There are two similar challenges: Goodreads TBR Cleanup and Down the TBR Hole that each take your TBR lists on Goodreads and you choose to either keep or toss. The main difference is how you choose your books as Down the TBR Hole has you start with the oldest additions to your TBR list and Goodreads TBR Cleanup uses a random number generator to choose a different place in your TBR list every time.
I decided to go with the Goodreads TBR Cleanup (created by @ Mega Bunny Reads) as the random selections from my 1000+ TBR list sounded like fun. These challenges can be done bi-weekly or weekly (or any other timeframe that suits you). If you’re interest in the other Down the TBR Hole meme, then you can check it out following the links. The meme was created by Lia @ Lost in a Story — she has a new blog though called Sunflowers and Wonder!
How It Works:
- Go to your Goodreads want-to-read shelf.
- Ask Siri (or any other generator) to pick a number between 1 and however many books are on the list.
- Go to that book and look at it and the 4 after it, for a total of 5.
- Read the synopses of the books.
- Decide: keep it or should it go?
For the number selection, I used an online random number generator.
TODAY’S RANDOM NUMBER: 755
- Second Sight (The God’s of Fate #2)
When the man Grace Archer loves is pulled into the Underworld, she will stop at nothing to get him back. Her quest is complicated by the fallen god Samael, who is on the loose with a dangerous relic that puts all the immortals in jeopardy. With her powers on the fritz, Grace must help track down Samael and retrieve the deadly Eye of Hera before any more gods fall victim to his madness. Daughter of the Greek Goddess Pandora and the Greek God Prometheus, Grace must dig deep to find the power she needs to infiltrate Hades and convince the God of the Dead to release Chris. But when you make a bargain with the devil, you pay with your soul.
THOUGHTS:
I really want to read this series given that it involves Greek Mythology. To keep or toss this novel, though, was an easy decision and I decide to toss it from my TBR list. This is only because I realized I had both this one and the first one of the series. Therefore, it is not tossing the series and instead just tossing the second novel that I will not read until I at least have given the first a try.
2. These Violent Delights (These Violent Delights #1)
The year is 1926, and Shanghai hums to the tune of debauchery.
A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. At the heart of it all is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang—a network of criminals far above the law. Their only rivals in power are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette’s first love…and first betrayal.
But when gangsters on both sides show signs of instability culminating in clawing their own throats out, the people start to whisper. Of a contagion, a madness. Of a monster in the shadows. As the deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must set their guns—and grudges—aside and work together, for if they can’t stop this mayhem, then there will be no city left for either to rule.
THOUGHTS:
This one was another easy decision. I have heard nothing but good things about this novel and many people cannot wait to read the next in the series. It has been on my TBR for awhile and just keeps missing being on my reading list for the month, but I am attempting to at least make it happen sometime this year!
3. Oona Out of Order
A remarkably inventive novel that explores what it means to live a life fully in the moment, even if those moments are out of order.
It’s New Year’s Eve 1982, and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight she will turn nineteen, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence. Should she go to London to study economics, or remain at home in Brooklyn to pursue her passion for music and be with her boyfriend? As the countdown to the New Year begins, Oona faints and awakens thirty-two years in the future in her fifty-one-year-old body. Greeted by a friendly stranger in a beautiful house she’s told is her own, Oona learns that with each passing year she will leap to another age at random. And so begins Oona Out of Order…
Hopping through decades, pop culture fads, and much-needed stock tips, Oona is still a young woman on the inside but ever changing on the outside. Who will she be next year? Philanthropist? Club Kid? World traveler? Wife to a man she’s never met? Surprising, magical, and heart-wrenching, Margarita Montimore has crafted an unforgettable story about the burdens of time, the endurance of love, and the power of family.
THOUGHTS:
The concept of this novel sounds great and I know a lot of people who read this for a book club, or just because they wanted to read it. My friend, Mary A., another member of this blog, actually read it last year and reviewed it. Despite a lot of people talking about this book last year, I never felt motivated enough to attempt to read it. Therefore, I think this book will collect dust on my TBR list and, if I am wrong, then I know Mary A. has a copy of the book I can borrow down the line.
4. Rule of Wolves (King of Scars #2)
The wolves are circling and a young king will face his greatest challenge in the explosive finale of the instant #1 New York Times-bestselling King of Scars Duology.
The Demon King. As Fjerda’s massive army prepares to invade, Nikolai Lantsov will summon every bit of his ingenuity and charm—and even the monster within—to win this fight. But a dark threat looms that cannot be defeated by a young king’s gift for the impossible.
The Stormwitch. Zoya Nazyalensky has lost too much to war. She saw her mentor die and her worst enemy resurrected, and she refuses to bury another friend. Now duty demands she embrace her powers to become the weapon her country needs. No matter the cost.
The Queen of Mourning. Deep undercover, Nina Zenik risks discovery and death as she wages war on Fjerda from inside its capital. But her desire for revenge may cost her country its chance at freedom and Nina the chance to heal her grieving heart.
King. General. Spy. Together they must find a way to forge a future in the darkness. Or watch a nation fall.
THOUGHTS:
Another case where I had both the first and the rest of the series on my TBR. Therefore, I tossed this one and kept the King of Scars (the first novel).
5. Nightfall (Devil’s Night #4)
What happens when it’s five against one and nowhere to run?
EMORY
They call it Blackchurch. A secluded mansion in a remote, undisclosed location where the wealthy and powerful send their misbehaving sons to cool off away from prying eyes.
Will Grayson has always been an animal, though. Reckless, wild, and someone who was never bound by a single rule other than to do exactly what he wanted. There was no way his grandfather was going risk him humiliating the family again.
Not that the last time was entirely his fault. He might’ve enjoyed backing me into corners in high school when no one was looking, so they wouldn’t catch on that Mr. Popular actually wanted a piece of that quiet, little nerd he loved to torture so much, but…
He could also be warm. And fierce in keeping me safe. The truth is… He has a right to hate me.
It’s all my fault. Everything. Devils Night. The videos. The arrests. I’m to blame for all of it. And I regret nothing.
WILL
I never minded being locked up. I learned a long time ago that being treated like an animal gives you permission to act like one. No one has ever looked at me any other way.
Their only mistake is believing anything I do is an accident. I can sit in this house with no Internet, television, liquor, or girls, but I’ll come out of here with something far more frightening to my enemies.
A plan. And a new pack of wolves. I just didn’t expect one of my enemies to come to me.
I don’t know who smuggled her in or if they meant to leave her here, but I can smell her hiding in the house. She’s here.
And as the security detail leaves the supplies, the gates close, and the door to my gilded cage opens, giving me free reign of the house and grounds for another unsupervised month, I remember with a smile…
Blackchurch houses five prisoners. I’m only one of her problems.
THOUGHTS:
A fantasy meets romance novels are typically high on my list of TBRs as they mix two genres that I love. This novel is another that I meant to read either as an ARC (although I never got around to requesting one) or as an obtained book. Although I never got around to reading it after its release in December, I think I will give myself a little more time to attempt to read it. If it is still there the next time it comes up in a Cleanup, then I will toss it.
WOW! I had absolutely no clue how many series I had on my TBR! Not only did I have a lot of series, but it seems I added others in the series, as well as, the first. That made a lot of the decisions to toss extremely easy this week as I was not tossing the series and instead only tossing the sequels that I won’t end up reading without first reading the beginning. This week feels a little like cheating for this challenge (haha) as four of the five choices were tossed as they were future novels in a series I have yet to start. I guess that is an unexpected benefit of this challenge and the beauty of the game!
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