This months key words are:

School, Cut, Sky, Fate, Wing, Belong, Justice, Way⁠

Share with us! Which key word did you pick? What book did you read and what did you think of the book(s)?

Key Word Challenge Complete: School, Cut, Sky, Fate, Wing, Belong, Justice, Way⁠

Echoes of an Alien Sky by James P. Hogan

Quite an interesting story, though the ending was pretty obvious almost from the get-go. Like most of Hogan’s books, there’s a heavy reliance on scientific theory. Unfortunately, some of those theories are totally wrong (has that much changed since 2007?) I was surprised how all those smart Venusians hadn’t figured it out yet. And why were they calling their planet Venus, anyway? Quite the coincidence that they called it the same thing as the extinct humans. Same with Mars.

And, boy, don’t the Venusians consider themselves smarter! Hogan doesn’t miss a chance to have one of the characters expound on how humans destroyed themselves, something Venusians would never do! And all the things they got wrong (which, it turns out, they didn’t.)

I did like a couple of the characters, though I bit more background would have been appreciated. Their storylines were maybe a bit too sketchy. They seem to be holding up the plot being espoused, rather than the plot moving the characters’ stories forward.

So, an okay story that held my interest, even if I could have done without the moralizing. Still, an intriguing premise that could have been better done.

Challenge complete!
Keyword: Wing

I finished When We Had Wings and while it was a good book about women serving and enduring the hardships of war, it was not as good as some others I've read on the topic. Maybe it was the three storylines written by three different writers, thus each having different nuances in their writing...

• Fourth Wing - Rebecca Yarros
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

- 5 stars on Goodreads. *SPOILER-ISH*
Well damn, that was surprisingly excellent! And the only reason I say “surprisingly”, is because I was honestly worried after all the hype surrounding this series, that I would find it lacking. But this book is absolutely brimming with action scenes that are written so well, I could see them with crystal clarity in my head…and some were downright visually stunning. There are just so many goosebump-inducing moments, and anyone that has been following my reviews knows I LOVE that in a book. And extra bonus points have been awarded due to the ugly tears I cried over a certain scene at the end.

Challenge complete!
Key word: sky
Read Daughters of the Night Sky by Aimie K. Runyan. Historical fiction about the Soviet women pilots in WWII called the Night Witches who didn't get enough credit for what they did during WWII to fight the Nazis.

Keyword I selected was school. The Haunting of Thackery School by Skylar Finn. It was listed as horror, but thought paranormal thriller may be more accurate, and I definitely enjoyed it.

Keyword: Way
Book: The Long Way Back by Nichole Baart
An interesting take on the social media influence, and how it affected a specific teen in the story. But not how you'd think. It definitely went in a direction I didn't see coming, on a subject that is current and pretty scary. (More so lately.) Based around where I live, so that's also a draw. Good book!

I did two book this month!

Keyword Sky: Starry River of the Sky by Grace Lin.
Was a cute take on Chinese mythology! It wasn't my favorite of the author's work, but it was fun.

Keyword Way:tThe Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.
Loooooooved this one! A fun character driven Sci-Fi. This author's work is like a sci-fi warm hug and I always enjoy them.

I have been reading her essays in "Nothing Like I Imagined" I love her writing style.

Help Is On the Way by Mindy Kaling

I read “A Game of Fate” by Scarlett St. Clair. I had already read “A Touch of Darkness” and liked it. This was the same story from Hades’ perspective. It wasn’t bad. It was a completely different story and seeing his perspective will be helpful in the later books of the series.

Key Word:
Cut

Book:
Making the Cut by Veronica Peartree

Thoughts:
It was an okay book. I’m kinda going through a slump this month, so that doesn’t help. I didn’t hate the book; there were many witty moments and dialogues, but at some points, I felt it was a bit cringy, and that the enemy part of this enemies to lovers wasn’t long enough. Overall though, it is a unique sports romance with the FMC as the main athlete this time. 3 Stars

I love seeing what everybody else has read!

I'm doing pretty good in general as I want to read a book with each word but, ironically, I don't read nearly as much when away on vacation.

This month I have managed:
The Ghosts Who Went to SCHOOL (an old Scholastic Apple book that my daughter gave me from her shelves)
The Final CUT - Catherine Coulter (long but good)
Big SKY Wedding - Linda Lael Miller (from my other daughter's shelves actually)
The Invention of WINGS - Sue Monk Kidd (I wasn't really expecting historical fiction when I picked it up but it grew on me)
Where We BELONG - Emily Giffin (super cute)
Three FATES - Nora Roberts (not one of her best but good nonetheless)

Currently reading Divine JUSTICE - David Baldacci and have
I'll AlWAYs Have You - Nora Roberts (a reach but I'm amazed that I can't find a single book in my house with WAY in the title! I mean I can come up with a ton!!)

Sky
I read The Lullaby Sky by Carolyn Brown
I love this challenge, because I never would have found/read this book otherwise. It’s about a woman getting divorced after an abusive relationship. I really enjoyed it

The book I read was The School Trip by Miranda Smith. It is a thriller and I enjoyed it. Well written and kept my attention.

Key word: School

I read The Mystwick School of Musicraft. It is a middle grade novel about a world where everything is accomplished by magic - and the magic is created by playing music! It reminded me a little of the world of Harry Potter, but the storyline was so unique that it was definitely its own magical world. I couldn’t put the book down! It was so captivating and entertaining! I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a fun, fresh, entertaining, unique, easy read.

The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...

WOW. Ok. So, it took me a while to get into this storyline. It just didn’t grab me right from the start. And I can pinpoint almost exactly where my interest was finally piqued - at around page 240, when the chasmfiend arrives on the scene, and the battle ensues. And honestly, 240 pages is a lot to get through without having strong feelings one way or the other about a book, so I was a bit worried that this series would end up being a DNF just from a lack of true interest in continuing to read it. But let me tell you, once my attention was finally caught at that 240 page mark, I was sucked into to storyline HARD. It was literally like one of those dimmer light switches on the dimmest setting, barely lighting a room, to suddenly getting cranked to the highest setting, and the room is now glaringly bright. No in between. Where I had been a bit apathetic up until that point, the characters just suddenly MATTERED to me. It was honestly a shockingly abrupt transition. I don’t know how else to describe it. So, if anyone reading this review has conflicted feelings about whether they should read this series, or even if they tried but like me weren’t pulled in from the start, I urge you to give this series a chance. It deserves it.

I read these 3 books and enjoyed them all
1) Smash Cut- Sandra Brown
2) The School For Good Mothers- Jessamine Chan
3) On Little Wings- Regina Sirois

I read The St. Ambrose School for Girls by Jessica Ward. It was quite enjoyable.

These are the books read in August with the following key words: School, Cut, Sky, Fate, Wing, Belong, Justice, Way

School-The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan - 4 stars; The Secret School by Avi - 4 stars; The Hawthorne School by Sylvie Perry - 4 stars; The School for German brides by Aimie K. Runyan - 4 stars; Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez - 4 stars; The Finishing School by Joanna Goodman - 3 stars


Cut-Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese - 3 stars; Cutting Teeth by Chandler Baker - 3 stars


Sky- The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas - 2 stars; The Bluest Sky by Christina Diaz Gonzalez - 4 stars; The Big Dark Sky by Dean Koontz - 1 star; We Share the same Sky by Rachael Cerrotti - 5 stars; Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang - 5 stars


Fate-Fire and Fate by Serena Valentino - 4 stars; Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff - 2 stars; Flirting with Fate by J.C. Cervantes - 3 stars; This Ravenous Fate by Hayley Dennings - 3 stars


Wing- Wings of Refuge by Lynn Austin - 3 stars


Belong- We Belong by Cookie Hiponia - 3 stars; Belonging by Nora Krug - 4 stars; Belonging by Jill Fordyce - 4 stars


Justice- Cajun Justice by James Patterson - 4 stars; Viral Justice by Ruha Benjamin - 4 stars; Climate Justice by Mary Robinson - 4 stars


Way- Fly Away by Kristin Hannah - 4 stars; The Way of Zen by Alan W. Watts - 3 stars; Way of Perfection by Teresa de Ávila - 3 stars: All the Way Home by Wendy Corsi Staub - 4 stars; No Way Home by Tyler Wetherall - 4 stars

Key Word: School
I read The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan. Enjoyed reading this, although it lagged a little in the middle.

I read 'And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer' by Fredrik Backman

1) Smash Cut- Sandra Brown
2) The School For Good Mothers- Jessamine Chan
3) On Little Wings- Regina Sirois