firewhiskeyreader

Am I doing too much with my reading this month? Undoubtedly. But I thought I would share these very cool reading challenges with you in case you haven’t seen them and might want to participate. And then we’re going to talk about the handful of books I have that will cover prompts across the challenges.

WhateverAThon was created by Maddie from book browsing blog and this year there are teams, so I’ve joined Team Beach Readers! It will last all month and there’s a special Beach Readers bingo board, which I’ll have down below to talk about it. Then there is Reading the Rainbow, created by Jacque, Beth, and Kelleen under the #ButDoTheyBang umbrella. There’s a bingo challenge for this one as well! It also will last all month and again, the bingo board will be down below. Also, I own too many books, so when the ClearUrShit 2.5 post crossed my timeline, I said, um, brilliant and have added it to my list. It also has a bingo board, but it’s very focused on reading what you already own. That’s the key that I need to remember for like, the entire summer and all of these challenges. Then… I may have created my own Taylor Swift themed bingo board for the summer and I am not hosting this, but after thinking about it, I’ve decided that there’s no reason not to share the board because it’s real cute and you could play it whenever you want. I’ll be playing from June 1 – August 31st. Anyway, that’s a lot of challenges, but uh, well. We should be fine. So let’s jump into this!

WhateverAThon – Team Beach Readers

One of the things that made me intrigued about this readathon is that the bingo board specifically includes five non-book based prompts. My only problem with that is deciding what to count as a personal goal. I’ve got a month to figure it out though! So let’s hit some highlights of what I’m trying to get read here and figure out what my color on the cover is going to be.

So random color generator says that my color is purple, which means Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake and Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers will both work. They’ve both also been on a previous TBR, Honey Girl was a 2021 release and is under 300 pages, and Delilah Green is a romance so my favorite genre. I should have mentioned, you can count any book for three prompts! And there’s this fancy way of tallying your points, but Maddie has a spreadsheet that does it for you so I’m not too worried about it. You do get extra points for reading a book with LGBTQIA+ representation in it though too, which makes it extra helpful for doubling up with Reading the Rainbow. For summer thriller, I’ve borrowed The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave from the library and plan to read that one, which will also count for less read genre, water on the cover, 2021 release, and the, an, a, etc. prompt. I’ll porbably try and read a book I own in physical form for the different format prompt since it’s my least read format. I’m thinking either From Bad to Cursed by Lana Harper or Shadow’s Seduction by Kresley Cole as my options there. From Bad to Cursed would also conveniently work for recently hauled because I picked it up today (May 30th). Shadow’s Seduction happens to work for Indie/Self-Pub and for continue a series. I’m leaning toward Stolen Heir by Sophie Lark for my dark romance and The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle Jensen or The War of Two Queens by Jennifer L. Armentrout for political fantasy. As far as one-word title, I’ve got many options, but I’m leaning toward Sweethand by N. G. Peltier or Saint by Sierra Simone. Saint would help cover continue a series as well. As far as last letter, first letter, I could go the easy route and do Saint to The Bridge Kingdom as a t to t. Or, actually, I just got Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse from Netgalley, which would cover Saint to that and Tread of Angels is only 128 pages. So then we have host favorite and I’m really torn about what to read. I’m currently finding myself wanting to try Circe by Madeline Miller because I’ve remembered that once upon a time I actually liked Greek myths and I want to know if I still do. Other options I’m considering are Fortuna Sworn by K.J. Sutton, Jade City by Fonda Lee, The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons, The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake, and Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram.

Reading the Rainbow

I’ve got several books that I know work for some of these prompts, but I really want suggestions for so many of these prompts! I’ll run through some of my top options that I haven’t mentioned for #WhateverAThon yet. I Kissed a Girl by Janet Alexander, Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner, Out on the Ice by Kelly Farmer, and Satisfaction Guaranteed by Karelia Stetz-Waters all work for Sapphic, but I’m not sure if they work for anything else. I’ve got Our Favorite Songs by Anita Kelly loosely picked out for friendship because I’m obsessed with the community at Moonies and I have Wherever is Your Heart picked out for Butch MC. For Black romance, I’m thinking D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding by Chencia C. Higgins. For #BeGayDoCrime, I’m not sure if I want to go The Wolf at the Door by Charlie Adhara route (stop crime) or The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian (do crime). As far as re-reading a favorite goes, I’m leaning toward The Belle and the Beard by Kate Canterbary at the moment. I’ve got The Perks of Loving a Wallflower by Erica Ridley and For the Love of April French by Penny Aimes as options for gender expansive main character. The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun is on my TBR and has been and apparently has an a-spec main character, per this post from Kelleen. Read Between the Lines by Rachel Lacey and Meet Cute Club by Jack Harbon are both books with bookish MCs. And for Rainbow, I’m planning to do I’ll be the One by Lyla Lee. I have a couple of options for physical disability, but most likely I’ll finally finish A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall after I get over my aversion to the Netgalley app for audiobooks. (How dare they only go to 2x speed? Honestly.) I would really like to finally get to Treasure by Rebekah Weatherspoon, which I think would work for neurodivergent main character.

So, obviously that is a lot of books. And yet, I don’t have a solid pick for travel, stabby, or second chance. I know I have books that fit these prompts on my TBR, but I do not know what they are because I buy books and then promptly forget why I did so. Anyway, please feel free to give me a heads up if any of the books I’ve talked about work for other prompts and recommendations you have on the ones I talked about!

Clear Ur Sht 2.5

I’m thinking of doing Making Up by Lucy Parker because it’s one of the oldest ARCs I have on Netgalley. Sweethand would work for Breakfast Club. So many of my other options work for Girls Just Wanna Have Fun since romances often do have more than one POV. As for a sci-fi… Maybe I’ll just hope one of my reads has a surprise tech element. Polaroids is for a book with characters on the cover and although illustrated, Delilah Green Doesn’t Care would work, as would When You Get the Chance by Emma Lord, and although only one, Honey Girl as well. For comforting book, I usually find romances to be comforting so I’ll slot one of those in and, tbh, I finish a lot of books in a weekend, so I’ll just pick something random for that. And obviously, there are a ton of books with LGBTQIA+ representation on my TBR this month!

And finally… Taylor Swift Bingo Board

So as you can see, a lot of these prompts are just straight up lyrics, so I’ll run through the prompts, but I’m not going to do a real TBR for this because I’m just going to plop things in here as I go with no real plan and hope for the best.

Row One:

• “You’re tied together with a smile, but you’re coming undone” = A book with mental health representation
• “Wreck My Plans” = a randomly selected book (like a poll or a random number generator)
• New York = a book set in New York City
• “This is the last time” = a TBR Veteran
• “For you, I would cross the line” = a book outside your comfort zone

Row Two:

• “Drop everything now” = Last book acquired
• “I don’t wanna keep secrets just to keep you” = a book with a deception
• “So this is me swallowing my pride” = a hyped book
• Track Five = an emotional/angsty book
• “This ain’t Hollywood, this is a small town” = Set in a small town

Row Three:

• 2 a.m. = Read a book that makes you join the Bad Decisions Book Club (as first heard from Mel, but basically refers to reading a book that you stay up way past your bed time to read)
• “Play it again” = Re-read
• Free Space
• “Baby, just say yes” = Impulse buy/borrow
• “Grab your passport” = Read a book set in a different country

Row Four:

• “I just want to know you better” = Read an author for the second time or continue a series
• London = a book set in London (at least partially)
• “I’m a mess but I’m the mess than you wanted” = Read a book with messy characters
• “You never go out of style” = Read a “classic” using the broadest sense of the word OR any book older than 13 years
• “Gorgeous” = Read a book with a gorgeous cover (or title)

Row Five

• “You weren’t mine to lose” = borrow a book
• “Isn’t it delicate?” = read a book you hope you’ll love
• “Shining just for you” = read a book with less than 500 ratings on Goodreads/Amazon/Storygraph, etc.
• “Now I’m all about you” = Read a highly anticipated book
• “I hate accidents except when we went from friends to this” = read a book with the friends to lovers trope

That was a lot, but I had a lot of fun typing all of this out and looking at the ridiculous amount of books I want and need to read. Please feel free to share your recommendations if you have any! And if you want to participate in the Taylor Swift Book Bingo, you’re welcome to. I’m also happy to be a sounding board if you want recommendations or to share your thoughts about your books, but to be clear, this is not an official reading challenge. If people are interested in one, let me know because honestly, putting together this bingo board was a lot of fun so I could definitely be persuaded to make another and do an official challenge. But for now? Just have fun if you want to with it!

xx