Chapter Adventure Reading Challenges discussion

The November Key Words are...

Tale, Final, Feast, Bloom, Cliff, Wide, Memory, Always

Share with us! Which key word did you pick? What book did you read and what did you think of it?

For November, I hope to read “The Memory Police: an enthralling Japanese dystopia” by Yoko Ogawa.

just finished The Memory Box by Eva Lesko Natiello - crazy! Always by Jude Deveraux (not what I was expecting...) and the Cliff House by Raeanne Thayne (loved it). Those were my 3 from my home library but I still 4 from my October pile to get through.

Challenge semi-complete...
Key Word: Final

I planned to read Final Call by Alex Lake, but it was a dnf for me - the writing style just wasn't my cup of tea.

Not sure what all the fuss was with this one

• The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror - Christopher Moore
- Pine Cove # 3
- Urban Fantasy/Humour/Horror
- Finished: November 24th.
- 4 stars on Goodreads.
I technically read this book out of order, but it can be read as a stand alone. It’s a cute little Christmas story full of eccentric characters and a fair bit of confused mayhem. If this book is any indication of what the first 2 Pine Cove books are like, I’ll definitely enjoy them.

The November Key Words are...
Tale, Final, Feast, Bloom, Cliff, Wide, Memory, Always

Challenge Complete: Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Set long after the second book, you now have humans, sentient arachnids, octopi, and the parasitic slime on the vessel, Skipper, on an expedition to find more of the lost ships that left earth millennia ago. What they find on the planet, Imir, defies all their expectations.

Dressed in human bodies, the symbiotic slime known as Miranda, the arachnids Portia and Fabian, Paul, the octopus, and two rather strange corvids, infiltrate what’s left of the humans who still survive. But the colony is dying. Their best bet seems to be Liff, who is somehow connected to what may be another life form.

The story moves around in time, so it took me awhile to understand what exactly was going on. Once I did, it became compulsive reading, as we, as well as the crew of the Skipper, learn who, or what, is controlling the colony. Its ending took me by surprise, yet it made perfect sense.

I eagerly look forward to the fourth book in the series, due for publication on March 12, 2026.

Key Words: Tale, Final, Feast, Bloom, Cliff, Wide, Memory, Always



The Tell-Tale Tarte by Maya Corrigan
Final Refuge by Roxanne Rustand
A Fatal Family Feast by Lynn Cahoon
Full Bloom by Janet Evanovich and Charlotte Hughes
The House on the Cliff by Franklin W. Dixon
The Wide-Awake Princess by E.D. Baker
Memory in Death by J.D. Robb
Always Room for Cupcakes by Bethany Lopez

A clean sweep that allowed me to revisit some reads.

Word: Final
Book: The Final Equinox by Andrew Mayne
While I have enjoyed previous books by this author, particularly Theo Cray and Jessica Blackwood series (and their combined stories), this one is showing signs of getting too lost in the scientific details behind the mystery. I don’t know if this tendency will continue, but I hope not. It took too much away from the flow of the story, and the action that is part and parcel to the mystery.

These are the books read in November with the following key words: Tale, Final, Feast, Bloom, Cliff, Wide, Memory, Always
⁠
Tale: The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo 3 stars; Terrifying Tales to Tell at Night by Stephen Jones 4 stars; The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield 3 stars; The Daughter's Tale by Armando Lucas Correa 3 stars; The Spook's Tale by Joseph Delaney 3 stars; The Tale of Tales by Giambattista Basile 3 stars; The Sewing Girl's Tale by John Wood Sweet 4 stars


Final: Final Resting Place by Jonathan F. Putnam 3 stars; Final Cut by S.J. Watson 3 stars; The Final Detail by Harlan Coben 3 stars


Feast: A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway 3 stars; Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian 3 stars; What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher 3 stars; Feast Days by Ian MacKenzie 4 stars; Feast Your Eyes by Myla Goldberg 3 stars


Bloom: They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran 3 stars; Where Daffodils Bloom by Leya Delray 4 stars

Read in December:
Love in Bloom by Jenny Proctor 3 stars; Love in Bloom by Lucy Eden 3 stars; A Bloom in Winter by J.R. Ward 3 stars


Cliff: The Cliff House by Chris Brookmyre 3 stars; The House on the Cliff by Charlotte Williams 3 stars


Wide: Beneath the Wide Silk Sky by Emily Inouye Huey 4 stars; The Wide World by Pierre Lemaitre 3 stars; The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides 3 stars; The Wide Starlight by Nicole Lesperance 3 stars; Open Wide the Freedom Gates by Dorothy I. Height 4 stars; Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie by Kristiana Gregory 4 stars

Read in August:
A Short Walk Through a Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke 3 stars


Memory: A Memory of Violets by Hazel Gaynor 3 stars; The Memory Library by Kate Storey 3 stars; The Memory Ward by Jon Bassoff 3 stars; The Memory Collectors by Dete Meserve 3 stars; The Memory Dress by Jade Beer 3 stars; The Memory Weaver by Jane Kirkpatrick 3 stars; Memory Lane by Becky Wade 3 stars; Memories of Glass by Melanie Dobson 3 stars; Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks 3 stars

Read in April: Sing, Memory by Makana Eyre 4 stars

Read in December:
These Memories Do Not Belong To Us by Yiming Ma 3 stars


Always: Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned by Walter Mosley 3 stars; Always With You by Fiona Grace 3 stars; Always Have by Claire Kingsley 4 stars; Always Will by Claire Kingsley 4 stars; Always Forever by Fiona Grace 3 stars; Always Plus One by Fiona Grace 3 stars; Always Together by Fiona Grace 3 stars; Always Like This by Fiona Grace 3 stars; Always Fated by Fiona Grace 3 stars; Always, For Love by Fiona Grace 3 stars; Always isn't Forever by J.C. Cervantes 3 stars; For Never & Always by Helena Greer 3 stars;

Read in December:
I Always Loved You by Robin Oliveira 3 stars; Always and Forever by Jenny Han 3 stars

Challenge complete!
Key word: final

Read:
One Last Breath by Sarah Sutton (last as a form of final)
and
Her Final Words by Brianna Labuskes