My 1st Chick Lit Challenge Review!!!

So I have decided to do the Chick Lit Challenge this year with Chick Lit plus! Very fun and very cool. Basically, you need to read 12 chick lit books throughout the year...two of which need to be debut authors, I believe. Check it out here!

So...my first Chick Lit read of 2012 is:

I absolutely ADORED this book!!!!

I bought it a while ago....a Kindle purchase I made for my Droid Kindle Ap. I had just gotten my first ever smartphone and thought for sure I would read on it...uh...nope. Too tiny...too bright....just too hard. So when I got my Kindle just after Christmas this year, I loaded it up and it was the first book I read on it!

I started reading it at the gym....BIG MISTAKE!!!! I don't want to give away the beginning, but let's just say, it is NOT easy to hold back tears while you are going to town on the elliptical. Surely if anyone was watching me, they would have thought there was something seriously wrong with me.

So anyway, I hate to give too much away, but this book is about three friends and their tight bond and what happens when it becomes more than just friendship for two of them. The secrets and lies to prevent heartache. The way BFFs can sometimes drift apart even when they don't want to and can't stop it. The bond that's still there even after tragedy and heartache..after the truth comes out.

This is a YA book, but I absolutely love YA. I love reading about firsts and coming of age stories. Those tingles and butterflies of first love.

I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads.

Best reads of 2011!

Well.....I didn't make my yearly reading goal. I am not real sure what happened this year. Last year I saw people meet and exceed their 100 book goals and I knew there was NO WAY I could do that too. It is just not possible with two kids, activities, household responsibilities (and an addiction to a couple TV shows!) But I made a goal that I knew I had a chance of reaching. I made a 30 book goal for 2010. And I was close...with 28.

So for 2011, I made the same goal. But came no where near it :( Only 11 books this year. Sad and pathetic. My only explanation is that last year we belonged to a different gym and I read each day for like 30 minutes while I did the elliptical or cross ramp for cardio. Since switching gyms, I do Zumba for cardio, and obviously, I can't read while doing that!!

But here are my favs from this year. I only gave 5 stars to a couple books on Goodreads.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series is my absolute favorite series ever. I just love these stories of the girls and their bonds of friendship. This last book, Sisterhood Everlasting, the girls are adults and have to deal with things they'd never dealt with before. It was really a fantastic ending to the series.

Lone Star Trouble was a really great story. I love a great romance and this one was so so good. I love a little hidden identity! And the main character was great...so spunky!

I really liked Bumped! I only gave this one 4 stars, but wanted to mention it. These futuristic dystopian society YA books suck me in...but few do I enjoy like I did this one! This one isn't as dark and grim as others, but really makes you think about the 'what ifs'. Looking forward to the sequel!

So close...yet so far away :(

Looks like I am not going to reach one of my new year's resolutions for 2010. :(

I'd only made a few.

The first was to spend more quality time as a family...play more games together, read more together, that kind of thing. I think we reached that one, though probably not as much as i would have liked. But one of us reads with our son every night, though we have kinda slacked with our daughter. She's seven and can read on her own, above grade level. But I would like to read with her more. She just got all five Diary of a Whimpy Kid books for Christmas.

The second was to get in better shape, lose a few pounds and tone. I am definitely on track with that goal! We joined a gym the Monday after New years this year and I lost all the pounds I wanted. But have also learned to not care about the number on the scale. It's definitely more about how I look and feel. So while I have lost the pounds, my body has changed noticeably and I know I have also gained a ton of muscle, which weighs more than fat.

Lastly was my book reading goal. I read so many bloggers who do the 100 book challenge and I knew there was no way I could possibly reach that goal. So I made a far more attainable one for me: 30 books in one year. And up `til September, I was in a great position to reach, and even surpass, it. But then life happened and there just wasn't time for reading. I got most of my reading done at night before bed...but bedtime was pushed back and I was just too tired to read. And I used to read a lot at the gym. But in September we switched gyms and I was now on a time constraint. At the old gym there was no time limit for the kid's playroom. I could get my 40 minutes of cardio in (and that's when I read) and then still be able to do another 40-45 minutes of weight training. Well, this new gym has a 70 minute limit on the kid room. So I had to cut my cardio time. Which was fine because the new gym has classes and I do Zumba 2-4 times a week, so at least I wasn't losing that. But I was losing my reading time. :(

As of right now, I am about a quarter of the way into book # 29. I am hoping to finish it this week, so at least I am only one book short of my goal.

How did everyone else do on their New Year's resolutions for 2010??? Your book goals??