Today, I am jumping on the beating-the-backlist-challenge bandwagon, following the example set by Sam at Clues and Reviews and Chelsea over at The Suspense is Thrilling Me.

I didn’t use to be a hoarder. Every week, I would decide what to read and buy those books. Done. (Not so anymore.) So not only did I never get around to reading the books on the list below, I never even bought them. I just kept/keep adding books to the ever-growing TBR pile and tend to buy the latest ones. And that’s why I’m joining in with this challenge.

I decided to use my Goodreads to-be-read list to choose the following 10 books I’m determined to read by the end of the year. I did cheat a little bit because I had a few in a row by the same author and I preferred mixing things up.

So, here we go. In random order, here are my 10 choices.

I concentrated hard, desperately listening for something familiar, the sound of life. I heard nothing. Just my own breath and the wind, whistling through the branches above. The thought made me shiver. I am buried alive.

For a mother, life comes down to a series of choices. To hold on. To let go. To forget. To forgive. Which road will you take?

What if you could only watch as your bright future slipped away from you?

Sally Cummings has had it tougher than most but, if nothing else, it’s taught her to grab opportunity with both hands. And, when she stands looking into the eyes of her new husband Peter on her perfect wedding day, it seems her life is finally on the up. That is until the car crash that puts her in a coma and throws her entire future into question. In the following months, a small part of Sally’s consciousness begins to return, allowing her to listen in on the world around her – although she has no way to communicate. But Sally was never going to let a little thing like a coma get in the way of her happily ever after.

It’s criminal profiler Ivy Dunlap’s job to unravel the psyches of the most dangerous men alive. None haunts her dreams more than the killer who took her son’s life sixteen years ago, then silently disappeared into the dark. Now an urgent request for help from the Chicago police has reawakened Ivy’s greatest nightmare.

For Dr. David Beck, the loss was shattering. And every day for the past eight years, he has relived the horror of what happened. The gleaming lake. The pale moonlight. The piercing screams. The night his wife was taken. The last night he saw her alive. Everyone tells him it’s time to move on, to forget the past once and for all. But for David Beck, there can be no closure. A message has appeared on his computer, a phrase only he and his dead wife know. Suddenly Beck is taunted with the impossible – that somewhere, somehow, Elizabeth is still alive.

Chloe Benson wakes up kidnapped and bound in an underground tomb with no memory of how she got there. She escapes through deserted woods with her life, but no one believes her story. And when she suspects her husband is lying to her, Chloe is forced to retrace her past, following in her own footsteps to find the truth and stay alive.

Folly Beach, South Carolina, has survived despite hurricanes and war. But it’s the personal battle of Folly Beach’s residents that have left the most scars, and why a young widow has been beckoned there to heal her own.

To most people, Folly Beach is simply the last barrier island before reaching the great Atlantic. To some, it’s a sanctuary for lost souls, which is why Emmy Hamilton’s mother encourages her to buy the local book store, Folly’s Finds, hoping it will distract Emmy from the loss of her husband.

What can you do to make the world a better place?

Libby helps a stranger, and transforms her life in the process. Libby and her husband Jason have moved back to his hometown to turn the family B&B into a boutique hotel. They have left London behind and all the memories – good and bad – that went with it. Th injured woman Libby finds lying the remote country road has lost her memory? She doesn’t know why she cam to be there, and no one seems to be looking for her. When Libby offers to take her in, this one small act of kindness sets in motion a chain of events that will change many people’s lives.

Can you imagine keeping a secret so devastating, you couldn’t even tell the people you love?

Honor’s secret threatens to rob her of the independence she’s guarded ferociously for eight years. Jo’s secret could smash apart the “normal” family life she’s fought so hard to build. Lydia’s secret could bring her love – or the loss of everything that matters to her. One summer’s day, grandmother, mother and daughter’s secrets will collide in a single dramatic moment. Is it too late for second chances?

When Jess’s daughter, Anna, is reported lost in an avalanche, everything changes. Left to explain her mother’s absence to Anna’s five-year-old daughter, Rose, Jesse isn’t yet ready to admit to herself that her daughter might not be coming back. But Anna’s disappearance dredges up some life changing questions : Jesse must uncover her daughter’s secret life – and unearth a secret that changes her world irrevocably?.

The day I lost was you the day I discovered your secret life. The day I lost you was the day you tore our family apart.

***

And there we have it. I hereby commit myself to reading these 10 books before January 1st, 2018. I think I have a bunch of tearjerkers in there. Have you read any of these?

Thanks to Sam and Chelsea for the idea. Might need someone to poke me from time to time, to remind me of this challenge. Memory of a sieve, me. Especially when I’m actively trying to avoid something 😉.

Who else wants to join in? The more, the merrier!