Challenge Accepted: ARC August 2018 wrap-up

This month I participated in ARC August, and I'm delighted how well this year's challenge turned out for me! I deviated a little from the TBR I initially planned in my ARC August goal post in order to tackle the second part of the challenge: the ARC August BINGO card. At first, I figured I wouldn't hit any BINGOs because my goal was only 5 books. But... then I realized a lot of the books I'd picked fit the categories on the card so I began intentionally reading books that would fit certain spaces. Then I decided to get real and aim for filling up the whole board. It required me to add some books I hadn't initially included, and then I amended a couple times this past week in order to read more books from more publishers (because at first Macmillan was DOMINATING my stack!) and also to read some shorter, older ARCs just to finally clear them off my TBR. Buuuut I do think I did a good job of reading off that initial TBR.

Sadly, I ran out of time Friday night when I had 120 pages left in Wildcard to read but only 24 minutes left in which to read them so I admitted defeat for BINGO. But then Octavia extended the challenge two days SO I GOT TO FINISH! I got my mojo back!! Thank you Angie, Octavia, and Shelly for this amazing challenge!!

Books read goal: 5

Actual books read: 19 + 1/2 of one & 64 pages of another

Reviews goal: 5

Actual reviews written: 3 1/2 (lol)

Books read:

The Chase - Elle Kennedy

Dance of Thieves - Mary E. Pearson

Check, Please!: #Hockey - Ngozi Ukazu

Star-Touched Stories - Roshani Chokshi

Famous in a Small Town - Emma Mills

The Real Deal - Lauren Blakely

Heart of Thorns - Bree Barton

Strange the Dreamer - Laini Taylor

Before She Ignites - Jodi Meadows

Unclaimed Baggage - Jen Doll

See How They Run - Ally Carter

To Be Honest - Maggie Ann Martin

Seafire - Natalie C. Parker

Josh & Hazel's Guide to Not Dating - CL

Love à la Mode - Stephanie Kate Strohm

Heart of Iron - Ashley Poston

Take the Key & Lock Her Up - Ally Carter

Mirage - Somaiya Daud (half)

Illegal - Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin & Giovanni Rigano

Wildcard - Marie Lu

Darius the Great is Not Okay - Adib Khorram (64p pages)

I also thought it would be fun to do a section on my ARC August stats, kind of like the yearly reading wrap-ups Jamie of Perpetual Page Turner, Brittany of Book Addicts Guide, and Andi of Andi ABCs do so here's how my ARC August books stack up:

Average books per day: .61

Total pages read: 6,654

Longest book: Strange the Dreamer (544 pages)

Shortest book: Illegal (128 pages)

Category

Young Adult: 18

New Adult: 1

Adult: 2

Format

Physical ARC: 11

Digital ARC: 3

Finished copy: 7

└Hardcover: 6

└Kindle ebook: 1

Genre

Fantasy: 6

Realistic: 2

Contemporary Romance: 8

Sci-Fi: 3

Mystery/Thriller: 2

Type of Fiction

Novel: 18

Graphic Novel: 2

Short stories: 1

Release

Pre-release: 8

Read before release but now published: 2

Already published: 11

By year

2015: 1

2016: 1

2017: 2

2018: 16

2019: 1

Series vs. Standalone

Standalone: 8

Part of a series: 13

└First book: 9

└Middle book: 1

└Last book: 3

By publisher

Self-published: 1

Disney: 1

HarperCollins: 3

Little Brown: 1

Macmillan: 8

Penguin: 3

Scholastic: 2

Simon & Schuster: 1

Sourcebooks: 1

Rating

5: 4

4: 9

3: 5

2: 1

1: 0

Not yet rated: 2

Favorite: Unclaimed Baggage by Jen Doll and

 Josh & Hazel's Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren

Least favorite: The Real Deal by Lauren Blakely and Mirage by Somaiya Daud

ARC August went so well for me that I'm going to try to do a personal challenge this month called Series September because I have been really bad about finishing series! So my new goal is to knock out at least 10 last books in series!

If you participated in ARC August, how did your challenge go? Are you participating in any other challenges this month or this year?