A Well-Rounded Challenge Wrap-up

I'm steadily working my way through my 2009 challenges and have just finished  A Well-Rounded Challenge hosted by Teddy Rose at So Many Precious Books, So Little Time. I love doing this challenge each year because it helps me finish up other challenges. The idea behind A Well-Rounded Challenge is to pick 5 other challenges you are participating in and read one book from each challenge.


I chose to read books for these challenges:
1. Support Your Local Library Challenge - Left to Die by Lisa Jackson
2. Book Awards III Challenge - The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
3. TBR Challenge - Irish Rebel by Nora Roberts
4. Raved About Reads Challenge - The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
5. 999 Challenge - Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning


If you click on Left to Die by Lisa Jackson or The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, you can see my reviews for those books. The others, unfortunately, I've been more lazy about reviewing. So here's a brief look at those books.

Nora Roberts's first book, Irish Thoroughbred, was published in 1981 and introduced the characters of Travis Grant and Adelia (Dee) Cunnane. For Silhouette Book's 20th Anniversary, Roberts revisited the Grants and wrote Irish Rebel, the story of their eldest daughter, Keeley, and horse trainer, Brian Donnelly. It's a great little love story that has all the elements I've come to love in a Nora Roberts romance -- characters you can care for, believable dialogue, a fast-moving plot, and a sweet, happy ending.


The Subtle Knife, the second book in Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy, picks up where The Golden Compass left off. In this book, Lyra meets twelve-year-old Will Parry and, together, they move from world to world searching for Will's father and a very powerful and magical knife. I liked The Subtle Knife, but I thought The Golden Compass was much better. I'm slogging my way through the last book in this series, The Amber Spyglass, now and, I have to say, I'm losing interest quickly. Sad, because I really enjoyed the beginning of this series.

And, last but not least, Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning was one of my favorite reads for this challenge. Darkfever is the first book in the Fever series. In it, MacKayla (Mac) Lane travels to Ireland to hunt down her sister's killer. The only clue Mac has to go on is a mysterious message her sister left on her voice mail just before she died. As she tries to unravel what happened, Mac finds out that she and her sister had the unusual ability to see into the world of the Fae--a gift, or curse, depending on how you look at it, that could very well get Mac killed, too...  


So my favorite reads for this challenge were: Darkfever and The Graveyard Book, both paranormals and read in the month of October...hmmm...


The only new-to-me author in this challenge was Karen Marie Moning. I plan to continue reading the Fever series with book #2 - Bloodfever.


Thanks for hosting this challenge again this year, Teddy. I enjoyed choosing and reading books for it!