Lately, I have been participating in so many different readathons. Every month or so, I find a new one that I just have to join. I have been having a lot of fun with them and they are motivating me to get to more books when all I want to do is procrastinate.
This coming month, I am participating in four to five readathons. It has been a while since I spent my days just reading therefore, I will partially be taking off time from my blog and other social media in June to successfully complete each readathon.
As with most, I came across the Olympic Games Readathon on Twitter. The main host, Ishi from Ishi Time put in so much effort for this readathon and it immediately captured my attention. This readathon is Percy Jackson themed and will take place during the month of June. There are twelve teams for this readathon. You can take part in a quiz to see who your patron god or goddess is or you can choose which team you want to be on. There is an information and prompts booklet too which has all the detail on each team. For all of the information, make sure to watch Ishi’s announcement video by clicking here and visiting the readathon’s Twitter page here.
Even though I have never read Percy Jackson before, I am so unbelievably excited to be taking part in this readathon!
MY OLYMPIC GAMES READATHON TBR
As I have said, I have not read the Percy Jackson books yet and I also do not know much about greek mythology so, I took the quiz twice and got Athena as my patron goddess both times. I am so, so happy to be on her team and cannot wait to get to the books I have picked out for the prompts!
I have five mandatory challenges to complete before I can move on to the advanced challenges but I really want to participate in them all as well as the group book.
1ST CHALLENGE — read a book that is out of your comfort zone.
✯ Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
G O O D R E A D S | S Y N O P S I S
The scientist Victor Frankenstein, obsessed with possessing the secrets of life, creates a new being from the bodies of the dead. But his creature is a twisted, gruesome parody of a man who, rejected for his monstrous appearance, sets out to destroy his maker.
Mary Shelley’s chilling Gothic tale, conceived after a nightmare in 1816 when she was only eighteen, became a modern myth. It is a disturbing and dramatic exploration of birth and death, creation and destruction, and one of the most iconic horror stories of all time.
This book is part of the #ClassicsCommunity challenge I am taking part of this year. I am having a lot of fun reading a classic a month and this is one I have been wanting to read for a while.
2ND CHALLENGE — read a book that features a school.
✯ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
G O O D R E A D S | S Y N O P S I S
“There is a plot, Harry Potter. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year.”
Harry Potter’s summer has included the worst birthday ever, doomy warnings from a house-elf called Dobby, and rescue from the Dursleys by his friend Ron Weasley in a magical flying car! Back at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for his second year, Harry hears strange whispers echo through empty corridors – and then the attacks start. Students are found as though turned to stone… Dobby’s sinister predictions seem to be coming true.
I read the Harry Potter series for the first time last year and loved the books so much that I decided to reread the books every year. I am hoping to reread the second and third book this coming month.
3RD CHALLENGE — read the longest book on your TBR.
✯ The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
G O O D R E A D S | S Y N O P S I S
A world divided.
A queendom without an heir.
An ancient enemy awakens.
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction—but assassins are getting closer to her door.
Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.
Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.
Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.
This book was one of my most anticipated books years ago when it first released and when I finally received the book, I was so intimidated by its size that I just never got to it. Even though it is only around 800 pages, I think, it is by far the biggest book I own and therefore, I will be purchasing the ebook to help me get through it easier.
4TH CHALLENGE — read a book by your favourite author.
✯ Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
G O O D R E A D S | S Y N O P S I S
Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?
Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.
Leigh Bardugo is not my favourite author because I really do not have one but she is on my list of top favourites and as I have been dying to get to this book, I decided to use it for this prompt.
5TH CHALLENGE — read a book with a bird on the cover.
✯ The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
G O O D R E A D S | S Y N O P S I S
Blue didn’t mean to fall for the Raven Boys, but she has – and the more her life entwines with theirs, the more dangerous it becomes.
Ronan is the most dangerous of all.
He’s the haunted one, the darkest, the most raven.
His dreams invade reality and confuse what is true.
With magic growing stronger around them, now is a time to be wary. Before everything unravels …
Friendships will be tested. Someone will get hurt.
And a kiss will be shared.
Last month, I read the first book for the O.W.L.’s Magical Readathon and I really liked it, even though I expected more. The series is probably one of the most raved about ones in the book community so I had really high hopes. Unfortunately, it was incredibly slow and I lost interest a couple of times but still, I liked it. Hoping to get into the series a bit more as I go on.
SWORD AND SHIELD — a book featuring a character you would not get along with.
✯ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
G O O D R E A D S | S Y N O P S I S
“Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transportation for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board and we can take you anywhere you want to go.”
When the Knight Bus crashes through the darkness and screeches to a halt in front of him, it’s the start of another far from ordinary year at Hogwarts for Harry Potter. Sirius Black, escaped mass-murderer and follower of Lord Voldemort, is on the run – and they say he is coming after Harry. In his first ever Divination class, Professor Trelawney sees an omen of death in Harry’s tea leaves… But perhaps most terrifying of all are the Dementors patrolling the school grounds, with their soul-sucking kiss…
This book is part of my yearly Harry Potter reread and the first character I could think of was Aunt Marge that would fit with this prompt. I honestly cannot stand her.
CAPTURE THE FLAG — one of your most anticipated releases.
✯ The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black
G O O D R E A D S | S Y N O P S I S
He will be destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne.
Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold onto. Jude learned this lesson when she released her control over the wicked king, Cardan, in exchange for immeasurable power.
Now as the exiled mortal Queen of Faerie, Jude is powerless and left reeling from Cardan’s betrayal. She bides her time determined to reclaim everything he took from her. Opportunity arrives in the form of her deceptive twin sister, Taryn, whose mortal life is in peril.
Jude must risk venturing back into the treacherous Faerie Court, and confront her lingering feelings for Cardan, if she wishes to save her sister. But Elfhame is not as she left it. War is brewing. As Jude slips deep within enemy lines she becomes ensnared in the conflict’s bloody politics.
And, when a dormant yet powerful curse is unleashed, panic spreads throughout the land, forcing her to choose between her ambition and her humanity…
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black, comes the highly anticipated and jaw-dropping finale to The Folk of the Air trilogy.
This book was released on my birthday last year and even though I have not started the series back then, I still could not wait to have it in my hands because I have been wanting to binge the trilogy for so long.
PEGASUS RIDING — a book published within the last five years.
✯ The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
G O O D R E A D S | S Y N O P S I S
At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.
After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.
And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.
As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales.
This one is part of yet another trilogy I have been wanting to binge read. As it is winter here, I feel like it is the perfect time to finally begin it.
MONSTER FIGHTING — a book featuring magical creatures.
✯ The Wicked King by Holly Black
G O O D R E A D S | S Y N O P S I S
The enchanting and bloodthirsty sequel to the New York Times bestselling novel The Cruel Prince.
You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring.
The first lesson is to make yourself strong.
After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished.
When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world.
I read the first book last month for the O.W.L.’s Magical Readathon and loved it more than I thought I would. Cannot wait to finally get to the next two books.
GROUP BOOK
✯ Lovely War by Julie Berry
G O O D R E A D S | S Y N O P S I S
A sweeping, multi-layered romance with a divine twist, by the Printz Honor-winning author of The Passion of Dolssa, set in the perilous days of World Wars I and II.
It’s 1917, and World War I is at its zenith when Hazel and James first catch sight of each other at a London party. She’s a shy and talented pianist; he’s a newly minted soldier with dreams of becoming an architect. When they fall in love, it’s immediate and deep–and cut short when James is shipped off to the killing fields.
Aubrey Edwards is also headed toward the trenches. A gifted musician who’s played Carnegie Hall, he’s a member of the 15th New York Infantry, an all-African-American regiment being sent to Europe to help end the Great War. Love is the last thing on his mind. But that’s before he meets Colette Fournier, a Belgian chanteuse who’s already survived unspeakable tragedy at the hands of the Germans.
Thirty years after these four lovers’ fates collide, the Greek goddess Aphrodite tells their stories to her husband, Hephaestus, and her lover, Ares, in a luxe Manhattan hotel room at the height of World War II. She seeks to answer the age-old question: Why are Love and War eternally drawn to one another? But her quest for a conclusion that will satisfy her jealous husband uncovers a multi-threaded tale of prejudice, trauma, and music and reveals that War is no match for the power of Love.
Penguin Random House South Africa kindly provided me with a review copy a while back and I have been meaning to get to it. As this is the group book for the readathon, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to finally push myself to pick it up.
Keep on reading and never stop telling stories.
White Rose Stories 
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