Sunday Salon: Historical Fiction Reading Challenge statistics for December and the whole year!

Every month I share some of the statistics related to the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. I try very hard to visit every post which has been linked (time permitting) and I find it interesting to see what are the books that people are reading and reviewing! I often end up adding a couple of books to my never ending TBR list.

This month I am also sharing the stats for the whole of the 2024 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge!

First, December. 

In terms of the books read in December, there were 58 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 19 participants. There were 56 individual titles reviewed, written by 52 different authors. There were 4 reviewers who shared 5 or more reviews this month. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 12 or just 1.

So which books were reviewed more than once in December? There were two.

The first, somewhat fittingly given the Season, was Christmas with the Queen by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb. This was reviewed by Barbara from Stray Thoughts and Laura from Laura's Reviews. Click on the links to see their thoughts!

The second was Gabriel's Moon by William Boyd which was reviewed by Davida at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews and Helen at She Reads Novels. The links take you to their reviews.

I do have to be careful when I do these statistics as this month we had two different books with the title Euphoria, so it did look like there was another one, but there wasn't!

I already shared this in the Facebook group but there were a lot of books with a variation of the word murder in the title this month. Maybe there is every month, but it jumped out at me this month. There were 8 of those titles, plus another one with the word Death!

There were a number of authors where there were reviews shared for more than one of their books.

Barbara from Stray Thoughts shared two novellas from Amanda Dykes, and I have to say that the Tin Can Serenade one sounds really good to me!

Barbara also shared her thoughts on two books by Roseanna M White - An Honorable Deception and Christmas at Sugar Plum Manor. 

Finally, there were two reviews shared for stories written by Charles Dickens. Alexis at Goodreads read La battaglia della vita which is The Battle of Life. I read The Chimes, which is one of Dickens lesser known Christmas stories. And yes, I do read for this challenge, I just don't often get to highlight myself in these posts (;-))

So those were the stats for December. Let's get to the stats for the whole of 2024!

In terms of the books read and reviewed in 2024, there were 665 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 34 participants. There were 600 individual titles reviewed, written by 502 different authors. There were 7 reviewers who shared 30 or more reviews this month with our top contributor being Laura from Laura's Reviews who contributed an amazing 101 reviews!. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 101 or just 2.

This compares to 846 reviews in 2023, 841 reviews in 2022 and 775 reviews during 2021

So which book was reviewed the most during 2024? To be honest, I am not completely surprised given that this book one the Goodreads Choice award for Historical Fiction and has appeared on many best of lists. I will say though, it does seem to be a very divisive book. People either really, really love it, or they really don't!

Drumroll please!

The book with the most reviews during 2024 was The Women by Kristin Hannah

The next highest number of reviews was for The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonsen which was reviewed 4 times.

There were then 8 books that were reviewed three times:

Every Time We Say Goodbye by Natalie Jenner

Gabriel's Moon by William Boyd

James by Percival Everett

The Briar Club by Kate Quinn

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhorn

The Household by Stacey Halls

The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang

Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein

As I mentioned earlier, it can be a little tricky sometimes with books with the same title. Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein was reviewed 3 times, but there was also another book with the same title as well by C J Barker.

Here's a breakdown of review by author numbers

5 reviews - 1

4 reviews - 1

3 reviews - 8

2 reviews - 84

1 review - 548

If we look at the authors who were reviewed multiple times, then Agatha Christie is the runaway winner with 19 different reviews contributed. I don't think that is a surprise given that quite a few people are doing both this challenge and the Read Christie challenge.

Other honourable mentions go to Roseanna M White who had 6 stories reviewed. Amanda Dykes and Verity Bright both had 5 stories reviewed!

There are a couple of little anomalies here. Kate Quinn writing solo was reviewed 3 times, but she was also reviewed 3 times for her collaboration with Janie Chang! Similarly, Hazel Gaynor and Aimie K Runyan were reviewed both as individuals and for their collaborative novels. There are probably others as well, but those are the ones that stood out to me.

Here's a breakdown of review by author numbers

19 reviews - 1

6 reviews - 1

5 reviews - 2

4 reviews - 6

3 reviews - 27

2 reviews - 56

1 review - 408

And here is the breakdown for the number of reviews for month

Oh, and for the record, there were 42 different books reviewed that had some variation of the words death and murder in the title! I am thinking of adding this into the monthly stats!

This year I added a column for the times I thought "oh, I would like to read that" when I read someone's review. That happened 68 times! And how many did I actually read - just one. Just goes to show that this challenge is bad/good for your TBR pile, depending on your perspective!

So now we look forward to the 2025 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. If you are interested in joining us, the sign up post is here. We would love to see what you are reading!

I am sharing this with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz

Sunday Salon: Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - April statistics

 

For the last couple of years I have been sharing statistics each month for the Historical challenge, and my plan is to continue to do this again this year. I find it interesting to see what are the books that people are reading and reviewing! I think I have visited almost all the reviews submitted and have added a couple of books to never ending TBR list

In terms of the books, there were 47 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 18 participants. This is less than for the same month last year and previous months but I am sure we will catch up! There were 46 individual titles reviewed, written by 44 different authors. There were 3 reviewers who reviewed more than 5 books each. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 8 or just 1.

So which book was reviewed more than once in April? It was actually the first two links that were added and the book was A Noble Scheme by Roseanna M. White. This is the second book in her The Impostors series.

A Noble Scheme was reviewed at Laura's Reviews and also at Stray Thoughts.

There were two other authors who were review more than once this month. The first was perenial favourite Agatha Christie and the other was Verity Bright. Every time I see one of the covers for a Verity Bright book I can't help but think how good they look!

I am sharing this post with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz.

Sunday Salon: Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - August statistics

  

Each month I share the statistics for the previous month for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. I always find it interesting to see what are the books that people are reading and reviewing! This month I have visited all the reviews (or at least I think I have). As a result I think I added at least three books to my TBR!

 

In terms of the books, it was a good month for reviews with 58 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 19 participants, which is a bit less than this time last year.  There were 56 individual titles reviewed, written by 52 different authors. There were 4 reviewers who reviewed 5 or more books each this month. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 7 or just 1. 

Let's move onto the books. There were 2 books that were reviewed twice during August. They were:

Death Comes at the End by Agatha Christie was reviewed by both Helen at She Reads Novels and by Laura at Laura's Reviews. I had no idea Christie had written a mystery set in Ancient Egypt.

The Orchid Hour by Nancy Bilyeau was reviewed by Helen and also at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews

There were two authors who had multiple books reviewed this month.

Barbara at Stray Thoughts is a big fan of Roseanna  M White. This month she reviewed two titles (Dreams of Savannah and Yesterday's Tides). Laura also reviewed A Beautiful Disguise.

Cathy from What Cathy Read Next read two books by Madalyn Morgan. China Blue is the third book in the Dudley Sisters series and Chasing Ghosts is the sixth, but is the sequel to China Blue, if that makes sense?

It's not too late to join the 2023 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. The sign up post is here, and you can find the September linky to add your reviews here.

I am looking forward to seeing what people share during September. 

I am also sharing this post with Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Sunday Salon: Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - April Stats

 

Last year I started sharing statistics each month for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, and my plan is to continue to do this again this year. I always find it interesting to see what are the books that people are reading and reviewing! This month I haven't had time to come and comment on all the reviews, but I will try to do that this week. I am, however, starting a new job, so time and tiredness might affect my ability to see everyone. We'll see.

In terms of the books, it was another really good month for reviews with 84 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 22 participants. This is 3 more than for the same month last year. There were 77 individual titles reviewed, written by 74 different authors. There were 7 reviewers who reviewed 5 or more books each. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 7 or just 1. I even managed three reviews. Go me!

Let's move onto the books. There were 7 books that were reviewed twice during April. I think that is the most books we have had which have been reviewed more than once in a month!

Good Town by Mary Louise Wells was reviewed by both Susan at Reading World and Shirley McAllister over at Goodreads.

A new book from Kate Morton is very exciting to me so it is no surprise to see more than one review for Homecoming, which was released this month. Both Tracey at Carpe Librum and Shelleyrae from Book'd Out linked up their reviews. I do, however, happen to know of at least one more review which was counted to the challenge but not linked up. I am looking forward to reading this one myself.

Rivers of Treason by K J Maitland is the third book in the Daniel Pursglove mystery series which is set in the 17th century. This was reviewed at both What Cathy Read Next and at She Reads Novels.

The next book to be reviewed twice was Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie which was reviewed at Shellie Loves Books and at Laura's Reviews.

The House is on Fire by Rachel Beanland was reviewed at Becky's Reviews and also at Laura's Reviews. At first, I didn't recognise this author's name until I saw the cover and that she wrote Florence Adler Swims Forever

The War Nurses by Anthea Hodgson is a book that I need to read in the next couple of weeks, and I can't wait! I am somewhat familiar with the true story it is based on so it will be great to read how the author has treated the story. The book was reviewed by Shelleyrae at Book'd Out and Bree from All the Books I Can Read

The final book that was reviewed twice this month was Under the Cover of Mercy by Rebecca Connolly which was reviewed by Shirley at Goodreads and Davida at The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog.

There was one author who had 3 reviews this month. I have mentioned above that Sparkling Cyanide was reviewed twice, but in addition to this, there was another Christie book reviewed by Laura's Reviews which was The Moving Finger.

There were two other authors who had two individual titles reviewed. Roberta Kagan had the first two books of her Blood Sisters series. The first book is The Pact which was reviewed at Rosepoint Publishing. The second book is My Sister's Betrayal which was reviewed by Shirley at Goodreads

Lastly, Barbara at Stray Thoughts reviewed two books by Roseanna M White. Ring of Secrets is the first book in the Culper Ring series (reviewed here). Whispers from the Shadows is the second book in the same series and it was reviewed here.

It's not too late to join the 2023 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. The sign up post is here, and you can find the March linky to add your reviews here.

I am looking forward to seeing what people share during May.

I am also sharing this post with Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.