Book Girls Guide | Reading Challenge

This is a reading challenge that I started in January but since I wasn’t blogging as much back then, I never posted about it.

The Book Girls Guide, is a site that actually hosts several reading challenges. I’m participating in (almost) all of them this year. Here’s a little about each one straight from The Book Girls’ website:

• In Case You Missed It Challenge: Each month, choose a book published in a different year, starting with 2012 in January and working your way up to 2023 backlist books by year-end. We will curate a list of highly-rated books for each publication year reading prompt. The list will include popular titles you may still have on your TBR (to be read) shelf, as well as hidden gems that should have been more popular.
• Decades Reading Challenge: Every month, you will read a book of your choice set in a specific decade, working your way chronologically from the late nineteenth century in January up to the early twenty-first century by the end of the year.
• Book Voyage Read Around the World 2024:Every month, you will read a book of your choice set in a different region of the world. As we journey together, we’ll learn about the vast and beautiful differences in both landscape and culture.
• Read Around the USA:
  

  Option 1: Regional Read Around the USA

  We broke the states & inhabited territories into 11 regions, and you can opt to read ONE book from each region throughout the year. Additionally, we suggest reading one book about characters traveling through multiple states. By December, you’ll have read 12 books set throughout the country.

  Option 2: 50+ States Read Around the USA

  Throughout the last year, we heard from many readers that they had a goal of reading a book from every state. You can aim to tackle all 50 states in one year or spread them out over several years. Either way, we also recommend including Washington DC and the 5 inhabited US Territories as part of your goal.

• Lifetime of Reading Challenge: For the challenge, there are ten prompts consisting of age ranges from childhood all the way up to centenarians. Two additional reading prompts, one focused on books that span a character’s lifetime and another on intergenerational novels, make a total of twelve books to read for the challenge by the end of the year.

On each of my posts I’ll specify which challenge the book I’m reviewing was a part of–some of them count for more than one challenge.

The Snow Child Published by Reagan Arthur Books by Eowyn Ivey
on February 1, 2012
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Magical Realism, Historical
Pages: 386
Source: Purchased
Format: eBook
Reading Challenges: Book Girls Guide, Book Voyage: Read Around the World, Decades, In Case You Missed It, Lifetime of Reading, Read Around the USA
Find the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

ISBN: 0316175676
Rating:

Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart - he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone - but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.
This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place, things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.

This book has been on my TBR for awhile due to all the positive reviews. So when it popped up as an option to read for almost all five of the Book Girls Guide Reading Challenges, I quickly picked it up.

There’s a reason this book is so acclaimed. In the first part of the book, Ivey managed to pull at my momma’s heartstrings, as I read about Jack and Mabel’s previous inability to have children–and the one time it resulted in a stillborn. The pain of an event that had taken place a decade before we meet our protagonists was sharp and lasted the whole of the book.

So when they build a snow child that seems to bring about a little girl–well, the magic of what that meant for Jack and Mabel wasn’t wasted on me.

Snow Child brought me to tears more than once. And the ending… That. Ending. This will be a book that is sure to stick with me for years to come.

The Tour by Jean Grainger
Series: The Conor O'Shea Series #1
on February 5, 2013
Genres: Contemporary, Humor, Romance, Clean, Travel, Irish Literature
Pages: 286
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Format: eBook
Reading Challenges: Book Girls Guide, Book Voyage: Read Around the World, In Case You Missed It, Lifetime of Reading
Find the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

ISBN: 1482385635
Rating:

Every week, Conor O'Shea collects a new group of American visitors from Shannon Airport, from where they embark on a high end tour of the Real Ireland. But this particular tour, with its cast of unintentionally hilarious characters, presents even seasoned tour guide Conor with dilemmas that render him speechless for the first time in his life. Among this eclectic group are Corlene, a gold digging multiple divorcee on the prowl; Patrick, a love starved Boston cop; Dylan, a goth uilleann piper; Dorothy a poisonous college professor who wouldn't spend Christmas; Elliot, a wall street shark who finally shows his true colours. Then there's Ellen, back on Irish soil after so many years after so many years, to discover a truth no-one could ever have guessed at, least of all herself. And that's just a few of the colourful cast. The locals they meet on their journey, - West Brits, passionate musicians, Ukrainian waitresses and Garda high flyers all help to make this a tour no-one will ever forget. And of course, there's Conor O'Shea in the thick of it all, solving problems and mending hearts, but what about his own?

This book was actually quite the surprise for me. I chose it because the setting is Ireland–and I’m a sucker for Ireland. Also, it was on KU. Reading the synopsis, I wasn’t entirely sure that I’d love this one. Sometimes books with male protagonists leave me bored.

But Conor is just one heck of a guy to read about. This book could also be categorized as a “cozy read”. It wasn’t too deep, the characters were many and their stories all wrapped up nicely, and it gave me that feeling of meeting with friends.

Conor’s exploits with this group of American tourists was at times hilarious, poignant, and bittersweet. I absolutely adored this gem and am so glad I picked it! I can’t wait to read more of Conor’s adventures!

 

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• Book Girls Guide
• Book Voyage: Read Around the World
• Decades
• In Case You Missed It
• Lifetime of Reading
• Read Around the USA

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