Tag: Tessa Dare

Books, TBR Challenge

Cora’s TBR Challenge Check-In

Cora Lee

What a year it’s been already! We’re two months in, fellow readers–how is your challenge going?

My chronic illnesses have been doing their best to knock me off my game…and it’s working so far. I had an asthma flare in January and missed our first check in of the year. And my chronic fatigue spent several months kicking my backside. So in the past two months, I’ve managed exactly one book from my Before-August 1, 2017 pile and none from my Read-Within-Two-Months pile.

Thankfully, everything seems quiet now and back to my normal, so perhaps March will be the month I get back on track. I have a couple of RITA entries left to read, then I can get back to my personal stash 🙂 I have a couple of library books I’ve checked out repeatedly but haven’t managed to read yet–The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare and 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I’ve had them out so long I’m not even sure they’ll count toward the TBR Challenge anymore (I’d planned to include them in the Read-Within-Two-Months category), but I think those are the two I’ll start with.

Books, TBR Challenge

Cora’s TBR Challenge Check-In

Cora Lee

July has almost gone, and we have five months left in 2016. How goes the TBR reading? I finished my spring classes just after last month’s Check In and have been trying to make up for lost time ever since. Summer hours at the day job mean that I’m up too early in the morning for my taste, but I’ve been getting some pages read before bed.

Photo Credit: Herzi Pinki
Photo Credit: Herzi Pinki

Helps me sleep, too 😉

In audiobooks, I finally finished listening to Dragonfly in Amber (which I started last year–thanks goodness I’d already read it, or I wouldn’t remember what was going on between listens!). I have about thirty books on to To Be Listened To list, and I’m not sure what to start next…but I bet it’ll be shorter than Dragonfly!

In e- and print books, I’ve made it through three of the eight entries in Tessa Dare’s Spindle Cove series and am working on a fourth (A Week To Be Wicked–Minerva and Lord Payne are so much fun together!). This whole series is amazingly well done, and I suspect I’ll be working my way through the rest of Tessa’s back list when I get a chance. I also started M. Louisa Locke’s Victorian San Francisco Mystery series. I bought the first three a couple of years ago and am wondering why I waited so long to get to them. That’s one of the things I love most about the TBR Challenge–finding gems in my bins and collections that I didn’t even know I had 😀

Books, TBR Challenge

Cora’s TBR Challenge Check-In

Cora Lee

The Bullet Catcher's DaughterHappy summer, Northern Hemisphere! And happy winter, Southern Hemisphere! Can you believe we’re halfway through the year already? Are you halfway through your TBR Challenge books?

I am not halfway through, but I am (finally) making progress. The Day Job has been quiet–literally–so I’ve been listening to Dragonfly in Amber once again, and am about 3/4 of the way through it. It’s been a few years since I read the book and Davina Porter does such a wonderful job as narrator, so listening is a pleasant way to pass the time at my desk.

I’ve also been taking breaks from coursework (one more paper left to write!) with books to refresh my ANightToSurrender-400x646brain and sped through The Bullet Catcher’s Daughter (my first foray into Steampunk), which was fun and mysterious and intriguing…and that’s just the series title: The Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire. I’ve already put the other two books in the series on my list and can’t wait to read them! I’m in the last few chapters of A Night To Surrender, too, which as been such a wonderful diversion from reading disabilities and classroom assessments. I have yet to read a Tessa Dare book that isn’t fabulous, and the rest of the Spindle Cove series is in my TBR collection, so you can bet I’ll be visiting there again 🙂

 

Books, TBR Challenge

Cora’s TBR Challenge Check-In

Cora Lee

Two months down, fellow readers! Is your TBR pile getting smaller yet?

I’m finally starting to make some headway. I listed to John McWhorter’s Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue when all was quiet at the day job. If you’re a language nerd, you should definitely read (or listen to) this book. The author did his own narration, so if you listen to the audio don’t expect world-class acting. But the man clearly knows his stuff and enjoys his work 🙂

I’m working on two ebooks this month as well: A Night To Surrender by Tessa Dare (the first of her Spindle Cove series) and, from my TBR library list, The Proposal by Mary Balogh (the first in her Survivors Club series). Tessa Dare has quickly become one of my go-to authors when I want a fun, well-written Regency, and Mary Balogh has been one of my favorites for years. Our weather here in Michigan has recently devolved back into snowy, sloppy winter, too, so I suspect my free time the rest of the week will be spent with a fuzzy blanket and my Kindle.

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Friday Favorites, Regency

Friday Favorites: #RegencyMensFitness

Cora Lee

Hornblower

Our Favorite this week is what happens when Regency romance writers run amok! What if men’s magazines existed in 1815? What kind of articles would they publish? Author Tessa Dare aggregated some of the suggestions tweeted with the hashtag #RegencyMensFitness. Here are a few of my favorites…

@chel_c_cam:“Can’t Dance? No Problem! Country Dances Even You Can Do.”  (This one reminds me of Benedict 😉 )

@duchess997: “Napoleon or Wellington: Who wears it best?”

@amablue47: “Like Rain on Your Wedding Day: 12 Things That Aren’t Actually Byronic”

@mariapotteryavl: “Prinny’s Tips to Wear Your Male Corset. Get the Slim Waist Without the Creaking.”

@dnak17: “A New Season’s Gardening: On Dits From Rakes to Wallflowers”

Check out Tessa’s list for more!