Chapter Adventure Reading Challenges (Formerly GXO) discussion

This months key words are:

Ink, Fragile, Road, Summer, Breath, Every, Push, Sorry⁠

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Which key word did you pick? What book did you read and what did you think of it?

I read "A Bad Day For Sorry" by Sophie Littlefield - "Sorry"

For June, depends if the books come up available to read on my apps (i will pick one):
She’s not SORRY by Mary Kubica,
INK by Alice Broadway
FRAGILE by Stella O’Malley
Abbey ROAD - inside story of the worlds most famous recording studio by David Hepworth
Last BREATHE by Karin Slaughter
EVERY year by Cecelia Ahern
The PUSH by Ashley audrain

• Blood Red Road - Moira Young
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

WHOOPS! I actually finished this one on June 4th & forgot to post it here.
- 5 stars on Goodreads
I didn’t post a review right away because I finished it in bed last night and was too tired to write a review. But this was actually pretty fantastic! The author used a very unique writing style:
1. First person narrative, but society has crumbled, and most charters are “back woods” type (I hope that’s not offensive, please tell me if there’s a better way to describe it), including the main character, so the writing reflects the way they speak, phonetically. Et = ate, fer = for, yer = you’re/your, etc, etc.
2. This is only the second book I’ve come across that doesn’t use quotation marks to indicate dialogue. And I LOVED the first book I came across that used this style, so really it just pushed home to me how unnecessary quotation marks actually are. I had zero problems deciphering when characters were speaking.
In any event, the dystopian word seems realistic, and the characters are engaging. The main character is a super badass, but she tiptoes the line of being a little bit *too* tough for my tastes. I think that’s my only complaint, and it really isn’t that big of one.

~Push~
I read The Push by Ashley Audrain it was good kept me wanting to pick it up.

I finished The Summer Book Club by Susan Mallery. I wanted to try something different with reading a romance type and couldn’t get into the book. Thinking the style isn’t for me.

I just finished Kings of the Yukon: One Summer Paddling Across the Far North by Adam Weymouth and it was an okay read, bogged down in a few places...

I read One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-García. It was an interesting story, not like anything I’ve read before. It’s about 3 little girls who are put in a Black Panthers summer camp by their mother in the 1960s. It was a good glimpse into a culture that I am not apart of, but it’s not something I would read again. Read at your own discretion

Key Word:
Ink

Book:
INK. by Sean Patrick Traver

Thoughts:
I accidentally found this book on KU and I’m very glad I did. It gave off Matrix, Strange Days, Cyberpunk vibes, and I was living for it. While the ending was a little weird, I really enjoyed reading this book. 4 stars!

• Summer - Jeff Mariotte
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...

Blech. This sounded interesting, and (the omnibus) has a lovely cover, so I’m super disappointed. It’s not that the writing itself is bad, because it’s not. It’s just hella boring. Literally nothing important happens for the majority of the book. A little bit of suspense and intrigue at the very beginning, but then the rest of the book is just the characters trying to track down this evil witch. Then in the last few pages, this very underwhelming confrontation between Daniel and Season, during which Daniel dies. So I’m going to nope right out of reading the rest of the books in this series.

This months key words are:
Ink, Fragile, Road, Summer, Breath, Every, Push, Sorry⁠

The Road Not Travelled: Alternative Tales of the Wars of the Roses by Joanne R. Larner

I wish I could recommend this book, especially considering the worthy cause that it supports, but I can’t.

Many of the stories read like fan fiction. Not like the fan fiction that brings the characters to life, that explores those roads not traveled in a compelling way. No, the other kind, where the author doesn’t take the time to round out the characters or build on the plot. Yes, like fan fiction it’s understood that the reader is knowledgeable about those characters and their lives, but the story still needs a structure that holds it together. Too often, that structure isn’t there.

There was one bright spot in the book, the writing of Clare Anderson. Lady in Waiting, and especially The Apothecary’s Secret are well worth reading.

I know there are more books out there, written by Richard III fans who are not professional writers. I’m hoping that I’ll find them more to my liking.

Key Word: Road
Book: Cemetery Road, by Greg Iles
A long but complex story of the power of the Good Ole Boys network in a southern town, and a fallible hero who took them on. Great story!
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Challenge complete with Murder Road by Simone St. James (Keyword: Road).

Love, love, love this book! At this point, St. James is an auto-buy author for me.

• Breathe - Sarah Crossan
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

This was surprisingly good! Although I don’t know why I’m surprised when I end up liking a book that a bought specifically because I thought I would like it 😂.
In any event, this dystopian world is well thought out, and quite believable. The writing style is sophisticated enough for adults, but easy enough to zip through the pages at the same time. The chapters are well broken up, and told from 3 different viewpoints. I think the only thing keeping me from giving this 5 stars is how insufferably obnoxious one of the main characters is through the first half of the book. To be fair they make an excellent turn around by the end, so it’s possible that I may end up giving book 2 that missing 5th star.

Keyword: Sorry

I read Say You're Sorry by Melinda Leigh. I really enjoyed the characters in the book. It wasn't really a deep mystery but was a quick read, and it wasn't really an obvious ending at least for me!

I chose Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine. I really liked it - took me a bit to get into it but now I'm hooked. I will continue with this series.

didn't quite make it but...

finished Nine Perfect Strangers from May (Liane Moriarty doesn't disappoint) also finished listen ing to The Drowning House (about Galveston where I will be traveling layer this summer)

19 yellow moon road (Fem Michaels... different...)
BlackBerry Summer (raeanne thayne), the summer book club (Susan mallery), summer moon (hmmmm don't remember off hand)
little fires everywhere (Celeste Ng)
pushing up daisies ( an Agatha Raisin mystery but I just couldn't finish listening... found I wasn't even trying to pay attention)

didn't get to: ink, fragile, sorry but read 11 others

Books I read for June Challenge:
SORRY - She's Not Sorry by Mary Kubica(It was an interesting mind boggling read, although I started concluding the outcome before the end I still enjoy it)

ROAD - Murder Road by Simone St. James(I absolutely loved this story, this author will definitely be someone I continue to read books by!!)

PUSH - The Push by Ashley Audrain(it was a captivating story that just keeps you picking it up until it finished)

I wound up reading two books with keyword Summer - Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan and Just For the Summer by Abby Jimenez. I enjoyed both - easy summer reads.

I listened to Everything is Fucked by Mark Manson.

Here are books with the following key works read in June: Ink, Fragile, Road, Summer, Breath, Every, Push, Sorry

Ink-Ink and Bone by Lisa Unger - 4 stars; Blood and Ink by Joe Pompeo - 3 stars; Ink and Ashes by Valynne E. Maetani - 3 stars


Fragile-Fragile by Lisa Unger - 4 stars; On Fragile Waves by E. Lily Yu - 3 stars; Fragile Beast by Tawni O'Dell- 3 stars


Road- The Road by Cormac McCarthy - 4 stars; Murder Road by Simone St. James - 4 stars; Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim - 3 stars; Long Road to Mercy by David Baldacci - 4 stars; Road of Bones by Christopher Golden - 4 stars; Hokuloa Road by Elizabeth Hand - 4 stars; The Broken Road by Richard Paul Evans - 4 stars; The Forgotten Road by Richard Paul Evans - 3 stars; The Road Home by Richard Paul Evans - 4 stars


Summer- Hurricane Summer by Asha Ashanti Bromfield - 4 stars; Summer on the Island by Brenda Novak - 3 stars; Indian Summer by Alex von Tunzelmann - 3 stars; The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach by Pam Jenoff - 3 stars; Beach House Summer by Sarah Morgan - 3 stars; This Summer will be Different by Carley Fortune - 4 stars; Summer of 79' by Elin Hilderbrand - 3 stars; Endless Summer byElin Hilderbrand - 3 stars; Seven Summers by Paige Toon - 5 stars: The Summer Getaway by Susan Mallery - 3 stars; Summer Island by Shelley Noble - 3 stars; Summer Island by Kristin Hannah - 5stars


Breath- Dying Breath by Wendy Corsi Staub - 4 stars; Breathless by Jennifer Niven - 3 stars; Breathless by Amy McCulloch - 3 stars


Every-Still see you Everywhere by Lisa Gardner - 3 stars; Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson - 4 stars


Push- I'll Push You by Patrick Gray - 4 stars; Push by Sapphire - 5 stars


Sorry- Sorry, not Sorry by Alyssa Milano - 4 stars; She's not Sorry by Mary Kubica - 4 stars; My Grandmother asked me to tell you she's Sorry by Fredrik Backman - 3 stars

Challenge completed in June (just late in posting).
Key word: summer
Title: A Cornish Summer's Kiss
Author: Jo Bartlett
Nice, breezy summer read!

I read 'The Summer That Melted Everything' by Tiffany McDaniel