Earlier in the week I posted a round up of all the reading challenges I’m planning on taking part in in 2018, so now as we enter the last 12 hours of 2017 I decided it was the perfect time to round up my 2017 reading challenges!
The Goodreads Challenge
I started off the year aiming to read 50 books. I was keen to get back into reading, it was one of the reasons behind starting my blog and I figured averaging just under one book a week was doable. I’m finishing the year having read 84 books which isn’t bad going! I started of the year pretty strongly managing to read 12 books in January and March. I fell into a bit of a slump in the middle of the year and only managed to complete 2 books in June before picking up again towards the end of the year. I think next year I’m going to aim for 75 books but try to be a little more consistent during the year.
The British Books Challenge
55 of the books I have read this year have been by British authors, I’ve potentially missed a few authors who are now based in the UK. I confess to have been rubbish at reviewing in the same month I’ve read and linking up to the monthly posts – I shall aim to be better in 2018!
I’ve discovered some great new British authors during the course of the year, and read the latest novels from some of my previous favourites. My favourite British book of the year? I think I’ll have to say Tarnished City by Vic James.
I chose to include Gilded Cage over Tarnished City in my top ten books of 2017 purely because it was the first in the series, however as amazing as Gilded Cage was Tarnished City did manage to top it, the characters all grew on me and the ending just blew me away, I finished reading the book completely thrown and unsure how to feel about anything!
The Cloak and Dagger Challenge
At the beginning of the year I set out just to make amateur sleuth level – 5-15 books. I’ve actually managed to read 51 books that qualify for the Cloak and Dagger challenge which means I’ve reached Special Agent level – Although I’ve not yet posted reviews for all of them… My favourite crime book of the year? There’s so much potential in my list from the new crime authors I discovered such as Carol Wyer and Patricia Gibney, and new books from already established authors such as The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz but I’m going to give it to James Oswald’s Written In Bones
This was actually the first Inspector McLean book I’d actually ready, I listened to all that came before, coincidentally Ian Hanmore is superb when it comes to narrating these! As always James Oswald wonderfully weaves crime and the supernatural, into a setting not far from me, I still half expect a body to fall out of the sky whenever I venture towards The Meadows!
The NetGalley & Edelweiss Challenge
I signed up to this as a new blogger who had only just joined NetGalley so I really wasn’t sure how many books I’d get approved for. I decided to aim for silver which was 25 books. I actually managed to read 53 books so I made it to Gold!
Being a member of NetGalley and receiving books from publishers has allowed me to discover some fantastic new authors that I may not have discovered or taken a chance on if I’d seen it in a bookshop. It’s so difficult to pick a favourite book from this category, I think though it would go to one of the wonderful YA writers I discovered this year – Karen M. McManus; One Of Us Is Lying or Brigid Kemmerer; Letters To The Lost
Both are amazing books, Letters To The Lost introduced some wonderful characters and important messages and One Of Us Is Lying is a murder mystery set in high school, one of my favourite genres, with another great cast of characters!
The New Release Challenge
My starting goal was 1-30 books, a New Release Newbie, I made it through 61 which makes me a new release veteran (just)! This is definitely down to some wonderfully generous publishers, there’s no way my funds would have stretched to quite this many new books as much as I can dream! I’m going to avoid books I’ve already chosen when picking my favourites of the year and go with Maggie Harcourt’s Unconventional and Marissa Meyer’s Heartless
I loved both of these, Lexi in Unconventional is such a lovely character that I identified with on so many levels, I’m still to meet my Aidan though! I loved reading about Catherine’s journey to becoming the Queen of Hearts, but Jest!
The New To Me Challenge
I wanted to challenge myself to read outside my comfort zone a little bit in 2017, that didn’t really happen, although I did discover a lot of new talent in the crime genre so maybe that counts a little bit. I aimed to read 12 books that were new to me, whether it was a new author or a new series. I managed 56! The only downside to this is if all of these authors bring out new books in 2018 I’m not going to have much room for more new to me authors! Once again avoiding books I’ve already picked I’m going to say my favourite book from this challenge was The Advent Killer by Alastair Gunn.
The Advent Killer is a few years old now, but Alastair released Cold Christmas this year and I was offered The Advent Killer to read at the same time as it was the first in the series. Something about Antonia must have clicked with me because I’ve now read all four books that have been released!
The Discussion Challenge
I really enjoyed taking part in the Discussion Challenge, it’s been a great incentive to write things other than reviews. It’s also been great for engagement on the blog, I really enjoyed writing my post on FanFiction but my favourite discussion post of the year has to be my most controversial post of the year, Dumbledore: Saviour or just as bad as Voldemort.
Thanks for reading! Enjoy the last few hours of 2017!
Sarah Withers Blogs 