Doesn’t time fly when you’re taking part in a reading challenge 🙂 It seems like only yesterday I posted my introductory post for Candid Cover’s Summer TBR Wipeout  but it seems we’re already more than two weeks into the 7 week challenge so it’s time for a progress update.

Read / Currently Reading

Time does seem to have gotten away from me a bit so I haven’t finished as many books as I’d hoped by this stage (note to self: don’t sign up for a reading challenge when you’re trying to sell & buy a house) but on the positive side I have at least managed to stick to the list. The following books I’ve either finished or have made a good start on.

• Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence – 4.75 Stars – I absolutely loved this sequel to Red Sister. There’s lots of action, a few unexpected twists and some fantastic character development. I especially love the relationships between the characters in this story, they’re just wonderful. Not sure what’s holding me back from giving it the full five stars but there’s something I can’t quite put my finger on (maybe just that the author keeps killing off my fave characters or that I’m going to have to wait almost a year for the next book even though it’s already written)
• The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang – 4.5 Stars – A funny and wonderfully sweet romance with a main character who has autism. It’s kind of a gender switched Pretty Woman with our MC hiring an escort to teach her how to be in a relationship. I loved both leads and the relationship between them but did get a little frustrated with the lack of communication at times. For a debut though it’s pretty impressive and I certainly learned a lot about autism.
• The End We Start From by Megan Hunter – 4 Stars – This was a very short but completely unique read about a woman trying to keep herself and her newborn baby alive when the southern parts of the UK flood. It has a very quirky style to it, it’s very much inside the head of the MC, with very little in the way of descriptions, detail or dialogue (the other characters are referred to by their initials only) but there’s something about it that made it difficult to put down.
• The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers – In Progress – I’m currently around half way through as I’m writing this post and really enjoying this story of a mixed species spaceship crew making a long and dangerous journey. The characters are incredibly likeable and even though there’s not much in the way of story it’s pretty addictive reading.
• Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig – In Progress – I started this about a week ago and am currently about a quarter of the way through. Haig’s a great writer but this real story of his battle against depression and anxiety is a challenging read for me so I’m dipping in and out.

Books Added/Removed

I know it’s not been long but yep, I think I need to switch some books around on the list.

• A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers #2) by Becky Chambers – Added – Given I’m going to see Becky Chambers on the 24th July for the launch of the third book in the Wayfarers series I think it’s probably a good idea for me to read the second book. Plus I’m really enjoying the first book 🙂
• The Power by Naomi Alderman – Removed – I was planning on reading this as part of a buddy read starting today but as I’m midway through another couple of books and have quite a few others to read in the next 9 days I don’t think I’ll have time. It’s staying on my TBR but probably won’t be read as part of this challenge.
• Zenith by Sasha Alsberg & Lindsay Cummings – Removed – The negative reviews for this are really putting me off reading it so with all of the other books on my TBR I’m really excited about I’m going to knock it off the list. I may change my mind if loads of people tell me it’s brilliant but that seems unlikely.
• Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella – Added – I meant to include this in my original list but felt like the 21 books I already had on it were more than enough. Kinsella is however one of my fave authors and I managed to snag a copy from the library so I’ll definitely be reading this at some point. And I need a bit more romance on this list 😉

So that’s my progress to date, it’s actually kind of freaking me out that I haven’t read more (I blame the weather). Hopefully I’ll have made a bit more progress by my next update around the end of the month.

Have you read any of the books on the list? What did you think of them? Have I made the right decisions to drop a couple off the list or would you recommend I keep them on there? Feel free to leave comments and links to your summer TBR below.

Happy reading everyone ❤