So I've fallen a bit off the bandwagon with the #ISpyBingo challenge this year, but here is December's board - anyone is welcome to participate!!

I have refreshed this challenge for 2025 and will be posting 12 new boards!! I seem to have lost the tag list for this challenge, if I ever had one (lol) so please let me know if you'd like to be tagged with the 2025 boards coming as soon as I finish getting this challenge loaded onto Storygraph. ⬇

(thru ch27) We'll be wrapping up Christy in December. I am really enjoying this one. I appreciate that the whole moonshining thing isn't as clear-cut as it appeared at first - Dr. MacNeil's points about the lack of income and unfairness of some of the laws suddenly turns what initially seemed to be a very good/bad/obvious situation into something more nuanced and involved. I'm also enjoying Christy's enthusiasm and desire to know more/do better. ⬇

(thru ch 55) We're closing in on the home stretch for this chunkster!! We're taking a little break for Thanksgiving, then hitting the last ten chapters. Although I'm quite curious as to whether or not Milady is going to break poor Felton!!

Overall, I'm enjoying this one, but not seeing it as a book I'll pick up again. It has its moments, but sometimes the guys are just too much lol Any thoughts from you all? I know some of you have already ⬇

Absolutely unbelievable but true: December is only a week away!!! This means that if you would like to #BookSpin for the FINAL TIME OF 2024 (!!!!!!) it's time to start thinking about your lists!!

In December I will be posting a 2025 sign-up post and also reminders on how to submit your entries for the 2024 giveaway (feel free to check out my master post on this challenge thearomaofbooks.wordpress.com/bookspin-bookspinbingo-litsy-challenge ⬇

#WinterGames #Bingo

Okay last one 😂 And just to clarify, the bottom left square does not have to be an exact quote, just the general implication of “oh my gosh you've never... decorated a tree!! Had a snowball fight!! Baked Christmas cookies!! Gone ice skating!! Had a New Year's Eve Kiss!!“ That kind of thing haha

#WinterGames #Bingo

#WinterGames #Bingo

#WinterGames #Bingo

#WinterGames #Bingo

PS Forget to say that one book can cover as many prompts as you find!!

#WinterGames #Bingo

It probably won't shock anyone to find out that I love reading bingo!!! With #WinterGames coming up, I created 7 bingo boards to try and score some extra points - bingo cards are my favorite score-racking method 😂 If you clear a board, you can restart it!!

Most of these do kind of focus on romance tropes, although there are plenty of not-genre-specific prompts as well. I have seven altogether, so I'll post them all. Feel free to use/share!!

(thru ch49) My goodness, so much is happening! D'A is finally a musketeer!! I am cracking up about how they are literally on a battlefield and any fighting is totally just background noise. These guys are obnoxious, but also actually do seem to be good at their job - I really enjoyed the way they held off the other soldiers just so they could have a private lunch 😂 There have been a lot of fun shenanigans, but I really am curious as to what is ⬇

@Laughterhp - Here are your books for #SnowedIn !! I have GOT to stop participating in this challenge because all I do is add books to my own TBR 😂

@PuddleJumper thanks so much for organizing!!!

Hey #BobWhiteBuddies !!! Quick question - do we want to skip December and pick up in January with The Happy Valley Mystery, or are we good to read Happy Valley in December? I'm fine either way, but I know this time of year can get overwhelming, so just let me know what you think!!

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(thru ch10; I haven't read today's chapter yet 😂) I think this is the cover of the edition my mom had when I was growing up. This was definitely one of the first “adult“ books I read. I've been thoroughly enjoying this reread. I really like Christy and feel like she is such a realistic character. I'm not a huge fan of David though; he's so condescending. Christy has faced some real dangers and some real life in the several weeks she has been ⬇

(thru ch39) - I haven't enjoyed the last week of chapters as much, since the guys' way of earning money mostly seems to be manipulating the women in their lives 🙄D'Artagnan really is showing is youth and inexperience here as well. At least he found Kitty a new job 😑 I've missed the slapstick from the earlier section of the book, but we'll see what happens if they ever actually head off on their tour of duty. I AM intrigued by some of the ⬇

(thru ch5) Goodness, so much has happened already! I am remembering why I enjoyed this book so much in my teens. Like Christy, I grew up in a safe, happy, religious household, and while I love my family I can remember wanting more, wanting to do SOMETHING, wanting to find a way to make my beliefs more than just words and feelings, wanting to wrestle with those beliefs and make them my own, not just my parents'. In this readthrough, I already have⬇

Here's the #BookSpinBingo card! First, I put our official numbers (12 & 1) back in the mix. Then I drew them all out & wrote them down as I went, meaning the official numbers are just mixed into the card with the rest! As you can see, 21-25 are both labeled with their numbers & also as free spaces, so you can use them to match however you wrote your list. To score a bingo, just read books (in any order) that are in any row or column!! MORE INFO ⬇

Good morning, everyone! The moment you have all been waiting for!! Our official #BookSpin number is TWELVE! Our official #DoubleSpin number is ONE!! I have thoroughly enjoyed looking at everyone‘s lists & am really looking forward to seeing your reviews!!

My next post will be the #BookSpinBingo card. I am NOT tagging anyone on that post!! If you want to bingo, please just check my profile for the card. This saves me having to double tag ⬇

Had so much fun with #HauntedShelf this month, especially with these four month-long readathons!! I had set a goal of averaging 210pgs/day for the #Spookoween readathon and ended up at 216pg average, so I was pretty stoked!! I completed 24 books/short stories, so not quite 31 but close!!! This also means 24 Pumpkaboos captured (8 short, 8 medium, 6 large, 2 super!!). And finally I also captured 8 Pokemon for the #SpookyEdition challenge.

Fifteen years ago, Emma's three cabinmates at summer camp disappeared in the night without a trace. Em is still haunted by that event. When the camp's owner decides to reopen the camp, she invites Em to come as an art instructor and Emma agrees, wondering if this could bring her the closure she needs. But of course instead things get really scary haha As with the other Sager books I've read, when I got done I still had a few questions, but ⬇

This month's #HashtagBrigade pick was kind of a reread for me. I read it last year with #DraculaDaily which, while super fun, is also not exactly the best way to read this book for the first time. So I liked reading it in order and in one month instead of six 😂 Now I might do Dracula Daily again next year lol Anyway, while there are places where the action bogs down a little, and the ending feels a little rushed, this book still has some ⬇

I really enjoyed the middle book of the Starlight's Shadow trilogy. If you want romance with a scifi setting, Mihalik is a great pick. Fluffy, but there is some action, too. In this series, the setting is a few years after a war has finally ended. It seems like someone is trying to eradicate the uneasy truce. This crew of people from both sides of the war are working together to prevent it... all while falling in love haha

Book 7 in the Trixie Belden series is the first book not written by Julie Campbell. However, I felt like if I hadn't known that, I wouldn't necessarily have guessed it haha There were several things about this one that I liked, and a few things that kind of annoyed me. The entire premise of the school forcing the Bob-Whites to disband felt unrealistic (can the school control what you do at home??) ⬇

I picked up my edition at a yard sale for a dime a few years ago 😂 Looking forward to starting this one with you all on Friday!!

#RandomClassics @BarbaraJean @BarkingMadRead @Librarybelle @Sace @StayCurious @willaful

(thru ch30) Okay, I've not been doing a great job hosting this one 😂 But I actually am really enjoying it! These guys are so ridiculous and over-the-top. And D'Artagnan finally gets to be a real musketeer... if he can find the money to get all his gear. Of course he's too busy chasing the mysterious stranger all over town haha And what do you think has happened to poor Constance??

Are you all enjoying this one or no?

Once we get to where the ⬇

I picked up this book from 1965 because it's illustrated by Sam Savitt, and it's staying on my shelf for that reason despite it being a pretty so-so story. It's only 89 pages long, and some brief research makes me think it's a sequel to an earlier book about a Shetland Pony named Christy. There just isn't much story here, but I'm sure 10-year-old me would have been enthralled by a girl being gifted her own pony 😂

An old Scholastic Book Club book from 1935 that isn't in the database. Another soft pick, this was perfectly fine but somewhat boring fare. A brother and sister at the seaside on vacation meet up with a local boy with a semi-tragic backstory involving a lost inheritance. In the end, they find the long-lost will and happy endings are handed out all around. There's birdwatching, too, so I probably would have loved this when I was younger haha

This story, about the last three gnomes in England, seems like it should have been a book I loved. Three brothers traveling to try and find their lost brother and running into plenty of adventures and animal friends along the way. However, it somehow just didn't quite work for me. Maybe it was the random murder in the middle? I liked it but didn't love it. Soft pick.

Oh my word, October is almost over!! November is right around the corner, so if you would like to #BookSpin next month, it's time to be thinking about your lists!!

And for those of you who REALLY like to plan ahead, I have every intention of continuing this challenge (+ #BookSpinBingo of course!) into 2025... even if it's absolutely bonkers that next year is going to TWENTY-FIVE YEARS into the 21st century! What. Even.

Anyway, can't wait to see⬇

A traveling book that I was supposed to read in September, whoops. This one was borderline so-so for me, mainly because the two MCs were inconsistent and kind of annoying. Also it felt like the overall message in the end was that in the nature vs nurture debate, you can't escape nature (more details in the spoiler), and I didn't care for that. However, the use of forensic genealogy was intriguing and I enjoyed the secondary characters.

I know going into it that this type of romantic suspense is going to need me to gloss over a lot of ?!?!?! moments to make it work, but this book was really pushing the limits haha Pretty ridiculous on the whole, but sometimes that's what you need. A long while back someone gave me a box of random thrillers/romantic suspense, and this was one of them. Mildly entertaining, but off to a new home now.

#HauntedShelf #DeadSerious @OriginalCyn620

The first book read for my #BirthdayBashReadathon was a bit of a random choice - a sequel to The Wind in the Willows, written by not-the-original-Willows-author. I'm always somewhat leery of people piggy-backing off of someone else's work, but I think Horwood makes it work. It's obvious that he has a great deal of love and respect for Grahame's original characters, but says he was always a bit saddened by the ending of Willows, which reassures ⬇

Soft pick. I liked the main character and her close family ties, but this book was very slow paced, and the motivation of the bad guy just never really made a lot of sense. I get it that revenge is a dish best served cold... but sheesh. Nice for a one-off read, but this one is headed to the giveaway pile.

#HauntedShelf #DeadSerious @OriginalCyn620
#ReadOrDonate @julieclair
#AtoZ @Texreader
#PromoptMaze
#BookSpinBingo

(thru ch21) How is it going, friends? I know a few of us are a little behind 😂 So without getting into too many spoilers, I have to say that the action has been quite exciting over the last couple of chapters!! (Although I felt terrible for the horses! 😢) I didn't realize there was going to be so much political intrigue, but on the whole I feel like Dumas keeps it light enough to stay entertaining.

I am planning to stick with the chapter-a-day⬇

In November we will be continuing to read the rollicking adventures of the Three Musketeers, but also will be starting another book: Christy, by Catherine Marshall. First published in 1967, Marshall drew on stories from her mother's experiences teaching in a remote area of eastern Tennessee circa 1912. I read this book as a teen an enjoyed it, but I'm interested to see what I think of it now that I have some more life under my belt 😂

A little late with my weekend readathon plans, because I was offline yesterday and forgot to post on Thursday haha I got a lot of reading in yesterday and am almost finished with the tagged book. Hoping to get through at least two more books by the end of Monday - it's looking like a chill weekend so it's pretty doable as long as I don't get toooo sucked into playing Stardew Valley 😂

While not my favorite Poirot, this one does involve Mrs. Oliver (although not nearly enough of her haha). I still haven't decided whether or not the ending is a bit of a cheat. Soft pick.

#HauntedShelf #DeadSerious @OriginalCyn620
#SpookyEdition (Fiendish) #BodyDouble #Pumpkaboo (Medium) @PuddleJumper
#CozyReads @Bookwormjillk
#AtoZ @Texreader
#Spookoween @TheSpineView
#31by31 (8/31) @Catsandbooks
#PromptMaze #BookSpinBingo

Like many of the other buddy readers, I found this one to be one of the weaker entries of the series so far. The plot felt jumbled and unrealistic (more so than usual haha) and the whole “jealousy“ side line definitely felt like padding. Definitely not my favorite.

#HauntedShelf #DeadSerious @OriginalCyn620
#SeriesLove2024 #Spookoween @TheSpineView
#SpookyEdition (Scream) #Pumpkaboo (Medium) #BodyDoubleReadathon @PuddleJumper

I really enjoyed another trilogy by this author that I read last year. These are what I think of as sci-fi lite. They're set in space, we're zipping around the spaceships, but these aren't super science-y haha It's more about the romance, and I'm cool with that. I really liked the way these two crews, from opposite sides of a recently-ended war, had to get over their suspicions and work together. The pacing was a little a slow in spots, but ⬇

Question - my husband is interested in listening to audiobooks at work. This is so not my thing so I don't know anything about them haha He mostly likes to read nonfiction. Any thoughts out there on which of the audiobook options is a good deal/user friendly/more likely to have nonfiction available?

Hey friends!! I think I'm actually going to get tomorrow off, so I've decided to kick off a weekend of reading to celebrate my birthday!! 😁 Tag me with your reads, and feel free to eat some birthday dessert in my honor 😂

If you're participating in HauntedShelf you can totally use this for bonus points, but even if you're not, I hope you'll still join me in the worthy goal of trying to work as much reading into the weekend as possible! 😉

We're 14 chapters in and I'm only just now checking to see how everyone is doing 😂 The first couple of chapters were a bit of a struggle for me, but I am starting to enjoy it now. This book is a lot more snarky than I was anticipating. And even though D'Artagnan is a hot-headed mess, I'm finding him entertaining. How is it going for all of you? Have any of you decided to bail? Any favorite characters/scenes?

Several readathons this weekend and I'm ready!! Like @PuddleJumper said, I could definitely use a #BodyDouble to do my chores while I do my reading 😂 @Bookwormjillk is hosting a #CozyReads weekend as well. I am hoping to finish the tagged book and read at least one more!! @TheSpineView my #Spookoween goal for the month is to average 210pgs/day - currently I'm only 238pgs behind, so I'm going to try and catch up this weekend!! Also still ⬇

Five years ago a high school senior disappeared. Although her body was never found, police decided that she was murdered by her boyfriend, who committed suicide a few days later. However, Pip - who is now a high school senior herself - has never believed that the boyfriend was the murderer. With the help of the boyfriend's younger brother, she sets out to reexamine the evidence. I really liked the format of this book, with parts of it Pip's notes⬇

The consensus for this one seems to be a sense of mild disappointment lol There were parts of this I really enjoyed and that resonated with me, but on the whole I found Elizabeth herself to be too self-absorbed and condescending to really like her/enjoy being in her head for an entire book. Also, I honestly wanted more garden. 😂

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead @BarbaraJean
#HauntedShelf #DeadSerious @OriginalCyn620

First off, how gorgeous is this OwlCrate edition?? I LOVE hardcovers with pretty (not-jacket) covers. I ended up enjoying this one more than I anticipated. The pacing was a little off for me, and the MC was a little too prickly for too long, but on the whole it was an engaging story with some twists I wasn't expecting, and I'm looking forward to picking up the sequel.

This was one of my #CasttheDie picks @PuddleJumper !!

This one was a soft pick for me. It had a lot of the right ingredients and I did enjoy it, but it still somehow felt flat. I love the concept of cozy fantasy, but like any other book, you need a sensible conflict/resolution to go with pleasant characters and an intriguing setting. This book tried to have an absolutely gigantic political upheaval in the background, but this either needed to not exist or be a bigger part of the story. I found it ⬇

First read completed for #HauntedShelf was this week's #NoPlaceLikeHolmes read. I really liked this one! I felt like it was very solvable for the reader (although not THIS reader haha) and the solution did a great job making all the “weird“ clues make sense.

#DeadSerious @OriginalCyn620