Feeling Fictional

Monday, 3 January 2011

2011 Debut Author Challenge

I'm sure a lot of you have heard of the Debut Author Challenge hosted by The Story Siren, I didn't take part in this one last year but I probably did read 12 debut novels. I thought it would be fun to take part this year - there are so many YA Debuts I'm looking forward to reading that I'll be interested to see how many I actually manage to read! If you'd like to find out more about the challenge click here

The aim is to read at least 12 YA Debut novels in 2011 but I'm hoping to read more than that. The list below shows some of the books I'm hoping to read and I'll add links to my reviews as and when I post them. The list may well change and I'll add others as I discover them.

Artichoke Hearts - Sita Brahmachari
The Replacement - Brenna Yovanoff
Birthmarked - Caragh O'Brien
Blood Magic - Tessa Gratton
Clash - Colin Mulhern

January (see links to other participant's reviews here)

February (see links to other participant's reviews here)

March (see links to other participant's reviews here)

April (see links to other participant's reviews here)

UPDATE 24th April - Although I have completed the challenge set by Kristi & read 12 debuts this year there are loads more that I want to read so I'm going to keep updating this list & see how many I can actually get through

May (see links to other participant's reviews here)

June (see links to other participant's reviews here)

July (see links to other participant's reviews here)

Long Lankin - Lindsey Barraclough

August (see links to other participant's reviews here)

September (see links to other participant's reviews here)

October (see links to other participant's reviews here)

November (see links to other participant's reviews here)

December (see links to other participant's reviews here)

Sunday, 2 January 2011

2011 Support Your Local Library Challenge

I took part in the Support Your Local Library Challenge hosted on Home Girl's Book Blog last year and managed to read a fab selection of books. I'd never be able to afford to buy all of the books I want to read so this is a great way of testing new authors or trying books you're not sure about. If we don't support our libraries then we'll end up losing them which I think would be a huge loss to book lovers everywhere. If you'd like to sign up for the challenge click here

I read 87 library books last year but I've got to concentrate on reading more of the books I own this year so I think I'll just aim for 25 library books this year. I may end up changing that as the year goes on though so we'll just have to see.

I'll keep a list of the books I've read along with links to my reviews here, if you'd like to read the reviews posted by other participants click here

2011 Horror & Urban Fantasy Challenge

Last year I took part in the Speculative Fiction Challenge hosted by Carolyn at Book Chick City this year she is hosting the Horror & Urban Fantasy challenge instead. I don't read a lot of horror but I absolutely love urban fantasy so I couldn't resist signing up for this one. If you'd like to join me you can find out more and sign up here

The aim is to read 24 books but I'm pretty sure I'll end up reading more than that. I'm going to keep a list of the books I've read for this challenge here along with my reviews (click here for links to other participants reviews)

2011 Read 100 Books in a Year Challenge

It's that time of year when I've got to decide which reading challenges to sign up for again & there are so many challenges that have been tempting me this year! I did a similar challenge to this one last year hosted on a different blog and found it was a great way of keeping track of the number of books I read. When I saw that Carolyn at Book Chick City was hosting the challenge this year I couldn't resist signing up. I managed to read 216 books last year so I'm hoping to at least match that total in 2011 - I'm not sure if I'll manage it or not though! If you want to join the challenge with me you can find all the details and sign up here

I'm going to list the books I've read & add links to my reviews here

January (see links to other participant's reviews here)

February (see links to other participant's reviews here)

March (see links to other participant's reviews here)

April (see links to other participant's reviews here)

May (see links to other participant's reviews here)

June (see links to other participant's reviews here)

July (see links to other participant's reviews here)

August (see links to other participant's reviews here)

September (see links to other participant's reviews here)

October (see links to other participant's reviews here)

November (see links to other participant's reviews here)

December (see links to other participant's reviews here)

Immortal Beloved - Cate Tiernan
The Girl in the Steel Corset - Kady Cross
The Truth About Celia Frost - Paula Rawsthorne
First Grave on the Right - Darynda Jones
Beauty Dates the Beast - Jessica Sims
Hard Bitten - Chloe Neill
Succubus Revealed - Richelle Mead
Unleashed - Nancy Holder & Debbie Viguie
Unearthly - Cynthia Hand
Soul Beach - Kate Harrison
Dark Inside - Jeyn Roberts
Tiger's Voyage - Colleen Houck
Fire and Thorns - Rae Carson
Carrier of the Mark - Leigh Fallon
Glass Houses - Rachel Caine
We Can Be Heroes - Catherine Bruton
Night Veil - Yasmine Galenorn
Wildefire - Karsten Knight
Lament - Maggie Stiefvater
Spellbound - Cara Lynn Shultz
Nightlife - Rob Thurman
Socks Are Not Enough - Mark Lowery
Forsaken - Jana Oliver
Tempest Rising - Tracy Deebs
Virals - Kathy Reichs
Undead - Kirsty McKay
Deception - Lee Nichols
Drink Deep - Chloe Neill
Angel's Fury - Bryony Pearce
Forgotten - Cat Patrick
A Clockwork Christmas - Anthology
Winter Wishes - Anthology
A Vampire for Christmas - Anthology
When Beauty Tamed the Beast - Eloisa James
Immortal Rider - Larissa Ione
Street Game - Christine Feehan
Trapped - Michael Northrop
Blood Feud - Alyxandra Harvey (review coming soon)
Blackwatch - Jenna Burtenshaw (review coming soon)
A Beautiful Evil - Kelly Keaton (review coming soon)
Alien Proliferation - Gini Koch (review coming soon)
Supernaturally - Kiersten White (review coming soon)
Cipher - Moira Rogers (review coming soon)
Fated - Sarah Alderson (review coming soon)

2010 Recap

Here are some stats for my first year of blogging that probably nobody but me will find interesting but I'm curious to see how they will compare to 2011's totals

Books read in 2010 = 216
Novellas read in 2010 = 12 short stories
Short Stories read in 2010 = 15 novellas

Totals by month:
January - 22 books & 1 short story
February - 19 books & 1 short story
March - 21 books, 1 short story & 1 novella
April - 18 books, 5 short stories & 2 novellas
May - 22 books and 2 short stories
June - 22 books and 1 short story
July - 20 books and 2 novellas
August - 17 books and 1 novella
September - 14 books and 1 novella
October - 11 books and 2 novellas
November - 14 books
December - 16 books, 1 short story & 6 novellas

Other random facts:
87 young adult books read
83 library books read
104 new (to me) authors tried

Current number of followers = 384
Wow I still can't believe so many people follow my blog, I really never expected that & I appreciate every single one of you :o)

December 2010 Recap

Here is the list of books I read in December: (The links will take you to my reviews)

Dark Prince - Christine Feehan (Read in Nov but reviewed in Dec)
The Eternal Ones - Kirsten Miller (Read in Nov but reviewed in Dec)
Awakened - Ednah Walters (Read in Nov but reviewed in Dec)
Mistress by Midnight - Maggie Robinson (Read in Nov but reviewed in Dec)
Playing with Fire - Henning Mankell
Last Sacrifice - Richelle Mead
Nightshade - Andrea Cremer
Crux - Moira Rogers
Vampire for Christmas - Felicity Heaton (Novella)
Simon's Cat: In his very own book - Simon Tofield
Black Swan Rising - Lee Carroll
The Devil's Playground - Jenna Black
Rules of Attraction - Simone Elkeles (review will be posted on 15th Jan)
The Darkest Kiss - Keri Arthur
Monster High - Lisi Harrison
Crossroads - Moira Rogers
Once Bitten, Twice Shy - Jennifer Rardin
The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove - Lauren Kate
Her Heart's Desire - Kathleen Dienne (Novella)
Her Fallen Angel - Felicity Heaton (Novella)
Noughts and Crosses - Malorie Blackman (Review coming soon)
An Eye For An Eye - Malorie Blackman (Novella) (Review coming soon)
A Peyton Family Christmas - Moira Rogers (Free Short Story)
Secret Lives - Gabriella Poole (Review coming soon)
Half Brother - Kenneth Oppel (Review coming soon)
Her Warrior Angel - Felicity Heaton (Novella)
Shadow Days - Andrea Cremer (Free Novella)

December Book of the Month:

I read some amazing books in December Last Sacrifice the final book in the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead is one I've been looking forward to for ages and it completely lived up to my expectations. If you haven't discovered this series yet it's one I'd highly recommend. Then there was Andrea Cremer's debut novel Nightshade that completely blew me away, I can't wait to get my hands on the next book in the series!

There were a couple of others that I absolutely loved - Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles, I didn't think she'd be able to top Perfect Chemistry but she managed it & I loved Carlos Fuentes even more than his brother Alex. My review will be posted on the 15th January as part of a blog tour to celebrate the UK release. Another book that I absolutely adored was Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman, I think this was the most powerful young adult book I read in 2010. I'll be posting my review for this book in the next couple of days and it's one book I'd recommend to anyone who hasn't read it before.

Read my review of Last Sacrifice here

Read my review of Nightshade here

(If you're in the UK you can also enter my giveaway to win a copy of Nightshade here)

Event Reports:

At the end of November I was really lucky to be invited to the Walker offices for a blogger event. We had an amazing time getting to meet author Zoe Marriott and finding out about some of the amazing new YA books Walker have lined up for us in 2011. They definitely have something that will appeal to everyone & I can't wait to read some of the books they have coming out. You can read the full event report here if you'd like to see what you have to look forward to.

Author's Animal Antics:

I haven't got as much time as I would like to organise guest posts for Author's Animal Antics so this feature will probably be a bit sporadic for the next couple of months, I'm hoping to get back on track with things when I eventually find a new place to live & get the move over & done with. In the meantime if there are any authors who would like to take part please feel free to contact me (you can find out more about the feature here). This month we had a great guest post from Andrea Cremer who told us about the horse that gave her Nightshade. You can read the full post here

HIV / AIDS in YA Lit Week:

December 1st was World AIDS Day and Caroline from Portrait of a Woman has organised a campaign for book bloggers to help raise awareness. You can find out all about the week on Caroline's blog here, lots of other bloggers are also taking part so keep an eye out on the blogosphere for reviews on various different books about this subject. You can read my contribution to the week by clicking the links below:

Challenge Updates:

I did it, I completed all of my 2010 challenges! I'm still trying to decide which challenges to sign up for in 2011, there are quite a few I've seen that I'd like to take part in but I don't want to sign up for too many so I'm going to try and restrain myself.

100+ Reading Challenge - Read 200/200 - COMPLETE

Young Adult Reading Challenge - Read 75/75 - COMPLETE

Support Your Local Library Challenge - Read 75/75 - COMPLETE

Terry Pratchett Challenge - Read 5/5 - COMPLETE

Thriller & Suspense Challenge - Read 12/12 - COMPLETE

2010 Summer Romance Challenge - Read 16/16 COMPLETE
New Author Challenge - Read 50/50 COMPLETE
Awesome Author Challenge - Read 20/20 COMPLETE

Paranormal Reading Challenge - Read 50/50 COMPLETE
Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge - Read 24/24 COMPLETE

NAC April Mini-Challenge Battle Royale - Read 5/5 COMPLETE

Saturday, 1 January 2011

Happy New Year!

Well it's time to say goodbye to 2010 and I have to say I'm not exactly sad to see the back of it, in a lot of ways it was a tough year but I guess it wasn't all bad. One of the best things about last year was starting blogging, I'm so grateful for everyone I've met through my blog - other bloggers, authors and publishers alike. I started my blog on the 1st January (so today is actually my 1 year blogoversary) as a way of keeping track of the books I was reading. At the time I had no idea that the whole blogging community existed, had never heard of an ARC and had never even been to an author signing, I was just a long term book worm who has loved reading since I was a small child.

I feel so lucky to have met so many like minded people and I appreciate every single one of you. I've loved making new friends both online and the ones I've been lucky enough to meet face to face. I'd like to say a massive thank you to the publishers and authors who have sent me copies of their books for review and also to the publicists who have organised some fantastic blogger events that I have loved attending. It has been amazing to get to meet some of my favorite authors and I've discovered so many books that I probably wouldn't have tried if I hadn't been reading other blogger reviews. I'm still trying to narrow down my list of favorites books for 2010 but I'll be posting my list in the next couple of days.

I'm hoping 2011 is going to be a brilliant year for all of us, I know there are a lot of fab books that I can't wait to get my hands on! I want to do something special to celebrate a year of blogging but haven't got all of the details sorted out yet, rest assured there will be a fab giveaway coming soon though. For now I'll just sign off by saying I hope you've all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year celebration and that 2011 brings everything you could wish for!