May went by so fast! But the big project, reading the 800+ page book for the Pop Sugar challenge, was a success and now I can easily finish the challenge in the second half of the year.

I took a day to read some really short freebies from my NOOK, none of which worked for me. Hurtling through space and time in a tin can for two days provided a lot of time for me to read. My BL-opoly bank balance is sitting at $68.00.

Highlights/Lowlights:

Best Books: London, Forbidden, Vision volumes 1 and 2

Worst Books: Shimmy for Me, Summer Flings series

Disappointing book: A Charming Cure - I had big expectations for this series and I hope the second book can live up to those expectations

Challenge Progress

Pop Sugar: 4; 33/52 for the year

Library Love: 4; 32/36 for the year

BL/GR: 77/150

BL-opoly: 10

1. Deep Deception by Cathy Pegau (BL-opoly) - 3.5 stars

2. Forbidden (Old West #1) by Beverly Jenkins (BL-opoly) - 4.5 stars

3. Killer in High Heels (High Heels #2) by Gemma Halliday (BL-opoly) - 2.5 stars

4. A Charming Crime (Magical Cures #1) by Tonya Kappes (BL-opoly) - 2 stars

5. A Wedding in Springtime (Marriage Mart #1) by Amanda Forester (Pop Sugar prompt - 1 of 4 seasons in title) (BL-opoly) - 3.5 stars

6. The Dateless Wonder by Anjali Mya Chadha - 3 stars

7. Shimmy for Me: A California Belly Dance Novella by DeAnna Cameron - 1.5 stars

8. Learning to Swim (Troy Chance #1) by Sara L. Henry (BL-opoly) - 2 stars

9. Selkie Heart by Sam Asher - 1 star

10. Trouble in Tinseltown (Summer Flings #1) and Misbehaving in Miami (Summer Flings #2) by Aimee Duffy - 1 star

11. London: The Novel by Edward Rutherfurd (Library Love challenge) (Pop Sugar prompt - book with 800+ pages) - 5 stars

12. Nothing But Trouble (PJ Sugar #1) by Susan May Warren (Library Love challenge) - 3.5 stars

13. A Christmas Hope (Of Love and War #1.5) by Stacy Henrie (BL-opoly) - 4 stars

14. After the Storm (Kate Burkholder #7) by Linda Castillo (BL-opoly) - 3.5 stars

15. Her Last Breath (Kate Burkholder #5) by Linda Castillo (BL-opoly) - 3 stars

16. Vision Volume 1: Little Worse Than a Man by Tom King (Pop Sugar prompt - Re-read a shelf keeper) - 4 stars

17. Vision Volume 2: Little Better Than a Beast by Tom King (BL-opoly) (Pop Sugar prompt - non human perspective) - 4 stars

What a great story! Slow burn romance (especially for a novella under 100 pages) between two wonderful characters. Maria Schmitt was a side character in the first book, but you don't have to read that book to enjoy this story. Dale Emerson was wounded on the front lines in France and lost his job due to his injury. The meet cute happens one week after the Armistice, but many of Dale's colleagues are still in France tending to the wounded. He is in Sioux City, IA to take over the running of the bank from his uncle. Maria is a dedicated bank teller, which was a rarity in November 1918 (and yay! she was also a suffragette and Dale was a supporter of the women's vote). Dale is able to do the job of bank manager, but his heart is in medicine and he finds a new way of getting back into healthcare. The big reveal shows that Maria loves Dale enough to let him go and follow his heart, and shows that Dale is seriously committed to making Maria his wife. Just a really satisfying romance in 91 pages.

*************************************************************************************************

Read for BL-opoly Memorial Day bail fundraiser; 182 pages donated to the bail fund.

Took me a while to find a book in my TBR that was short and a possible fit for the Memorial Day donation to the BL-opoly jail. This book takes place one week after Armistice Day and the couple is Maria (an American with German immigrant parents) and Dale (who was a US service member in France as a surgeon and who lost his left eye during a mortar attack on an ambulance he was trying to unload). Although this is a novella companion to the Of Love and War trilogy, it can be read as a stand-alone. A 200 page donation to the bail "money" once I'm done reading.