Mikail's 75 Book Challenge for 2024 (OMBWarrior47)

Hi there. I'm Mikail. I'm 30, single, work 2 jobs, and have 4 cats. I live in Minneapolis, MN.
This is my 14th year participating in this challenge. Last year I only made it to 37. I haven't hit 75 since 2018 but I keep trying!
I admire nearly all types of genres and usually have a good mix each year. Most books I read are murder mystery, horror, paranormal or realistic fiction.

Books I've Finished

~January~
1. Drawing Dead Patrick Logan (Chase Adams FBI #3)
2. Charm Tracy Wolf (Crave#5)
3. Vanished in Vermillion Lou Raguse
4. The Mist Ragnar Jonasson (Hulda Trilogy #3)
5. Death Row: The Final Minutes Michelle Lyons
6. The New One Minute Manager Ken Blanchard & Spencer Johnson

~February~
7. Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation Kate Bornstein & Bear Bergman
8. Presumed Innocent Scott Turow (Kindle County #1)
9. In a Dark, Dark Wood Ruth Ware
10. I'm Thinking of Ending Things Iain Reid

~March~
11. Cherish Tracy Wolff (Crave #6)
12. Dark Demon Christine Feehan (Dark Series #16)
13. Butcher & Blackbird Brynne Weaver (The Ruinous Love Trilogy #1)
14. When No One Is Watching Alyssa Cole
15. Fake the Date Ana Byrde (#LoveWins #1)
16. Hook, Line & Sinker Ana Byrde (#LoveWins #2)
17. Boyfriend Material Alexis Hall (London's Calling #1)

~April~
18. Husband Material Alexis Hall (London's Calling #2)
19. Straight as a Cucumber Ana Byrde (#LoveWins #3)
20. Game, S*x, & Match Ana Byrde (#LoveWins #4)
21. 12 Days of Gay Ana Byrde (#LoveWins #5)
22. Finn's Fantasy K.C. Wells (Maine Men #1)
23. 10 Things That Never Happened Alexis Hall (London's Calling #3)
24. Ben's Boss K.C. Wells (Maine Men #2)
25. Seb's Summer K.C. Wells (Maine Men #3)
26. Dylan's Dilemma K.C. Wells (Maine Men #4)
27. Those Empty Eyes Charlie Donlea
28. Shaun's Salvation K.C. Wells (Maine Men #5)
29. Aaron's Awakening K.C. Wells (Maine Men #6)
30. Levi's Love K.C. Wells (Maine Men #7)

Alphabet Challenge - Titles:
# - 10 Things that Never Happened - (Alexis Hall)
# - 12 Days of Gay - (Ana Byrde)
A - Aaron's Awakening - (K.C. Wells)
B - Butcher & Blackbird - (Brynne Weaver)
C - Charm - (Tracy Wolff)
D - Drawing Dead - (Patrick Logan)
E
F - Fake the Date - (Ana Byrde)
G - Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation - (Kate Bornstein & Bear S. Bear Bergman)
H - Hook, Line, & Sinker - (Ana Byrde)
I - In a Dark, Dark Wood - (Ruth Ware)
J
K
L - Levi's Love - (Ana Byrde)
M - The Mist - (Ragnar Jonasson)
N - The New One Minute Manager - (Ken Blanchard & Spencer Johnson)
O
P - Presumed Innocent - (Scott Turow)
Q
R
S - Straight as a Cucumber - (Ana Byrde)
T - Those Empty Eyes - (Charlie Donlea)
U
V - Vanished in Vermillion - (Lou Raguse)
W - When No One Is Watching - (Alyssa Cole)
X
Y
Z

Alphabet Challenge - Authors:
A -
B - Ken Blanchard - (The New One Minute Manager)
C - Alyssa Cole - (When No One is Watching)
D
E
F - Christine Feehan - (Dark Demon)
G
H - Alexis Hall - (Boyfriend Material)
I
J - Ragnar Jonasson - (The Mist)
K - K.C. Wells - (Maine Men Series)
L - Patrick Logan - (Drawing Dead)
M
N
O
P -
Q
R - Lou Raguse - (Vanished in Vermillion)
S
T - Scott Turow - (Presumed Innocent)
U
V
W - Tracy Wolff - (Charm)
X
Y
Z

Welcome back, Mikail! I’m down over the last few years too. Life happens, I suppose.

Hi, Mikail! IMHO, numbers don't matter--it's the fun of trying to get there!

>4 drneutron: It sure does! Hope you have a good 2024!

>5 Tess_W: I totally agree! Happy book reading in 2024!

Woohoo, first book down for the year on the first day of the year! Off to a good start!

Drawing Dead is book three of Patrick Logan’s Chase Adams FBI series. I started this series during my local mystery book club. The storyline revolves around a woman in the FBI who has severe trauma after her little sister was kidnapped years before. She’s also a drug addict and can’t keep it separate from the job.

I like that these stories are easy reads. The storylines and settings are different in each book and Logan keeps it entertaining. For the most part I also like the characters in each of these books. Logan has kept a consistent partner for Chase within the FBI and his character starts to develop more in the third book. I like that this book toggled to his point of view of things.

I don’t care for Chase’s drug use / background in these books. I’m hoping after this book that Logan works to move Chase on from that. I feel like it’s a common theme among a lot of police crime series to have the main character ailed with addiction problems.

★★★★ Will read book 4, would recommend the series if you’re looking for some light reading.

Happy new year Mikhail.

>8 OMBWarrior47: That is a good start!

Happy reading in 2024, Mikail!

Happy new year of reading Mikail.

>10 FAMeulstee: You too!

>11 WhiteRaven.17: You too!

Charm by Tracy Wolff (Crave #5)

**THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS**

Honestly, this book was so bad I’m going to keep this short and sweet. I stand by my previous review for book 4. This series should’ve either ended with book 4 or had Jaxon and Flint as the main characters ever since book 1.
The storyline from Grace’s point of view is absolutely obnoxious. She’s the weakest, most selfish heroine I’ve ever read for a YA series and now in this book Wolff goes back in time and shows how she cheats on Jaxon with his brother! How wonderful! As if Wolff can’t degrade her character anymore…and yet again slam Jaxon’s yet again. Ironically in the beginning of book 6 she has Grace apologizing to Jaxon, so she must’ve gotten some hate for it….
As for the other characters. Hudson is a completely unrealistic character. A goody two shoe who’s somehow supposed to be this tough vampire prince. Laughing out loud…Flint doesn’t nearly get as much time in the books as he should, and now he’s dating Jaxon who should’ve been the main character all along. Unfortunately Wolff likes to bash him throughout the series, makes you wonder why she bothered creating such a punching bag.
I won’t even bother with the ridiculous storyline. Nearly 600 pages of Grace and Hudson that was just blah blah blah. Completely irrelevant to the series. It’s like she got contracted for another book and had to BS an entire one just to get it to the publisher.
I will read book 6 to finish out the series but I have laughably low hopes for it.

★ wouldn’t recommend this series at all to be honest.

Not my typical read but it’s nonfiction month in my mystery book club and this was the choice. The author is a reporter for one of my local news channels so it was close to home.

Vanished in Vermillion by Lou Raguse is a true mystery story of two girls who went missing in 1971 in Vermillion, South Dakota.

The book moves in chronological order. It starts with explaining the girls home life and background of their family and then moves to the events that happened in 1971 the day they disappeared. What was last known, where they were last seen, and how the local police department handled the investigation.

Most of the middle of the book is a guessing game of what happened to the girls as their car and bodies were not found. The author goes over other events in the area and criminals that are relative to the area. The investigation of the disappearance gets handed off to several people in law enforcement and each one implements something different with their ideas.

A few people in prison are given their stories as police suspected that these inmates may have had something to do with the disappearance and one was even tried for their murders.

The ending of the book goes over the discovery of the girls bodies finally in 2013. 42 years after their disappearance the bodies are found and a hypothesis was formed on what happened to them. Many of the family and friends of the girls had died by this point but the story finally gets its closure.

I liked this book, when I’m normally not a fan of nonfiction. It wasn’t boring and the storyline kept moving. I’m glad the girls were finally found but this book really shows how disappointing local, state, and federal law enforcement officers can be. These girls could’ve been found probably in the same year they disappeared, if local law enforcement did their job in the first place. And that is scary seeing as hundreds of people are still missing in the US to date.

★★★★ I would recommend it if you’re looking for some non-fiction reading.

The Mist is Ragnar Jonasson’s ending novel to his Hulda Trilogy. The trilogy focuses on a woman named Hulda who works as an investigator in Iceland. This series is interesting because it’s reverse chronological order. The first book starts with her death and the third book ends with how her family was torn apart.

I enjoyed the ending of this series. It was interesting and Hulda was a likeable character. The murder mystery in this storyline was interesting and unique. The new characters were well rounded and the story flowed smoothly. Jonasson has an easy and fluid writing style that makes it an enjoyable read. I am sad that he only went for 3 books with this series.

I honestly didn’t like the first book of this series. It was long and wordy and the storyline wasn’t interesting to me. I thought the second book was much different and it ended up being my favorite of the trilogy. If you can get past the first book the next two are definitely worth the read.

★★★★ I would recommend.

Not usually a nonfiction reader but it seems to be how my TBR pile is panning out. Here is the second one for January.

Death Row: The Final Minutes is a nonfiction book written by Michelle Lyons that goes over her accounts of witnessing nearly 300 executions in the Texas prison system. She started off working as a journalist where she witnessed and wrote about each execution in a local paper. She eventually ended up working in the prison system and got to know a lot of people on death row up until their execution.

I liked this book. It was not boring and the accounts were interesting. She was not biased at all and it shed a good light on the prisoners. It was factual when it came to their crimes but it also showed that in the end they were still human and some of them accomplished great things even while in prison.

I also liked that she brought in the view point of her boss, Larry Fitzgerald and his accounts of death row and the inmates. Even though he passed away before the book was published, it was still tasteful and showed him in a positive light.

★★★★ I would recommend.

Finished January with 6 books! That's crazy to me.

I will not review New One Minute Manager it was super fast and required by my work to read. Not sure I got much out of it. It was okay, you can easily read it in an hour if you have a chunk of time.

Another one for my local mystery book club. I honestly had never heard of it. Presumed Innocent was originally published by Scott Turow back in 1987 and it was turned into a movie featuring Harrison Ford not too many years later. I made the mistake of Googling it before reading it so the entire time I just pictured the main character as Harrison Ford the entire time…I have also not seen the movie.

This is the first book in the Kindle County series about a prosecutor whose friendships are questioned when he gets accused of murdering a fellow co-worker. For the most part I enjoyed the story and the ending was interesting and unexpected.

There was a lot that I didn’t care for. For one, it is very long and wordy. One paragraph could take up an entire page. There were times where it was really slow and I skimmed it. Also the main character is not likeable.
The ending was not set up for a sequel so I’m curious how the series has 12 books and is still going…I will give book 2 a try but this wouldn’t be in my top recommend lists for crime...

★★★

In a Dark, Dark Wood is the first psychological thriller written by British author Ruth Ware. It is about a woman who is invited to a bachelorette party for an ex friend of hers. She arrives out of curiosity as she has not seen this friend in a decade and a murder ensues.

I like Ware’s writing style, it is easy to read and flows nicely. The story overall is a quick, action packed thriller. The main character is likeable and the other characters are well rounded and she does a good job of expressing each individual personality.

I was a little disappointed by this one as I previously read It Girl and that one was much better. I will give her credit as this was her first in the genre. In It Girl I didn’t see the murderer coming…in this one I figured it out right away. There are also scenarios at the end that were not realistic.

This book also has taught me not to trust Reese Witherspoon’s choice in books. As her quote on the front of the book states that she was really scared during this story…literally nothing is scary about it…..

★★★ I’d recommend It Girl over this one…

I’m Thinking of Ending Things is a unique psychological thriller written by Iain Reid. This was his first book and received a very strong reception. Netflix picked it up and made it into a movie. The book is about a new couple who go through the new ropes of young love. It is a very short book that explains what happens when Jake takes Lucy home to meet his family and their journey too and from the farmhouse, with a strange twist at the end.

I liked this story despite how short it was. There was never a dull moment and it kept you thinking about what would happen next. It is not a murder mystery but more of a character mystery which I thought was unique.
The ending was a surprise but if you read it carefully enough you can see it coming.

I actually didn’t like how short the book was. I think there was a lot of missed opportunity to dig deeper and have a more developed story line before revealing the ending the way they did.

I will plan on watching the Netflix movie, I can tell from the trailer that they added things most likely to make it long enough for film…

★★★★ I’d recommend

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

Man this book was just as bad as book 5. Her publisher probably told her this had to be the end of the series because it wasn’t getting any better. I’ll keep this short and sweet. If I could rate this whole series a 0 stars, I would.

Cherish is, thankfully, the last book of the Crave series by Tracy Wolff. It’s pretty much identical to book 5 in setting and repeats the story line from earlier books.

Also she repeat phrases, over and over and over again. You’d think after 6 books she’d become a better writer, but that didn’t happen. Her editor should’ve pointed it out.

The first half of the book is just crap. Hudson this and Hudson that. Grace is a weak character, like she always has been. And Hudson is supposed to be this great character but honestly he’s just a jerk. There’s not much that’s likeable about this couple.

She introduces Heather, a worthless human character, into the storyline to replace all the people she killed off in the last books. Which creates an annoying triangle between Eden and Macy and results in Macy getting nothing in the end.

She’s still using Jaxon as a punching bag. To the point where his character pretty much ends up with nothing in the end just like Macy. He’s given Flint as a mate, which is okay. He deserved the vampire crown, not the Bloodletter, she already had it.

I stand by my previous reviews. This series would’ve been much better if Grace and Hudson were the back characters and Jaxon and Flint led the storyline from the beginning. Or she shouldn’t have bothered with Jaxon’s character at all, it’s clear she didn’t care for him after the switch between book one and two.

★ I wouldn’t recommend the entire series. Book one was okay and after that it just went straight downhill.

Well, March hit and I had a lot of time on my hands, so I’m attempting to finish some older series, while I’m at it. Book 16 of Christine Feehan’s Dark Series is titled Dark Demon. It’s worth a read as long as you are reading the series in order.

I like Feehan’s writing style, it is descriptive and she takes time with her action scenes. Her Dark series is based in the common world, and the main characters are not typical vampires but more shifters that drink blood. She has added in several of other mythical species into the series so far. She incorporates strong family values into her novels and keeps characters recurring.

The only thing that bothers me is that the male characters are always similar and aren’t rounded with unique personalities. Sometimes I get them confused as I have been reading other books while progressing this series. It’s very long with a lot of characters to remember.

★★★★ I would recommend this one as long as you start the series from the beginning and in order.

This one is not my typical style but it came highly recommended among many of my book groups. I listened to this one on audiobook at work and it was completely worth it.

Butcher and Blackbird is a story about two serial killers, Rowan & Sloane, who make a game out of who can kill a specific target first. In the end they fall in love with each other and figure out how to be humane within a normal world.

The trigger warnings at the beginning of the book I think seemed to be a little over dramatic and I would hope that people take it with a grain of salt. There were times where this story appeared to be gory but it was more comedic than anything.

Weaver’s writing style is smooth and quick, her storyline was action packed and there was never a dull moment.
I have pre-ordered book two and I’m hoping she continues the fast paced adventure with the next two characters (who were also from book one).

★★★★★ I would recommend this one as long as you can handle R rated gore and sex.

This book was absolutely terrible. I rolled my eyes all the way until the end because this was for a book club. And out of 25 of us only 2 liked it. Overall consensus is it’s not worth reading. In fact, so far this is being marked my worst read of 2024. I can’t possibly think a book could get worse than this…When No One Is Watching.

Essentially the story is ridiculous and absurd about a cranky racist black chick who meets up with this nice new white guy in her neighborhood so they can study the history of the neighborhood for a tour she was going to be conducting. She’s ungrateful to him the whole storyline and then for some reason at the end they go shooting people up together. It’s literally one of the most stupid plots I’ve ever read.

It’s obvious the author has a huge problem with white people, and essentially any modern day issue. She literally brought in modern day issue she could think of. She’s made her main character a depressive racist who needs to get a life. She’s a romance author who tried to write a thriller. The first 250 pages are just black people this, black people that, white people are bad and taking over, oh no! Her paranoia over gentrification shows either personal trauma (probably self-inflicted) or the fact that she simply doesn’t know anything about true gentrification. For those of us who’ve actually been through it, it’s a long time coming, it’s not fast, and it’s not that noticeable.

She almost made gentrification to be comedic. The last 100 pages of the book were laughable. It was like she all of a sudden woke up and remembered she was trying to write a thriller….and it came out more like a bad Sci Fi movie with an unrealistic ending. And she had to bring in a white boy punching bag who her main character disliked for most of it until she screwed him so it was obvious she should’ve just written another romance, it’s what she knows.

And she should fire her publishing team. Her editors should never have let this one get through.

★ Don’t waste your time.

I’m combining these two as they were on the shorter side and I’m getting through the series fairly quickly. Ana Byrde’s #LoveWins series was recommended to me by Audible so I decided to give it a shot. I don’t mind a good LGBTQ+ Rom Com.

Fake the Date and Hook, Line, & Sinker are the first two books of the series. They have repeating characters and a chronological storyline so it’s not hard to follow. Each book so far explores different angles of the gay / bi community and the challenges they face which I support as representation in the community can be scarce.

The characters also have pets that are an integral part of the story and add an extra special charisma to this series.

Byrde does a good job at keeping things light and the characters likeable. The comedy is not too overdone and the storylines are believable. I will plan to finish books 3-5 in April.

★★★★ Recommend it if you need a light hearted read!

Apparently March my theme was LGBTQ Romance. Most of the books I read fell into this category. I’ve actually had this series on my shelf for a while. Amazon recommended it to me after reading Red, White & Royal Blue (Which I absolutely loved).

Boyfriend Material is based around the main character, Lucien, who is a very insecure guy who needs to find a fake boyfriend for an event to boost is reputation. The fake boyfriend, Oliver, is a barrister who can’t seem to keep boyfriends and has his own amount of insecurities, but also needs a date for an event. The two learn to get along with each other and grow into having an actual relationship despite their faults.

The story is a good balance of serious and comedy and I would definitely recommend the read. Oliver was a little bit dislikeable for me for most of the book, but he grew on me. Hall has a good writing style and keeps the reader engaged.

★★★★ I would put this one second on my top LGBT list. Red, White, & Royal Blue still in #1.

I had a love hate relationship with the first book, Boyfriend Material, in the end decided I really liked it. I was excited to jump in to book two of the London’s Calling series by Alexis Hall. However, Husband Material was a huge disappointment. I honestly can’t say I’d recommend it.
In the first book, the banter between Lucien and Oliver was slightly annoying but they ended up working out and Oliver grew on me as a character. In the second book, they were both so dislikeable it was hard to read. The whole book they were at odds with each other, both were very selfish, and seemed to have a quite dysfunctional relationship.
The odd layout of this book also was annoying. The first book was a start to end, clear storyline. This book was a series of events brought on by other characters (weddings and funerals). And Lucien and Oliver attended them.
This book also put the gay community in a really bad light. I can’t say as a member of the community that I support half of the drama Hall presents in it. And the ending was not good. It was just a huge let down. I will read Father Material when it comes out in hopes that Hall writes it more like the first one and sheds the couple in a brighter light.
★ I would recommend the first book, but not the sequel.

I finished out the #LoveWins series by Ana Byrde and I enjoyed this series more than I expected too. The characters were all very likeable and it was a fun read.

Straight as a Cucumber was a fun story about a straight college guy who takes in his best friends little brother as a roommate. The little brother is gay and has secretly crushed on him for years. In the end he realizes he’s not as straight as he seems and he comes to build a relationship with his friend’s brother and faces several challenges along the way.

Game, S*x, Match was a unique story of two online friends who end up meeting in real life and compete in a series of competitive games for a cash prize. The one online friend knows that the other is his ex but doesn’t he keeps it hidden for fear of losing his online friend since their relationship years previous did not end well. This was a funny storyline and very lighthearted. The two main characters are interesting and this one was one of my favorites of the series.

12 Days of Gay was the final installment of the series. It does not have physical version, I listened to it on audible. It is a Christmas story about two men who pair together for a video contest. The one thinks the other dislikes him but reality is he has a lot going on in his life and secretly likes the other the entire time. I’m not usually a fan of the holiday books, it’s a common theme in a lot of series where they feel they need to write one about the holidays but this one was okay. It flowed nicely and wrapped up the series well.

★★★★★ I would recommend this series. Each book is always carefree and has a good ending. It does not disappoint.

K.C. Wells’s Maine Men Series was a recommendation to me on Audible after I finished Ana Byrde’s #LoveWins Series. They were both narrated by the same person as well: John Solo.

The complete series on Audible has 7 Books and 2 short stories. The books are available to read as well titled as follows:
1. Finn’s Fantasy
2. Ben’s Boss
3. Seb’s Summer
4. Dylan’s Dilemma
5. Shaun’s Salvation
6. Aaron’s Awakening
7. Levi’s Love

The series is based around 8 friends from high school who have grown up and still remain in the area together. In each book, each of the friends eventually find their partners and each face their own struggles within the LGBTQ community and life events.

This is a great series that represents friendship and realistic scenarios. It’s a great series to listen to on Audible, John Solo did a great job.

It usually takes me a while to get used to an audio book but with this series I did not. This was a series that I would even consider re-listening too. I would highly recommend it if you’re looking to listen to some LGBT romance.

★★★★★

Even though I was disappointed by the last book I read from Alexis Hall, Husband Material, I decided to give this one a shot. 10 Things That Never Happened is a spinoff of a character who was introduced in Husband Material. I understand that it may be a part of another series that the author intends to continue called Material World.

I liked this book nearly as much as I liked Boyfriend Material. The characters take a while to warm up to. It seems like the author likes to write broody characters. Lucien and Oliver are very similar to Sam and Jonathan. Like with Boyfriend Material, it took me a while to warmup to the secondary partner. Oliver was nearly as dislikeable as Jonathan was.

The author had an interesting concept where the main character fakes having amnesia in order to try and save his job. His boss ends up taking care of him and they become a complicated couple. The book was interesting and kept me entertained until the end. I do not feel that there were any slow parts in the book. I would be interested in reading book 2 if Hall was willing to continue on with the series.

★★★★

30 Down!

Those Empty Eyes by Charlie Donlea was the final book of the season for my local mystery book club. It has really great reviews on Amazon but for me I felt it was pretty mediocre.

The beginning was really eventful and kept my interest. I liked the main character and thought she was credible. Most of the characters in the novel are realistic to a point and keep the novel flowing. The events are entertaining and not hard to follow. There was one character that could’ve been completely cut from the entire book and the story would’ve still made sense. But I understand why they kept her, she was the reporter that gave the book its title so she had to keep coming back around.

I did not like the odd back and forth in this book. There were a few time jumps in the main story and then a back story from multiple points of view. Unfortunately that back story gave away who the killer was in the first and second flash backs which is what made me lose interest in the middle. I just wanted to see how she’d figure it out and wrap up the storyline. The ending isn’t really a shock if you paid attention to the flashbacks. I was surprised how many good reviews this book got, a lot of people didn’t see it coming. .

I’d recommend it for a read once, probably wouldn’t read it again.

★★★