Jan 31, 2022

Challenges Monthly Wrap-up: January

CHALLENGE 1: 2022 Discussion Challenge

Book Spotlight: Old Magic by Marianne Curley
This or That: Dessert Edition
What Draws You to a Book Cover?
Olympic Book Tag
Memory Lane--My Favorite Birthday Party


5 discussions written this month! Not bad, not bad at all!




CHALLENGE 2: 2022 Series Enders Reading Challenge

Sadly none this month. I was working on my review pile which did not consist of any finales. :(



CHALLENGE 3: The Backlist Reader Challenge 2022

Where Echoes Lie by Shannon Schruen (11/2/21)
Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson (10/5/21)


2 read, not too bad. Again, I was very much focused on review books this month!



CHALLENGE 4: 2022 New Release Reading Challenge

The Deepest of Secrets by Kelley Armstrong (2/15/22)
Hunt the Stars by Jessie Mihalik (2/1/22)
Forging Silver Into Stars by Brigid Kemmerer (5/3/22)
Crowbones by Anne Bishop (3/8/22)


4 read this month! All review books so the other 3 reviews will be up in the coming months!








It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It's a fun meme where we gather to share what we've read last week and our reading plans for this week.

 

Last Week I Read:

Crowbones by Anne Bishop (ARC)--Review to come at a later date


 

Review That Was Posted:

Hunt the Stars by Jessie Mihalik (ARC) (4.5 stars)


 

Currently Reading:

 You're a Vampire: That Sucks by "Count" Domenick Dicce



What I Plan to Read Next:

Court by Tracy Wolff



Other Posts of Interest:

Teaser & Top Ten Tuesdays
Can't Wait Wednesday
Random Thursday
Book Blogger Hop
My 13th Blogoversary & Giveaway!!
Olympic Book Tag
Stacking the Shelves
Let's Discuss: Memory Lane--My Favorite Birthday Party

 

 

 

 


 

Jan 30, 2022

Let's Discuss: Memory Lane--My Favorite Birthday Party

 

I was trying to think of another great discussion idea and really, this one is just weird! What got me thinking about this, I still don't know. I guess it was when we were out to dinner Saturday night where I chose to have my birthday dinner a few years ago, on a night that was snowy and icy. We had just gotten ourselves to the restaurant in a timely manner and earlier that night I bought one of my favorite dragons from Julie Kagawa's Etsy shop. 

Anyway, that got me thinking on birthdays and which ones were great and not so great and then I thought of birthdays as a kid and what my favorite one was. So yes, it's Memory Lane time folks!


My Favorite Birthday Party


It had to be when I was around 6 or so as I remember it being at my grandparents' house before we moved into our later one "new" house. It was basically a carnival party! It was rather fun too! Being a December baby, it was always hard to plan a birthday part in the midst of the holidays, but we managed for those few years.

I remember my mom and sister created a beanbag toss out of cardboard and painted a Christmas tree on it, they made the star, and ornaments the holes you toss the bags through. There was also a lollipop tree...which I can't quite remember how we did that...I feel like it was wooden turkey that was some sort of decoration for that holiday, lol.

I think we had a tic-tac-toe toss game too. We had to have one or two other things, but my memory is struggling to remember them all and I have no idea which photo album I would need to pull out! I remember thinking at the time it was a cool party, I mean what 6 year old wouldn't? I can even remember shopping for little prizes too. Or really remembering what one or two prizes were since my niece was pulling out some toys not that long ago and it brought back a few fuzzy memories! Lol.

So yeah, that was one of my favorite parties I remember having! It's one of those parties you think wouldn't really work in today's world what with kids and their technology these days. It was a simple little party in some aspect, but I remember there was quite a bit of work to it and I helped where I was able since some things were meant to be a "surprise" for me as well!

Do you remember any of your birthday parties growing up? What was one of your favorite ones?








Stacking the Shelves

 

Stacking the Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course ebooks! The meme is now hosted by Reading Reality.

 

Another blah week of January...and ugh, there's still one more day left in this month? Despite my blogoversary, January has always just been a meh month for me. Not much happens, way back in the day (god, don't you feel old for saying that, but really the day was just 3 years ago!) I might have had a signing or two to attend. But yeah. New world order and all. Honestly, it was the occasional signing that helped made the work week go by, as long as I had something to countdown to, it was a decent motivater and all. But alas, I don't really have anything to countdown to yet. The festival by my aunt is supposedly happening, but they pulled this trick last year, so honestly, until we're in June, I remain skeptical.

Sadly, I did not get any new books this week either. Which, I guess is good for the TBR pile, but I am still saddened. Amazon had promised to deliver one book but I guess they didn't get their shipment in. They gave me some possible February date...or said I had until February to say YES I STILL WANT THE BOOK I ORDERED IN AUGUST! If I want to pay more, I can possibly get it from TBD...I just don't know if they really have it...I feel like I've been having rotten luck lately. I had a whole car repair fiasco this week as well. It turned all right in the end, but there was literally ZERO communication from the repair shop crew, it was just so aggravating that I was calling everyday to get an update on my car. 

So yeah, it's been a bit of a crummy week.


I did get some fun things though! My ACOBAF order from November finally arrived! I got all the Caraval prints and they are sooooo beautiful!


These were all designed by the amazing Gabriella Bujdoso!



And then I got the A Touch of Magical Designs latest bakery pin which was a Serpent & Dove representation and it's so pretty! I can't wait to see the rest of this pin series!



And that was it for me this week! Next Tuesday is of course a BIG day in YA. I've got a sizeable order from B&N from their wonderful preorder sale that will hopefully arrive next week. I've got member shipping, but it's never guaranteed that things will arrive in the same week they release. Then I'll at least have something fun to show you all!

What did you all get this week?







Jan 29, 2022

Olympic Book Tag

I saw this fun tag over at It Starts At Midnight and thought why not do it since the Olympics are coming up! I am in no way a sports person, but I love me a good book tag, so here we go! This tag was created by Shannon It Starts At Midnight, and I've borrowed all the images from her post as well.
 

 


 

"The moment the door opened I knew an ass-kicking was inevitable."



Gorgeous writing that felt like your classic fairy tale!



 

I mean, Scarlett's journey to save her sister was pretty epic!



I mean it was a risk in the sense that it was shelved in romance and I had been burned before by what I thought would be an actiony paranormal book. It helped that a few favorite authors had quotes on the cover and this immediately became a favorite series and author!




Please don't hate me.



10 years next month and I am still gutted over this one!



I was on winter break when I picked this one up, started it in the morning and did not stop reading all day and finished it before I went to bed that night!



Bananas in the way that it was told and just by being freaking awesome and terrifying!



All the epic romances! I honestly did not know who I wanted Tella to be with most when it came down to her choice! Legend kept ticking me off, but then so did Jacks! Lol.




The book started strong as a gender swapped The Beauty and the Beast, then somewhere in the middle it just started falling flat for me.



No explanations necessary.



I've read so many books with multiple points of view...and of course when on the spot I draw a blank for any book besides Finale! Lol.




Kicking it old school with this one!




We are talkin cra-zy!!!












My 13th Blogoversary & Giveaway!!

 

13 years ago today I created this blog on a whim as I was trying to gain another entry into Rachel Vincent's current contest for an ARC of her next book, Prey--which omg, it was almost a good thing I lost because if I read THAT ending early...I would've lost my $#*t! I decided to keep the blog as a way to gush about the books I was reading that I couldn't talk to with people in real life as "my people" weren't readers.

I honestly never would've thought I would still have this blog 13 years later! Not only that, but adding other social media accounts to my "resume." I've never been one of those people who had to constantly be on social media, and for the most part I'm still not! I'm on Twitter usually to enter contests, I'll sometimes just rant because ranting can be therapeutic! Lol. Plus, when I need to reach customer services for various companies, Twitter works really quickly and easily! And then there's the love of taking pictures of my books and posting them on Instagram! That's just darn fun...even if Instagram buries them in the slush. That update to post chronologically can't come soon enough!

So here I went on a long tangent which I try not to do here either. Lol. Well, sometimes, maybe. I'd have to go through my 7K posts and see which ones are ramblings to see how many times I got off topic!

In my 13 years of blogging all I can really say is that I've had a lot of fun for the past 13 years. I've seen so many other bloggers come and go because blogging soon became too much of a job for them. There were too many books to review, too many commitments, and then you add real life to that and reading just wasn't fun for them. I've always kept my blog as something I do for fun! I'm reading anyway, so I thought why not post a review for the book because as a reader I say I still look for the traditionally written reviews. I could never get into the vlogs as I feel like I can read faster than it takes for a conversation about a book. Perhaps that is why I am bad at socializing with non-book people. 

I still can't see myself ever wanting to give up this blog. I've had it for so long now that it's apart of me. I still carry a few of my blogger cards in my purse out of years of habit. It's just been my own private social activity and I love communicating with other readers this way. So yeah, I'll quite possibly be that little old lady who's still writing book reviews down the line!

Let's get onto the giveaway after that long ramble! 13 years and I still feel like I have a lot to talk about since the blogosphere has been ever changing these past couple years and that's not even including Covid!

 

The giveaway will be for ONE reader to receive a $40 (USD) gift card to a book site of their choice, i.e. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, or your Indie bookstore pending that I can buy a gift card online and send it to you via email. International readers can enter as long as The Book Depository ships to your country. You would then have your pick of $40 (USD) in books.

Entrants must be 18 years or older or have a parent's permission since I will be needing your email address to send you the gift card or your address should the winner be international.


 

a Rafflecopter giveaway