2018 Beat The Backlist Reading Challenge

I don't normally participate in too many reading challenges since my schedule is already so full of what and when to read a certain book, but the Beat the Backlist Challenge hosted by Austine over at NovelKnight was just the prompting I needed to hopefully start cleaning out some of the older titles on my To-Read Shelf. I just checked my Goodreads To-Read Shelf (feel free to stop by and check out my list) and was overwhelmed by the shear number of books I have added since I first joined Goodreads in 2012- there are now a whopping 2717 titles on my To-Read list going into 2018, and most of those are title that released 2017 and earlier. So, that is a pretty terrifying number of books, if I am being honest.

For the Beat the Backlist challenge, I have set a goal of 25 books, a very reasonable number I feel, especially since my reading goal for 2018 is 150 books- 25 out of 150 is totally an achievable goal (the best way to accomplish a goal is to make it reasonable and achievable so you don't get discouraged!). That's like 2ish books per month, easy peasy (I hope)! I don't have a list of specific books to read, but I will select books from my Goodreads shelf to knock out.

Feel free to join me on my challenge journey (I am on team Story Sorcerers!) and sign up to create one for yourself by visiting Austine at NovelKnight HERE

To start the BTB Challenge off with a bang, I picked a book I have been wanting to read for years but keep putting off for no specific reason, but now after reading Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake this year, I know I need more from her in my life. So with no further ado, my first BLB choice:

Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna #1) by Kendare Blake

Book Blurb:

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

Yet she spares Cas's life.