Magnificently Magic Read-a-Thon: Sunday & Wrap Up (#MMReadathon)

So the Magnificently Magic Read-a-Thon has come to a close and I've got to say I'm sad that it's over. This weekend has been a ton of fun and I've loved immersing myself in some magical Christmassy reads.

My Day

I got barely any reading done on Sunday at all. I went into London (I live on the outskirts) for a workshop on the origins of Christmas so my free reading time was essentially nil. I did however get to see the awesome Jack Daniels barrel tree in Covent Garden which is the first time one has ever appeared outside the US.



The other benefit of spending the entire day in the city is that I saw some really awesome Christmas decorations on my way to the tube, like this very cool wreath which was three stories high! Plus they managed to light up the whole building so it turned pink!

The Books

I managed to read some more of Must Love Mistletoe but I get really travel sick on the tube and then was in a workshop all day so I didn't get a chance to read much at all. My pages all come basically from my reading after the twitter party before I fell asleep. I will be finishing the book as soon as I can as so far I'm enjoying it a lot and I want to know what will happen next, both with the romance and the family drama.


Books read today: A tiny bit of 1
Pages read today:  80

The Challenge

Sunday's challenge is hosted by Faye at A Daydreamer's Thoughts and you can still join in by clicking here. Faye's challenge is to make a Christmas tree out of books. My somewhat unconventional take on this challenge is below:

The Wrap Up

All in all I read 1 full book and 2 partials with a total of 591 pages. I was hoping for more but my nothing-but-reading-Saturday turned into niece and nephew time with many baby snuggles to make up for the lack of books.

I also took part in all of the challenges and had a blast at the twitter party :)

Magnificently Magic Read-a-Thon: Saturday (#MMReadathon)

I'm aiming to post these updates every day as I find them fun to look back over after the read-a-thon has finished. They will briefly cover what I've been up to during the day (which could be just reading or could be something else entirely), the books I've been reading and any challenges available.

My Day

I didn't get much reading done as my sister dropped by for a surprise visit with my 2 year old niecelet and my 2 week old nephlet. So rather than sitting quietly with my book, I spent the day colouring Peppa Pig pictures, watching Doc McStuffin on youtube and making a sleeping baby do the YMCA. I'm posting my update a little early today as once I'm done with the twitter chat (use #MMReadathon) I'm off to bed as I'm up early tomorrow to head into the city to a workshop on the origins of Christmas :)

The Books

I started Must Love Mistletoe just before I went to bed last night and I've read an astounding three chapters lol. I'm hoping to get more read tonight before I go to sleep as so far I'm enjoying it. It's a contemporary romance where the heroine hates Christmas and she's just had to go home and save her family's Christmas themed store only to come face-to-face with the boy next door who was her first love. Each chapter begins with a little fact on the history of Christmas which is pretty cool :)

Books read today: A teeny bit of 1
Pages read today:  56

The Challenge

Today's challenge is hosted by Sheri at Shut Up and Read and you can still join in by clicking here. Sheri's challenge is to complete some quotes taken from the brilliant Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

1. "Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well."
2. “She had been innocent once, a little girl playing with feathers on the floor of a devil's lair."
3. "…When I saw her smile I wondered what it would be like to make her smile...I thought it would be like the discovery of smiling.”

Magnificently Magic Read-a-Thon: Friday (#MMReadathon)

I'm aiming to post these updates every day as I find them fun to look back over after the read-a-thon has finished. They will briefly cover what I've been up to during the day (which could be just reading or could be something else entirely), the books I've been reading and any challenges available.

My Day

Today started earlier than I would have liked when the postman knocked with my package from Haus of Gloi (but then new Haus goodies = awesomeness!). I didn't get any reading done this morning as I had knitting group where I started a new scarf in some super smooshy alpaca wool (hence my gratuitous knitting pic). The weather has been really crappy all day with constant rain so I was really glad to spend most of the day tucked up inside in the warm.

The Books

After I did my update here yesterday I started reading The Christmas Cookie Club. It's a story about twelve women who come together each year to exchange cookies and stories. Definitely an interesting read as each woman tells their story and it is somehow linked to the cookie they've chosen to bake (and all twelve recipes are included!). This is one of those books that may take me a while to properly review as it's told through one woman's viewpoint and I'm still not sure what I thought of that.

Now I've finished that, I'm looking forward to getting suck into Must Love Mistletoe because I had a ton of fun playing around with a synopsis for Hollie's challenge yesterday and now I'd like to know what the book is really about lol :)




As I feel I'm doing pretty well with the read-a-thon so far, and because I'm saving the second story from Glad Tidings until my buddy readers catch up, I'm adding a couple of books to my goal list.

As you can see I'm picking a couple of slightly darker reads. The Last Noel is a romantic suspense set on Christmas Eve and Plum Pudding Murder is a cozy mystery set in a cookie store around Christmas.

Books read today: 1
Pages read today:  270

The Challenge

Today's challenge is hosted by Vicky at Books, Biscuits and Tea and you can still join in by clicking here. Vicky's challenge is to create a book spine poem which I've never done before so I was very excited to give this a try :)

In case the photo isn't clear (why do companies move the author's name around on the spine?!) my poem is:

Endlessly radiant shadows,

awakening beautiful creatures

in the forests of the night.

Magnificently Magic Read-a-Thon: Thursday (#MMReadathon)

I'm aiming to post these updates every day as I find them fun to look back over after the read-a-thon has finished. They will briefly cover what I've been up to during the day (which could be just reading or could be something else entirely), the books I've been reading and any challenges available.

My Day

I've had a pretty busy day today so I wasn't able to start reading until nearly 7pm this evening. We had a family friend visit and I was trying to finish clearing my review backlog (16 reviews in 2 days!!!) and then I got sucked into a Christmas movie on TV. But then I was able to get stuck in to a book with a massive mug of hot chocolate complete with cream and cinnamon :) Hopefully tomorrow will be more bookish for me!

The Books

I started Glad Tidings a couple of days ago which is a duo of Debbie Macomber's holiday stories. I was 60 pages into the first story There's Something About Christmas this morning and I was able to finish it today.

There's Something About Christmas is a really fun story about an anti-Christmas flight-phobic journalist called Emma who is assigned her worst nightmare of a story just before the holidays. She has to fly across Washington State to interview three finalists in a fruitcake competition! Along the way she begins developing feelings for hunky pilot Oliver and stumbles across some life lessons. It's an awesome seasonal read and the recipes of the finalists are included which I'll definitely be trying out next year! :)

Books read today: Most of one
Pages read today: 185

The Challenge

Today's challenge is hosted by Hollie at Music, Books and Tea and you can still join in by clicking here. Hollie's challenge is to take a book you've read or are planning to read for the read-a-thon and write a whole new synopsis based purely on the cover.

Ivy is determined to carry the Christmas spirit with her throughout the year, but when hunky new neighbour Todd sees her hooking her invisible boyfriend in for a kiss with a giant candy cane he doesn't know what to think. All Ivy knows is her perfect guy must love mistletoe.

Magnificently Magic Read-a-Thon: Starting Post (#MMReadathon)

I'm celebrating my return to blogging by taking part in the Magnificently Magic Read-a-Thon being hosted by Faye at A Daydreamer's Thoughts and takes place from today until December 16th. The idea is to read magical books so anything with witches, fairies, a magical feel, books with a winter setting or that are Christmas themed all work.

I'm keeping my goal pretty simple as I've not done a read-a-thon in a while, and I have a new nephew so if he visits I'll drop everything for bubba snuggles :) So I'm starting off with three books, and I'll add more in my daily updates if I'm able to read more. I'm hoping to read:

The books I've chosen are Glad Tidings which is my current read (I'm three chapters into the first story), Must Love Mistletoe is a contemporary romance about a girl who loathes Christmas and The Christmas Cookie Club is a chick-lit about a cookie club.

If you'd like to join in, click here to sign up.

Magnificently Magic Read-a-Thon: Sign Up :)

I've not been blogging lately due to health issues (more on that here) and I thought what better way to celebrate my return to blogging by taking part in one of my favourite things - a read-a-thon! As soon as I saw a button for the Magnificently Magic Read-a-Thon I knew it would be my sort of thing - seriously it is a gorgeous button!

The Magnificently Magic Read-a-Thon is hosted by Faye at A Daydreamer's Thoughts and takes place between December 13th and 16th. The idea is to read magical books so anything with witches, fairies, a magical feel, books with a winter setting or that are Christmas themed all work.

There will also be a twitter party using the hashtag #MMReadathon and mini challenges over the weekend. All in all it sounds like a ton of fun and I can't wait to join in :)

If you'd like to sign up, click here.