Mel's Random July + WINNER!

Another month bites the dust! July is over and I had such a mixed month - loved a week away in the sun in Cyprus, but some illness in the family meant the relaxation disappeared and the stress returned pretty quickly. Still, I did manage to read 8 books in a week - I'm still making my way through the reviews of the books but expect August to be littered with holiday reading reviews. In the meantime, the water around Paphos was so clear and the food was yummy - do you want to see some holiday snaps? Tough - I want to share! :-)

The Clear Waters of the Med - can you spot the sail ship in the distance?

The sun shone all week!

So how did this impact the reading situation?

Books
Teachers Pet - Richie Tankersley Cusick (BV's YA of the 80s and 90s)
Secrets of the Demon - Diana Rowland (FCC's Speculative Fiction Challenge)
The Quarry - Johan Theorin (BCC's Mystery and Suspense Challenge)
Changes (Dresden Files 12) - Jim Butcher (FCC's Speculative Fiction Challenge)
Forgotten - Cat Patrick
Sparks - Laura Bickle
Vampire Academy: Blood Promise - Richelle Mead

EBooks
Hard Spell - Justin Gustainis (BCC's Mystery and Suspense Challenge)
Lost Voices - Sarah Porter
War of the Worlds - HG Wells (Personal Classics Challenge)
Rebirth - Sophie Littlefield
Scared Evil (Krewe of Hunters 3) - Heather Graham
Firelight - Sophie Jordan

Guest Reviews
Sarah reviewed the third Kitty Norville book - Kitty Takes a Holiday - Carrie Vaughn  


Events
I visited the British Library's Out Of This World exhibition - open all summer if you fancy a visit! 

Other Posts
In Book Temple, I discovered the joy of swapping with Read It- Swap It
Same Book/Different Cover looked at The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforfde
In addition there were the usual wishlist posts, in my mailbox and Throwback Thursdays.

I also had a blog post at Melissa's My World about my top 10 UF books in the last 2 years as a part of her blogoversary celebration! Also check out her 3 Giveaway as part of the celebration. :)

Winner!
I also held a competition for my spare copy of VA Blood Promises and the winner is...drumroll please....

Karen from The Slowest Bookworm!

Congratulations Karen - book is on it's way to you! :-)

So with all that in mind my reading challenges status looks like this:
BCC's Mystery & Suspense Challenge - 10 Read, 2 Left to read
FTC Speculative Fiction Challenge - 15 Read - officially I've completed this! Yay! However, I'll continue to post reviews and see how I can do in the second half of the year.
BV's YA of 80s and 90s Challenge - 12 Read, Again I've officially finished this but I'll continue to add to the reviews as I picked up so many old YA books - I need to read some of them!  

Personal Classic Challenge -  4 Read

Highlight of the Month: My holiday! I loved kicking back and managing to get through a book a day on average - it's been ages since I was able to focus on reading like that.

Honourable Mentions: Changes by Jim Butcher was my favourite read of the month, but special mention to Sparks by Laura Bickle, Rebirth by Sophie Littlefield and Hard Spell by Justin Gustainis which are highly recommended as well!

So what was your month like? :)