Hello dear book friends and welcome to damppebbles. I’m back! It’s been a while since I last posted (roughly a month and a half if memory serves) but I have returned with a rekindled enthusiasm to talk all things bookish with you. As has happened in the past, my blogging mojo just upped and left with a rather undignified PFFT. I was still reading like a women possessed (I had the 20 Books of Summer Challenge to complete, I had no choice! 😂) but I fell further and further behind with my reviews to the point where it seemed impossible to catch up. Truth be told, I’m still nowhere near catching up BUT getting the reviews written doesn’t seem so impossible anymore.

Way back when, back in the days Twitter was Twitter and not X, back at the start of Summer when us Brits were full of hope, looking forward to a few sunny, warm months following the very long, very dark, very cold Autumn, Winter, Spring we had (pah!), back when my blogging mojo was *ahem* already starting to flag, I signed up for the Summer Reading Challenge organised by the lovely Cathy at 746 Books. This was my fifth year of taking part only having completed it once before (and that was in 2020 when we were all in lockdown and I wasn’t leaving the house!). But I was determined this was going to be my year. Spoiler alert, it wasn’t. I’ve read a number of books but I didn’t read the requisite twenty. A lot of the books I read weren’t on my original list (they are now because Cathy is totally chilled about the rules of the challenge and allows participants to swap and change as they see fit). I also haven’t reviewed a single book (but I will – look out for reviews coming to the blog over the next few months). The aim of the challenge though is to get participants reading over the summer and that, I did. So even though I didn’t smash the challenge as hoped, I do feel I was successful in a way.

So without further ado, here’s my original list of 20-ish (😬) books (these are all affiliate links which means if you purchase one or more of these books via the link (or links), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price at no extra cost to you. It’s a win/win situation!):

The Housekeepers by Alex Hay
A Game of Lies by Clare Mackintosh
The Dive by Sarah Ochs
The Contest by Karen Hamilton
Mister Magic by Kiersten White
Just Another Missing Person by Gillian McAllister
The Only One Left by Riley Sager
The Good Daughter by Laure Van Rensburg
Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent
The Jigsaw Man by Nadine Matheson
Damage by Caitlin Wahrer
Then She Vanishes by Claire Douglas
Tall Oaks by Chris Whitaker
The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz
Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater
The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias
Clown in a Cornfield 2: Freddo Lives by Adam Cesare
The Fields by Erin Young
It Ends at Midnight by Harriet Tyce
Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix
Atalanta by Jennifer Saint

Out of these, I read:

✅ The Housekeepers by Alex Hay
✅ A Game of Lies by Clare Mackintosh
✅ The Dive by Sarah Ochs
✅ The Contest by Karen Hamilton
✅ Mister Magic by Kiersten White
✅ Just Another Missing Person by Gillian McAllister
✅ The Only One Left by Riley Sager
✅ The Good Daughter by Laure Van Rensburg
✅ Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent
The Jigsaw Man by Nadine Matheson
Damage by Caitlin Wahrer
Then She Vanishes by Claire Douglas
Tall Oaks by Chris Whitaker
The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz
Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater
The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias
Clown in a Cornfield 2: Freddo Lives by Adam Cesare
The Fields by Erin Young
(It Ends at Midnight by Harriet Tyce – this is my current read)
Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix
Atalanta by Jennifer Saint

BUT I changed my list as I went along, adding in new books here and there. These are the books that didn’t originally start on the list but they are now (these are also affiliate links – see above for more info)…

➕ Fearless by M.W. Craven
➕ Fear the Silence by Robert Bryndza
➕ Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
➕ They Lurk by Ronald Malfi
➕ A Twisted Love Story by Samantha Downing
➕ The Graveyard Shift by Maria Lewis
➕ The Pit by Peter Papathanasiou

So I make that sixteen read by the end of the challenge on Friday 1st September with one other currently in progress, which I don’t think is bad going. Sure, it would have been nice to complete the challenge again this year but with the school holidays in full flow, vacations, days out, having work done around the house and the general entertaining of my children amidst the chaos, I don’t think I did too badly. I’m disappointed that I haven’t reviewed any of the books yet but there’s still time. That’s it for the 20 Books of Summer Challenge for another year. You can pretty much guarantee that if Cathy decides to host the challenge again next year I will be there with bells on! Surely 2024 will be my year…??? And of course, you could join in next year too. Just keep an eye on 746 Books in May 2024 for the sign up post.

I’ll leave you with the covers of my sixteen (SEVENTEEN, right?!) books as they are a thing of beauty. Stay bookish friends x