Holy Smokes! I'm a Winner!

So I told you all about the League of Reluctant Adults Mini-Challenge hosted by Jackie at Literary Escapism as part of her New Author Challenge. If you don't recall, the challenge was to read 5 new to you authors from the roster of League participants during the month of February and post reviews online (there are 22 current authors -- all listed under the About Us section of the League homepage if you're curious).

Just to recap, my five were:

Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead

Greywalker by Kat Richardson

Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs by Molly Harper

Mark of the Demon by Diana Rowland

Street Magic by Caitlin Kittredge

Now, Jackie was offering a prize for the challenge, but then the Leaguers got wind of it and all started throwing in rocking swag as well. So seven of us fifty-two participants got to pick five titles each as a prize. And I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the winners. Makes me feel all special inside!

So, with a seriously amazing list to choose from, I picked three more new to me League authors. Here were my picks:

Three Days to Dead by Kelly Meding

Black and White by Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge, first in the Icarus Project series (I read Kittredge for the challenge but haven't read Kessler yet)

And, Anton Strout's Simon Canderous titles, Dead to Me, Deader Still, and Dead Matter

And I wouldn't be doing my duty if I didn't swear to all of you that you'll see reviews for each one here!

So I've now read thirteen of the Leaguers and this will add three more to that list (a tentative three since I think Kessler's solo books would count more strongly). I should issue myself a challenge to read all of the remaining authors before the year is out. Lord knows I'll buy that many more books before the end of the year.

Hm. It's definitely a thought! Right now I've placed my first post challenge order for some follow ups to books I read for the challenge and I've got more Leaguers (pre challenge reads) in the TBR stack already. I think they're dominating it!

So I'd like to thank Jackie at Literary Escapism. I think this was a really cool challenge, especially when you see the results: her numbers posted show that the challenge resulted in 126 new online reviews! This is word of mouth at its finest, readers, and is exactly why I blog about books that I enjoy!