Top 5 Books Read in 2017

2017 I read a lot of books; way more than usual. Usually I'm around 52-60. This year I blew that out of the water with over 100 books read!! I absolutely surprised myself. Now, most of these were audiobooks, so I wasn't physically reading which helped as I am a slow reader. (Trying to get faster at reading because there are soooo many books out there to be read. Including the close to 100 on my TBR.)

5.

Balanced on the Blade's Edge
By Lindsay Buroker

I don't remember when I read this, but I do remember the story. It has stuck with me it was that good. I was also grateful I had the next 2 books in the series because I jumped right to them when I was done.







4.

The Hundredth Queen
By Emily R King

I would not want to be a girl living in this world. But the writing was just fantastic! I will have to give in and get the second book soon because I'm not going to be able to wait much longer. I've been trying to be good though since my TBR is probably close to 100 books and I don't own the second book. The problem is not knowing what happens next is slowly eating away at my soul!





3.

Fledgling (Dragonrider Chronicles: Book 1)
By Nicole Conway

I listened to the audiobook of this back in April and just about died it was so good! I attempted to find another book to listen to but couldn't. I just had to see what happened next. I ended up getting and listening to all 4 books in the series back to back and marathoned the books. The raving in the YouTube video, possibly videos, yeah that was real. I loved them that much!





2.

Firstlife
By Gena Showalter

This is one of the books I listened to while training for a 5K run. I was still listening to this when it came time for my first actual 5K race. I was so distracted by the story, I didn't realize I ran most of the 5K!! I had never even done that while training. The story was so unique to me I think it allowed me to keep the perfect pace for myself and allowed me to run most of the race. This book will always hold a special place in my heart.




1.

Secondborn
By Amy A. Bartol

I very much enjoyed this book. I hadn't read something like this before. I did not want to put this book down. There were times I had to for meetings or because I was working on something a little more complex, but I didn't want to. I wanted to be a like a child again and put off the things I had to do and just read. (When I was younger I never wanted to read, but I also didn't want to do my homework.) I look forward to reading the next book when it comes out in April of 2018.



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Sunday Post #2 - December 24, 2017

Work has still been crazy! It's not showing signs of slowing down either. This last week I finalized 2 reports which took entirely too long to do. Our Marketing Department at work is also in the midst of basically an overhaul on a lot of the advertisements they have, so a co-worker and I have had our hands full reviewing the advertisements. It seems they are just flying in on fighter jets or something because they come at us so fast. Get one overhauled piece reviewed, there's another one waiting in the wings. Plus there are the regularly scheduled advertisements.

It didn't help I got a cold on Tuesday. Thank goodness I seem to have kicked it already. I still have a stuffed up nose, but at least I can breathe most of the time. I'm not filling my trash cans with used Kleenex. (Eeewww.) Then our dog got sick as well on Wednesday. So he is now on drugs I have to give him with each meal. My husband is currently the only person in our house not sick yet. (Crap, need to go knock on some wood now. Hope I did that in time, wouldn't want to have hexed it.)

So, COYER has been going for one week now, and I haven't finished one book yet! I haven't picked up my eBook at all. I did start My Sister's Grave by Robert Dugoni in audiobook format. The eBook I think I've been trying to finish for like 2 months now is Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller. I feel like I'm barely into it and it's still calling my name, I just haven't been able to pick it up at all. I'm getting quite frustrated about it too. Of course, if I hadn't watched YouTube videos while having breakfast, I could have read a few more pages at least. I'm going to go rectify this and go read some while I still can before the madness of the holidays fully hits (we still have presents to wrap 🤪).

Recapping Last Week
Tuesday - December 21, 2017: Book Review - The Secret Garden
Saturday - December 9, 2017: YouTube - 2017 Reading Wrap Up & 2018 Reading Goals

Coming This Week
Tuesday - December 26, 2017 - Top 5 Favorite Books Read in 2017
Saturday - December 16, 2017 - YouTube: 5 Book Releases I'm Most Looking Forward To

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly at The Caffeinated Reviewer.

You can find me on Twitter, Goodreads, YouTube, and Facebook.

Book Review: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Title: The Secret Garden
Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett
Format: audiobook (Audible)
Narrator: Victoria McGee
Publisher: Trout Lake Media

As a child I was given a movie version of The Secret Garden. I watched it over and over and over again. As an adult I found out the movie was based on a book and I decided I wanted to read it, and I finally did.

While reading this book I kept thinking back to the movie I continuously watched when I was younger. This book brought back all kinds of memories.

The story follows a young girl who was spoiled growing up because her parents didn't want her, and didn't want to hear her crying. The servants in charge of her care gave her anything she wanted for fear of her mother. Then a great sickness hits the village and the household including her parents are killed, somehow she survives and is taken to her guardian's.

Life at her guardian's house is not much better. The house is a mansion with hundreds of rooms not in use, but she is not able to explore any of them. She is to stay in her room or go play outside, but there are also really no toys. There is also a weird howling that can be heard in the house from time to time. She's told it's nothing but the wind, but she knows better.

The howling turns out to be a cousin of hers, but he doesn't walk. He's been sickly and has refused to even try. The two end up helping each other grow and become better.

It's interesting how the two work off each other, and help each other grow. The friends they make along the way are great too. The friends even help them learn to make friends and show them things about themselves they would have never realized because they have both been given basically everything they ask for in fear of their tantrums.

The amount of growth they each go through in such a short time is amazing. And their growth even helps the guardian's view of life. Her guardian is a hunchback and doesn't see much point in life since his wife died giving birth. He also doesn't give much attention to his son since he reminds him of his wife.

This is an excellent classic book, and I would recommend you check it out.

You can find me on Twitter, Goodreads, YouTube, and Facebook.

The COYER Winter Switch Reading Challenge

I recently found of a reading challenge called COYER - Clean Out Your E-Reader. Coming up they are having a new challenge, running from December 16, 2017 - March 9, 2018. For this challenge you can choose either the regular COYER or doing COYER Switch which has 3 different components to it. You can read more about COYER over at coyerchallenge.com. I will be doing the Switch, and I'm going to try to focus on ebooks although you can also listen to audiobooks, except it's my ebooks that are piling up...figuratively speaking of course since ebooks are hard to physically pile.

From December 16, 2017 - January 12, 2018, is the first part of the COYER Switch. For this first part I will be doing The List. For this challenge I will be making a list of probably closer to 15 books, even though you can have up to 30 on your list. I don't read fast though, and while I know the electronic pile of books is tall, I don't want to feel overwhelmed. I'm very competitive and know I would push to read all 30 books that started on the list. For each 5 books you read from your list though, you can add 5 more. I feel this would be enough to give me options for reading.

The next run for the COYER Switch is January 13, 2018 - February 9, 2018. For this I will be doing The One with a Twist. This is easy enough, read any book, any price, obtained any legal way. The twist is sticking to one format. My focus will be ebooks, but this means any audiobooks I listen to won't count for this part of the challenge.

Finally, I will be doing the Strict, from February 10, 2018 - March 9, 2018. I chose this one for last because the books you read can not be borrowed from anyone or anyplace, or Kindle Unlimited, and need to be under $5.00. Many of the books I picture reading, or would like to read, are ones I've had for years such as Snow like Ashes. I know I did not purchase Snow like Ashes for under $5.00, but there are likely several that are. Since many of the books were purchased because they were free, $1.99, or $2.99. I'm not sure I know which all of these books are, so I need to allow myself plenty of time to go through my purchase history and make sure the books I read were purchased for less than $5.00.

You can follow me on my social media accounts to see how I'm doing. I'll also check in from time to time here on the blog. :-)

You can find me on Twitter, Goodreads, YouTube, and Facebook.

Sunday Post #1 - December 10, 2017

Work has been crazy! I haven't even been able to listen to an audiobook while working. I've been trying to go full force to get all the projects we have before the end of the year. Thankfully there's only a few left, but the year doesn't have long before it's gone either! Things got complicated when one of my coworkers lost her mother. Needless to say, she has been understandably not coming in. However, since her and I work most closely, I've been trying to be her in her absence. I don't know how she does it all. I've had a seriously hard time filling her shoes and have been bringing work home so I haven't been able to do a lot of reading.

My husband also got the crazy idea, now that it's freaking freezing, to paint our master bedroom. The house is a bit of a disaster area due to this, and as I've been doing most of the painting it's been hard to read. I'm grateful for the help I've received painting, but when someone is helping, it's hard to listen to an audiobook because there is usually a conversation that starts. (sigh) Being social is hard when there are hundreds of books calling my name. (I do think I am now up to 100 books I own and haven't read; if I'm not there I'm sure I'm close.)

Recapping Last Week
Sunday - December 3, 2017: YouTube - November Whimsify Box Unboxing
Tuesday - December 5, 2017: Book Review Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters
Saturday - December 9, 2017: YouTube - NaNoWriMo 2017 Vlog

Coming This Week
Tuesday - December 12, 2017 - COYER Winter Switch challenge announcement
Thursday - December 14,  2017 - Book Review (?) (This has not been set in stone and is subject to having time to finish a book...)
Saturday - December 16, 2017 - YouTube Top 5 New To Me Authors of 2017

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly at The Caffeinated Reviewer.

You can find me on Twitter, Goodreads, YouTube, and Facebook.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

Title: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters
Author: Rick Riordan
Format: audiobook (Playster)
Narrator: Jesse Bernstein
Publisher: Listening Library

Camp Half-Blood is in trouble. The tree is dying, it's been poisoned. No one knows how to cure it. Without the tree, the protection the half-bloods have at Camp Half-Blood won't be there and they will be susceptible to attacks.

The leader of Camp Half-Blood has been replaced by someone who seems to not care the camp is dying and in serious trouble. Percy and Annabeth suggest a quest, but the quest goes to the camp bully, Clarisse.

Hermes has other plans, and encourages Percy, Annabeth, and Percy's newly found half-brother, Tyson, sneak out of camp and thanks to the fates who took them to camp, head off to the Bermuda Triangle.

Additionally, Percy is having dreams about Grover being in trouble. It turns out, Grover is being held captive exactly where Percy and Annabeth are heading, to obtain an item that can cure the tree and restore balance to the camp.

I found this story entertaining, and loved the chapter headings. There is humor throughout. This book, just like the first, will make you laugh. It may also make you think about your family and how you treat them...Percy has some issues with Tyson being claimed by his father Poseidon. Tyson is a Cyclops and no on at camp really accepts Tyson and calls him a monster; because Cyclops are monsters.

If you pick up this book, you will not be disappointed. There will be a smile on your face, and plenty of laughter to be had. I gave this book 4/5 stars.


You can find me on Twitter, Goodreads, YouTube, and Facebook.