Ten Book Challenge Book Tag

As you might be able to tell, I’m not worrying about keeping my views stats up since when I do a poetry post, the people who read my blog for bookish content aren’t fans of poetry and vice versus but the only way I’m enjoying blogging is to blog what I’m in the mood for so today it’s a book tag since I did read some good books I haven’t talked about yet. I found a book tag I wanted to do, so I saved it, but now I can’t find it, so I’m doing the Ten Books Challenge book tag instead.

The creator of this tag is thought to be A Ramblings Reviewer, but in her post, she mentioned Bri Book Blog, so I am tagging both here. One of the rules I saw was not to overthink your answer, and I won’t because I wasted time the last two days, so I’m behind on my posting schedule.

 A Book That Made Me Think:

Goodreads Blurb:

Krystin knows exactly what she a husband, a horse, and a place to hang all her competitive rodeo blue ribbons. But when none of the eligible bachelors in Montana end up being right for her, she turns to reality TV. On Hopelessly Devoted, Krystin will compete against dozens of other women for the heart of this season’s Hopeless Romantic, Josh Rosen. She’s determined to win the perfect life she came here for—if she can just ignore the glossy brunette whose crimson smile gives her goosebumps.

Lauren has never done anything for the right reasons—and she’s definitely not on Hopelessly Devoted to win Josh’s heart. Lauren’s plan is simple: stay on the show long enough to build her social media following, and then gracefully leave when it’s her turn to be eliminated. With enough followers, she’ll finally have enough influencer clout to do whatever she wants—including come out of the proverbial walk-in closet. But the longer she stays on the show, the more she finds herself tangled up in a certain blonde’s lasso.

It seriously made me rethink how much of what we see on TV is real or staged, even if we’re told that everything we are seeing is the truth for the sake of good TV.

A Book That Surprised Me:

Goodreads Blurb:

Soulmates across time. A love that was meant to be.

In present day, Laurie, tired of corporate life, takes a much-needed vacation at Farthingdale Dude Ranch.

The very first night a freak blizzard combined with a powerful meteor shower takes Laurie back to the year 1891. When he wakes up in a snowbank, his only refuge is an isolated cabin inhabited by the gruff, grouchy John Henton, who only wants to be left alone. His sense of duty prevails, however, and he takes Laurie under his care, teaching him how to survive on the wild frontier.

As winter approaches, Laurie’s normal fun-loving manner make it difficult for him to connect with John, but in spite of John’s old-fashioned ways, the chemistry between them grows.

Sparks fly as the blizzard rages outside the cabin. Can two men from different worlds and different times find happiness together?

It surprised me because time travel is very often a miss for me, but I liked this one.

A Book That Made Me Happy:

Goodreads Blurb:

When her boyfriend cheated, Jamie did what any rational math teacher would she moved three thousand miles to Rotheberg, the “Alpine Jewel of Oregon.” She can live with the town’s weird obsession with The Sound of Music, and Mrs. Fogelhaus’s stollen is to die for, but when her principal assigns her a baking class, she needs help. She teaches calculations, not cooking.

Rotheberg’s golden boy, Dylan Mead, should be the solution to her equation. The culinary genius is handsome, loaded, and would do anything for his hometown. Helping Jamie teach a bunch of kids to bake brownies should be a piece of cake. Except he wants to demolish her classroom to build his bakery.

But Jamie’s not about to throw in the towel and return to Virginia. She’s not going to let a silver-spooned pastry chef torch her class. And she’s definitely not going to let him melt her heart.

Watch out, Dylan Mead–this mathematician’s got your number.

A sweet and funny small-town story to read if you need something quick and easy.

 A Book That Made Me Sad:

Goodreads Blurb:

1942. Sadie Gault is eighteen and living with her parents in the Kraków Ghetto during World War II. When the Nazis liquidate the ghetto, Sadie and her pregnant mother are forced to seek refuge in the perilous tunnels beneath the city. One day Sadie looks up through a grate and sees a girl about her own age buying flowers.

Ella Stepanek is an affluent Polish girl living a life of relative ease with her stepmother, who has developed close alliances with the occupying Germans. While on an errand in the market, she catches a glimpse of something moving beneath a grate in the street. Upon closer inspection, she realizes it’s a girl hiding.

Ella begins to aid Sadie and the two become close, but as the dangers of the war worsen, their lives are set on a collision course that will test them in the face of overwhelming odds. Inspired by incredible true stories, The Woman with the Blue Star is an unforgettable testament to the power of friendship and the extraordinary strength of the human will to survive.

It’s honestly the first novel I thought of because even if I read it more than a year ago, it still had an impact on me with a hint of sadness.

A Book That Made Me Feel Nostalgic:

Goodreads Blurb:

Melody is not like most people. She cannot walk or talk, but she has a photographic memory; she can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She is smarter than most of the adults who try to diagnose her and smarter than her classmates in her integrated classroom – the very same classmates who dismiss her as mentally challenged because she cannot tell them otherwise. But Melody refuses to be defined by cerebral palsy. And she’s determined to let everyone know it – somehow.

I don’t know what the main reason behind the nostalgic feeling I have, but it could be because I was gifted the three books from my sister this Christmas.

 A Book I Have A Love/Hate Relationship With:

Goodreads Blurb:

They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose . . .

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.

Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.

So, I love the relationship between the two and Louise as a character, but there was so much discussion about disability and mental health that could have been done.

 A Book That I Have Re-Read The Most:

Goodreads Blurb:

“This is Beautiful Music for Ugly Children, on community radio 90.3, KZUK. I’m Gabe. Welcome to my show.”

My birth name is Elizabeth, but I’m a guy. Gabe. My parents think I’ve gone crazy and the rest of the world is happy to agree with them, but I know I’m right. I’ve been a boy my whole life.

When you think about it, I’m like a record. Elizabeth is my A side, the song everybody knows, and Gabe is my B side–not heard as often, but just as good.

It’s time to let my B side play.

It’s one of the few books I read twice, but I wouldn’t mind rereading it based on the memories I have attached to it.

 A Book That Made Me Want To Travel:

Goodreads Blurb:

I’m going to freedive with the whites. I know you have a lot of experience filming sharks, but this will be different. You’ll likely have to leave the cage. I need to know you’re up for it.”

Dr. Grace Mann knows great white sharks. As the daughter of an obsessed shark researcher, Grace spent her childhood in the company of these elegant and massive creatures. Now, finally, she’s testing a prototype shark array that may lead to a reliable alert system for swimmers and sharks to coexist. All that stands in her way are two men—her ex, Brad Michaels, fellow shark researcher and the man trying to steal her work, and Alec Galloway, an underwater filmmaker hired to produce a documentary about Grace’s project. Grace mixed her work and love life before and it was a disaster. No matter how sexy Galloway is, she won’t make that mistake again …

Alec Galloway prides himself on being the best in the business, so he’s baffled when Dr. Mann rejects his application to capture her work on film. When her boss overrules her decision and gives Alec the job, he learns that winning over Grace won’t come easy. But Alec is accustomed to dealing with unpredictable creatures, and Grace’s passionate focus on great whites puts her in a class of danger all her own. As his fan-boy crush on the woman quickly turns into something more, his greatest competition turns out to be the sharks themselves.

Adventure here is what made me want to travel the world through books and stories.

A Book That Gave Me All The Feels:

Goodreads Blurb:

Shari Franke’s childhood was a constant battle for survival. Her mother, Ruby Franke, enforced a severe moral code while maintaining a façade of a picture-perfect family for their wildly popular YouTube channel 8 Passengers, which documented the day-to-day life of raising six children for a staggering 2.5 million subscribers. But a darker truth lurked beneath the surface—Ruby’s wholesome online persona masked a more tyrannical parenting style than anyone could have imagined.

As the family’s YouTube notoriety grew, so too did Ruby’s delusions of righteousness. Fueled by the sadistic influence of relationship coach Jodi Hildebrandt, together they implemented an inhumane and merciless disciplinary regime.

Ruby and Jodi were arrested in Utah in 2023 on multiple charges of aggravated child abuse. On that fateful day, Shari shared a photo online of a police car outside their home. Her caption had one word: “Finally.”

For the first time, Shari will reveal the disturbing truth behind 8 Passengers and her family’s devastating involvement with Jodi Hildebrandt’s cultish life coaching program, “ConneXions.” No stone is left unturned as Shari exposes the perils of influencer culture and shares for the first time her battle for truth and survival in the face of her mother’s cruelty.

No memoir I read has caused me as many emotions as this one did, and I will never be able to re-read it.

A Book That I Wish I Hadn’t Read:

Goodreads Blurb:

If you were offered the chance to be totally irresistible, even to the most gorgeous boy you know, would you stop to think there might just be the tiniest bit of a catch? Well, I didn’t. And believe me, it wasn’t a tiny catch. It was the worst catch of all. See, it turns out the girl I thought was my best friend is a real, genuine freak. And I know that because now I’m one too. Yeah, I’m a freaking freak!

I read it years ago and still think it is one of the worst novels I ever read. It does not have much of a plot, and the format is so weird.

So, a post that should have taken a few hours took me all day, plus my friend Barbara was trying to explain how the Orilium readathon works, but I still don’t get so low-key upset.

Alex