2014 What An Animal Reading Challenge VII Finished

2014 What An Animal Reading Challenge VII hosted by Socrates' Book Reviews.

Welcome to the 2014 What an Animal Reading Challenge VII.  The challenge will begin on January 1st. Read on for more details...
The rules are really simple...
1. Read at least 6 books that have any of the following requirements:

a. there is an animal in the title of the book

b. there is an animal on the cover of the book

c. an animal plays a major role in the book

d. a main character is (or turns into) an animal (define that however you'd like).
***** AMENDED:
Level 1 - Read up to 6 books
Level 2 - Read 7-12
Level 3 - Read 13 or more
2. The animal can be any type of animal (real or fictitious)--dog, cat, monkey, wolf, snake, insect, hedgehog, aardvark...dragon, mermaid, centaur, vampire, werewolf...you get the idea...

3. Challenge runs from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014. That’s a full year to read at least 6 books (you can read more if you’d like). 

4. Books can be fiction or nonfiction.

5. You may make a list of books at the beginning of the challenge or you can just list them as you find them.

6. Book titles may be swapped out at anytime (assuming you made a list to begin with).

7. Crossovers with other challenges are permitted and encouraged.

8. You don't have to have a blog or write a review, but you can if you want to.
 If you don't have a blog, just post in the comment section that you'd like to join. You can post your books in there. Or you can sign up by joining my group on Goodreads for this challenge by clicking here.
9. Books can be in any format of your choice (print, audio, ebooks)

My goal for this challenge was level 1 - Read up to 6 books. As I guessed, most of the books I have read for this challenge have been shapeshifter books.

I have completed my goal and I have read 8 books.

All posts for this challenge are HERE.

List of Books:

1. A little Christmas Magic by Sylvie Kurtz (dog on cover and part of story)
2. Brazen by Kelley Armstrong  (Main character is a werewolf)
3. Must Love Hellhounds by Charlaine Harris (Hellhound in title) 
4. John Macnab by John Buchan (book about poaching) 
5. The Rising by Kelley Armstrong  (main character changes into a cougar) 
6. Curran POV Collection by Gordon Andrews (main character changes into a Lion)
7. Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews (main character is a shapeshifter)
8. Magic Rises by Ilona Andrews (Lion head on cover, most characters are shapeshifters)

Magic Rises by Ilona Andrews

Mercenary Kate Daniels and her mate, Curran, the Beast Lord, are struggling to solve a heartbreaking crisis. Unable to control their beasts, many of the Pack’s shapeshifting children fail to survive to adulthood. While there is a medicine that can help, the secret to its making is closely guarded by the European packs, and there’s little available in Atlanta.
Kate can’t bear to watch innocents suffer, but the solution she and Curran have found threatens to be even more painful. The European shapeshifters who once outmaneuvered the Beast Lord have asked him to arbitrate a dispute—and they’ll pay him in medicine. With the young people’s survival and the Pack’s future at stake, Kate and Curran know they must accept the offer—but they have little doubt that they’re heading straight into a trap… From Goodreads.





Another brilliant book in the Kate Daniels series, the only fault of this book is that I now have to wait for the next book to be published. Kate and Curran and a group of shapeshifters go to Europe to help to arbitrate a dispute between different packs. But nothing is what it seems. I have borrowed most of this series from the library but I will most likely buy the next book so I can get my hands on it the minute it is published.

This book qualifies for:
I Love Library Books Reading Challenge 2014
2014 What An Animal Reading Challenge VII
Shifter Challenge 2014
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
The Challenge Factory Spell It Out - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (I)
Crazy Challenge Connection Chinese New Year Challenge (#6)
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (A-eagle)

Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews

After being kicked out of the Order of the Knights of Merciful Aid, Andrea's whole existence is in shambles. She tries to put herself back together by working for Cutting Edge, a small investigative firm owned by her best friend. When several shapeshifters working for Raphael Medrano—the male alpha of the Clan Bouda, and Andrea's former lover—die unexpectedly at a dig site, Andrea is assigned to investigate. Now she must work with Raphael as her search for the killer leads into the secret underbelly of supernatural Atlanta. And dealing with her feelings for him might have to take a back seat to saving the world . .  From Goodreads.

I am so enjoying this series and though this is not a Kate book it is very good. We have met Andrea quite a bit in the other books in the series and it was nice to get a book that featured her. She is no ordinary shapeshifter, she is beastkin which is not usually a good thing but she gets away with it.

This book qualifies for:
I Love Library Books Reading Challenge 2014
Eclectic Reader Challenge 2014 (award winning)
2014 What An Animal Reading Challenge VII
Shifter Challenge 2014
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
The Challenge Factory Spell It Out - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious(I)
Crazy Challenge Connection Chinese New Year Challenge (Sonia's bookshelf- she is a rabbit)
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
CCC Winter Seasonal Spell Challenge 2013-2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (G-dragonfly)
Nothing but Reading Challenges - 50 States Challenge
Crazy Challenge Connection Monopoly

Curran POV Collection by Gordon Andrews

Several fans volunteered to edit this Collection so that we could put it up for you with a minimum of mistakes.  We are deeply grateful to them. Thank you to Tori, Rachel, Ronnie, Malissa, Loyal, Jparrack, Lynda, Neal, Ami, Lynn, and others.
This is the entirety of the Curran POVs in chronological order.  I hope that you enjoy.  If you’re traveling, be safe and take care.  Here’s to the end of the year, and if it sucked, let’s hope next year is better. From author's webpage.

This is several episodes from the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews seen from Curran's point of view. I think it is important to have read the books first in order to know what is going on in each episode. It is great to read Curran's take on, among others, when he and Kate met. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
2014 Quick fix Challenge
2014 What An Animal Reading Challenge VII
Shifter Challenge 2014
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014

The Rising by Kelley Armstrong

Things are getting desperate for Maya and her friends. Hunted by the powerful St. Clouds and now a rival Cabal as well, they're quickly running out of places to hide. And with the whole world thinking they died in a helicopter crash, it's not like they can just go to the authorities for help.
All they have is the name and number of someone who might be able to give them a few answers. Answers to why they're so valuable, and why their supernatural powers are getting more and more out of control.
But Maya is unprepared for the truths that await her. And now, like it or not, she'll have to face down some demons from her past if she ever hopes to move on with her life. Because Maya can't keep running forever.
Old secrets are revealed and unexpected characters make a surprising return in this stunning conclusion to Kelley Armstrong's New York Times bestselling Darkness Rising trilogy. From Goodreads.


This is one of those books where I know I am going to like it as I have like the first two books in the series and the author is one of my favourite authors. I bought it in April 2013 and have had it down on lists for reading events several times but I just haven't gotten around to reading it!
Finally I have read it and just before starting I was nervous that since it is about 1½ years since I read the second, would I be able to remember the plot and characters? No problem at all.
I think Kelley Armstrong has written a brilliant end to this trilogy and knowing the Otherworld, where this is set, this was probably the best ending to expect.
Paranormal is my favourite genre and Kelley Armstrong is to me one of the best authors in this genre.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
Meet the Protagonist Reading Challenge 2014 (Main character shift into a cougar)
2014 Full House Reading Challenge (book fra a series)
2014 What An Animal Reading Challenge VII (Main character shift into a cougar)
2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge (bought on Amazon.co.uk 20th of April 2013)
Shifter Challenge 2014
2014 Women Challenge
CCC A-Z Book Titles 2014
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
The Challenge Factory Spell It Out - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (R)
Romance Readers Reading Challenges: Yahtzee Challenge
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (A-badger)

John Macnab by John Buchan

In 1925, John Buchan published his second most famous novel, John Macnab; three high-flying men—a barrister, a cabinet minister and a banker—are suffering from boredom. They concoct a plan to cure it. They inform three Scottish estates that they will poach from each two stags and a salmon in a given time. They sign collectively as 'John McNab' and await the responses. This novel is a light interlude within the Leithen Stories series—an evocative look at the hunting, shooting and fishing lifestyle in Highland Scotland. From Goodreads.

I have lived in the Highlands of Scotland and I enjoyed reading about the area, the forest and especially the river. This is a fun light read, I like the young Fish Benjie.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
Scotland 2014
2014 Quick fix Challenge
Meet the Protagonist Reading Challenge 2014 (different country to mine)
2014 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge (classic)
2014 Full House Reading Challenge (different country to mine)
2014 What An Animal Reading Challenge VII (poaching)
What’s In A Name 2014 (first name)
CCC A-Z Authors 2014
CCC A-Z Book Titles 2014
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (J-jellyfish)
Bout of Books 9.0

Must Love Hellhounds by Charlaine Harris, Nalini Singh, Ilona Andrews, Meljean Brook

In these hound-eat-hound worlds, anything goes... and everything bites.
Follow paranormal bodyguards Clovache and Batanya into Lucifer's realm, where they encounter his fearsome four-legged pets, in Charlaine Harris's The Britlingens Go to Hell.
Seek out a traitor in the midst of a guild of non- lethal vampire trackers, one that intends to eradicate the entire species of bloodsuckers, in Nalini Singh's Angels' Judgment.
Find out why the giant three-headed dog that guards the gates of Hades has left the underworld for the real world-and whose scent he's following-in Ilona Andrews's Magic Mourns.
Embark on a perilous search for the kidnapped niece of a powerful vampire alongside her blind- and damn sexy-companion and a hellhound in Meljean Brook's Blind Spot.
These four novellas by today's hottest paranormal authors will have hellhound lovers everywhere howling. From Goodreads.

My reason for reading this Anthology of hellhound stories was that one of the stories is part of Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels series.
All 4 stories were interesting and I enjoyed them. I am not ready to go out and buy their series from these stories but I might check to see if my library has any of them.

This book qualifies for:
I Love Library Books Reading Challenge 2014
Eclectic Reader Challenge 2014 (anthology)
2014 What An Animal Reading Challenge VII (hellhound in title)
2014 Women Challenge
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (M-musk ox)
Bout of Books 9.0

Brazen by Kelley Armstrong

Nick Sorrentino knows everyone in the supernatural world considers him the Pack’s playboy, the pretty but not very useful werewolf whose only reputation involves his amorous exploits.
Usually, Nick couldn’t care less what anyone outside the Pack thinks of him. But when it affects his hunt for Malcolm Danvers, a psychotic bogeyman from the Pack’s past, it matters.
Necessity forces Nick to team up with mercenary half-demon Vanessa Callas to run Malcolm to ground in Detroit. Together, they discover Malcolm is more deadly than ever. And he wants to play.
It’s time for Nick to prove he’s not just a lover. From Goodreads.

This was an okay short story set in Kelly Armstrong's Otherworld. It is just not as good as the rest of the books but still a must read for fans of Kelly Armstrong's werewolves.

This book qualifies for: 
2014 Ebook challenge
2014 Quick fix Challenge (216 pages)
2014 What An Animal Reading Challenge VII (main character is a werewolf)
Shifter Challenge 2014
2014 Women Challenge
CCC A-Z Book Titles 2014 
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
The Challenge Factory Spell It Out - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (A)
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Bout of Books 9.0 

A Little Christmas Magic by Sylvie Kurtz

The only way Beth Lannigen can get through the holidays is by staying too busy to cry. So she adds her new surly neighbor to her long to-do list. For Christmas, she'll make Logan Ward smile.
But Logan Ward is punishing himself. Guilt ridden over the loss of his young daughter, the ex-cop wants the cold isolation of his new dilapidated house. Hard work and sweat will see him through Christmas.
Until the brightest woman he's ever seen shows up at his door, her small son and an abandoned dog in tow.
Around mother and child, Logan discovers the hero he'd once been hailed. But Beth is wrong: life can't simply go on after losing a dear one.
Beth isn't prepared for Logan to become more than a project. She'd loved her husband with her whole heart. There's no room for another man.
Then disaster strikes, giving Beth a chance to expand her heart and Logan a few short hours to honor his daughter's memory by convincing Beth's small son that Santa hasn't forgotten him. From Goodreads.

This was a sweet and sad but happy-ending story with a lot of Christmas spirit. Just what is needed in a Christmas story. I enjoyed it and might look at more books from Sylvia Kurtz.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
2014 Quick fix Challenge(256 pages)
Meet the Protagonist Reading Challenge 2014 (mother)
2014 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge (romance)
2014 Full House Reading Challenge (free)
2014 What An Animal Reading Challenge VII (dog on cover and part of story)
2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge (bought on Amazon.co.uk 9th of January 2013)
2014 Women Challenge
2014 Read Your Freebies! Reading Challenge (free on Amazon.co.uk 9th of January 2013)
CCC A-Z Authors 2014
CCC A-Z Book Titles 2014
The Challenge Factory Spell It Out - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious  (L)
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
CCC Winter Seasonal Spell Challenge 2013-2014
Setting Alphabet Reading Challenge
CCC-Read your age (published 2001)
Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge 2013
Crazy Challenge Connection RaT #19

2014 What An Animal Reading Challenge VII Sign Up

2014 What An Animal Reading Challenge VII hosted by Socrates' Book Reviews.

Welcome to the 2014 What an Animal Reading Challenge VII.  The challenge will begin on January 1st. Read on for more details...

The rules are really simple...

1. Read at least 6 books that have any of the following requirements:


a. there is an animal in the title of the book

b. there is an animal on the cover of the book

c. an animal plays a major role in the book

d. a main character is (or turns into) an animal (define that however you'd like).

***** AMENDED:

Level 1 - Read up to 6 books

Level 2 - Read 7-12

Level 3 - Read 13 or more

2. The animal can be any type of animal (real or fictitious)--dog, cat, monkey, wolf, snake, insect, hedgehog, aardvark...dragon, mermaid, centaur, vampire, werewolf...you get the idea...


3. Challenge runs from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014. That’s a full year to read at least 6 books (you can read more if you’d like). 


4. Books can be fiction or nonfiction.


5. You may make a list of books at the beginning of the challenge or you can just list them as you find them.


6. Book titles may be swapped out at anytime (assuming you made a list to begin with).


7. Crossovers with other challenges are permitted and encouraged.


8. You don't have to have a blog or write a review, but you can if you want to.
 If you don't have a blog, just post in the comment section that you'd like to join. You can post your books in there. Or you can sign up by joining my group on Goodreads for this challenge by clicking here.

9. Books can be in any format of your choice (print, audio, ebooks)


This sounds interesting and although I don't usually read books with ordinary animals in them I do read a lot of shifter books and some of my other books sometimes have animals on the cover.
My goal will be level 1 - read up to 6 books.

List of Books:

1.  A little Christmas Magic by Sylvie Kurtz (dog on cover and part of story)
2. Brazen by Kelley Armstrong  (Main character is a werewolf)
3. Must Love Hellhounds by Charlaine Harris (Hellhound in title) 
4. John Macnab by John Buchan (book about poaching) 
5. The Rising by Kelley Armstrong  (main character changes into a cougar) 
6. Curran POV Collection by Gordon Andrews (main character changes into a Lion)
7. Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews (main character is a shapeshifter)
8. Magic Rises by Ilona Andrews (Lion head on cover, most characters are shapeshifters)