at Respiring Thoughts
- Here’s a Swear, There’s a Swear, Everywhere a Swear at Books for a Delicate Eternity
- This Overwhelming Feelings I’ve Been Getting at The Perpetual Page-Turner
- Confessions of a Mood Reader at Utterly Bookish
- Buying vs. Borrowing at Read and Reviewed
- Reformed Book Buyer…Apparently at The Perpetual Page-Turner
- Keeping Track of Series at Word Revel
- The Issue of ReReads at Reading by Starlight
- On New Year’s Reading at Writer Grrl Reads
- Are You The Tortoise or the Hare? at Belle of the Literati
- Pet-Peeves in High Fantasy at Book.Blog.Bake
- Cleanliness of Library Books at Word Revel
- An Observation on Seasonal Reading Habits at The Thousand Lives
- Debut Authors at Reading by Starlight
- Physical Books vs. Ebooks at Books for a Delicate Eternity
Bookish Fun & Misc
- What Kind of Voyant Would You Be? at Oh, The Books!
- All About Fan Fic at The Irish Banana Review
- Habits I Don’t Understand at Beautiful Bookish Butterflies
- Random Bookish Thoughts: Confessions at Bookmark Lit
- Books on the Cheap at Somewhere Only We Know
- Culling Your Shelves at So Obsessed With
- 365 Days of YA: A 2015 Reading Calender at Epic Reads
- Why Author’s Write Insta-Love at Feed Your Fiction Addiction
Blogging Help & Design Posts
- Spreadsheet Functions Part 1 at All About Books
- How To Piktochart at A Touch of Book Madness
- Blogging Tips: Social Media Buttons at A Flurry of Ponderings
- Let’s Clean Up & Refresh at Caffeinated Book Reviewer
- Add Collapsing Date Archives to Your Blog at Nose Graze
- How to Add an Opt-In Box Below Your Posts in WordPress at Nose Graze
- Tips For New Bloggers at Bookish Treasures
- 31 Days of Better Blogging at Parajunkee
- Author Bio Box (Blogger) at These Paper Hearts
- How to Optimize Your Blog for Email Signups at Book Bumblings
- Customized Search and Email Gadgets (Blogger) at These Paper Hearts
- How to Set Up an Email Marketing Account at Book Bumblings
ARCs & Reviews
- I’m Picky About the Advanced Copies I Choose at Novel Heartbeat
- On Changing Ratings at The Book Addict’s Guide
- Why I Deleted My NetGalley Account at Bookshelf Reflections
- On Reading and Reviewing at Writer Grrl Reads
- Why ARC’s Aren’t Always a Good Thing at Lilybloombooks
- ARC Essentials: Penguin Teen at The Irish Banana Review
- The Irresistible Pull of ARCs at Feed Your Fiction Addiction
Social Media, Commenting & Misc Blogging Related Posts
- The Master List of Book Blogging Memes at Girlxoxo
- How Much of an Obligation do Book Bloggers Have? at Nose Graze
- I Wasn’t Stressed About Blogging Until I Found Out I Was Doing It Wrong at Feed Your Fiction Addiction
- Let’s Stop Letting Drama Bring Us Down at Nose Graze
- The Role of Bloggers in Publicity at Bloggers Heart Books
- The Unspoken Rule of Comments for Comments at Of Spectacles and Books
- Scheduling Posts at Somewhere Only We Know
- The Truth About Blogging at Stay Bookish
- Be The Change at So Obsessed With
- 10 Ways to Be a Happier Blogger at Bibliophilia
- Random Bookish Thoughts: Blogging at Bookmark Lit
- Challenges at The Library Canary
- How to Beat Book Blogger Burnout at Book Bumblings
- Social Media Overload at Somewhere Only We Know
- Can Bloggers Silence Authors? at Bookshelfery
- 2015 Book Blogger Love-a-Thon at Alexa Loves Books
- Spreading Kindness at The Perpetual Page-Turner
There were so many amazing discussions and posts in January! How was your January? Do you feel that 2015 is going to be different for you than 2014? Link up your wrap ups 🙂
Sounds like you had a fantastic January!! Glad you’re already making great headway on most of your challenges. Thanks so much for linking me up!
Looks like you had a great January! And thank you for all of the great links! I’ve found a few new blogs to follow and some posts to read that I somehow missed. Hope you have a great February!
Ah, that’s great Terri! I love these types of posts on other peoples blogs for the same reason! I don’t get around to comment as much as I would like to so this is my way of sharing the love a bit 🙂
I hope you have an awesome February also Terri!
You work really hard on this post. Congrats on all the amazing challenge stats. This month went by so fast.
Thank you Rachel <3
I agree, January went by so fast.. and February is as well! Gosh, I hope 2015 doesn’t slip through my fingers like 2014 did haha.
Yay you read a lot of books last month! I’m going to add Whispers from the Dead since you gave it 5 stars and it looks like a creepy, awesome read! Too bad you didn’t like Twisted Fate. It ended up one of my fave books last year. I just loved the twist that happened at the end.
Haha, I FINALLY got up to 8 books a month. I was really struggling in 2014 with reading but I’ve seemed to pick the pace back up now!
If you are going to read Whispers, make sure you read the first book first! (Lamb to the Slaughter). It’s not completely related, but there is a nice sidestory about the main characters that connects the books!
I’m glad you loved Twisted Fate. I wish WISH I hadn’t of figured out what was happening because I love twisty books. Ah well, it was still a frantic get to the end type of read so in that aspect it was good!
So glad you enjoyed Magnolia! I read and loved it! Thank you so much for featuring my post here, have a great month! 🙂
Your welcome Marianne 🙂
And thank you, I hope you have a great month also! Magnolia is soooooo good. It was definitely a good choice to read as one of my first of the new year!!
8 books is awesome. The Young Elites seems really interesting, and I just bought Never, Never. I’ve been considering participating in some challenges, but I don’t know.
Great post!