The Challenge Factory - ♦R2: Team Challenge SS♦ - Finished

R2: Team Challenge SS (SS= Super series) hosted by The Challenge Factory on Goodreads.

This is a team challenge that will require one book a week. The object of the game is to roll the dice (there will be a link to the website to roll) and move along the board. The first team to pass the finish line wins the game. 

This challenge has now finished and unfortunately my team did not win. It has been quite fun having to find books that fit the corresponding numbers on the board.

I have read eight books for this challenge.

THIS is all the posts for this  challenge.

List of books:

1. Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrison (place 12 - alternate: Title: B)
2. The Bride wore Chocolate by Shirley Jump (place 18 - #1)
3. Pieces of Eight by Melissa Wright (place 25 - #2)
4. The Breeders by Katie French (place 31 - #1)
5. From a Whisper to a Scream by Charles de Lint (place 38 - #3)
6. Along Came A Demon by Linda Welch  (place 46 - alternate: published 2009)
7. Prince of Hazel and Oak by John Lenahan  (place 52 - #2)
8. A Place Beyond The Map by Samuel Thews  (place 61 - standalone)

A Place Beyond The Map by Samuel Thews

Once in a very long while, betwixt and between the humdrum of everydayness, something magical happens: life gives us a fairy tale. Sometimes it begins with a door; sometimes by following a peculiar cottontail down his hole. For Phinnegan Qwyk, it begins with a chilly November night, two wet footprints and Periwinkle Lark.
A flamboyant and cunning Faë with a penchant for mischief, Periwinkle is also a bit of a thief. When he snatches Phinnegan away to a Place-Beyond-the-Map, Phinnegan discovers that fairy tales aren’t all they’re cracked up to be: at least, not when you are being attacked by the wild wolves of the Faolchú, being hunted by a gholem that lurks unseen in the shadows, or bargaining for your very life with a troll—even if she is beautiful.
When all seems lost, Phinnegan finds hope in the form of a shy pixie and a jolly, if rather messy, old man. His journey is not a mistake.
Evocative, purposeful and winsome, A Place Beyond the Map is what children’s dreams are made of. A simplistic tale spun within the world of fairy tales and myth, it is a story for children, and for those of us that are finally old enough to read fairy tales again. From Goodreads.

I enjoyed this book though I found the start quite slow going. After that it was a real fairy tale full of all sorts of creatures and not all looking as expected.
Phinnegan has to find his way home with the help of the not too trustworthy fae Periwinkle but he also gets involved in the local affairs.
My biggest problem with the story was that the ending is no ending but more of a setting the scene for the next book - but there is no sequel.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
2014 Monthly Motif Reading Challenge
2014 Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge
CCC A-Z Authors 2014
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
The Challenge Factory - R2: Team Challenge SS?
Nothing but Reading Challenges - UnCover It
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Sub-Genre Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (Q-quail)
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon

Prince of Hazel and Oak by John Lenahan

Having returned to the real world from Tir Na Nog at the end of the last book, our hero Conor finds himself arrested for the murder of his father.
When he explains to the cops that his dad is safe and well and enjoying life as king of a land of elves, imps and banshees they understandably think he is a nutcase.
That is until he is rescued by Celtic warriors on horseback and taken back to Tir Na Nog, accidentally bringing a policeman with him.
Once safely back in The Land, Conor finds that all is not well. His father is dying, the girl he loves is betrothed to another and a rather confused American cop is wandering around causing havoc.
It falls to our young hero, and his band of friends, to find a cure for the king. On their epic journey they encounter one of the most mystical and dangerous races in The Land, the shapeshifting Pooka, and find their fates linked in ways they could never have imagined.
The Prince of Hazel and Oak is a stunning fantasy adventure that takes fans of Shadowmagic further in to the land and brings back many of the favourite characters from the first book. From Goodreads.

It took me 1½ years from buying Shadowmagic, the first book in the series, before reading it and now another 1½ years later I finally got around to reading the second book.
I really enjoyed this book. Conor has come back to the real world but it is just not the same to him any longer and after being accused of his father's murder and arrested he is saved by his mother and brought back to Tir Na Nog. This time his quest is to find a cure for his father who is dying. Conor is just a teenager and quite often behaves as such but the book is humorous with him also trying to tell jokes that nobody understands.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Romance Readers Reading Challenges: Yahtzee Challenge
Sequel Spring Reading Challenge
The Challenge Factory - R2: Team Challenge SS?
Nothing but Reading Challenges - UnCover It
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Sub-Genre Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (P-polarbear)
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon
Crazy Challenge Connection 2014 RaT #5

Along Came A Demon by Linda Welch

I'm told the dead are all around us. I wouldn't know about that, I see only the violently slain. They can be victims of hit-and-run, innocents caught in a cross-fire, the murdered. They whisper to me and they never, ever, forget the face of their killer. I've learned to live with my uncanny ability, in fact I've made a career out of it.
The departed aren't the only supernaturals I see. No, they're not vampires or werewolves or fae - those things don't exist. We live side by side with what some call the Otherworldy. That's too much of a mouthful for me, I call them demons. If you saw them as I do, you'd know why.
Right now I'm trying to track down a missing six year-old boy whose mother was murdered. Or maybe she wasn't. To further complicate the case, Clarion PD gave me a partner I'd rather shoot than work with.
I can't tell them he's a demon.
They'd think I'm crazy.
I'm Tiff Banks. Welcome to my world.
WHISPERINGS. Paranormal mystery with a splash of humor and dash of romance. From Goodreads.

Again a free Kindle book that was better than expected. Tiff can see and talk to the dead, only the ones that died an violent death. She can also see "demons" or that is what she calls them, beings from another dimension. She has to help solve the case of a missing kid and she gets paired with a demon. It is despite the killing and torture also quite humorous when she discusses things with the two ghosts that live in her house.
It was close to a 4 star book but ended as a high 3 instead. I might get the next in the series, I like it when free books reel me in.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge
2014 Read Your Freebies! Reading Challenge
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
The Challenge Factory - R2: Team Challenge SS?
Nothing but Reading Challenges - UnCover It
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (W-wolf)
Nothing but Reading Challenges - 50 States Challenge
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon
Crazy Challenge Connection 2014 RaT #5

From a Whisper to a Scream by Charles de Lint

In the early 1990s, Charles de Lint wrote and published three dark fantasies under the name "Samuel M. Key." Orb is now reissuing them under de Lint's own name, beginning with 2002's Angel of Darkness. In From a Whisper to a Scream (1992), years after the death of a notorious child murderer, children begin dying again, and a crime photographer begins to suspect he has the one true clue that connects the events.
"The [Newford] books have all been written in such a way that you should be able to pick up any one and get a full and complete story. However, characters do reoccur, off center stage as it were, and their stories do follow a sequence." From Goodreads.

This is the third book in the Newford series but it is nothing like the others. There is always a dark element in the books fighting the evil from the spiritworld but this is more about the evil in human nature and that makes it a lot scarier.
This is a very dark disturbing book. It contains paedophilia, violence and several kinds of abuse.
We follow at least 3 lots of people and they all end up together in the end, fighting the horrific ghost that is killing young women.
It ends as well or better than expected.
I have some time ago decided to read all of the Newford series but I think I need to wait a bit with the next book as that is also supposed to be rather scary.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection Chinese New Year Challenge
Sequel Spring Reading Challenge
The Challenge Factory - R2: Team Challenge SS?
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (L-impala)
CCC-Read your age
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon

The Breeders by Katie French

Sixteen-year-old Riley Meemick is one of the world's last free girls. When Riley was born, her mother escaped the Breeders, the group of doctors using cruel experiments to bolster the dwindling human race. Her parents do everything possible to keep her from their clutches-moving from one desolate farm after another to escape the Breeders' long reach. The Breeders control everything and they're hunting Riley.
When the local Sheriff abducts the adult members of her family, Riley and her brother Ethan are left to starve. Then Clay arrives, the handsome gunslinger who seems determined to help to make up for past sins. As Riley's affection for Clay grows she wonders can she trust Clay with her secret and risk her freedom? The three embark on a journey across the scarred remains of New Mexico. When Riley is forced into the Breeder's hospital, she learns the horrible fate of her mother-a fate she'll share unless she can find a way out. From Goodreads.


A dystopian world where hardly any women are born. Sixteen-year-old Riley Meemick has to pretend to be a bender, a genderless person, to avoid being caught by the Breeders. After her stepfather is killed and her mother has been sold to the Breeders, Riley with her 8 year old brother goes looking for her. She gets help from Clay who believes she is a bender.
This was a free book but it is good enough that I am considering buying the next book in the series.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
Jumble Your Genres Reading Challenge 2014 (dystopian)
2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge
2014 Read Your Freebies! Reading Challenge
CCC A-Z Authors 2014
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - April Showers
The Challenge Factory - R2: Team Challenge SS?
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (R-narwhal)
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon

Pieces of Eight by Melissa Wright

After revealing a dark past, Frey is forced to join with a group of strangers whose pasts seem to intertwine with her own. She struggles to regain her memories, her full power, only to find there is more danger on the other side. And now, there is no turning back. From Goodreads

As it is about 9 months since I read the first book, it took me a bit of time to get all the characters sorted.
Frey was bound which meant she had no memory of her previous life or her powers. During this book she slowly regains both. It becomes obvious that her previous self was a complete different person to the one she is now and I am looking forward to see how she copes with that in the next book.
Frey and her companions have to kill the council members that bound her in order to free her memories and powers.
She has some very loyal friends. But as she now starts to remember things again, and remember her friends together with her enemies, she is unsure of their loyalty. They can't tell her too much as her brain can't cope and she keeps fainting when it gets too much.
I am glad I finally got round to reading this sequel.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
2014 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge
2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge
CCC A-Z Authors 2014
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Sequel Spring Reading Challenge
Nothing but Reading Challenges - April Showers
The Challenge Factory - R2: Team Challenge SS?
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (F-jellyfish)
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon

The Bride wore Chocolate by Shirley Jump

Life couldn’t be more perfect for Candace Woodrow. Her gourmet gift basket company is thriving, and she’s set to marry steady, dependable Barry. There’s just one wrench in the fairytale. Two weeks before her wedding she wakes up in the wrong man’s bed. Candace thinks she’ll be able to run out the door and forget all about Michael Vogler, but the Boston millionaire has other plans for the jittery bride.
As the wedding approaches, Candace’s life is further complicated by a thrill-seeking grandma and a meddlesome mother whose marriage track record rivals Elizabeth Taylor’s. She attempts to drown her sorrows in chocolate, but with a sexy bachelor appearing on her doorstep at every turn – she finds herself wondering if there’s enough of the sweet stuff in the world to stop her heart from racing every time he comes near.
The Sweet and Savory Romances will make you laugh, cry, and rev up your appetite with their hunky heroes. As a special addition, satiate your hunger—for food that is— with tried-and-true recipes written by the characters inside. From Goodreads.

This was okay. Very predictable and apart from a not very nice mother-in-law to be, all characters were nice. It is full of recipes that I don't think I'll try.  I will only read more from this series if they are free.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
Color Coded Reading Challenge 2014
2014 Read Your Freebies! Reading Challenge
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
The Challenge Factory - R2: Team Challenge SS?
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (S-muskox)
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon
Dewey's Read-a-Thon April 2014

Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrison

Rachel Morgan has fought and hunted vampires, werewolves, banshees, demons, and other supernatural dangers as both witch and bounty hunter - and lived to tell the tale. But she's never faced off against her own kind...until now. Denounced and shunned for dealing with demons and black magic, her best hope is life imprisonment - at worst, a forced lobotomy and genetic slavery. Only her enemies are strong enough to help her win her freedom, but trust comes hard when it hinges on the unscrupulous tycoon Trent Kalamack, the demon Algaliarept, and an ex-boyfriend turned thief.
It takes a witch to catch a witch, but survival bears a heavy price. From Goodreads.

This is the book I have liked the least of this series till now. Rachel has been shunned by the witch community and now the witch council wants to put her in witch-jail for using black magic. I think what I don't like about this is that it is political. The main witches of the council want to control Rachel and use her for their own agenda and they don't care who they have to sacrifice to do that. I like the plain good versus bad fight better.
I will continue this series and hope it turns back to Rachel fighting the bad guys with the help of her friends and others whose help she doesn't really want.

This book qualifies for:
I Love Library Books Reading Challenge 2014
2014 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge
Color Coded Reading Challenge 2014
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Romance Readers Reading Challenges: 2014 Chubby Chunkster (487 pages)
Sequel Spring Reading Challenge
The Challenge Factory - R2: Team Challenge SS?
Paranormal Addicts & Newbies - Paranormal Creatures Seasonal Challenge
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (R-leopard)
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon

The Challenge Factory - ♦R2: Team Challenge SS♦

R2: Team Challenge SS (SS= Super series) hosted by The Challenge Factory on Goodreads.

This is a team challenge that will require one book a week. The object of the game is to roll the dice (there will be a link to the website to roll) and move along the board. The first team to pass the finish line wins the game.

Captains will roll the dice by clicking here on Fridays once their team has completed their reads. You may not advance until all of the team's reviews are in. If a player or team falls behind the team has to wait until the next Friday to roll. That being said it's very important to finish and review your book on time. If a player fails to review on time more than twice they will no longer be on the team (excluding a prearranged absence)

How to pick a book:
If you land on single digit spot for example lets say you land on spot 5 then you have to read a book that's #5 in a series. For double digit numbers, for example you land on spot 48 you can read either a #4 or a #8 in a series. Stand alone books will count as a #1 or a #0. I don't expect anyone to read a series out of order and for people that don't really read series books that still want to play there will be an alternate option. There will be an alternate option for each spot.

Sign ups are open now through April 14th. Teams will be formed on April 15th and the game will begin on Friday the 18th.

There will be a separate thread for captains to post their place on the board after rolling and a separate thread for captains to post a link to the teams completed reviews.

Teams will have a chance to earn 1 Free Pass to roll. To earn your free pass your team has to complete their reads a day before the next roll. Once your team has done this you will have 1 free pass. The free pass will allow a team to roll if they are missing a review(s) before the cutoff. The free pass may not be used for the win. Once you've used it, you can't earn another one. It's a one time shot.

Re-reads are allowed
Page limit is 150
When using an anthology you may use any of the numbers in the book except for the .5 since this means 1/2. But you must review each story in the anthology.
Series # will be based on how GR has it listed.
Any questions please feel free to ask!

As I have just finished two other team challenges it is time to join a new challenge. My goal is to read a book a week till my team has reached goal.

My Team on Goodreads.  

List of books:

1. Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrison (place 12 - alternate: Title: B)
2. The Bride wore Chocolate by Shirley Jump (place 18 - #1)
3. Pieces of Eight by Melissa Wright (place 25 - #2)
4. The Breeders by Katie French (place 31 - #1)
5. From a Whisper to a Scream by Charles de Lint (place 38 - #3)
6. Along Came A Demon by Linda Welch  (place 46 - alternate: published 2009)
7. Prince of Hazel and Oak by John Lenahan  (place 52 - #2)
8. A Place Beyond The Map by Samuel Thews  (place 61 - standalone)