COYER Summer 2017 | Reading List Wrap Up!

COYER is a reading challenge hosted by Michelle @ Because Reading, Berls @ Fantasy is more fun, and Stormi @ Books, Movies, Reviews Oh My!

COYER stands for "Clean out your e-reads."  And typically the goal is to read from all the freebies or low priced books you've collected in the past on your e-readers.

But for this summer duration of June 17th to September 8th, our hosts are throwing out the normal rules!

Click on this link to sign up or read about COYER Summer 2017.

An Overall Summary for Ani's COYER

I'm going to call it quits a few days early for COYER this year.  I think I've hit all I can hit for my Summer Reading List, and with Halloween Bingo starting up, I'm having trouble multi-tasking both of these challenges.  I'm really just too eager to dive into my Halloween Bingo reads, so much so that I'm not even glancing at my COYER reading list anymore to see what else I should try to read.

Anyway, I still feel like I've gotten quite a bit accomplished.  I read 23 books total for the overall challenge, including books I added after each five books I finished reading.  16 books were part of the original thirty, and if I only count the original thirty books that started the reading list, I've at least accomplished reading a little over 50% of my list.  Even as a total, I've finished reading a little over 50%.

It's not the goal I had in mind, but it's still a pretty good accomplishment, I feel, to have been able to knock 23 books off of my "already owned" bookshelves, both digital and physical.  On top of that, I've reached my Mount TBR Challenge goal of reading 36 books on my "already owned" bookshelves for this year.

A list of all the books I had wanted to read, with links to all my reviews can be found below.

Overall, I think COYER was a great success for me this year--what with my "Laid Back Reading Plans" and all, I think I kept up pretty well.

Until next year!  Because I normally only participate in the summer COYERs since they're the more laid back ones.

Other Related Update Posts

Summer Reading List Thons
June 25th to July 2 ~ e-books only | Wrap Up
July 23rd to July 30 ~ physical books only | Wrap Up
August 20th to August 27th ~ audio and e-books only | Wrap Up

Ani's COYER Summer Reading List

See Also: COYER Summer Reading List @ GR
See Also: COYER Summer Reading List current review link-up page
Progress:  23 books read

1. Going Rogue by Robin Benway
2. Secret Agent Secretary by Melissa Cutler -- 6/29/2017
3. Hot on the Hunt by Melissa Cutler -- 7/8/2017
4. Behind the Scenes by Natalie J. Damschroder -- 8/23/2017
5. Secrets by Cynthia Eden
6. Suspicions by Cynthia Eden
7. The Manhattan Encounter by Addison Fox -- 6/25/2017
8. Hot Mess by Lynn Raye Harris -- 8/25/2017
9. Hot Package by Lynn Raye Harris -- 8/27/2017
10. SEAL's Honor by Elle James
11. On the Loose by Tara Janzen -- 7/27/2017
12. Cutting Loose by Tara Janzen -- 7/29/2017
13. The Mysterious Twin by Leona Karr -- 6/23/2017
14. Cold Memory by Leslie A. Kelly -- 7/31/2017
15. Pushing the Lines by Kimberly Kincaid -- 6/27/2017
16. Skin Deep by Kimberly Kincaid
17. Midnight Exposure by Melinda Leigh
18. Night Diver by Elizabeth Lowell -- 7/9/2017
19. The First Victim by J.B. Lynn
20. Thicker Than Water by Maggie Shayne -- 8/9/2017
21. The Littlest Cowboy by Maggie Shayne
22. The Law of Attraction by N.M. Silber -- DNF'd on 7/20/2017
23. Her Fierce Warrior by Paige Tyler
24. Heat Wave anthology - Stephanie Bond, Heidi Betts, Leslie Kelly -- 7/27/2017
25. That's Amore anthology - Janelle Denison, Tori Carrington, Leslie Kelly
26. Bare Essentials duo-story anthology - Jill Shalvis, Leslie Kelly -- 8/14/2017
27. Night Driving by Lori Wilde
28. Smooth Sailing by Lori Wilde
29. Crash Landing by Lori Wilde
30. Part Time Cowboy by Maisey Yates

The Add Five After Reading Five List:

(Added on 7/8/2017)

1. Loose and Easy by Tara Janzen -- 8/1/2017
2. Breaking Loose by Tara Janzen -- 8/4/2017
3. Loose Ends by Tara Janzen -- 8/6/2017
4. Ghost Horse by Patricia Rosemoor
5. Fire and Ice by Julie Garwood

(Added on 7/29/2017)

1. Dear Maggie by Brenda Novak
2. Just Past Midnight by Amanda Stevens
3. The Trouble With Mistletoe by Jill Shalvis -- 8/15/2017
4. One Snowy Night by Jill Shalvis -- 8/17/2017
5. Accidentally on Purpose by Jill Shalvis

(Added on 8/9/2017)

1. One Night With Her Boss by Noelle Adams -- 8/14/2017
2. Irresistible Force by D.D. Ayers
3. Hit and Run by Allison Brennan and Laura Griffin
4. Wild Wicked Scot by Julia London
5. Her Special Alpha by Paige Tyler -- 8/25/2017

As of 8/23/2017 -- As the end of COYER Summer Vacation draws near, I've decided to stop adding books to my COYER list and try to focus on what I have left instead.  I haven't been getting through these books very quickly anyway, so we'll leave it at that.

(Note, as of 7/20/17, I have removed the spinny wheel.  It has not really been helping me any.)

Quick Thoughts: Canyons of Night

Canyons of Night

by Jayne Castle
Book 8 of Harmony
-- Book 12 of Arcane Society
-- Book 3 (final) of Looking Glass Trilogy
-- Book 0 of Rainshadow

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  4.0 Stars

Charlotte Enright, owner of a small antiques shop called Looking Glass Antiques on Rainshadow Island, and Slade Attridge, the community's new chief of police, both have something in common: they possess strong paranormal talents.

They met several years ago when they were in their teens spending the summer on the island.  Slade saved Charlotte from a gang of drunken toughs, but then at the end of the summer Slade and Charlotte went their separate ways and started their adult lives.

Now, fifteen years later, they have both been drawn back to Rainshadow Island.  They will discover the adult passion they have for each other and start to explore some of the mysteries of the forbidden section of the island known only as the Preserve.

Canyons of Night rounds out the Looking Glass sub-trilogy of the long-running Arcane Society series.  I assume this is also the last book in the Arcane series, though it's usually hard to tell with long-running series like this.  Nonetheless, it is also an introductory story into a new chapter of the Harmony series, called Rainshadow--we already get to see a little bit of what Rainshadow is all about, starting with the island and the Preserve situated on the island.

I look forward to the rest of the Rainshadow installments, if only because it seems like it'll be an intriguing new development to the futuristic series.

As a JAK novel, of course, this book is highly enjoyable during the reading.  The characters are great, and the community mirrors that of a small town in the U.S., with everyone knowing everyone's business, and all the people on Rainshadow Island kind of policing themselves.

Our main male and female MCs are good people, although they don't really stand out all that much, and I really hate to admit that even Slade's dust bunny companion, Rex, seems a bit flat as well.  I liked that we've kind of returned back to a semi-murder mystery type of story, and have sort of veered off from the ongoing "band of rogue psychics" conspiracy that has been happening in the Arcane parts of the connecting series.

Harmony is a series separate from Arcane after all, even if there are some intersecting story lines, with references from historical, to contemporary, to futuristic.  I always find the references to 21st century Earth as a "point in history" kind of amusing.

Meanwhile, aside from some more references to glass light energy, the words 'looking glass', and Mrs. Bridewell's clockwork curiosities being used as psi-weapons, I'm honestly not sure that these past three books really needed to be connected as a trilogy.

If there were one (or two) things I'd like to see more of in this series, it would be more insight into the alien civilization that has vanished, maybe some introductions to more alien beasts than just the dust bunnies.  It seems hard to reconcile that all alien live save for dust bunnies have somehow gone extinct.

I would have also have liked to see and learn more about the Bridewell clockwork curiosities, and feel as if the Quicksilver mirror, or glass light energy is more significant than it's kind of being made out to be.  The previous sub-trilogy was all about the dreamlight, but glass light is only barely touched upon in the contemporary and now the futuristic novels of this trilogy--really, only the historical part of the trilogy gave glass light more than just a passing thought.

Otherwise, like I've said before, JAK novels are always entertaining and easy to breeze right through.


***

Halloween Bingo 2017

Monthly Reading Wrap Up -- August 2017

First of all, I had intended to have this as a scheduled post because I wasn't sure if I'd have time to get it posted in a timely manner after August was over.  Or... well, in a timely manner for me.  Truthfully, if I really wanted to, I could just push it off until after Labor Day weekend and no one would really be concerned anyway.

Meanwhile, my plans for the weekend, reading-wise, can be found at this update post here.

Other news about the weekend will be forthcoming.

I'm hoping to be able to check into Booklikes randomly to see how the beginning of Halloween Bingo is going, how everyone's reading is going, and which squares are being called.

In other reading news, I managed to reach my goal for one other reading challenge, this month--the Mount TBR reading challenge, in which I proposed to read 36 books from my 'already owned' TBR shelves.  This challenge will only count books that I owned prior to 2017, so I'm making headway on this challenge; so, yay!

Meanwhile, I also completed my goal for the Author Love challenge, where I proposed to finish reading at least seven books by an author I happen to love--my pick was Jill Shalvis, and I've already gone one more book beyond my goal of seven.

All sorts of accomplishments in August!

August Reads

Books Dropped/Put On Hold

Colder Than Ice by Maggie Shayne -- Undecided for Hold or Drop

Currently Reading

August Reading Stats

Total works read: 20

• 8 print/e-book novels
• 4 novellas (one was an audio book)
• 1 short story
• 6 audio books (one was a novella)
• 1 anthology

Average rating: 3.20 Stars

• Highest Rated:  4 books // 4.0 Stars
• (1) Loose Ends by Tara Janzen
• (2) Wicked Intentions by Elizabeth Hoyt
• (3) In Too Deep by Jayne Ann Krentz
• (4) Quicksilver by Amanda Quick
• Lowest Rated:  2 books // 2.0 Stars
• (1) One Night with her Boss by Noelle Adams
• (2) The Lady Most Likely... by Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, and Connie Brockway

Series I started reading:

• Mordecai Young by Maggie Shayne
• Maiden Lane by Elizabeth Hoyt
• Lady Most... by Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, Connie Brockway

Series I completed:

• Steele Street by Tara Janzen

Series I have made progress on:

• Lucky Harbor by Jill Shalvis
• One Night novellas by Noelle Adams
• Heartbreaker Bay by Jill Shalvis
• Arcane Society / Harmony by Jayne Ann Krentz / Amanda Quick / Jayne Castle
• X-Ops by Paige Tyler
• Hostile Operations Team by Lynn Raye Harris

Favorite reads:  Really, I don't feel like a whole lot of books read in August stood out too much, but my highest ratings went to Loose Ends, Wicked Intentions, In Too Deep, and Quicksilver, as we can see above.  Wicked Intentions stood out as very well written and extremely enjoyable and entertaining as an audio book.  In Too Deep and Quicksilver were just typical Jayne Ann Krentz goodness.  Loose Ends was an exciting conclusion to a long series.

Disappointing reads:  My biggest disappointment was probably Maggie Shayne's Thicker Than Water, if only because I was hoping for something similar to her Brown and de Luca series, but didn't quite get it.  I had been hoping to breeze through the Mordecai Young trilogy, but kind of lost any interest in continuing.  I suppose I could always come back to it later.

Reviews & Notable Posts

Reviews Written

• Steele Street by Tara Janzen - End of Series Review
• Thicker Than Water by Maggie Shayne
• Once in a Lifetime by Jill Shalvis
• Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris | Review Transfer
• The X-Files: Cold Cases by Joe Harris
• One Night with her Boss by Noelle Adams
• The Scargill Cove Case Files by Jayne Ann Krentz
• Wicked Intentions by Elizabeth Hoyt
• Bare Essentials by Jill Shalvis and Leslie Kelly
• In Too Deep by Jayne Ann Krentz
• The Trouble with Mistletoe by Jill Shalvis
• One Snowy Night by Jill Shalvis
• Behind the Scenes by Natalie J. Damschroder
• Her Special Alpha by Paige Tyler
• Hot Mess by Lynn Raye Harris
• Hot Package by Lynn Raye Harris

Memes

• 8/7/2017 It's Monday! What Are You Reading?
• 8/22/2017 It's... Not Really... Monday!  But What Are You Reading Anyway?

Other Posts

• Halloween Bingo 2017 | Ani's Tentative Reading List
• COYER Summer Reading List | August Readathon!
• COYER Summer Reading List |August Readathon Wrap Up!
• My first interlibrary loan! And a Halloween Bingo update!
• First Impression: The Tokyo Zodiac Murders

Coming Up In September

Tentative TBR

Other Stuff

With Halloween Bingo starting up this month, I'm not entirely certain which books will be read in September and which books will be read in October.  I'm half decided that I wanted to just try follow the Bingo calls every other day and start reading my books in that order.  And if a square is called that I don't have, I can either try to finish up my reads, or read something not part of Halloween Bingo, or read ahead and try to have some books read for certain spaces while I wait for a square to be called.

Or something.

But having some library books that need to be returned in a timely manner... well that threw a kink in my initial plans.  Instead, I think I need to just get read the library books first.

Meanwhile, the books I've presented for my tentative September TBR are certainly books that I DO plan on reading for September.  The Thin Man will be for a group read at Booklikes, for Halloween Bingo, and we will start reading on September 15th.  Her Fierce Warrior is another book in Paige Tyler's X-Ops series I want to get to, and also a book on my COYER list that I'd like to have read before the end of COYER rolls around, if possible.

I have The Camelot Caper as a library e-book borrow that need to be read so I can return it and not have to sit wait through another round of holds before I get to check it out again.

Then there's The Decagon House Murders of which I'm itching to start reading, if only because I've got myself hyped up to experience it.

September will hopefully be another great reading month, as well as blogging month.

2017 Wrap-Ups 

Past Monthly Reading Wrap Ups
See Also: 2015 Reading Wrap-Up posts (scroll to bottom of page)

(updated as year progresses by month)
January | February | March | April | May | June
July | August | September | October | November | December

Very Brief Thoughts: Quicksilver

Quicksilver

by Amanda Quick
Book 11 of Arcane Society
-- Book 2 of Looking Glass Trilogy

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  4.0 Stars

Virginia Dean wakes at midnight beside a dead body, with a bloody knife in her hand and no memory of the evening's events.  Dark energy, emanating from the mirrors lining the room, overpowers her senses.  With no apparent way in or out, she is rescued by a man she has met only once before, but won't soon forget.

Owen Sweetwater inherited his family's talent for hunting the psychical monsters who prey on London's women and children, and his investigation into the deaths of two glass-readers has led him here.  The high-society types of the exclusive Arcane Society would consider Virginia an illusionist, a charlatan, even a criminal, but Owen knows better.  Virginia's powers are real-and they just might be the key to solving this challenging case.

Quicksilver was a very quick read, with the same Amanda Quick formula that I love to love.  Owen Sweetwater and Virginia Dean are good people with a penchant for hunting monsters.  Side characters are great and readily likable.  The action and suspense is exciting.  And the romance is sweet and steamy in all the right places.

I'm always intrigued by the new psychic spectrum energies that get introduced with each next book of the Arcane Society, and the truth is, I DO prefer this Looking Glass sub-trilogy more than I do the Dreamlight sub-trilogy--for one thing, this one doesn't require employing the same story line in three different time periods, unlike Dreamlight.  The contemporary time period introduced some important players and names to recognize when we jump to the Victorian era, but then we are also given even more information, and a more in depth look at how glass light is employed.

I think it's and interesting concept.

The Quicksilver Mirror comes into play, and even though we don't get to actually meet or learn more about Mrs. Bridewell, the woman who created some dangerous clockwork curiosities infused with psychic energy, used as weapons, we get to actually meet her as well.  I would have liked for Millicent Bridewell to have had a bigger role in this book, but you take what you can get.

While Amanda Quick books are never entirely memorable, they are certainly always enjoyable.  As I've said, I did love the characters.

So, Quicksilver, was pretty much just another lovely installation to this ongoing series, and I look forward to the futuristic portion of the story arc.