2020 Reading Challenges
As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm planning on taking part in several reading challenges this year in an attempt to read more books (2019 was not a good reading year).
I'm creating a separate blog post for each of the challenges I'm doing to give you more details about each of them.
Audiobook Challenge 2020
I discovered audiobooks more last year, and even found a few that I really enjoyed. The narrator really can make or break a book.
Anyway, I've decided that I want to experiment more with this medium for reading books. I found it was a nice way to pass the time whilst doing the ironing or washing up. I also hope it will allow me to fit more reading into my busy schedule, as it allows for multitasking.
My book blogging friend Eline from Lovely Audiobooks has organised a reading challenge specifically for audiobooks and so I thought I'd give it a go.
This is the challenge sheet:
I'm still not sure which I'm going for at the moment but I have several audiobooks waiting on my audible account that I'd like to get round to and hopefully at least a few will fit with the prompts.
You can find more information about the Audiobook Challenge 2020 at:
Are you taking part in the Audiobook Challenge 2020, or another reading challenge in 2020?
2020 Reading Challenges
As 2019 was not my best reading year. In fact, I ended up reading very little over the course of the year as life just kept getting hectic and I found I had less and less time to sit down with a book. I'm therefore determined that 2020 will be a much better reading year.
I've decided to take part in a few reading challenges this year, and will be posting about each of them individually to give you all the details.
Armed With A Bingo
The first one I want to tell you about is Armed With A Bingo. Kriti is part of my Bookish Blog Hops group, and when she told me about this reading challenge I just had to sign up. Book bingo, what's not to like?!
I really liked the idea that participants get a personalised bingo sheet. Here's mine:
I'm not sure what books I'll be reading for each challenge yet but I'm excited about getting started.
There's several on here that are not my usual reading genres (I tend to like thrillers, mystery, and romance), but I'm looking forward to trying out something different. Who knows, I might like other genres too and not know it yet.
#ARMEDWITHABINGO starts 1st January 2020!
This reading challenge is organised by Kriti & Ariel.
Reach them on
Are you taking part in Armed With A Bingo, or another reading challenge in 2020?
Free Reads Every Day!
This post may contain affiliate links. Meaning, I get a commission if you purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Read the full disclosure here.
I hope you managed to grab a copy of the featured book for 23rd A Duke She Can't Refuse (The Impossible Balfours Book 1) by Gemma Blackwood.
This year I decided to set up a special advent calendar where I featured a different book every day giving you the chance to grab a free copy of each book on the day it was featured. A total of 24 free reads!
I had a super busy Christmas Eve and so didn't manage to post this on the 24th as planned but I didn't want you to miss out on the last day of this book advent calendar and so I'm posting today.
I hope you've enjoyed discovering these books with me over the past 24 days. I know I've had fun searching through the free reads on Amazon to select a book for each day.
Book Advent Calendar Day 24
Title: Murder on Board : A Cruise Ship Cozy Mystery Book 1
Author: Ivy Dawson
Grab your free copy here
About the book:
Shae Jordan is trying to get a fresh start. She wants to take beautiful pictures and see the world, and so decides to take employment on a cruise ship. Unfortunately, life isn’t on a cruise ship isn’t one big holiday, as Shae is about to find out. After her first night, a body is found in one of the main pools.
The victim is heiress, Nova Ashcroft. It also becomes immediately apparent that it was no accident when they find out that Nova had been stabbed.
When the Captain approaches Shae and asks her to take a look around, Shae knows where to start. However, members of the crew are determined to keep the whole thing a secret, and surprisingly, so is Nova’s husband.
Will Shae find the truth? Or will the secret of who killed Nova be lost at sea?
Free Reads Every Day!
This post may contain affiliate links. Meaning, I get a commission if you purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Read the full disclosure here.
I hope you managed to grab a copy of yesterday's featured book Up in Smoke (Glock Grannies Cozy Mystery Book 1) by Shannon VanBergen
It's December and that means the count down to Christmas is on. This year I decided to set up a special advent calendar where I'll be featuring a different book every day. You'll be able to grab a free copy of each book on the day it's featured. That means 24 free reads!
I'll be offering you the chance to get your hands on some great books, from a variety of genres, all for free!
I'll be visiting Amazon each day and selecting a book at random from their free list. I'm not even sure which books I'll be featuring yet so it'll be a surprise for me too.
Book Advent Calendar Day 23
Title: A Duke She Can't Refuse (The Impossible Balfours Book 1)
Author: Gemma Blackwood
Grab your free copy here
About the book:
Headstrong Miss Daisy Morton must make a choice: play the fiancée to a duke she doesn’t love, or face ruin.
Daisy’s loyalty to her friends is always getting her into awkward places. Unfortunately, those places include the bedroom of the stern young Duke of Loxwell, where she is caught hiding by one of society’s most notorious gossips.
For mysterious reasons of his own, the duke saves her reputation with a false engagement. There’s only one rule: she can't fall in love with him.
Simple enough. What are the chances that the true love Daisy has always dreamed of should turn out to be the strict, strait-laced, surprisingly tender duke with a devastating smile reserved especially for her?
Alexander Balfour, the new Duke of Loxwell, lives for honour and duty. The dukedom weighs as heavily on his shoulders as the responsibility of setting an example for his four unruly sisters.
And that honour has sealed his fate forever. A fatal mistake in his past means he cannot fall in love without betraying those he holds dearest.
Even if Daisy turns his world upside down in a hundred different ways, she cannot save him from his lonely penance.
Or can she?
Check back tomorrow for another free read!
Free Reads Every Day!
This post may contain affiliate links. Meaning, I get a commission if you purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Read the full disclosure here.
I hope you managed to grab a copy of yesterday's featured book The InBetween (Painter Mann Series Book 1) by Dick Wybrow
It's December and that means the count down to Christmas is on. This year I decided to set up a special advent calendar where I'll be featuring a different book every day. You'll be able to grab a free copy of each book on the day it's featured. That means 24 free reads!
I'll be offering you the chance to get your hands on some great books, from a variety of genres, all for free!
I'll be visiting Amazon each day and selecting a book at random from their free list. I'm not even sure which books I'll be featuring yet so it'll be a surprise for me too.
Book Advent Calendar Day 22
Title: Up in Smoke (Glock Grannies Cozy Mystery Book 1)
Author: Shannon VanBergen
Grab your free copy here
About the book:
A hilarious cozy mystery from USA Today Bestselling author Shannon VanBergen
Nikki is a flirtatious six-time divorcee. Geraldine is her quirky grandmother. Mix in a bunch of gun-toting grannies, an outrageous retirement home, and an unsolved mystery and there's bound to be some excitement. Follow along as Nikki and the cast of retirement home vigilantes work to solve the mystery before everything goes up in smoke.
Up in Smoke is part of the Glock Grannies Cozy Mystery series. If you like fun cozy mysteries and outrageous characters, you are going to love Up in Smoke.
Check back tomorrow for another free read!
Bookish Blog Hops Winter Hop 2019
Disclosure: The FTC Disclosure Provision is a law that requires influencers to disclose when they are being paid to promote a product or service. So please know that if I'm not making money through affiliate links/sponsored content on the post you're currently reading, it's an oversight on my part and will be corrected soon. Read the full disclosure about all the legal stuff here.
I'm back with the Bookish Blog Hops crew today to talk about our favourite film adaptation of a novel.
Favourite film adaptation of a novel
I honestly don't know what film to pick for this. For TV series it would probably be Sex and the City, but for film? It's a tough question to answer.
The Harry Potter series was done really well. I've seen several films based on Jane Austen's books that I've loved too. There's not really one that stands out though. That might be because I usually find the film doesn't quite live up to the book in most cases. For example, whilst I enjoyed the films for Percy Jackson, and for Me Before You, they just didn't come close to the books.
Lets see what the others had to say:
I would definitely have to say my favorite book to film adaptation is Pet Sematary, the 1989 film. In this adaptation, there were a handful of things that differed from the book, but it wasn’t anything major. For the most part, it was all pretty spot-on! The atmosphere was wicked creepy and looked great! All of the camera shots were so artistic and wonderfully framed. The makeup and other visual elements were amazing! All of the actors were just perfect for their roles! The kid actors did an especially amazing job. I mean, Miko Hughes as Gage Creed? Could that have been any more ideal?
My favorite adaptation will always be Stardust, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. It is my favorite fantasy movie to begin with, and when I finally got around to checking out the book, I went in with high hopes that such writing would carry over, and I could relive all my favorite parts of the film, with the added detail and description of a master author!
What. A. Disappointment.
The book I read was nothing like the movie I loved. Oh sure, it had the high points and everything, but it was the subtle details I wanted, the richness and the vivid colors and magic and whatnot--not the gore and the graphic nudity and all that! Most disappointing of all was the novel version of one of my favorite side characters from the movie, Captain Shakespeare. With a name like that, how could you not make him some kind of fantastic larger-than-life persona? And in the movie he’s played by none other than Robert DeNiro, with all the flamboyant charm that man can give to a role--I adored it!
In the book? Captain Shakespeare gets two sentences of description. He gets three or four paragraphs in one chapter, as a means of getting the illustrious main characters from one point to another. That’s it.
I still love the movie though. I just feel like it improved on the story, rather than being exactly like the book. That’s one of the instances when making those changes is okay.
Tomorrow we'll be visiting Kaili at www.entertaininglynerdy.com to talk about whether we prefer to keep books or give them away once they’ve been read.
Books
Free Reads Every Day!
Disclosure: The FTC Disclosure Provision is a law that requires influencers to disclose when they are being paid to promote a product or service. So please know that if I'm not making money through affiliate links/sponsored content on the post you're currently reading, it's an oversight on my part and will be corrected soon. Read the full disclosure about all the legal stuff here.
I hope you managed to grab a copy of yesterday's featured book The Christmas Compromise (Christmas Mountain Clean Romance Series Book 3) by Susan Hatler.
It's December and that means the count down to Christmas is on. This year I decided to set up a special advent calendar where I'll be featuring a different book every day. You'll be able to grab a free copy of each book on the day it's featured. That means 24 free reads!
I'll be offering you the chance to get your hands on some great books, from a variety of genres, all for free!
I'll be visiting Amazon each day and selecting a book at random from their free list. I'm not even sure which books I'll be featuring yet so it'll be a surprise for me too.
Book Advent Calendar Day 21
Title: The InBetween (Painter Mann Series Book 1)
Author: Dick Wybrow
Grab your free copy here
About the book:
Painter Mann is a one-of-a-kind private investigator. He may even be the world's best, but mainly that's because he's dead.
Assisted by his "Temps"-- a select few of the very old who are so close to death they can actually hear him-- Painter has sworn to help the murder victims stuck in The InBetween by revealing their killers so they can move on.
But, a new mass murder case threatens everything after Painter recognizes the killer's face as the person who murdered him.
Exposing them will free dozens of ghosts but will also clear Painter, leaving no one to help the souls trapped in The InBetween.
Also, he's really into the whole private investigator thing. When alive he was never really good at much. Dead? He's a hell of a PI.
Is Painter willing to risk it all to save those he's sworn to help?
I love the idea of this book. Can't wait to read it.
Check back tomorrow for another free read!
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