Meet the Protagonist Reading Challenge 2014 Finished

Meet the Protagonist Reading Challenge 2014 hosted by JoAnne @ Litlequeen Rules.

Meet the Protagonist Reading Challenge 2014

What is a protagonist?  The leading character or one of the major characters in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text.
The Protagonist Categories:

• A woman who is a mother.
• A real life person who written into a fictional story.
• A person that changes forms.
• A person who is from a country different than the one you currently live in.
• A person who lived before WW1.
• A person who lives by a body of water.
• A person younger than 18.
• A character that is in a book series.

OFFICIAL RULES

The Challenge runs from January 1, 2014 until December 31, 2014.

Read one book from each of the categories.

A book can used in only one category.

You do not need to list your books ahead of time.

Crossover with other challenges is welcome!

Re-reads count. Audiobooks count.  E-books count.  Self-published books count.

Short Stories and Essay Collections are not allowed.

Anyone may join. If you do not have a blog, just leave me a comment on this post with your progress.

I have finished this challenge and completed my goal of reading 8 books. It was interesting having to look for the different protagonists.

My list of books:

1.  A woman who is a mother. A little Christmas Magic by Sylvie Kurtz (Beth is mother of Jamie)
2. A real life person who written into a fictional story. Whitstable by Stephen Volk  (Peter Cushing a real actor in a fictional story)
3. A person that changes forms. The Rising by Kelley Armstrong  (Main character shifts into a cougar)
4. A person who is from a country different than the one you currently live in. John Macnab by John Buchan (different country to mine)
5. A person who lived before WW1. One Sweet Moment by Maggie Craig (takes place in 1822)
6. A person who lives by a body of water. Night of the Purple Moon by Scott Cramer (set on an island)
7. A person younger than 18. Saltwater Witch by Chris Howard (main character 15 years old)
8. A character that is in a book series. Aurora Sky by Nikki Jefford (a character in a book series - Vampire Hunter)

One Sweet Moment by Maggie Craig

It's 1822 and Scotland's capital is a city of both splendour and squalor. Kate Dunbar is worked like a slave all day and preyed upon at night in the gloomy vaults that lurk under the Old Town's South Bridge but never gives up hope of a better life for herself and her beloved young brother Andrew.
When wealthy young medical student Richard Hope walks into her life, Kate knows that his interest in her could lead them both into danger. Yet it's not long before the two of them have fallen head-over-heels in love.
Others are watching the young lovers. Radical booksellers Peggy and Nathaniel Henderson have Kate and Andrew's best interests at heart. Their greedy and grasping uncle doesn't, and he soon soon starts laying his own evil plans.
Kate and Richard's passionate and poignant romance intertwines with the richly-imagined colour and pageantry of King George IV's historic visit to Edinburgh in 1822, and culminates in the heart-stopping drama of the Great Fire of Edinburgh of 1824.
Can their love affair have a happy ending or will fate, the evil that threatens them and the rigid rules of class and society allow them only one sweet moment of happiness? From Goodreads.

This is a very sad romance. I like the main character Kate a lot, she does what it takes to survive and care for her brother. Her uncle and aunt are awful but there are good people around. Richard, a wealthy medical student, finds out how the poor of Edinburgh live and finds love. Do not reed this if you only like books with a happy ending.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
Read Scotland 2014
Meet the Protagonist Reading Challenge 2014
CCC A-Z Book Titles 2014
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
The Challenge Factory Spell It Out - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (O)
Romance Readers Reading Challenges: 2014 Chubby Chunkster (452 pages)
Crazy Challenge Connection - Dr. Seuss
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (O-coyote)

Night of the Purple Moon by Scott Cramer

Abby, 13, is looking forward to watching the moon turn purple, unaware that bacteria from a passing comet will soon kill off older teens and adults. She must help her brother and baby sister survive in this new world, but all the while she has a ticking time bomb inside of her--adolescence. From Goodreads.

Another free book that was way better than expected. The scary part of this book is the description of how they survive. The group the book follows on Castine Island is a good group. Most of the group want to work together to help each other, but that is not the case on the mainland where it is survival of the fittest or in other words the worst. 

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
2014 Quick fix Challenge (188 pages)
Meet the Protagonist Reading Challenge 2014 (lives by a body of water)
2014 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge (dystopian)
2014 Full House Reading Challenge (less than 200 pages)
Color Coded Reading Challenge 2014
2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge (bought 10th of September 2013)
2014 Read Your Freebies! Reading Challenge
CCC A-Z Authors 2014
CCC A-Z Book Titles 2014
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Romance Readers Reading Challenges: Pass The Parcel Team Challenge
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
CCC Winter Seasonal Spell Challenge 2013-2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (S-jellyfish)
Nothing but Reading Challenges - 50 States Challenge (Maine)
Crazy Challenge Connection Scrabble, anyone?
Crazy Challenge Connection 2014 RaT #2

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)

Saltwater Witch by Chris Howard

Kassandra comes from the sea, but she has no memory of saltwater, seagulls, or an incoming tide. She's never seen an ocean, never heard the thunder of surf. She's an exile, betrayed by her own family, sent as far from the sea as they could arrange--somewhere in the middle of Nebraska.
Everything changes the day she drowns in Red Bear Lake, and discovers she can't really drown. Not in the way everyone else can. Then a two-thousand year old king wakes inside her head and turns out to be a prodigy with mathematics. Kassandra cries for the first time in her life, and learns that her tears are doorways for calling things from the sea. With clues from summoned sea-demons and the voices in her head, Kassandra sets out to find out what the hell is going on...and discovers she's a prisoner, trapped between a murderous grandfather who controls an army of the drowned dead, river witches who spy on her through the plumbing, and Ms. Matrothy, the Girl's Department Director, who's been trying to kill her since she was four. From Goodreads.

This was more interesting than I expected. Kassandra is very far away from the sea and scared of the water. After nearly drowning or not as it turned out, a lot starts to happen. I like Kassandra and there are a few twists in the story that I didn't expect. A high Polar Bear 3 and I might read the continuation of this series.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
Meet the Protagonist Reading Challenge 2014 (main character younger than 18)
2014 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge
2014 Full House Reading Challenge (published before 2013)
2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge (bought on Amazon.co.uk 2nd of May 2012)
CCC A-Z Authors 2014
CCC A-Z Book Titles 2014
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
The Challenge Factory Spell It Out - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (S)
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (K)
CCC-Read your age (published 2005)
Nothing but Reading Challenges - 50 States Challenge (Nebraska)

Aurora Sky by Nikki Jefford

If there is one thing eighteen-year-old Aurora Sky wants, it’s to get off the iceberg she calls home. Being kissed before she graduates wouldn’t hurt either.
Then a near-fatal car wreck changes everything. Government agents step in and save Aurora’s life in exchange for her services as a vampire hunter. In Alaska. Basically she’s a glorified chew toy. All thanks to her rare blood type, which sends a vampire into temporary paralysis right before she has to finish the job… by hand.
Now Aurora’s only friends are groupies of the undead and the only boy she can think about may very well be a vampire. And if he’s a vampire, will she be forced to kill him? From Goodreads.

This was okay but it is a low 3 Polar Bears. I didn't think much of Aurora or her friends. If the next book in the series also became free on Amazon I would maybe read it but I am not paying to read any of this series.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
2014 Quick fix Challenge (242 pages)
Meet the Protagonist Reading Challenge 2014 (a charachter in a book series - Vampire Hunter)
Vampire Challenge 2014
2014 Women Challenge
2014 Read Your Freebies! Reading Challenge (free on Amazon.co.uk 18th of November 2013)
CCC A-Z Authors 2014
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
CCC Winter Seasonal Spell Challenge 2013-2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (A-auk)
Nothing but Reading Challenges - 50 States Challenge  (Alaska)

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

Whitstable by Stephen Volk

1971. A middle-aged man, wracked with grief, walks along the beach at Whitstable in Kent.
A boy approaches him and, taking him for the famous vampire-hunter Doctor Van Helsing from the Hammer movies, asks for his help. Because he believes his stepfather really is a vampire…
Published to Honour the 2013 Peter Cushing Centenary. From Amazon.co.uk

This was okay. It is not particularly scary apart from a few paragraphs about child abuse. It is a description of Peter Cushing in grief over the loss of his wife, mentioning a lot of his films and a side story about child abuse. The ending is a bit too neat.

This book qualifies for: 
2014 Ebook challenge
2014 Quick fix Challenge (140 pages)
Meet the Protagonist Reading Challenge 2014 (real person in fiction)
2014 Full House Reading Challenge (author new to me)
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
The Challenge Factory Spell It Out - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (S)
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Ten Book Author Train Challenge 
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

Meet the Protagonist Reading Challenge 2014 Sign Up

Meet the Protagonist Reading Challenge 2014 hosted by JoAnne @ Litlequeen Rules.

Meet the Protagonist Reading Challenge 2014

What is a protagonist?  The leading character or one of the major characters in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text.
The Protagonist Categories:

• A woman who is a mother.
• A real life person who written into a fictional story.
• A person that changes forms.
• A person who is from a country different than the one you currently live in.
• A person who lived before WW1.
• A person who lives by a body of water.
• A person younger than 18.
• A character that is in a book series.

OFFICIAL RULES

The Challenge runs from January 1, 2014 until December 31, 2014.

Read one book from each of the categories.

A book can used in only one category.

You do not need to list your books ahead of time.

Crossover with other challenges is welcome!

Re-reads count. Audiobooks count.  E-books count.  Self-published books count.

Short Stories and Essay Collections are not allowed.

Anyone may join. If you do not have a blog, just leave me a comment on this post with your progress.

This sounds interesting so I will join and my goal is of course to complete the challenge and read a book from all 8 Categories 

List of books: 

1. A little Christmas Magic by Sylvie Kurtz (Beth is mother of Jamie) 
2. Whitstable by Stephen Volk  (Peter Cushing a real actor in a fictional story)
3. John Macnab by John Buchan (different country to mine)
4. Aurora Sky by Nikki Jefford (a character in a book series - Vampire Hunter)
5. Saltwater Witch by Chris Howard (main character 15 years old) 
6. The Rising by Kelley Armstrong  (Main character shift into a cougar) 
7. Night of the Purple Moon by Scott Cramer (set on an island) 
8. One Sweet Moment by Maggie Craig (takes place in 1822)