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+ KEY WORDS THIS MONTH +

Please, Might, Return, Shy, Vanish, Book, Ash, Come

Comment below with the book you read and whether you liked it or not

I’m planning on reading a Nicholas Spark’s novel in honor of Valentine’s Day and this challenge. The book I picked is The Return.

This month's planned book is The Vanishing Throne. Fingers crossed!!

I think I’ll be doing The Book of Magic this month by Alice Hoffman.

Im 60% through this one. I really want to like it because I own two different special editions but it is just slowwww

Planning to read The Last to Vanish by Megan Miranda. Enjoyed All the Missing Girls, so hoping this one is as good.

For my February pick, I am planning to read The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean ☺️

Once Dead, Twice Shy - Kim Harrison
My review: 4 stars.
This was super cute! I sort of vacillated between 4 and 5 stars��.this was probably closer to 5 stars, but just not *quite* there. I really enjoyed the premise of the storyline, and the main character is mostly likeable/relatable. Harrison did remarkably well with conveying what could have been a massively complicated plot into so few pages. Usually that’s a major complaint for me (when too much storyline is crammed into too few pages), but for some reason it works out okay this time.

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The Gospel Comes With a Housekey by Rosaria Butterfield

And Then She Vanished by Nick Jones

I'm currently reading "I Came To Say Goodbye" by Caroline Overington

I'm going to be reading Book of Night by Holly Black. I'm excited!

Over the weekend I finished Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal for this month's keyword challenge. This was a delightful read and one I wouldn't have picked up except that it is part of the @everydayreading book club. Probably because I have a close family member who has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer and the fact that she wrote this book so shortly before she knew about her own cancer and how much of the book is dedicated to just being so present, it really hit me hard. This is a book I feel like I should read every year just as a reminder of the joyful parts of life. Highly recommend!

Something Deadly This Way Comes - Kim Harrison
My review: 4 stars
At the halfway mark, I was concerned that the storyline couldn’t possibly be wrapped up properly with so few pages remaining. But I’m quite happy to say that everything is actually tied up fairly neatly, into an ending that is quite satisfactory. I’m left feeling like this series probably didn’t garner the attention it needed in order to continue beyond a trilogy. Which is a shame, because I enjoyed it enough that I definitely would have kept reading it.

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Reading Harriet Wolf’s Seventh Book of Wonders by Julianna Baggott. Interesting read so far.

I’m wondering if it counts but I just finished reading Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan. It was so raw, honest and painful but also beautiful reading about love and how rocky it can get when hit with grief and loss. There was humour and smut too and it was just an awesome, well-balanced book

I have chosen to read Vanishing Hour by Laura Griffin. 😊

I just finished The Last to Vanish by Megan Miranda

I read From Blood and Ash and mostly loved it. There were a couple moments that I thought were cringe but I will probably read on in the series.

Challenge complete!
Book - The Last to Vanish by Megan Miranda
Keyword - Vanish

Not quite as good as “All the Missing Girls��, but still worth the read. See my review here: /review/show...

My 3rd word prompt book for this month!
Ashlords - Scott Reintgen
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My review: 5 stars *SPOILER-ISH*

This was pretty great! If you’re a fan of The Hunger Games, you’ll definitely enjoy this. It took a few chapters/viewpoints for me to get a firm grasp on the world this takes place in, but after this initial stuttering start, the author builds up some good momentum. I’m pretty sure this is the first book I’ve ever encountered that uses 2nd person narration (for one of the main characters). It’s a narration style that jumped out at me right away, and took several paragraphs for my brain to adapt to before it stopped feeling strange. The narration changes back and forth between 1st and 2nd person, depending on which character that chapter is focusing on (only one of the characters is told in the 2nd person).

The world building is pretty solid, taking place in an environment that’s close to our own, but populated with 2 distinct races/peoples. One is a race of humans like ourselves, called Dividians, and the other is a race of humanoid-like beings, that have several physiological characteristics (eg - taller, dark skin, hot temperature) that easily distinguish them as “other��. Within that humanoid race there are 2 separate classes - a ruling wealthy class, called Ashlords, and those who are poorer and subjugated along with the Dividians, called Longhands.

Another interesting feature of the storyline is that the Ashlords have a pantheon of gods that they worship and are able to obtain favours from with blood sacrifices - which sounds ominous, but apparently a relatively small amount of blood goes a long way use-wise within the underworld in which the gods live/exist. Only the Ashlords worship/serve this pantheon, which is what gave them a leg up on the Longhands, which refuse to do so. Basically, from my understanding, the only reason these Ashlords are in power is because of the favours they’re able to obtain from their gods - strength, healing, etc, which can make a huge difference in battle.

And of course, what would this storyline be without the featured magical creature that is used by the Ashlords equally as status symbol, and useful companion for competitions and battles. The Phoenix is a magical breed of horse that can die and be reborn an infinite number of times, granted that its rider can control/protect its ashes between the time of its death, and the sunrise which is the catalyst to its rebirth. When the rays of the rising sun hit the ashes, the Phoenix is reborn. Now, the reason it’s so essential for the ashes to be protected, is that they can be tampered with either favourably by a rider, or detrimentally by an adversary/enemy. Adding certain alchemical elements to the ashes changes the dominant features of the Phoenix each time it’s reborn. The rider can choose features like speed, endurance, protective plating, or even weapons like spikes/claws/teeth. Only a certain number of attributes can be chosen per rebirth, and these changes only last for one life cycle - if the Phoenix dies, the rider must wait until the next sunrise for a rebirth. Riders memorize the formulas that create each different physical attribute - which allows them to customize their steed as circumstances demand. BUT changes can only be made to the ashes in the moments right before the sunrise and resultant rebirth. On the flip side, adversaries are capable of sabotaging their opponents Phoenix by poisoning the ashes with undesirable alchemical ingredients that result in things like blindness, insanity, a weak heart, etc. And since a Phoenix must die in order to be reborn with different characteristics, and cannot be reborn without the rays of the rising sun��.the most dangerous time for a rider is the time between their Phoenix’s death, and rebirth. Paradoxically, if a rider needs to change a characteristic of their mount, they must kill it. So if animal death is something that is a hard boundary for you��.you’re not going to have a good time reading this series. There aren’t a huge amount of Phoenix death scenes, but there are a few.

It’s been a long while since a book has inspired me to write such a long summarization/review. I originally rated this at 4 stars, but upon reaching the end of this review, I’ve realized it deserves 5 for getting me to write about it for several paragraphs rather than my customary few sentences.

I read The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock. I can’t conceive how that man came up with those twisted questions. It’s so weird, but some did make me think. I wouldn’t ever read it again though.

Finished!
Keyword: BOOK
I read The Book of Candlelight by Ellery Adams. It is the 3rd in the series Secret, Book, and Scone Society

Finished: Keyword: Book - I read The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson and Book Lovers by Emily Henry. Banned Bookshop is a lovely bookish romp about a girl who is spiraling a bit in life and ends up working to save her friends livlihood while upseting the small town she lives in. Book Lovers is also pretty bookish and is a straight up romance about a lit agent and an editor who have a bad first impression but find each other in a strange new place.

I read By the Book by Jasmine Guillory for both GXO Reading Challenges. It fits the keyword prompt with Book and it has flowers on the cover for the motif challenge!

I took liberties with the keyword: Come and it helped with my other reading challenge. I’ll be reading “The Comeback �� by Ella Berman from Read with Jenna

My February read for this challenge was The Book Woman's Daughter by Kim Michele Ricahrdson. I really enjoyed it. It is a sequel to The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, that i read last year. The Book Woman's Daughter takes place in the 1950s in eastern Kentucky. The girl's parents are locked up because they are breaking the Miscegenation laws (2 people of different "color" marrying). The Book Woman has the genetic disorder, methemoglobinemia, which causes the skin to turn blue. This book is about her 16 yr old daughter fighting for her freedom. I highly recommend reading this book as well as the first one, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, in order of course.

Finished The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.It was an interesting story and the characters were really interesting.

I chose The gift of reading, essays on the joys of reading, giving and receiving books for the key word book. I like reading non-fiction every now and then and this book fit the challenge. I liked some essays better than others, overall it was a good read that gave me lots of ideas for further reading

I read the Last To Vanish by Megan Miranda for this and for my FB book club group. I've read one other book by her and liked that. It was kinda slow for the majority of the book and then escalated quickly the last couple of chapters. The main character, Abby, plucked my last nerve and her workmate, Georgia, was worse. It was alright but nothing to write home about.

Challenge Complete.
Key word: Might
I read a Firefly novel What Makes Us Mighty by MK England. Not sure how much this would appeal to anyone who is not a fan of the Firefly series, but it was a fun read for me. With a series that ended far too early, it is great to revisit characters that I love.

Just finished The Book Woman’s Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson

Scooting in under the wire! I started The Library Book in February and finished it on the first day of March so hopefully, that will still count. :) I'm so glad I read this book - I've had it on my to-read list for a while and this challenge gave me the push to finally read the book. I'm so glad. It was an amazing read and just made me more determined to support my local library in every way possible. Libraries are such an underrated social service and this book gave me so much history and context for libraries. I'd highly recommend this book to ANYONE!

February was a rough month for me. My depression got the best of me this month so I slacked on my reading. However I was able to read at least 1 book with one of the keywords.

I read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

Review: It took a little time for me to get into this book as I wasn't the biggest fan of this writing style. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I even watched the movie afterwards. I've heard about this book over the years but it never seemed to make its way on to my TBR until this year.

I read The Messy Lives of Book People by Phaedra patrick. I enjoyed it but it was only a 4 star read for me.

Challenge Complete - twice

I didn't intend to, but I read two books that apply. Sorry I'm late posting!

Title: The Secret, Book, & Scone Society
Key word: book
Author: Ellery Adams

Title: Book Lovers
Key word: book
Author: Emily Henry

Both were good, but I was surprised how much I liked Book Lovers. I had a hard time putting it down. Ellery Adams books was not as good as I'd hoped, but still good. Glad I read both.

I read Local Woman Missing as a play on "vanish".

My first thoughts about this book is just wow. I honestly loved it. It's told from 3 different points of view and has a floating timeline between the past and the present. The book is filled with misdirection and I have to admit that I didn't see the end coming.

I'm new to this group but was following the monthly challenge:
In February I read the following (with author's initials)
-Night by EW - gave it 5 stars
-Yes Please by AP- gave it 3 stars
-The Return by NS - gave it 2 stars
-Twice Shy by SH - gave it 4 stars
-Come Find Me by MM - gave it 3 stars
-Nantucket Nights by EH - gave it 4 stars
-The Book of Lost and Found by LF - gave it 3 stars
-The Cold Vanish by JB - gave it 3 stars
-Ash by ML - gave it 4 stars
-The Night Shift by AF - gave it 4 stars
-The Night Sister by JMcM - gave it 4 stars
-The Night She Disappeared by LJ - gave it 4 stars
-The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by KMR -gave it 4 stars
-The Book Woman's Daughter by KMR - gave it 4 stars
-The Forest of Vanishing Stars by KH- totally recommend, gave it 5 stars
-Midnight at Tiffany's by SM - gave it 4 stars

The VANISHing Half
by Brit Bennett 4 stars

When Winter COMEs
by VA Shannon 3 stars

The BOOK of Magic
by Alice Hoffman 3 stars

Better late than never! Challenge complete for keyword: Book
The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey - I didn't really love this and probably won't continue with the series.

The library book by Susan Orlean