Mel's Random August

Summer's over! Well, almost...hopefully there will be an Indian Summer in the UK as our weather has been very see-saw over the last couple of months. August has been a busy month for me - two of my closest friends got married - in a huge wedding up at St Pauls cathedral in London!! I was Maid of Honour - first time I've ever been that involved in a wedding so I was terrified! Luckily the whole day went without a hitch (apart from a brief rain shower) and I had a great time. :-)

Avoiding the rain! Can you spot me? :-)

So how did this impact the reading situation?

Books
Fairy Bad Day - Amanda Ashby
Corsets and Clockworks - Anthology (FCC's Speculative Fiction Challenge)
Magic Slays - Ilona Andrews (FCC's Speculative Fiction Challenge)
Vampire Academy: Spirit Bound - Richelle Mead
From Notting Hill With Love...Actually - Ali McNamara
Kitty's Big Trouble - Carrie Vaughn
Vampire Academy: Last Sacrifice - Richelle Mead
Twelve - Jasper Kent (Transworld Book Club)

EBooks
Luck of the Devil - Partica Eimer 
Hunted By The Others - Jess Haines (FCC's Speculative Fiction Challenge)
The Thirteenth Chime - Emma Michaels
Anasazi - Emma Michaels
The Invisible Man - H.G. Wells (Personal Classic Challenge)
Life, Liberty and Persuit - Susan Kaye Quinn
The Evil Inside (Krewe of Hunters 4) - Heather Graham

Joint Reviews
Sarah reviewed the Midwich Cuckoos - and I had to get in on that action to create our first joint review! Also counts as part of my Personal Classics Challenge :)

Other Posts
Same Book/Different Cover looked at Posion Study by Maria V Synder and Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler.
In addition there were the usual wishlist posts, in my mailbox and Throwback Thursdays.

Winners!
I had a giveaway for a spare copy of VA: Spirit Bound - Richelle Mead and the winner is....drumroll please...

Jade from Ink Scratchers

Congratulations Jade - 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 - 18 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 -  6 Read

Highlight of the Month: The Wedding is my obvious highlight of the month - if not the year! However, bookwise would be a toss up between Magic Slays- Ilona Andrews and the last Vampire Academy book, Last Sacrifce - Richelle Mead

Honourable Mentions: Fairy Bad Day - Amanda Ashby and VA: Spirit Bound - Richelle Mead 

COMING UP:
So because of the wedding and some illness in the family I didn't the chance to celebrate my first year of blogging anniversary as I was planning too. :-( However, not to worry September is my birthday month so I'm going to combine the two into a special giveaway!

Also coming up, this month is my first ever event - Eli Monpress week! I'll be reviewing all three books so far in the Legend of Eli Monpress series and partner in crime, author Rachel Aaron will be stopping by. I'm still figuring out how to do buttons properly (my html/programming skills suck!), but for now this is what I'm using so spread the word! :-)

So what was your month like? :)