Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
You might be surprised to see my #blogmas posts originating on my blog ahead of my #SciFiMonth posts which have become a bit backlogged due to migraines, a father’s medical crisis and just life in general which wrecked the last few weeks of November to where I still have several posts to release for Sci Fi November whilst we move into the #blogmas season!
As previously hinted towards – I’ll be borrowing Hermonie’s timewinder to where I can bend time a bit on Jorie Loves A Story – releasing certain posts & bookish showcases which were meant to go live in the latter half of November for the Sci Fi geek in all of us whilst as December begins to prod along towards Christmas, I’ll be highlighting new Fantasy novelists (and a few beloved writers!) who are intriguing me this #blogmas whilst also focusing on highlighting new authors of Sweet Romance – as both are guilty pleasures when it comes to my readerly life! Smiles. I had a lot of fun last December with the #FantasyForChristmas spotlights and features and this year, I am thankful to be hosting the special event for the 2nd Year via Prism Book Tours!
Counter to my postings for these two events, I am re-queuing a few reading lists I’ve been struggling to focus on for a few readathons these past months – specifically the #SpooktasticReads, the #HoHoHoRAT and the #ThanksgivingReadathon – wherein the hours flew off the clock and my focus on the stories themselves was less than stellar! I never had the chance to properly dive into those lovelies and as #cloakanddaggerchristmas is starting to kick-off this December as well – I decided to combine the stories I dearly want to read before New Year’s into a reader’s bliss of #blogmas loveliness – focusing of course on Non-Fiction (especially for inspiring memoirs, inspiring topics & Science narratives), works of Fantasy alongside #WitchyReads, Ghost Stories and Mysteries!
If you want to know which stories I’ll be reading – I suggest visiting the posts I’ve linked in this post as I’ve recently shared quite a heap about the selections themselves and the reasons why I’ve been thrilled to bits to focus on reading them this year.
Today, I simply wanted to introduce my goals for #blogmas and give a shout-out to both the #FantasyForChristmas19 selections I’ll be focusing on throughout the first half of December and the Mysteries I specifically want to read before the clock counts down to midnight New Year’s Eve!
December 3rd: Morgan L. Busse
December 4th: Jes Drew
December 5th: Alisha Klapheke
December 6th: Jessica Leake
December 9th: Melissa McShane
December 10th: Jennifer Silverwood
December 11th: Melissa Wright
Each year for the past two years I’ve enjoyed hosting #FantasyForChristmas as it gives me a chance to scope out the authors who are writing Fantasy stories I might want to read in the New Year and/or seek out overall as their series develop. Each year it is a bit of a gamble which author and which series (or the few stand-alone title) might whisper a note of curiosity into my bookish heart – this year, two of the series might be slightly outside what I would normally gravitate towards – such as the series by Alisha Klapheke and the series by Melissa Wright – as those have the textural feel of being super intense!
Whilst on a note specifically about #dragonfiction – earlier this Autumn I hosted an interview with a Fantasy debut novelist wherein I was attempting to seek out information about the dragons in her series (note: I didn’t get many details) whilst recognising that the #LelandDragons series truly created a high bar for the kind of dragons I desire to find in #dragonfiction though in theory it is not the only series which did this! I also loved reading The Dragon in the Driveway by Kate Klimo and hope to gather the series one day in full! Ergo – I am always a bit trepiderious about the #dragons I read about & the series I seek which feature them!
Two of these lovelies are already beloved reads of mine – the collective works of Morgan L. Busse and Jennifer Silverwood – as you can read my thoughts on behalf of the Ravenwood Saga (Busse) and why I dearly loved reading Silver Hollow (Silverwood).
I am quite eager to see which of these showcases I’ll be sharing with you will lead to #mustreads throughout 2020! Each December for two years in a row, I’ve come to love the #FantasyForChristmas featured posts & selections! Especially as it gives me a *third!* chance to showcase Fantasy novelists per year as the first two are tied into my co-hosting duties for Wyrd and Wonder! Smiles.
Furthermore, I plan to celebrate Fantasy a bit this month on Jorie Loves A Story by releasing a few new book reviews for Fantasy novelists who’ve captured my bookish imagination & have truly drawn me into their realms! Look for those arriving within my feeds this month during #blogmas as I am going to keep them a surprise and happily look forward to discussing them with you as they populate in my archives!
I wonder – which of these featured novelists have you previously read &/or have considered to read – which of them do you think I’d love the most to seek out in New Year? I’m dearly curious to see if anyone who follows my bookish life has read them!
Each year for the past few years, I’ve been trying to read quite a few Mysteries – mixing together my favourites from Cosy Mysteries, Historical Mysteries OR Suspense and the Dramatic Crime novels I’ve come to love & appreciate reading.
This year, as I embark into #cloakanddaggerchristmas – there are a few select stories I want to finish reading *before!* we welcome in 2020! Most of these are pulled off my backlogue and others are newer selections – some I won’t be able to identify as I’m going to pull them off the shelf where Mum & I keep our Love Inspired Suspense novels – as I dearly want to dive back into those lovelies before New Year grabs a hold of us!
Overall – whilst I’m reading through the other stories which gave me a hankering of an itch to be reading this December – these are the mysteriously suspenseful stories I want to soak inside and appreciate as well:
- See Also Proof (3rd Marjorie Trumaine Mystery) by Larry D. Sweazy (see also the 2nd )
- Kill Shot (2nd White Knights Suspense) by Susan Sleeman (see also Fatal Mistake)
- Murder at the Mill (1st Iris Grey Mystery) by MB Shaw
- The Necklace by Claire McMillan
- As Death Draws Near (5th Lady Darby Mystery) by Anna Lee Huber (see also the 4th)
- A Reckoning in the Back Country (7th Samuel Craddock Mystery) by Terry Shames (see also the 5th)
- Ghost of the Bamboo Road (7th Hiro Hattori Novel) by Susan Spann (see also the 6th)
The last entry is a newly released installment of a beloved series I’ve been reading since the second was released – each year, I happily await the newest mystery involving Father Mateo & Hiro Hattori – at this point, I truly feel as if a part of me is living in 16th Century Japan alongside them as the series has evolved in such a fashion as to elude you to believing the time travelling aspects of re-aligning into this particular century is not just wholly true & unique but a favourite revisitation each time one of their ‘stories’ surfaces and becomes ready to read!
I was truly delighted and overjoyed I could receive this from the publisher and I can’t wait to see what is inside as the deeper we move into the series itself the more layers become unlocked & you get to see more of the vision Ms Spann has for this particular series as Father Mateo & Hiro continue on their journey together whilst sinister forces lurk in their shadows!
The #FantasyChristmas19 showcases will be courtesy of : Prism Book Tours
As well as the #SweetRomanceForChristmas showcases!
What are your #blogmas plans this December!?
Are you focusing on any particular genres of interest? Hosting any blog tours? On that note, I’m hosting a few but mostly I am reading the books on my shelves! Did I mention any story, series or author which drew your curious eye to their books on this post?
{SOURCES: Banners for #FantasyForChristmas and #SweetRomanceForChristmas 2019 as wel as The Prism Book Tours badge were all provided by Prism Book Tours and used with permission. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets embedded by codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: #blogmas 2019 badge, #cloakanddaggerchristmas 2019 badge and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2019.
I love that Prism is branching out and also doing a Sweet Romance event too this December! And oh my gosh I didn’t realize you’d also been part of our event for our big third year! I honestly can’t remember if I told you this before, but the first event we did got started because Melissa Wright and I wanted to do a group event and needed more authors. Tressa offered for us to include more authors at a discounted price and so we went recruiting lol. I went searching for authors I’d known but hadn’t been as active or who I hadn’t caught up with in ages. Between the three of us (including Tressa), we created the 12 Days event. And from that event came We Write Fantasy :D
Love having you with us again, Jorie! You always put so much extra thought and care for the days you feature and we truly appreciate you for taking book blogging to a superior level <3