Reindeer Readathon Archives - Proud Book Reviews

December 22, 2019December 22, 2019

Reindeer Readathon – Week 3 Update

Today’s update is really short because I haven’t finished a single book this week!

This is abnormal for me since I’ve been finishing close to 2 books a week all year. But it was also my last week at the job I’ve had all year so I was driving in rather than getting the bus so lost 2 hours a day of reading time just from driving instead. And because it was my last week everyone wanted to do farewell lunches and things which meant I lost that 30 mins too!

I tried to pump out as much of the book I’ve been reading yesterday but I had too much energy to sit and read all day. Plus my partner wanted to watch I, Tonya and another episode of The Witcher so I spent some time in front of the TV.

Although I DID finish a puzzle I started like 18 months ago! With my study I had no time to work on it like all yr but I was able to get back into it about a month ago and I’ve now finished it!

Let’s just say I thought I was missing a few pieces for ages coz I couldn’t find the pesky little things. Slowly but surely I managed to work my way through the gaps. And then horrified my partner by packing it all away once I took this pic. Apparently he doesn’t understand that once you finish a puzzle you take it apart so you can do a different one. Or redo this one in the future.

POINTS ACHIEVED FOR TEAM NUTCRACKER: 0

December 15, 2019December 15, 2019

Reindeer Readathon – Week 2 Update

We’re now halfway through the Reindeer Readathon!

I’ve finished two more books this week. It’s one less than last week but assuming I keep reading two a week then I’ll finish 9 books before the end of the month. But I’m driving to work this week rather than getting the bus so I’m not sure how I’ll go…

Faced with terrible options both Ianthe and Robert do what the must. Their journey from a “convenient” marriage to one of love is long and arduous. And to be honest, I got a little bit over Ianthe’s theatrics and lack of self esteem by about 3/4 of the way through.

I understand how debilitating this can be, but Robert needed to step up and help her and he didn’t which just really frustrated me.

As a debut novel I was pleasantly surprised by this read. I was right in thinking it’d have a big impact on me.

The concept of fear, living for the future etc were thoroughly explored and I loved how Kelly was able to touch on so many topics in one book without it being huge, overwhelming, confusing or not quite right.

I have a full review coming in early Jan for this one.

POINTS ACHIEVED FOR TEAM NUTCRACKER: 45 POINTS

December 8, 2019December 8, 2019

Reindeer Readathon – Week 1 Update

We’re one week into the Reindeer Readathon. YAY!!!

In the past week I’ve been able to finish 3 of the prompts which I thought was pretty good. But if I compare that with some of the other’s in my team it’s nothing! I thought I’d share some initial thoughts of each book as I finish them even though full reviews will be coming in the new year for most of them.

I’ve read the full books before and even though I was surprised at how much the images of the graphic novel was able to convey. I felt like it was missing something compared to the full novel. So I didn’t really enjoy it.

Maybe graphic novels are best if they’ve been designed specifically to be a graphic novel?

I actually ended up changing my book for this coz it turned out book 3 of the series was about the Muse of Lyrics. Which is music.

Erica’s career is as a song writer and there was a fair bit about their theatre in this one so it felt like it ticked the Dancer prompt quite nicely!

One of the things I liked about this book was that it wasn’t a carbon copy of the style of the previous two. When you’re following a series it’s great to have that variety.

I’ve liked every Jenni Fletcher book I’ve read and this was no exception. It touched on mental health, self worth and a few other issues. Yet did it in a way that felt accurate for the times.

POINTS ACHIEVED FOR TEAM NUTCRACKER: 40 POINTS

November 30, 2019November 28, 2019

Reindeer Readathon 2019

You may have seen or heard about the new Christmas themed readathon that’s started up this year. It’s called the Reindeer Readathon hosted by Breakeven Books (Leader of Team Mistletoe), Melted Books (Leader of Team Snowflake), Savy Writes Books (Leader of Team Stockings) and Donna Tsundoku (Leader of Team Nutcracker).

I loved the sound of it so I thought I’d sign myself up for my first EVER readathon! And promptly got assigned to the Nutcracker team led by the fun Donna.

We were given 9 prompts and can get awarded bonus points if one of our books happens to be over 500 pages long. None of mine are, but I’ll see if I can get through some other stuff to be able to read Outlander to land that one. You can see the specific details here:

Most of the books I’ve chosen to read for this readathon are ones I have scheduled for reviews in January or February. Since I need to read them in preparation for their scheduled reviews I figured there’s no harm in using them for the readathon.

I don’t believe there’s a rule against that. And I still managed to squeeze in a couple I don’t have reviews scheduled for.

I chose Light of Spirit for this one as most of my books are 300-400 pages and it was on my list to read and review in February.

Dance of the Heart is in the same series as Light of Spirit and is the ONLY book I could find in my TBR that revolves around, or involved the theme of music or dance.

The Convenient Felstone Marriage hasn’t moved around my shelves MUCH. But I got this from Jenni from a competition I won on my birthday earlier this yr.

Since I’ve rearranged my bookshelves a few times since then I figured it works!

From what I can tell of the blurb, Perfect Match has a strong female character. It’s also on my list of books to read and have a review ready for the tour that’s scheduled for January.

I’ll be reading Death Takes a Holiday at Pemberley Hall for this one. Based on the blurb I believe it’ll have an impact on me.

It’s also an author request that I’ve got scheduled for a review in January.

Miss Amelia’s Mistletoe Marquees was an obvious choice for this one. I read a lot of romance but it was the only one that didn’t fall into any of the other categories.

And I was also asked to review it by the author so it’s scheduled for a review in January.

Another author request (although this time I think it’s scheduled for February) for this one. Although I chose it more because I don’t have many books that have a pretty cover and I really do like the cover Nicola has had done!

I don’t have much in the way of graphic novels. I’ve also never read one before so I thought this would be a challenge to find one I could read.

Then I remembered I got a copy of the Vampire Academy graphic novel when I bought the series.

Of course this one needs red in the cover. I decided that since one layer of the cake is red it works!

Also. It’s scheduled for a book tour in January.

I hope you’re looking forward to hearing about my progress with this. I’m hoping to do a weekly wrap up so you can track my progress and get a feel for how I found the books. Without spoiling them for their coming reviews of course!