The Sunday Post | No.6 | #SummerReads, new #INSPY favourites and how I reclaimed my reading life from Spring’s bout of migraines!

Posted Sunday, 22 July, 2018 by jorielov , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

The Sunday Post badge created by Jorie in Canva using Unsplash.com photography (Creative Commons Zero).

My participation in this meme was directly inspired by my new bookish friends: Avalinah + Savanah via this post!

[Official Blurb] The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog. This is your news post, so personalize it! Include as much as you want or as little. Be creative, it can be a vlog or just a showcase of your goodies. Link up once a week or once a month, you decide. Book haul can include library books, yard sale finds, arcs and bought books..share them!

  • Enter your link on the post- Sundays beginning at 12:01 am (CST) (link will be open all week)
  • Link back to this post or this blog
  • Visit others who have linked up

A note about the format I am using to journal #TheSundayPost: I am finding I like being able to give my readers who cannot visit my blog each time a new post, review or guest feature goes live a digest journal of what is happening on #JLASblog each week! If you are familiar with the style in which I journal my readerly adventures via #WWWednesdays (see also Archive) you’ll know why I like this journalled style for #TheSundayPost!

It’s a way of talking about what is bookishly on my mind whilst sharing where my travels in Fiction & Non-Fiction took me through the last seven days! Quite stellar – so very thankful I was encouraged to participate as I love being able to think about which stories settled into my heart and which of the stories I am most eager to see arrive by postal mail and/or via audiobook! It’s a bit of a lovely way to journal your bookish life and have a weekly reminder of the experiences of you’ve gathered and love to remember! In regards to getting back into the groove with #WWWeds – I’m either going to make the meme bi-monthly or monthly which I’ll decide within the next fortnight.

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Hallo, dear hearts, welcome to an INSPY filled July,..

Finding my new pace & rhythm with my reading life has been the most difficult part of my Summer, as I had planned to *devour!* loads of #FantasyReads in Mayheaps of #AudioReads in June – whilst July was meant to be stuffed to the gills with #INSPY stories spilt between Fiction & Non-Fiction! I was also planning to release reviews for the colouring books which I’ve happily enjoyed creating art inside whilst I’ve listened to audiobooks! Thankfully, as there is still a bit of time left to the month, I can run a series of reviews befitting my original goals for July (including those colouring books!).

The main reason I was thrown off-kilter this year was due to the health reasons I previously disclosed after #WyrdAndWonder, yet what I hadn’t realised then, as I do know is how many after effects I truly had to trudge through in order to resume where I left off reading! This July, when I stumbled across the Christian & Clean Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Singing Librarian Books – I had no idea how this would deeply impact my life! I blog about my passionate appreciation for INSPY Lit quite often even though it is not always as regularly as I would prefer – I’ve been striving for a better balance of stories being read/heard between both mainstream and INSPY markets – a goal I’ve had tucked onto the backburner for the 5 years I’ve been blogging on Jorie Loves A Story!

July was giving me this opportunity to find a renewal of purpose to focus on #INSPYreads as due to how the challenge was self-directed and self-motivating towards your own personal goals – this is what I did to get into the mindset of approaching it:

→ I developed a book list I wanted to use as a primer and guide towards what I could read

→ I kept very loose goals per day and week – meaning, if I was finding myself tucking into a story where I could only read a few chapters at a time, I considered this a ‘win!’

→ The beauty of the challenge was not needing to ‘blog’ per se to participate – this opened the door for me to head into the twitterverse to micro-blog my updates, interact with the authors I was reading and give myself a much needed hiatus from weekly blogging! (it also helped I was under-booked!)

→ A bit of a competition between your Mum goes a long way towards reclaiming your reading life as well! I have made it quite well know I’ve been following in Mum’s footsteps towards reading the Love INSPIRED Suspense series – as she has beloved favourites: Elizabeth Goddard, Laura Scott, Lenora Worth, etc of whom she’d like me to read and become introduced to in order to start having fireside chats about the characters, the plots and the wicked intensity of ‘feeling on edge’ throughout the course of the novels! (we’ve started in on that goal, too!)

→ Call me crazy but I used the widget for the bookaways as a personal ‘self-check’ towards staying on my goals, keeping the ‘pleasure’ in my reading hours without the added worry of (should I blog, shouldn’t I blog) chatter whilst finding with each new day I was ‘recording’ my progresses – either by audiobooks listened to (as of now, I heard two) or books read (as of now, three) and a sampling of what I was microblogging on Twitter – you could say it proved fruitful for a girl whose angst was not just limited to her personal health but as a step towards reconciling how to be a ‘reader’ when she didn’t feel like being a ‘book blogger’. This is something I haven’t resolved in five years – as I was a reader before I was a blogger but I was also a reader in a semi-permanent reader’s rut at the same time – part of the reason I was having guilt over ‘not blogging’ is I didn’t want to backslide into a period of time where I was ‘not reading’ and thereby, erasing the process of the past five years where I have re-established myself into the genres I love and finding my own rhythm for how I read/blog/tweet my reading life!

Another aspect of what was aiding my recovery post-migraines this July is the fact the Love Inspired novels were either Large Print, Larger Print or in the case of one of the Ms Worth novels “True Large Print” which for me felt GIGANTIC! lol I had started to notice this was something which was helpful to me as I was reading Harlequin Roms for some of the Prism Book Tours I was hosting throughout the past eight or so months? Those stories were generally in Large print themselves and being I had so many migraines to overcome, I noticed the font size being enlarged was a lovely step ‘back’ towards reading regular print!

Curious about which INSPY stories

caught my heart & left me musefully happy afterwards!?

Callahan Confidential series by Laura Scott Photography Credit: Jorie of jorielovesastory.com. Photo edits and collage created in Canva.

Shielding His Christmas Witness | thrifted

The Only Witness | ILL’d (inter-library loan)

*bookmark, FREE at my local library – I am in FULL agreement of the sentiment!

For Laura Scott, you might want to check-out my micro-blog about reading her #CallahanConfidential first as I was on the VERY edge of my cosy comfort chair awaiting the ‘final’ chapter to see what would become of Kari & Marc! You forsake SLEEP reading these Love Inspired Suspense novels!! At least, I find you do! I couldn’t dare think I’d have to take a wink & a nod away from the action! You barely get to catch your breath whilst your reading the story-line as so much is happening ALL at once! Plus, I like how the heroes of the stories are charmingly honest, realistically relatable and have their own fair share of faults to round off the joy of reading their adventures! Seriously though – if you want a slightly lighter side to your Suspense Reads but with the full-octane of traditional Suspense, you ought to give Laura Scott a chance at charming your bookish heart!

READ my microblogging notes!

Shielding His Christmas Witness (Callahan Confidential, Book One) by Laura Scott

Men of Millbrook Lake series by Lenora Worth Photography Credit: Jorie of jorielovesastory.com. Photo edits and collage created in Canva.

Lakeside Hero | ILL’d (inter-library loan)

Her Holiday Protector | thrifted

In Lenora Worth’s case, I was intrigued by the fact she started her #MenOfMillbrookLake series in Love Inspired Romance whilst continued to thread it through Love Inspired Suspense – to where your shifting in/out of both imprints in this line to find out the whole story for all her characters! This is an interesting approach, similar to how Mum & I noticed they do serial stories where each Suspense author takes a round robin turn at contributing to the serial. This one was actually a slower start for me, as I liked aspects of the novel but it wasn’t until I reached the mid-way point where I could honestly say I was cheering for the resolution I was *hoping!* would emerge! One of my favourite characters by far was the Aunt! She quite literally stole the scenes away from her nephew!

Lakeside Hero (Men of MillbrookLake, Book One) by Lenora Worth

Brides of Amish County series by Patricia Davids Photography Credit: Jorie of jorielovesastory.com. Photo edits and collage created in Canva.

The Christmas Quilt | borrowed from my local library

I decided to switch things up a bit opting for some Amish reads as well – stories of the Amish always interested me as I grew up in areas where the Mennonite lived and they were the delightful bakers in our communities. I learnt a bit about the Amish through those families as they would talk openly about the differences and the similarities, too. In this regard, what was convicting about reading my first Patricia Davids novel is her lead character ? was blind and was hoping to receive a sight saving experimental surgery to restore the sight she had lost. This pivotal plot point was on my mind/heart already due to my Da’s new experiences dealing with limited vision and altering his life to adapt to his visually impaired challenges. I was caught so dearly in the heart by this novel – I can’t even properly put it into words!! I know I read this one far past where I ought to have as I was exhausted some nights, but I couldn’t let it ‘go’ til I knew more,… on the flipside, this is also about a redemptive way to return to your ‘flock’ in regards to religious communities you vacate and one day wish to find a way to return back too. There were a lot of delightful ‘surprises’ and of course, there was a clear point where I thought this was going to either end on a somber note or be a bit ambiguously conclusive where you would have to draw your own conclusions about the characters’ lives! Davids kept me rooted to her narrative and I can’t wait to read more as ironically neither Mum before me nor I myself in my readings this month knew this is the fifth book of a SERIES! Imagine our delightful shock!?

→ The Christmas Quilt (Brides of Amish County , Book Five) by Patricia Davids

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Soon after the challenge began, I actually started with two audiobooks – I borrowed them through the Romance package I mention on this Sunday Post – they were as follows:

→ Leah Atwood (Brides of Weatherton, Book One) After the Rain narrated by Emma Lysy

→ Kristin Noel Fischer (Rose Island, Book One) Anna’s Courage, narrated by Rebecca Rush

Of the two, I couldn’t say there was a runaway favourite as there were a few issues with both stories – sometimes I felt they both dragged a bit in places but I did listen to them in full. One of them repeated a LOT of details and/or took forever and a day to ‘resolve’ something I felt didn’t warrant 4+ hours of narration/narrative (this would be Fischer’s). I would suspect ‘After the Rain’ might have inched ‘Anna’s Courage’ out a bit of contention as an enjoyable read. I had favourite scenes in both – but as I was purposely choosing not to take notes this July whilst focusing on #INSPYreads, I can’t specifically remember too many individual scenes, as this was at the very first week or so of the challenge, where I was still struggling to focus and hone in on the stories themselves without feeling like I was starting at a deficient.

Those migraines of Spring really took a lot out of me and until I started these audiobooks, I hadn’t truly realised how much I had lost! By listening to them and colouring as I did so – I found I could relax back into audiobooks and find the artwork which organically materialised in front of me as I listened was an added bonus (as it always feels this way to me!).

I do remember thinking both narrators were not as well seasoned as narrators as other voices I’ve listened too. I saw a lot potential in both of them but I didn’t feel they had reached the ‘comfort zone’ other narrators have in their narrations; almost as if these two stories were early-on in their narrative careers and there could be more good things coming from them both down the road.

At the time of journalling this Sunday Post, I am in the throes of a few stories:

→ Hope Harbour (Hope Harbour, Book One) by Irene Hannon *borrowing from my local library

You can get a feel for why I am loving this novel by what I’ve been microblogging!!

→ The Only Witness (Callahan Confidential, Book Two) by Laura Scott *thrifted

IF I thought the first Callahan Suspense novel was going to keep me pinned into the text, I had NO IDEA what was awaiting me inside this one! Though Mum did – she mentioned to me recently she was having trouble NOT spilling the beans on some of the bits in this novel! lol We started chattering about different aspects of how Ms Scott started to set the pace of this one as well as which were our favourite ‘moments’ and ‘scenes’ thus far in… say, the first 25%?

→ Her Holiday Protector (Men of Millbrook Lake, Book Two) by Lenora Worth *thrifted

Mum and I are seriously competitive about reading these novels – you should have observed how we both tried to read more of our respective Laura Scott novels to see who could finish them first! Laughs.

The very moment she finishes: 

  • Christmas Amnesia (Book Three: Callahan Confidential series) by Laura Scott *borrowing from my local library

You know it will be in MY HANDS!! I can definitely see why she said the Callahan is one family you can’t get enough stories of!! This third one is about the only sister in a sibling group of brothers! She is also one of the brothers’ twin which I am sure going to provide plenty of ribbing and fodder!

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At the same time, since my first audiobook blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions (it was for Richard Storry’s ‘The Cryptic Lines’ which also introduced me to the brilliance of Jake Urry!) – I took stock of the fact hearing stories through the voices of narrators was a positive step towards off-setting the hours I was spending inside print books! This July, as I watched my stamina return (in my eyes), my focus re-group to where I didn’t have to keep re-reading select passages of the stories I was trying to comprehend and where I saw the happy glow of ‘reading’ a story I was wholly enthused to be tucked inside for it’s duration — you could say, I made the choice to start augmenting a new change in my reading life:

I am going to be shifting to either a 60/40 or 70/30

spilt between Audiobooks & Print Books

The purpose behind this is being self-aware of how my migraines are affecting my vision and how my eyes are not recovering from the fatigue which sets in after a cluster of migraines wrecks my health. I notice it takes me longer to recover from migraines nowadays – not just for reading purposes but just life in general post-migraine. I was doing some hard thinking recently about what I could do preventatively speaking to save myself some grief from the next bout of migraines which cluster themselves into my lives and this is where I came up with this new plan!

Which brings me to one of the loveliest SURPRISES I received this year for my 5th Blogoversary which was on the 31st of March, 2018! My Mum and Da gave me a subscription to Audible.com !! This past month they added a new bonus subscription to it which is the Romance package – where I am given 10 audiobooks to listen to either per month or per listening session (depending on how you look at it!) – as you can ‘borrow’ 10x audiobooks from the Romance categories at any one time and after you return each of them, you can re-borrow another one! This allows you to binge on Romance quite regularly and I hadn’t even realised how many #mustread or #nextread authors I’m interested in are inclusive to this section of Audible!

I found two so far to listen to from the INSPY shelves, whilst I have 10x at the moment ‘checked out’ which I was hoping to get to before the close of July, but with the weather raging it’s ugly Summer head of insanity (ie. volcanic heat, muggy humidity and insane lightning storms – you know, the typical hoopla you have to circumvent this time of year!) and with life in general being quite busier this July than expected, I hadn’t had the proper chance to finish the ones I selected! I, am, however, going to be listening to them on an on-going basis and a few of them will be featured on my blog – as despite the fact I have found a way to be a ‘pleasure reader’ again, I will be adding notes or insights into those stories I’m not necessarily going to feature in a showcased review as I will still want to share something from the takeways I experienced whilst I was reading them!

I am thankful for the personal growth this July – both as a reader and as a blogger – as I’ve been planning more changes to Jorie Loves A Story throughout the latter half of [2018] and as a Joyful Tweeter whose been wanting to undertake the re-growth of her bi-monthly chat @SatBookChat!

It is always a good approach to remain mindful of the changes life provides for you to acknowledge – as I was stipulating to my chatters this past #SatBookChat (21st July) – I am unsure if my migraines are going to affect my vision in the long term to where I might have to remain more adaptive to how to circumvent those changes in a similar fashion as my Da whose currently losing his eyesight due to non-operational cataracts OR if by making changes in my reading life (and in other aspects as well) – I might be able to ‘save’ the vision I have right now and carry-on forward without more changes in the future.

Irregardless of what happens, I’m open to change and adaptive choices – my Da is going to be attending adaptive living classes for the visually impaired in August (as soon as he gets approved by his doctor) which is a pro-positive step forward for him as post-stroke over the course of the past year and a half, he’s done incredibly well staying alert to the changes he noticed in himself post-stroke whilst keeping mindful that no matter what affects us, how we set our attitude to rise above our adversities is what continues to define us.

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1st Audiobook Pre-Order Photography Credit: Jorie of jorielovesastory.com. Photo edits and collage created in Canva.

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On my connection to Clare Chase: When I started a chat in [2014] my path crossed with Ms Chase as she was a regular chatter of what is now known as @SatBookChat. Ms Chase and I started to notice our reading habits were aligning with each other, and her conversations were happy editions to my week as I liked finding someone else who liked the same types of stories I was gravitating towards myself. We continued to ‘chat’ about our reading habits even outside of #ChocLitSaturday (the previous name of the chat), which was a blessed joy for me. 

I am disclosing this, to assure you that I can formulate an honest opinion, even though I have interacted with Ms Chase through our respective love & passion of reading inside the twitterverse whilst I host #SatBookChat and privately as well. I treat each book as a ‘new experience’, whether I personally know the author OR whether I am reading a book by them for the first time or continuing to read their releases as they are available.

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I have a rather wicked ANNOUNCEMENT to make – one of my favourite novelists of Suspense & Thrillers (Clare Chase) has a new series debuting with her NEW publisher Bookouture (of whom you might remember I hosted a series of interviews for in 2016?) – it’s entitled: Tara Thorpe Mysteries and kicks off with “Murder on the Marshes” which has quite a clever plotting, characterisations and a prime focus on sleuthing from the point-of-perspective only a journalist and a DI (detective inspector) can provide!

I reached out this Summer to Ms Chase to see if I could host her for an interview whilst at the time, I hadn’t realised there was going to be an audiobook edition cross-released with the print / ebook! Bookouture is a Digital First publisher you see, wherein I generally have to wait a short bit before their titles going into audiobook – similar to her previous publisher ChocLit. And, if this isn’t exciting enough – the second novel in the series “Death on the River” is publishing this October, 2018! Unsure if it will also be cross-released into audiobook though it does feel telling it ought to be if the first one has been? Time will see!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with what draws my eye into her style of Suspense, let me share with you a quotation from my very first reading of ‘You Think You Know Me’:

Chase tackles a hard-hitting central plot thread throughout You Think You Know Me wherein a mutual friend in the circle of friends’ Anna kept during University dies quite unexpectedly. It’s a central thread due to how intricate her death affected the circle and how her loss had leftover consequences of anguish and guilt in the present. Part of what made the story so very compelling is how Julia’s life impacted her friends and relationships; her death was shocking yes, but it’s how her death had a ripple effect on everyone around her; especially in ways that were not as well known to everyone at the time. Such is realistic to life – no one can truly understand the depth of how such a loss is going to affect everyone in turn; it can take a lifetime to understand and even then, how easy is it to resolve fully without speculation and guilt overstepping logic? Chase took this part of Julia’s life and explored how tragedy could wind together all the other characters stepping into view and directly interacting with Anna at a junction in her own coming-age moment of truth.

Such a clever turning on a traditional opening for a Rom Suspense novel – take your reader off-guard by tucking in curious elements of Horror! By way of the artwork of a featured artist whose dedication to the craft is spinning art out of what can only be described as ‘scenes from a morgue’ or a ‘crime scene’! I was quite startled at first, not by the visuals as Chase is brilliant at softening the edgy bits but because when I tuck inside a Rom Suspense novel – my nerves are always a bit rattled on the jump-start of the story! Can I handle what I find inside? Will I survive the quickening pulse of my heart as I turn page after page? You know – the jolting of joy to read a thriller is wicked amazing, but having the courage to actually take yourself fully into the story without blinking and reading til your consumed by the context is quite another! I always go ‘all in’ and simply take the ride – as the best blessing is knowing at the start it’s fiction and you can take a breathier if you need it – unlike real-life which is lived second by nail-biting second! On this level, Chase bolts you to your chair tugging at your rattled nerves and gives you a smirk of a laugh to enjoy as her character Alice sips a curiously strong purple cocktail!

Chase carved out a taunt suspenseful plot – each turning of a twisting of psychological innuendo gave way to more musing thoughts about how she would stitch it together. I loved rooting out the clues but moreso, seeing how each character in sequence was slowly inching me closer to the conclusion! I love these kinds of suspense stories – you have small notions of what ‘could be’ but until it all concludes, it’s all theory against supposition! You see, you ‘think you know it all’ but do you truly!?

With plans for the interview underway, I had a revelation! I could have this lovely new series mark my first selection of a pre-order via Audible! I’ve been waiting to ‘pre-order’ an audiobook in the worst way since I first received my subscription – finding out this was arriving on Audible on the 1st of August, felt kismet! It was debuting during my 5th Blog Birthday month and it was the latest from an author I am itching to read more stories by – how much better could it get?!

1st Audiobook Pre-Order Photography Credit: Jorie of jorielovesastory.com. Photo edits and collage created in Canva.

You might notice my #bookphotos are getting a bit more inventive and dynamic in regards to a few new props and things… during my recent hiatus from blogging and taking time offline (at the end of June, first week of July – you might have noticed the gap in communications!) I found a few things which I knew could make taking book photos a lot more fun! This lightbox board though was found rather fittingly on *Sunday!* the 22nd of July! I took the photo during a massive thunderstorm, hence the poor lighting and I couldn’t even make out where it showed the pre-order status for ‘Murder on the Marshes’ which is why I re-shot that particular part of the photo and cropped it to be seen in the foreground!

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Now, there is a second part of the story to this revelation – during #SatBookChat, Ms Courtenay was mentioning to me the benefits of having an iPod for audiobook listening? As their rather portable, easy to dock on a table or desk, can be heard through speakers, earbuds or headphones and tend to work well with OverDrive or Audible alike. I brought this to my Mum’s attention after her work shift wherein she had a rather radical idea which would cut the costs towards having to save for a lot of tech and equipment I currently do not own (ie. the iPod itself, the docking station, the speakers, etc) – why not use her tablet notebook? It can invert on itself to where it can be placed rather conveniently on a table/desk, it is adaptable to speakers and I already knew she could use earphones if she preferred due to the ports!

Being thrifty minded, we found speakers for less than $15 which plug directly into the tablet (which by the way is quite posh being a touch screen! even if we forgot to buy a stylus for it!) and charge off the tablet’s battery and/or whilst it’s charging itself. Thus, everything discussed during #SatBookChat is now effectively able to be done! I can use the tablet on the go, whilst I’m knitting or colouring! It has the ability to load the programmes I use to access audiobooks without any fuss and it also has Spotify which makes music easier to access, too! Imagine!?

Aren’t Mum’s grand?!

Their literally three steps ahead of you even without realising what you need!

Very appreciative to Ms Courtenay for putting the idea in my ear about ‘portability’ of hearing audiobooks as I am unsure if I would have resolved this nearly as fast if we hadn’t broached it in #SatBookChat!!

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Now,… guess whose counting down the HOURS until her copy of #MurderONtheMarshes lands in her Audible Library! Ooh, would that be moi? Really. Hmm. I hadn’t noticed… lol Eek. I am wicked happy my first pre-order is for an author I love to read and I can’t wait to get lost in her murderously suspenseful plot!

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The stories on my mind & heart!

These are the ones next to be reviewed!

The following stories were sent to me in exchange for an honest review by either the publisher, author or publicist (both in print and audiobook). With the exception of ‘Trans-Continental: Girl in the Gears – this was a selection of mine which I purchased with an audiobook which was gifted to me by a professional acquaintance; there was no obligation to pick a particular audiobook.

Audiobooks I’ve been listening to this month & will be reviewing before 1st of August:

  • A Nest of Vipers (Book Two: Ruritanian Rogues) by Richard Storry, narrated by Jake Urry
  • Trans-Continental: Girl in the Gears (Novella One) by E. Chris Garrison, narrated by Angel Clark – I was able to listen to this straight through and am re-listening to it for review! I LOVE it! I am so very excited to talk about the story, the characters & the world it’s set within!
  • The Curve of Time by M. Wylie Blanchet , narrated by Heather Henderson
  • Greenwillow by B.J. Chute, narrated by Ann M. Richardson
  • The To-Do List by JC Miller, narrated by Sara K. Sheckhells
  • Once Upon a Time in Venice by Monique Roy, narrated by Kevin E. Green

I was hoping to finish a second Jake Urry audiobook: The Tesla Gate which is a very cleverly premised #Suspense novel I’ve been looking forward to talking about – however, it might have to run the first week of August instead.

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Stories I am reviewing before 1st of August:

  • A Reckoning in the Backcountry (Book Seven: Samuel Craddock Mysteries) by Terry Shames
  • See Also Proof (Book Three: Marjorie Trumaine Mysteries) by Larry D. Sweazy
  • Fatal Mistake (Book One: White Knights) by Susan Sleeman
  • A Woman of Fortune (Book One: Texas Gold series) by Kellie Coates Gilbert
  • The Secret of Haversham House by Julie Matern

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I am hoping to be finishing some of my INSPY Non-Fiction readings from Hachette Books – as I have a lovely batch of #currentreads from them I have been wanting to focus on for a long while now. I can finally put my heart and mind into their stories which is why you’ll start seeing me share reviews on their stories behalf more regularly starting either this final week and a half of July, or the first week of August – memoir and biography are attracting me lately and I look forward to seeing if some of my readers are attracted to reading the same selections.

I wanted to get more reviews posted in July, however, just to reclaim my reading life I count as a ‘win’ after nearly five months of unwellness! I’d rather move forward on sturdier ground than to have lost traction with reading if I had overtaxed myself to return back to a level of reading and immersion into stories such as the level I was accustomed to prior to Spring. This is why I’m being a bit conservative with my projections and will re-group in early August to see where I stand with all my #currentreads!

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Parajunkee Designs

*UPcoming!* blog milestone:

Jorie Loves A Story is celebrating its 5th Birthday
[5 years] 6th of August, 2018!
I’m preparing to release a series of *special!* posts – including my past *End of the Year* Surveys wherein I announce which STORIES were my favourites from the past few years – remember my Cuppa Book Love Awards? Your in for a special treat! Secondly, I am doing a bit of a retrospective series about the writers who have endeared me to their writing styles in the past whilst sorting out where they are today. Are there new releases I’ve missed? I can’t wait to put the posts together and watch them fly into my blog’s archives!

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Why some weeks seem to be ‘lighter’ in blog content:

In closing, you might have noticed my ‘output’ rate has severely been affected this JULY, whilst I haven’t quite been myself on #JLASblog for most of the year [2018]. My reading queues were dearly affected by my increased migraines [from March through June] – something I recently talked openly about during a recent #SatBookChat (you can still read through the convo if you pull up the tag in the twitterverse). Thus, I appreciate each of you who has stood by me and continued to visit with me whilst I haven’t been able to blog as frequently as you have been accustomed to seeing me.

I would like to give a special s/o to two bookish mates of mine who each run their own lovely blogs: The Lit Bitch + The Last Page, these lovely souls have reached out to me during the past months and have even tagged me in on convos (on Twitter) or on their blogs (for posts I can contribute to on my blog which succeed their own) – I can’t thank them enough for the kindness of checking in on me when I was not always able to check-in on those I am following myself and of whom whose friendship in the book blogosphere and the book world niche of the twitterverse mean ever so much to me.

It’s hard to find bookish friends IRL and when you find them online, somehow you feel twice blessed for your paths to have crossed as there are a lot of us out here sharing our bookish lives!

There are a few others who stand out in my mind as well – they know who they are – and if there is any doubt on that accord, they only ought to re-read our DMs!! lol I am especially grateful for the friends I have and I look forward to being more proactive at keeping Jorie Loves A Story properly updated moving into the end of Summer and the start of Autumn. August will be a month I think which will have a lot of sweet bookish fun attached to it!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

My adventures within the blog hop for #TheSundayPost

This list is being generated | this is a WIP list

The STORIES I cannot wait to READ myself as found via the blog hop!

And, the POSTS I loved finding via this lovely meme’s route!

  • Whose blog will be next?

[making my way through the bloggers – this week I’m hoppin’ round in an nonsensical way to where I’m not going from beginning to end nor end to beginning! It’s a random route I’m going to take this week!  Need to add commentary to the blogs I’m linking too as I’m moving up the list as I read a book!]

last update: 23 JULY 2018 | finding blogs and leaving comments

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Which audiobooks and stories have caught your own eye this Summer!? Do you have any narrators who are your #mustlisten choices to where you can rec a title to me of theirs?

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

{Sources: Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Blog graphics created in Canva: The Sunday Post badge using Unsplash.com (Creative Commons Zero) Photography by Hope House Press, Denise Chan and Pacto Visual as well as Jorie’s Box of Joy badge and #20BooksOfSummer badge. All Book Photography Credit: Jorie of jorielovesastory.com. Photo edits and collage created in Canva.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2018.

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About jorielov

I am self-educated through local libraries and alternative education opportunities. I am a writer by trade and I cured a ten-year writer’s block by the discovery of Nanowrimo in November 2008. The event changed my life by re-establishing my muse and solidifying my path. Five years later whilst exploring the bookish blogosphere I decided to become a book blogger. I am a champion of wordsmiths who evoke a visceral experience in narrative. I write comprehensive book showcases electing to get into the heart of my reading observations. I dance through genres seeking literary enlightenment and enchantment. Starting in Autumn 2013 I became a blog book tour hostess featuring books and authors. I joined The Classics Club in January 2014 to seek out appreciators of the timeless works of literature whose breadth of scope and voice resonate with us all.

"I write my heart out and own my writing after it has spilt out of the pen." - self quote (Jorie of Jorie Loves A Story)

read more >> | Visit my Story Vault of Book Reviews | Policies & Review Requests | Contact Jorie

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Posted Sunday, 22 July, 2018 by jorielov in Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Birthdays & Blogoversaries, Blogosphere Events & Happenings, Bookish Memes, JLAS Update Post, Jorie Loves A Story, Photography of Jorie, Spontaneous Musings, Stories of Jorie, The Sunday Post




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4 responses to “The Sunday Post | No.6 | #SummerReads, new #INSPY favourites and how I reclaimed my reading life from Spring’s bout of migraines!

  1. Oh, Jorie – what a very lovely post to wake up to! Thank you so much for your kind words and I do hope you enjoy the audiobook version of Murder on the Marshes! I’m really looking forward to being back with you for our interview too. Thank you again! :-)

    • Hallo, Hallo Ms Chase!!

      I was wicked delighted finding your lovely replies today – both on my blog and in the twitterverse!! Eek. Truly – the best moment for me was seeing how happy you were to see what I had blogged overnight as I wanted to share the JOY I had in finding the audiobook avail on pre-order whilst giving a proper head’s up to my readers about the guest feature(s) I am assembling for you starting this August! Eek. What a wicked happy Monday all round for us both!

      I’m very eager to ‘hear’ the narrator’s voice – I have noticed one quirk of pre-orders for audiobooks they do not oft release the ‘sampler’ to hear how the narrator will sound. This is why I generally opt-out of pre-orders as part of how I connect to an audiobook is how the narrator articulates their stories. In this instance, I took a chance because I believe in the strength of your stories and I love how you knit out a sweet thrilling suspense! My anticipation to read a new story of yours won over the mystery of the narrator!

      I can’t wait to see how I feel about it, too! Especially as I’ve come off the Kay Hunter series this Spring,… I have a new affinity for dramatic crime stories and I am finding I love hearing these in audio!! I’m hopeful your narrator for ‘Murder on the Marshes’ is as aptly fitting the role of Tara Thorpe inasmuch as the narrator who breathes life into Kay!

      • Thank you again, Jorie! I was so happy to read your post. I do hope you like the delivery of the audiobook – I have heard a sample now and really love the way it has been done. I must start the Kay Hunter series – it sounds excellent!

        • Ooh, my is it ever!! :) I can’t wait to hear your thoughts – especially if you go through the audiobooks! Hauntingly emotional and what love about the threading of ‘dramatic crime’ novels! As soon as I first started hearing them, as I sat back to delve into the ‘voice’ of Kay Hunter herself as it’s blessedly full-on immersive at the jump start – I thought to myself, I know who would LOVE this… Ms Chase! It’s lovely we share a mutual respect for crime novels!

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