Mount TBR Challenge 2024 discussion

I'm back for a fourth time. I'm hoping to get up Mt. Vancouver in 2024. I finished Mt. Blanc in 2023 for a second year in a row.

🏕️🥾The CLIMB (so far)

⛰️ Mt. Wychproof (6/6)
⛰️ Pike's Peak 8/12)

🥾1. The Doom of the Darnaways (Finished 1/2/24 ⭐⭐⭐; 📘paperback)
🥾2. (Finished 1/4/24 ⭐⭐1/2; Kindle 💻 )
🥾3. (Finished 1/12/24 ⭐⭐⭐ 1/2; 📘giving to a friend)
🥾4. (Finished 1/8/24 ⭐⭐⭐⭐;Kindle 💻 )
🏕️5. (Finished 1/13/24 ⭐⭐⭐⭐; Reread; 🎧Audiobook )
🥾6. (Finished 1/22/24 ⭐⭐⭐; 📘paperback, donating to library)
🥾7. (Finished 1/29/24; 1/28/24; NetGalley ;Kindle 💻)
🥾8. (Finished 2/1/24 ⭐⭐⭐; 📘paperback, donating to library)
🥾9. The Writing Retreat ](Finished 2/9/24 ⭐⭐⭐; 📘 hard cover, donating to library)
🥾 10. (Finished 4/26/24 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐; 📘hardcover, keeping)
🥾11. (Finished 4/7/24; bailed; Kindle 💻)
🥾12. (Finished 4/25/24 ⭐⭐⭐⭐; Reread; 🎧Audiobook )

📘hardcover/paperback
🎧 audiobook/audible
💻 ebook/ Kindle/Netgalley ARC

1/28/24
I had to bail on Whispers in the Mist.
I so wanted to love this book.
(view spoiler)[ I loved almost everything about this series, BUT the main two characters. The 2nd ended with the addition of a great new-ish character. Unfortunately that didn't end well.
Clare & Dorran are SO ANNOYING. I really started to hate them in book 2 but stuck it out for half of this one, but I cannot go on. I cannot spend more time listening to Clare whine. How is she still alive? She makes the stupidest decisions. Ugh.

No two people who only met a few weeks ago would act like them, not even in an apocolypse. Sweet little touches, declarations of undying love, & gentle kisses? Nope. Don't believe it.
Clare turned into a bitch teenager around Beth. LOVED BETH (I kept picturing her as Carol from the Walking Dead). I know Beth doesn't last past halfway through this book, so I bailed. (hide spoiler)]
This is the only Coates book I've ever bailed on. Too bad.
I didn't rate it since I bailed, but it was ⭐⭐ 1/2 for me.

Update 1/29/24
Okay, I went back and actually finished the book last night. Still not loving Clare or Dorran but I do want to see where the story is going.

🥾8. (Finished 2/1/24 ⭐⭐⭐; 📘paperback, donating to library)

This was a bit slow and the language very old fashioned, but I did really enjoy the mystery itself. I do love any riff off of And Then There Were None or the locked room/isolated house murder mystery trope.

My climb ended with a reread of . On to the next mountain. See you on top!