#FreeReadsWeek reading challenge!

If you're anything like me, you've been downloading free books onto your ereader for years and acquired a pretty hefty stack of unread books. I wanted to dedicate a week to reading as many of these free books as possible in a week, and thought you guys might like to join me.

The challenge takes place 15th July - 21 July

Begin reading whenever it's 00:00 in your time zone. For me it runs from 00:00 GMT on 15th July to 11:59 GMT on 21st July.

The rules are simple:

Read as many free books as you're capable of

This includes books you got during a free promotion and permafree books

Post as many reviews as you can! If you don't have a blog, twitter reviews, Goodreads, and Instagram are all awesome!

(Reviews are massively important to indie authors and help readers find these books, even when they're as short as one line, but if you're not able to write a review please at least rate the book on the retailer you purchased from.)

Use the hashtag #FreeReadsWeek whenever possible

And feel free to save the above banner and share it

Let me know if you're joining me!

~Saruuh

#ReadWomenMonth Round-Up!

Ayyyy, RWM is over and I read TONNES of lady authors. SEVEN were new to me!!

Here's what I read:

1 - The Dream Thieves | Maggie Stiefvater REREAD

2 - Stormsinger | Stephanie A. Cain

3 - Blue Lily, Lily Blue | Maggie Stiefvater REREAD

4 - King Slayer | Virginia Boecker

5 - The Raven King | Maggie Stiefvater

5.5 - The Healer | Virginia Boecker (S/N)

6 - The Raven King | Maggie Stiefvater REREAD

7 - Bright Blaze of Magic | Jennifer Estep

8 - Rowena's Key | A. J. Nuest

9 - Heat of The Moment | Lori Handeland

10 - Smoke on The Water | Lori Handeland

Amber Smoke | Kristin Cast (D)

10.5 - Red At Night | Katie McGarry (S/N)

Thief of Lies | Brenda Drake (D)

11 - City of Fae | Pippa DaCosta

12 - Stone-Cold Fox | Hailey Edwards

13 - Dog With A Bone | Hailey Edwards

14 - Heir of The Dog | Hailey Edwards

Kind of a ridiculous amount of books, right? That's even taking out the one dude I read (because it was a limited free read on RivetedLit!) 

I'm also in the middle of reading The Mark of Noba, by G L Tomas, HP + The Half Blood Prince, and Paper Hearts vol. 1 by Beth Revis, so four more lady authors there! I'm so happy with my reading this month :)

My favourite author of this month is a VERY close toss up between Maggie and Hailey Edwards, my newfound urban fantasy bae.

Did you take part in Read Women Month?? If not, who was your fave lady author in June?

~Saruuh

Don't Fear The Reader roundup!

I might have slacked off many things this month, but this reading bingo wasn't one of them! I got two lines crossed off and I'm extremely happy with that. Here's what I read this month:

And here's my completed bingo card!! 

BLACK COVER:

The Seventh Bride | T. Kingfisher

VAMPIRES:

Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them | J. K. Rowling (vampires are mentioned...... this totally counts)

GHOST HUNTERS:

Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets (I mean technically there are ghosts, and this book features the Headless Hunt so...)

WITCHES:

Blood Magic | Tessa Gratton

DEMONS:

The Darkest Night | Gena Showalter

UNDEAD/ZOMBIES:

Alice In Zombieland | Gena Showalter

CONTEMP' GOTHIC:

The Casquette Girls | Alys Arden

How did you do this month? Did you read any Hallowe'en inspired books?
~Saruuh

Don't Fear The Reader, Halloween book bingo!!

IT'S SPOOPY SEASON!!! (Or, if you're not weird, spooky season.) HELLA COOL BLOGGER AMBER-ELISE AND I HAVE COLLABORATED ON A HALLOWEEN BOOKISH BINGO. AND ALSO NO I WILL NOT CEASE WRITING IN ALL CAPS.

Well, okay fine, sentence case it is. (But just know, I am literally vibrating with excitement!!)

This bingo runs the month of October, and everyone can join. Read as many books as you like - aim for a line! I'm aiming for two because I have no limit. The bingo squares range from serial killer to paranormal to murder mystery, and I'll bet you can find a bunch of books on your to-be-read shelves that coordinate with some of them. So round up your spooky reads, save/print out/post on your blog this bingo card, and join us!

There'll be more things celebrating Halloween posted through the month (which I'm bound to RT, so follow me on Twitter), and I'll be scheduling a couple posts to mark my progress and to shout my love of a certain witchy Halloween film. October's gonna be fun.

Tweet me or comment if you join, and have fun!

~Saruuh

ARC August roundup

Books read in total:

1 -The Vanishing Island | Barry Wolverton

2 - Night Owls | Jenn Bennett

3 - The Accident Season | Moira Fowley-Doyle (DNF)

4 - A Riddle In Ruby | Kent Davis

5 - Polaris | Mindee Arnett

6 - Daughters Unto Devils | Amy Lukavics

7 - This Monstrous Thing | Mackenzi Lee (DNF)

8 - Undertow | Michael Buckley (DNF)

9 - The Unquiet | Mikaela Everett

10 - Lies We Tell Ourselves | Robin Talley

11 - Witch Hunter | Virginia Boecker

12 - Fire & Chasm | Chelsea M. Campbell

Faves of June:

ARC August!

I decided some time last night (3AM, 5AM, whenever I woke up in the middle of the night...) that I wanted to have a full month of reading galleys and review copies because I have a LOT of them to read. And then this evening, I went on Bloglovin and discovered there was an actual challenge dedicated to the very thing I had decided to do when I was half asleep. It must be fate.

So, I'm participating in this reading challenge, and hope to power through many galleys and a couple physical review copies too!!

~Saruuh

Read Women Month 2015!

It's Read Women Month, bitchesssssss!! Hosted again by my good friend Stasia, RWM challenges you to make your reading list entirely female for one month. Sound like your kinda thing? Find more info here.

This year there are reading challenges (aw yisss I was hoping for these!!), and here are my planned reads:

Read A Classic

See now this is the one I'm probably skipping, but if I'm going to read anything classic (probably not), it's gonna be Little Women or Frankenstein.

Re-Read An Old Favourite

Now you're playing my song. This could go either way, depending on my mood. I need to reread Angelfall in preparation for End of Days, and I've been meaning to reread Beautiful Creatures so I can finally finish the series FOR EVER and now I actually own all four.

Read A Book In A Genre You Don't Usually Read

Again, this depends entirely on mood - I'm a mood reader - but I do need to read these two at some point. I'm sure there's something on my physical shelves too in a genre I don't usually read, so maybe that'll happen instead.

Read A Book By An Author You Haven't Read Before

99% likely to end up as a buddy read between me and Stasia. Been meaning to read this for a couple years now, LONG before it came out, so we'll see if it lives up to my expectations!! (Also if I read 5 books by women authors that can qualify for this challenge ... that totally counts as 5, right?? Yes. Saruuh-logic says it does.)

If you have nothing planned for June, DO THIS THING WITH US!!! Or if you can't, you should still keep an eye on the #ReadWomenMonth hashtag 'cause I'm gonna be posting stuff!!

~Saruuh

Halloween bingo + signups

Breaking news: I have an addiction to bingos. Actually this is probably not news. It's probably pretty obvious by now. But that's beside the point. I have created the ultimate of reading bingos: the Halloween bingo.

I took nine spooky things, put them in a square, and made them bookish. Feel free to share this on whatever social media is your thing and cajole your friends into joining.

Ghost

A book with ghosts

Witch

A book with witches

House

A book with a haunted (or creepy) house

Gravestones

A book with the dead (reanimated corpses, zombies etc.)

Spiderweb

Free square

Moon and Star

A gothic novel

Cat

A book with animals (shifters count for this square)

Bats

A horror novel

666

A book with a number in the title

Info:

This challenge runs from 1st October to 31st October

You can read absolutely anything, any genre, any age bracket, as long as it matches the square.

You can participate even if you don't have a blog - just tweet or tumblr or instagram your progress. (use the hashtag #halloweenbookbingo)

Sign ups close never.

Link up your progress on 31st October (check back here for the post) so everyone can see how you did.

Add your sign up post (or tweet) in the comments below, and if you've got any questions, just ask. I look forward to seeing all your spoooky reads!

~Saruuh

Autumn challenges update

Is it really the last quarter of the year? Already? I hate this season - limbo season. It feels like 2014 is almost over, but it's not 2015 yet. I even know which challenges and reading aspects I'm going to focus on next year, even though it's still months away. Damn, limbo season.

Aaaanyway here's how I'm doing:

Bingos

Still got a way to go with this but I'm optimistic. I can do this.

Three left! Three left! Three left!

Personal challenges

I wanted to read 85 novels, and I've read 54. I don't know whether I'm on track because I suck at working out percentages and stuff but I'm impressed at myself. I've almost read as many books as all of 2013 and we're only in September!!

AND to further big up myself, I'm above and beyond my short stories/novellas goal. Hell yes, go me.

In the genre challenges I set to myself, which was to read 25 dystopian novels and 10 sci-fi, I have completed the science fiction one. I severely overestimated how many dystopian books I'd be reading this year. Should've aimed for ten. Ah well, I'm extra happy to have met my goal for the sci-fi books!!

General stats

Books read as of 14/9: 54

Did not finish: 12

Series started: 19

Series completed: 7

Favourite so far: Daughter of Smoke & Bone series / Illusions of Fate / The Assassin's Curse duology

Least favourite so far: The Blood List / Tabula Rasa

If you'd like to see a full list of what I've read, that's here.

So how about you - are you taking any reading challenges this year? Have you completed any?

~Saruuh

Challenges galore!

Is it already halfway through April? What is happening to this year - it's just flying. I thought, since the first quarter of the year has passed, that I'd write an update on my reading challenges. 

At the beginning of the year I took on five challenges - two reading bingos, two of my own goal challenges, and a challenge over at Worlds Without End. I think I'm doing pretty great so far. While I may be behind on my overall goal, I'm much better than I thought I would be on the individual challenges.

Bingo 1

This is one of the challenges I think I'm doing pretty awesome with. Not to brag or anything. I've read 9 books towards it and have completed about a quarter ish, if my maths is correct (which it probably is not...) so I'm on track to finish on time.

Here are the books I've read:

The Immortal Rules | Julie Kagawa

Sworn To Raise | Terah Edun

The Castle Behind Thorns | Merrie Haskell

Rebel | Amy Tintera

Proxy | Alex London

Fragile Eternity | Melissa Marr

Radiant Shadows | Melissa Marr

Stolen Songbird | Danielle. L. Jensen

Black Dog | Rachel Neumeier

Bingo 2

11 books down!! Only 13 to go. This is by far my favourite bingo of all time. Each square is different and inventive. Here are the books I've read:

The Murder Complex | Lindsay Cummings

Riot | Sarah Mussi

The Blood List | Sarah Naughton

Ignite Me | Tahereh Mafi

Altered | Jennifer Rush

The Vanishing Season | Jodi Lynn Anderson

Daughter of Smoke and Bone | Laini Taylor

Infinityglass | Myra McEntire

The Gathering Dark | Leigh Bardugo

Days of Blood and Starlight | Laini Taylor

The Winner's Curse | Marie Rutkoski

Science Fiction challenge

This is one of the goals I set for myself. I want to read 10 sci fi books by the end of the year. So far I have read:

1 - Infinityglass | Myra McEntire

2 - Erased | Jennifer Rush
3 - Rebel | Amy Tintera
4 - The Murder Complex | Lindsay Cummings

Dystopia challenge

Another challenge I set for myself to make myself actually read the dystopic books on my shelves, specifically 25 books. As you can see, I'm doing shit on this challenge. Here's what I've read:

1 - Riot | Sarah Mussi

2 - Ignite Me | Tahereh Mafi

3 - The Immortal Rules | Julie Kagawa
4 - Proxy | Alex London

Women writers of genre fiction challenge

I haven't done so good with this one, mostly because there's only a few specific women writers listed on the Worlds Without End database and the books I've been writing aren't listed. But I have read:

1 - Laini Taylor (Daughter of Smoke & Bone)

2 - Leigh Bardugo (The Gathering Dark, A.K.A. Shadow & Bone)

General stats:

Books read as of 20/4: 21

Did not finish: 6

Series started: 9

Series completed: 4

Favourite so far: Daughter of Smoke & Bone / Days of Blood & Starlight | Laini Taylor

Least favourite so far: The Blood List | Sarah Naughton

Book Bingo Reading Challenge

Alright so it's got to that time in the year when I start signing up to reading challenges. It's a real weakness - I love them. I sort of participated in a Dystopia reading challenge last year but, being a baby blogger, I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't link any of my reviews or posts back to the challenge, take part in mini challenges, or really interact with other bloggers. All that is about to change.

(Well, my being a social hermit might not change all too much. No promises there.)

The first challenge I'm taking part in is the 2014 Book Bingo Reading Challenge. It sounds so fun and unique and I can't wait to take part. Bingo for readers! What a brilliant way to make a reading challenge even more exciting? These creators must be geniuses.

I think I'm only going to sign up to this one challenge, since I have my own targets and challenges for Dystopia/Post-apocalyptic/Utopia, and for Science Fiction. I don't want to undertake too much as to overwhelm me but I couldn't pass this up.

My progress will be on my 'read in 2014' page if you want to see how I'm doing during the year!

~Saruuh