The Spring of Sarah Dessen Reading Challenge

March 1 - June 1, 2013
Hosted by:
Ramblings of a Daydreamer

When I was in my mid-teens, I discovered Sarah Dessen’s books and fell in love. I can’t remember which one I read first, but the one that stuck with me the most (and still to this day is a favourite) was Someone Like You. It was one of those stories that was so relevant to me, and that I could have sworn Sarah had written about me and my best friend. It was that book that made me even more certain I wanted to be a writer.
 I realized it was a shame I hadn’t read all her books since I’m such a big fan. I decided I would read all of them this year, and then I realized it would be fun to ask people to join me, so The Spring of Sarah Dessen was born (I was going to wait until summer, but I just couldn’t!).

Here’s the deal: read as many Sarah Dessen books as you can before June 1st. Pretty simple right?

Oh, you want more details than that? ;-)

The Details:

• This is basically a reading challenge, and the idea is for you to read and review as many of Sarah’s books as you can between March 1st and June 1st. Each new review you write gets you one entry into the giveaway (I’ll get to that in a second). Reviews must be posted for the first time between March 1st and June 1st (you can start reading the books any time, but all reviews must be brand new and never posted before as of March 1st, 2013). So basically if you read and write a review for one book that’s one entry, if you read and write a review for 3 books that’s 3 entries, etc.
• Rereads count as long as you haven’t posted a review for it before (or if you posted a review quite a long time ago, I’ll accept a ‘fresh’ review - for instance, I read and reviewed Along for the Ride in 2011, so if I were to read it again, I’d write a new review with my second impressions and link it to my old review - you can do that too).
• Audiobooks count
• You can join this challenge at any time
• You don’t have to have a blog to participate, as long as you can post reviews somewhere (GoodReads, YouTube, Amazon, Chapters, etc)

Other Stuff:

• Between March 1st and June 1st, I’ll be posting reviews of the Sarah Dessen books I read, along with other posts like cover comparisons, favourite characters, book crushes, etc. If you’d like to write a post for the event (your favourite Sarah Dessen books, why you love her books, what her books mean to you, favourite quotes from her books etc), please let me know and I’d be happy to include it in the event.
• I will be creating a page for this event and will update it regularly with all our reviews so people can check them out easily. Hopefully it will drive a bit of traffic to participants’ blogs.
• If you’re on Twitter, feel free to use the hashtag #SOSD so we can all find each other and cheer each other on. You can share your reviews, updates, book/page count, etc. BTW, I'm @SweetMarie83 on Twitter. ;-)

The Giveaway:

Instead of a Linky List, I’m going to set up a Rafflecopter. You get one entry for participating, and then one entry for each review you post. On June 2nd, Rafflecopter will pick a winner from among the entries, and the winner will get a pre-order of Sarah’s new release The Moon and More (which comes out June 4th). If you’re lucky enough to have gotten an ARC of The Moon and More…first of all, can I have it? *grins and bats lashes* (I’m only half-joking…I want that book so bad!!) Seriously though, if you already have the book, you can pick a Sarah Dessen book of your choice. OR if you already own all of Sarah’s books, you can choose a contemporary YA novel (I’m sticking with Sarah’s genre) of your choice up to $10 CAN. If there’s enough interest in this challenge, I will add a second winner. 

Sarah Dessen’s Books

*in order of publication…I’m going to be reading them in order, just for fun*

That Summer {GoodReads}

Someone Like You {GoodReads}

Keeping the Moon {GoodReads}

Dreamland {GoodReads}

This Lullaby {GoodReads}

The Truth About Forever {GoodReads}

Just Listen {GoodReads}

Lock and Key {GoodReads}

Along for the Ride {GoodReads}

What Happened to Goodbye {GoodReads}

The Moon and More {GoodReads}

Does this reading challenge sound like something you'd be interested in? Want to join? Simply sign up via the InLinkz below (the URL can be your blog or wherever you'll be posting reviews). If you want to write an introductory post with your goals (feel free to use one of my graphics, and please link back to this post so other people can find out about the challenge) you can use that link to sign up.

This meme is hosted by Ramblings of a Daydreamer. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.