2021 First Quarter Reading Challenge Recap

It's a new year which means we all have a clean slate when it comes to our reading challenges. We want to take last year's reading challenge success into 2021 and so far we've been doing pretty well. We're going do something a bit different when it comes to our reading challenge recap this year and will be posting our recap quarterly instead monthly. Instead we've started a monthly What the Weres Read feature where we recap all the books we read each month.

We're a bit late with our first quarter reading challenge update but here’s how the Weres did with our challenges from January-March 2021:

Beat the Backlist

Gretl

I read 81 backlist books in the first quarter of this year. This is about 80% of my total books read, which is well above my goal of 50% backlist. I've been doing a lot of binge reading! However, I have not been doing a great job keeping up with the bingo card. I’m going to have to go back and try to fill in more squares. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

Beat the Backlist Bingo

multiple authors - Shiver by Jocelyn Drake and Rinda Elliot

non-human character - Tane by Anna Hackett 

person on the cover - Hosed by Pippa Grant

anthology - Survivors by Anna Hackett

novella - Night Owl by Rachel Grant

all about music - Rockaway Bride by Pippa Grant

Dragons or lizards - Origin by Jocelyn Drake & AJ Sherwood

Let out a breath - Brandon’s Very Merry Haunted Christmas by AJ Sherwood

Rose Red

I'm going to attempt to fill up the small BTB Bingo Card again this year which will make my goal to read at least 24 books. I'll probably read more backlist books than that but I'm shooting for a blackout. I'm not going to let myself count rereads on my Bingo card this year. Below is what I read for BTB this last quarter. Titles with an asterisk were rereads.

 

Beat the Backlist Bingo

Person on the Cover- Leo by Silvia Violet

More Than One Author-  Origin by A.J. Sherwood and Jocelynn Drake

A Book With Illustrations- Heartstopper, Vol. 1 by Alice Oseman

WTF Plot Twist- The Vet's Christmas Familiar by TJ Nichols

 

Non-Bingo Books

A Very Armitage Christmas by Eliot Grayson

Breath by A.J. Sherwood and Jocelynn Drake

A Ferry of Bones and Gold by Hailey Turner*

All Souls Near and Nigh by Hailey Turner*

A Crown of Iron and Silver by Hailey Turner*

A Vigil in the Mourning by Hailey Turner*

On the Wings of War by Hailey Turner *

Outlaw by Kiki Burrelli

Claimings, Tails and Other Alien Artifacts by Lyn Gala*

Assimilation, Love, and Other Human Oddities by Lyn Gala*

Affiliations, Aliens, and Other Profitable Pursuits by Lyn Gala*

Expeditions, Estimates, and Other Dangerous Pastimes by Lyn Gala*  

Stranger Planet by Nathan W. Pyle

Little Moments of Love by Catana Chetwynd

Heartstopper, Vol. 1 by Alice Oseman

A Cold Hard Collection by K.L. Hiers

The Necromancer's Dance by S.J. Himes*

The Necromancer's Dilemma by S.J. Himes*

The Necromancer's Reckoning by S.J. Himes*

Mastering the Flames by S.J. Himes*

A History of Trouble by S.J. Himes*

Wolfsbane by S.J. Himes*

Taking the Knot by Sean Michael

Stephen by Sean Michael

Library Love Challenge 

The Library Love challenge is hosted by Angel’s Guilty Pleasures and Books of My Heart and encourages participants to read more library books. My goal for 2021 is Library Card on Fire or 60 books. I read 29 in the first quarter:

Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert

Work For It by Talia Hibbert

First Comes Like by Alisha Rai

Faithless in Death by JD Robb

Flashpoint series by Rachel Grant

Cold Justice and Cold Justice Crossfire series by Toni Anderson

Hell Squad series #4-16 by Anna Hackett

Driven by Rebecca Zanetti

 

Tackle My TBR Challenge

This year I set my goal for this challenge at 25 books which falls into the First Down category. That's at least two books a month (6-7 books per quarter) which I can totally do. The challenge themes from January to March were Published in 2020, Diverse Read, and New-to-You Author.

I am happy to report that I have read six books for this challenge during the first quarter of 2021 and I am pretty pleased with my progress! This semester at school has been nuts so I'm counting anything I get read as a win even if it's not as much as I normally would read.

  The books I read are:

Kensho by Lyn Gala

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell (New-To-You Author)

Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs

Best Laid Plans by Roan Parrish (Diverse Read)

Blind Tiger by Jordan L. Hawk

Heartstopper, Vol. 1 by Alice Oseman (Published in 2020)

 

#21Booksin2021

I decided about midway through January that I needed another reading challenge to take the place of Romanceopoly. One of my Instagram friends posted a low-key challenge that I kind of fell in love with instantly. The challenge is the #21Booksin2021 challenge and you make a list of 21 books that were published before 2021 to read throughout the year so it's kind of a mix between Tackle My TBR and the Beat the Backlist challenge. It took me a few weeks to make my list (you can see it in full here) but I'm excited to read all of them. To stay on top of this challenge, I need to read 1-2 books each month. I should have at least 4 books by the end of March and I'm... at 0 read for this quarter. I'm just going to have to make up for failing this quarter next quarter.

How did you do on your reading challenges this month?

and