This past week was the reading rush! Here’s what I was able to read!

There was a lot of (warranted) controversy surrounding the reading rush this year and I urge you to check out the discussions online and read some of the thoughts/opinions of readers that were personally affected and hurt by the insensitive actions.

It’s also the perfect time to find and join some other book clubs featuring diverse books & hosts! (post(s) on this may be coming soon!)

But I still wanted to share my wrap up because in all honesty, most of my reads didn’t directly correlate to the readathon anyways…. I definitely played loose and fast with the challenges 😅

In fact, the majority of what I ended up reading didn’t fit into any of the challenges.

I hit a wall HARD on Wednesday and struggled to stay motivated or stick to a book. So I really just let my mood guide me the rest of the week.

Here’s what I DID end up reading and which (if any) challenges it completed!

---

1. A Murderous Relation by Deanna Raybourn ⭐⭐⭐.5

Challenges: Set on a different continent

Gah I love this series!! This wasn’t my favorite of the series, but it was still really fun and the perfect book to kick off the week with. I won’t lie, it was really hard to read this as quickly as I did 😅 With this being historical fiction, the language is not something I naturally read quickly. But I loved this book and I’m really sad to be caught up – such a long wait for book 6!!

2. Daimon (Covenant #0.5) by Jennifer L. Armentrout ⭐⭐⭐

Challenge: Genre I want to read more of (SFF)

Also on day 1, I wanted to pick up an audiobook book. So I decided to finally start on this series by JLA. It’s a YA fantasy romance series I’ve heard great things about and this prequel novella was only a little over an hour on audio. Honestly, I don’t think the prequel was necessary in the slightest… Nothing really happened and it’s all recapped at the beginning of book 1 anyways.

3. A Worthy Opponent (Wicked Villains #3) by Katee Robert ⭐⭐⭐

Challenges: Color of my birth stone (amethyst)

Next I needed something super light and easy to read. So I picked up the next book in the Wicked Villains series. And this fit the bill perfectly. This book was steamy AF (obviously) and a fun, quick read. I love this series so much and fully believe Katee Robert can do no wrong. Again, not my favorite of the series so far, but still super enjoyable.

4. Crazy for Your Love (The Boys of Jackson Harbor #5) by Lexi Ryan ⭐⭐⭐.5

This is when things really started to devolve 😅 This didn’t fit for a single challenge but I was feeling borderline slumpy so I just picked up whatever was calling to me. This is the 5th book in another series I’ve been loving. This was a solid fake dating romance but nothing about it really blew me away (a theme this entire week sadly).

5. Half-Blood (Covenant #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout ⭐⭐⭐.5

I wasn’t much in the mood for reading physically by the end of the week so I grabbed another audiobook. Since I started this series earlier in the week, I decided to just continue on. Technically it could have met a challenge… if I hadn’t completed it already 😅 This was a super fun, albeit predictable and kinda cheesy. I’m actually planning on continuing with the series right away though! This seems like a perfect binge series.

---

Books I Started But Didn’t Finish

6. Archangel’s Blade (Guild Hunter #4) by Nalini Singh

Once I started mood reading and ignoring the challenges, I couldn’t stop 😅 I was now on a fantasy romance kick so I just steered right into that and picked up the next book in the Guild Hunter series. This is the first book in the series following a different character and I’m really enjoying it! I just passed the halfway point so hopefully I finish this today or tomorrow!

7. He Started It by Samantha Downing

Challenge: First Book You Touched

This was my randomized pick for the week. It was supposed to be my audiobook for the week – and I did start it! But I just really wasn’t feeling the thriller vibes this week so I never picked it back up… It released on Tuesday though so I really need to finish this and get my review posted. I’m only like 9% so I don’t have any thoughts on it yet…

8. Deal With the Devil (Mercenary Librarians #1) by Kit Rocha

Challenge: Genre to read more of (SFF)

So this was my original pick for this challenge but it didn’t go very well. I only got about 10% into this before I put it down for the week. This story was just really slow and dense so it wasn’t a great pick for a readathon. My progress was really slow-going and it was just disheartening since I wanted to get as many things read as possible. It’s another ARC and is being released this coming Tuesday though so I really need to get back to this one!

---

Did you participate in the reading rush?? How did your reading go?!

♥♥♥♥