The Goodreads Challenge – Novels I Want to Read

Have you taken the Goodreads challenge? Steph Nickel looks at some of the books that she aspires to have read before the end of the year.

The Goodreads Challenge

Have you achieved your reading goal this year?

Each year I participate in the Goodreads challenge, setting a goals as to how many books I want to read.

If I read at least two more novels and four nonfiction books by the end of the year, I will exceed my goal, which doesn’t happen often.

I am currently reading Emily James’s Guilty or Knot. This book is the latest volume in the Maple Syrup Mysteries. Reading this cozy mystery is like visiting with old friends. If you would like to read this series, I suggest beginning with Book 1, A Sticky Inheritance. You may even want to read the prequel, Sapped, first.

I am conflicted about what other novel I should read before 2020 rolls around. (Does that date sound as futuristic to you as it does to me?)

Should I read The Billionaire’s Secret Heir by Emma St. Clair? As the Light Fades by Catherine West, which is being launched on September 10? The Academy of Stolen Magic, Book Two in the Blakemore Paranormal Academy series by Sullivan Gray and E. C. Farrell, scheduled for release on September 25? Thad by Beverley Boissery? Or perhaps, Water Walker by Ted Dekker?

Let me read you snippets from the descriptions of each of these books (some of which you may remember from previous reviews):

The Billionaire’s Secret Heir

The Billionaire’s Secret Heir – “You have a daughter.”These four words change EVERYTHING. The moment billionaire Beckett Van de Kamp meets his daughter, Becka, love blows him over with the force of a hurricane. But is he willing to let a child into his orderly–and solitary–life? Especially when it comes to Becka’s primary caregiver, her aunt Madi. Stubborn and fiercely loyal, she isn’t like any woman he’s ever met. 

As The Light Fades

As the Light Fades – Sometimes we’re placed in the strangest of circumstances for the most important reasons. After her carefully constructed life crumbles, Liz Carlisle finds herself back on Nantucket, picking up the pieces. With the family estate under renovations, the solitude she craves seems out of reach. Matthew Stone intends to steer clear of his new tenant. She’s carrying a load of baggage, but as long as she pays the rent, he’ll let her be.

He’s got enough to deal with caring for his wayward niece, Mia. Liz doesn’t have time for teenagers and her track record with men is abysmal, but an unlikely friendship forms between the three. When her former boyfriend is charged with assault, Liz is called to testify against him. But he knows the darkest secrets of her life—secrets she’d hoped to keep buried forever, and he’s ready to reveal them. Telling the truth is the right thing to do, but it may cost her everything she’s worked so hard for, and all she’s come to love. 

The Academy of Stolen Magic

The Academy of Stolen Magic – I’m not sure what hurts more: the knife in my back or the one in my heart. I thought the worst thing that could happen to me was losing my powers and being shipped off to Supernatural Reform School. I was wrong. Betrayed and heartbroken, I’m still searching for the mages who stole my powers. But now I know that the conspiracy goes much higher up the chain of command. High enough that my new friends and I might all be in danger. Especially when we find out that Blakemore Paranormal Academy is housing a magical weapon. We don’t know what or why, but are determined to find out where and stop it.

Thad

Thad – At first, after Thad Compton time travels to the twenty-first century, he’s not sure if it’s been worth the bother. But once he and Chloe Murray go back to Wahmurra, his 1833 home, they find an intriguing set of messages from the past. The messages are written in what seems to be an indecipherable code. As he and Chloe work on cracking the code, Thad starts school and almost immediately makes an enemy of its resident bully. What do the messages mean? Why has their writer gone to such extremes to make them so difficult to figure out? And when it looks like Thad’s destiny is intertwined with the bully’s, will good or evil prevail?

Water Walker

Water Walker – “My name is Alice Ringwald, but the man who kidnapped me says that’s a lie. He calls me Eden and says he’s taking me to be with my mother. But my mother, like everything else in my past, is dead. Or so I thought.”

From women’s fiction to clean romance to young adult? As you know, I have eclectic interests.

So, let’s say, I’ll finish Guilty or Knot and commit to reading As the Light Fades and The Academy of Stolen Magic when they come out.

Four Audiobooks

And let’s not forget the four audiobooks I’ll be listening to before the end of the year. Yep, I’m going to blow my goal out of the water. Maybe I should actually revise my goal.

And the first six novels on my To Be Read list for 2020? (Of course, this list is always subject to change as my favourite authors keep publishing more books.)

I will be reading Blood of the Dragon Shifter, the third book in the YA series, Blakemore Paranormal Academy, which is due to be released in October. (I’ll probably read this before the new year, but we’ll see.)

… The Bookshop of Yesterdays, which I began (and reviewed) earlier this year. (Kudos to those of you who only read one book at a time and don’t get distracted by the newest shiny volume!)

I plan to finally get around to reading Water Walker. I have several other Ted Dekker books sitting on my shelf as well. One day. Hopefully!

I am not an historical fiction fan, but I did enjoy Beverley Boissery’s The Convict’s Thumbprint and look forward to reading the follow-up, Thad. These books were written for a younger audience, but I found the first one intriguing.

I would also like to complete Sara Davison’s The End Begins and read Janet Sketchley’s Hidden Secrets … and oh, so many other novels!

What’s on your To Be Read pile?

What books have you read recently? Tell us about what you are enjoying. Comment below or contact us at HopeStreamRadio.

Steph Nickel

Steph Beth Nickel is eclectically interested and eclectically involved. In all she does, Steph seeks to nurture and inspire. She is currently working on the first book in a nonfiction series. Nurture and Inspire LOVE is a compilation of the first devotionals she wrote for HopeStreamRadio.

Steph is a freelance writer and editor. She is the coauthor of Paralympian Deb Willows’ award-winning memoir, Living Beyond My Circumstances, published by Castle Quay Books. Deb and Steph are working on a follow-up book.

You can visit her website, stephbethnickel.com, to learn more about her.

Visit Steph’s contributor’s page or at Steph Nickel’s Eclectic Interests.

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