Hey guys, Mana and Sil here! We've decided to create a challenge akin to The Amazing Race (and also a little inspired by Ticket to Ride, one of the coolest games!). This challenge will feature books around the world and will hopefully be a great tool for readers to be able to read outside of Western societies.

Before we go into the rules, we want to encourage you guys to pick up books that don't have much buzz around them, and if many people don't know it BETTER YET. We want to encourage you guys to pick up #ownvoices authors and stories. Pick up books with diversity! We decided to make this Book Challenge because there are a lot of books out there that are set in the USA and we want to do a race around the world that gets you to read books set in SO MANY COUNTRIES MORE. Because the world is huge and USA is not the only one out there.


Objective: To read as many books as possible in a country/state/region/etc depending on the route selected. This is a month long challenge, where each week has a different route and you can acquire points as you go.

Update: You have to read books from each selected route give by us. BUT if you are done reading them, you can totally read more set in other countries. Of course we recommend you choose non-Western settings and not USA, England, France, Germany, etc.

Date: This challenge will start Saturday, October 1st and will end Monday, October 31st.

Points: to get points, you need to cross post your reviews to Amazon, Goodreads, or any other review area and then send it to thebooktravelers@gmail.com!  (Subject: TAR Challenge) You can send however many reviews you want, but one book = one point.

NOTE: They have to be new reviews, not old ones! So if you have been keeping an eye out for these books for quite a while, it's the perfect time to start them (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Routes: 
*We'll be putting some books you can choose from (but you can totally read other stuff!):

• Week 1 | Ready, Set, Go! The first destination you guys are going is.... Hawaii!

✈ The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig
✈ Summer of Sloane by Erin L. Schneider

• Week 2 | Next stop is.... the Philippines!

• Week 3 | One more stop before the finish line and that country is... India!

• Week 4 | This is the last leg before the finish line, maybe you can even see it right now. You only have to go to one more country and you are there. The last and final stop is... Egypt!

Description: Victoria Dinham doesn’t have much left to look forward to. Since her father died in a car accident, she lives only to fulfill her dream of being accepted into the Manhattan Dance Conservatory. But soon she finds another reason to look forward to dreams when she encounters an otherworldly girl named Ashlinn, who bears a message from Victoria’s comatose brother. Ashlinn is tasked with conjuring pleasant dreams for humans, and through the course of their nightly meetings in Victoria’s mind, the two become close. Ashlinn also helps Victoria understand asexuality and realize that she, too, is asexual.

But then Victoria needs Ashlinn’s aid outside the realm of dreams, and Ashlinn assumes human form to help Victoria make it to her dance audition. They take the opportunity to explore New York City, their feelings for each other, and the nature of their shared asexuality. But like any dream, it’s too good to last. Ashlinn must shrug off her human guise and resume her duties creating pleasant nighttime visions—or all of humanity will pay the price.

Sarina Bowen is the USA Today bestselling author of steamy, angsty Contemporary Romance and New Adult fiction. She lives in the wilds of Vermont.

She is the author of The Ivy Years, an award-winning series set amid the hockey team at an elite Connecticut college. Also, the The Gravity series. 

With Elle Kennedy, Sarina is the author of HIM and US.

Hi, guys!! This is Silvana and today I bring you a special list of books. I think I have never taken so long to do one since we started the blog. But this one... oh my god, guys. So let me explain things first. For a while I have wanted to do a recommendation list with books that are set in countries all around the world. I think I saw Dahlia Adler talking about this on Twitter or something? But either way, I really got the idea from her.

A while ago I made a list but I never really found a lot of books, but to be honest, I wasn't searching enough and I didn't know a lot of books then. But now months later, I actually could come up with a big list and of course, Goodreads helped me HUGELY. Plus I want to thank some people that also made my life easier by helping me: Maf (@Bookwormwanders), Eri (@willowmoore), Siiri (@rosecoballoway), Brianna + Angelina (@otakutwins1) and Sue (@SueYAHollywood) and of course my own co-blogger, Mana.

There are some oldies, new releases and some not-yet released ones as well. A little bit of everything. The characters might be on vacation in that country. They might be from that country. They might be time-traveling to that country. It also might be an alternate universe of that country. Anything is possible definitely.


You can totally click the image on top of this text so you can see the picture better and bigger and brighter. But either way, I'm going to go from continent to continent and put the title/author/place they are set and the link of the books down below, so you can see the pictures better + the books!

"Couldn't get you out of my mind," I said bitterly against his salty skin. "You're everywhere, my bed, my shower, my fucking dreams."

Megan Erickson is a USA Today bestselling author of romance that sizzles. Her books have a touch of nerd, a dash of humor, and always have a happily ever after. A former journalist, she switched to fiction when she decided she likes writing her own endings better.

She lives in Pennsylvania with her very own nerdy husband and two kids. Although rather fun-sized, she’s been told she has a full-sized personality. When Megan isn’t writing, she’s either lounging with her two cats named after John Hughes characters or… thinking about writing.

Santino Hassell was raised by a conservative family, but he was anything but traditional. He grew up to be a smart-mouthed, school cutting grunge kid, then a transient twenty-something, and eventually transformed into an unlikely romance author.

 Santino writes queer romance that is heavily influenced by the gritty, urban landscape of New York City, his belief that human relationships are complex and flawed, and his own life experiences.