Category: Bookish Memes

#WaitingOnWednesday No.8 | An interview with a book blogger whose using #Kickstarter to self-publish “The Best of Little Red Reviewer”!

Posted Wednesday, 16 January, 2019 by jorielov , , 0 Comments

a word about ‘waiting on Wednesday’:

#WaitingOnWednesday badge created in Canva by Jorie using Unsplash.com photography (Creative Commons Zero).

I have decided to start participating in this book blogsphere meme with a few small changes of how it’s regularly blogged about by my fellow book bloggers. I will either be introducing my current reads of upcoming releases as I am in the process of reading them and/or I might be releasing a book review about a forthcoming title by which I had been blessed to read ahead of publication. The main purpose behind the meme is to encourage readers and your fellow book bloggers to become aware of new books being released which caught your eye and which held your interest to read. Sometimes if your still in the process of reading the books, its the titles which encouraged your bookish heart. I look forward to spending the next seasons of the year, talking about the books I have on hand to read, the books I’ve been reading and the books I might not even have a copy to read but which are of wicked sweet interest to become a #nextread of mine.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Promo banner for Little Red Reviewer Kickstarter Guest Post via jorielovesastory.com made by Jorie in Canva.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

A bit of a back-story on my connection to Andrea | Little Red Reviewer:

When Andrea first contacted me about her project emerging onto #Kickstarter in January, 2019 I was wicked OVERJOYED she thought of me to be part of her #streetteam to get the WORD out about this remarkable *idea!* she had to transform the words she’s etched into her online blog into a *tangible, touchable ‘book’* wherein you can take a more personal glimpse into the work she’s left behind in the book blogosphere.

She had such a valid point about our writings on our ‘book blogs’ – as a lot of people I am sure might want to readily ‘dismiss’ what we’re doing – they might not even understand the conceptional difference between ‘book bloggers & book reviewers’ as there is a bit of a difference between the two mediums of sharing our bookish ruminations; as book bloggers, we have the tendency to go a bit deeper, a bit further and explore a bit more of our emotional reactions as we’re reading than what a reviewer might consider to elude to in their (shorter) review as the reviews you’ll find on a book blogger’s blog are uniquely longer in length!

Our paths first crossed during the blogosphere (its reached pop iconic status now for those of us who are geeky on Sci Fi) even known affectionately as #RRSciFiMonth | Sci Fi November to those of us who’ve been round since it was first founded in [2013] by Rinn of Rinn Reads. Rinn has moved into other areas of interest outside of book blogging but her vision & her passion for Science Fiction lives on in her stead. The even is co-hosted by Lisa (@deargeekplace) and Imyril (@imyril) – who are my partners in crime when it comes to co-hosting @WyrdAndWonder as well as other events in the blogosphere or twitterverse such as our current RAL series for the Wayfarer series.

Andrea and I also share a passionate attachment to the writings of Julie E. Czerneda who gave us The Clan Chronicles (read through my archives of the ENTIRE 3x trilogy series as I read each novel in sequence of the world in which they reside). We shared some lovely moments in the latter trilogy’s blog tour(s) (see also this Post & this one too) leading into the final release which capstoned the series and gave us an emotional ‘ending’ to a beloved series.

She also hosts the annual January readthon #VintageSciFiMonth – an event I’ve never had the pleasure of joining until this coming January, 2019! With a bit of helpful suggestions being relayed to me via my fellow bookish geeks on LibraryThing as I pitched a Q about which Classic authors I ought to be reading if I wanted to seek out a certain variety of ‘Science Fiction’. I’m quite sure some of it will parlay into my readings for the 2019 #RRSciFiMonth as well!

Even though we’ve remained in touch over the years, sharing a love of Science Fiction & the Speculative Realms, I remain in awe of how being a book blogger has led to connections far outside the initial joys I envisioned I’d find in my life when I first started to take those tentative steps to find my blogging voice in [2013]. I love supporting my fellow book bloggers & in this case, it is a bold light on finding a route towards preserving the work we’ve left behind as each story in turn curated our ruminations & left us dearly affected for the journey we took into the STORIES.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Previously you might remember I shared a Guest Post

The Best of Little Red Reviewer Kickstarter Campaign banner provided by Andrea and is used with permission.

wherein Andrea shared her Kickstarter plans!

Today, I am showcasing the conversation which was sparked out of a desire to better understand what was motivating Andrea to self-publish the “best of the best” of her book blogger reviews whilst re-highlighting her Kickstarter campaign during the mid-point of January wherein she has currently (as of this post’s release) raised the following amount of her overall goal:

1,413 of 5,000 | by 41 backers

JOIN her Kickstarter Campaign *today!*

Read More

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Posted Wednesday, 16 January, 2019 by jorielov in Blogosphere Events & Happenings, Blogs I Regularly Read, Book Spotlight, Indie Author, Waiting on Wednesday

#WaitingOnWednesday No.7 | A Book Blogger decides to [self-publish] her #bookblog’s best of the best ‘book reviews’ via #Kickstarter!

Posted Wednesday, 26 December, 2018 by jorielov , , 0 Comments

a word about ‘waiting on Wednesday’:

#WaitingOnWednesday badge created in Canva by Jorie using Unsplash.com photography (Creative Commons Zero).

I have decided to start participating in this book blogsphere meme with a few small changes of how it’s regularly blogged about by my fellow book bloggers. I will either be introducing my current reads of upcoming releases as I am in the process of reading them and/or I might be releasing a book review about a forthcoming title by which I had been blessed to read ahead of publication. The main purpose behind the meme is to encourage readers and your fellow book bloggers to become aware of new books being released which caught your eye and which held your interest to read. Sometimes if your still in the process of reading the books, its the titles which encouraged your bookish heart. I look forward to spending the next seasons of the year, talking about the books I have on hand to read, the books I’ve been reading and the books I might not even have a copy to read but which are of wicked sweet interest to become a #nextread of mine.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Promo banner for Little Red Reviewer Kickstarter Guest Post via jorielovesastory.com made by Jorie in Canva.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

A bit of a back-story on my connection to Andrea | Little Red Reviewer:

When Andrea first contacted me about her project emerging onto #Kickstarter in January, 2019 I was wicked OVERJOYED she thought of me to be part of her #streetteam to get the WORD out about this remarkable *idea!* she had to transform the words she’s etched into her online blog into a *tangible, touchable ‘book’* wherein you can take a more personal glimpse into the work she’s left behind in the book blogosphere.

She had such a valid point about our writings on our ‘book blogs’ – as a lot of people I am sure might want to readily ‘dismiss’ what we’re doing – they might not even understand the conceptional difference between ‘book bloggers & book reviewers’ as there is a bit of a difference between the two mediums of sharing our bookish ruminations; as book bloggers, we have the tendency to go a bit deeper, a bit further and explore a bit more of our emotional reactions as we’re reading than what a reviewer might consider to elude to in their (shorter) review as the reviews you’ll find on a book blogger’s blog are uniquely longer in length!

Our paths first crossed during the blogosphere (its reached pop iconic status now for those of us who are geeky on Sci Fi) even known affectionately as #RRSciFiMonth | Sci Fi November to those of us who’ve been round since it was first founded in [2013] by Rinn of Rinn Reads. Rinn has moved into other areas of interest outside of book blogging but her vision & her passion for Science Fiction lives on in her stead. The even is co-hosted by Lisa (@deargeekplace) and Imyril (@imyril) – who are my partners in crime when it comes to co-hosting @WyrdAndWonder as well as other events in the blogosphere or twitterverse such as our current RAL series for the Wayfarer series.

Andrea and I also share a passionate attachment to the writings of Julie E. Czerneda who gave us The Clan Chronicles (read through my archives of the ENTIRE 3x trilogy series as I read each novel in sequence of the world in which they reside). We shared some lovely moments in the latter trilogy’s blog tour(s) (see also this Post & this one too) leading into the final release which capstoned the series and gave us an emotional ‘ending’ to a beloved series.

She also hosts the annual January readthon #VintageSciFiMonth – an event I’ve never had the pleasure of joining until this coming January, 2019! With a bit of helpful suggestions being relayed to me via my fellow bookish geeks on LibraryThing as I pitched a Q about which Classic authors I ought to be reading if I wanted to seek out a certain variety of ‘Science Fiction’. I’m quite sure some of it will parlay into my readings for the 2019 #RRSciFiMonth as well!

Even though we’ve remained in touch over the years, sharing a love of Science Fiction & the Speculative Realms, I remain in awe of how being a book blogger has led to connections far outside the initial joys I envisioned I’d find in my life when I first started to take those tentative steps to find my blogging voice in [2013]. I love supporting my fellow book bloggers & in this case, it is a bold light on finding a route towards preserving the work we’ve left behind as each story in turn curated our ruminations & left us dearly affected for the journey we took into the STORIES.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com Read More

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Posted Wednesday, 26 December, 2018 by jorielov in Blogosphere Events & Happenings, Blogs I Regularly Read, Book Spotlight, Indie Author, Waiting on Wednesday

#WaitingOnWednesday No.6 | Book Review | “The Bloody Black Flag” (Book One: of the Spider John Mysteries) by Steve Goble

Posted Wednesday, 29 August, 2018 by jorielov , , , , 0 Comments

a word about ‘waiting on Wednesday’:

#WaitingOnWednesday badge created in Canva by Jorie using Unsplash.com photography (Creative Commons Zero).

I have decided to start participating in this book blogsphere meme with a few small changes of how it’s regularly blogged about by my fellow book bloggers. I will either be introducing my current reads of upcoming releases as I am in the process of reading them and/or I might be releasing a book review about a forthcoming title by which I had been blessed to read ahead of publication. The main purpose behind the meme is to encourage readers and your fellow book bloggers to become aware of new books being released which caught your eye and which held your interest to read. Sometimes if your still in the process of reading the books, its the titles which encouraged your bookish heart. I look forward to spending the next seasons of the year, talking about the books I have on hand to read, the books I’ve been reading and the books I might not even have a copy to read but which are of wicked sweet interest to become a #nextread of mine.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Book Review badge created by Jorie in Canva using Unsplash.com photography (Creative Commons Zero).

Borrowed Book By: I am a reviewer for Prometheus Books and their imprints starting in [2016] as I contacted them through their Edelweiss catalogues and Twitter. I appreciated the diversity of titles across genre and literary explorations – especially focusing on Historical Fiction, Mystery, Science Fiction and Scientific Topics in Non-Fiction.

Whilst I was browsing through upcoming titles this Autumn [2018] I spied a #piratefiction title I had overlooked last year [2017]!! The sequel is forthcoming this September which is why I quickly checked to see if I could ILL (inter-library loan) this through my local library and happily found I could! I had to remain patient whilst this title was fetched from an out-of-state library and then, had the wicked anticipation of hoping it would be a) as quirky as watching Captain Jack Sparrow in the film series ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ whilst b) owning to the genre it befits and would give me a sweet swashbuckling adventure!

The copy of “The Bloody Black Flag” I borrowed via interlibrary loan through my local library was not a title I was obligated to post a review as I am doing so for my own edification as a reader who loves to share her readerly life. I was not compensated for my thoughts shared herein.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Why a #PirateFiction title sounded wicked good!

Ever since I was quite young, I’ve been fascinated with stories of Pirates! It started when I saw my *first!* Gabriel Bryne film where he was of course, a ‘pirate’ and his character felt real enough to scare me during the scenes he was featured! Fast forward to when Johnny Depp portrayed ‘Captain Jack Sparrow’ and you could say, it was all down-hill from there! There quirkiness of Cap’t Jack, the heart of the film series for me was inter-connected to Sparrow’s character – I went to the theater *four!* times to see the first one, twice for the second & at least three times for the third whilst only one viewing of the fourth – yet, by the time the fifth came out I was worried the integrity had left – thus, it remains the ONLY one I’ve not seen!!

I am unsure how this particular series slipped past me – as I have found *Seventh Street Books* to be publishing the kind of Historical Mysteries I can find myself curled inside more oft than other publishers – they are publishing my current favourites you see! You’ve most likely have seen my gushing praise over the Hiro Hattori, Anna Blanc, Samuel Craddock and my beloved Marjorie Trumaine series – two of these are dramatic crime series & the other two are what I refer to as ‘Cosy Historical Mysteries’ – where the focus isn’t on the grittiness of where a crime story could alight you but rather, the historical backdrop in which we alight to walk beside the lead characters!

This ‘Waiting on Wednesday’ is about discovering a #newtomeauthor and getting caught up inside the first novel of a new series which whet a thirst of curiosity to be reading ahead of the second installment’s release!

Part of me was slightly concerned this title might become a bit ‘too much’ for me – as when it comes to ‘pirates’ & #piratefiction, I will definitely be the girl whose more into the glossing over the rougher bits than to have any of the stories (by book or film) to be more graphically explicit. Still. There was something uniquely alluring about ‘attempting to read outside my comfort zone’ which is where the #SpiderJohn Mysteries fall under for a girl who loves high seas adventures but sometimes falls a bit short of fully embracing the cutthroat lifestyles therein!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

#WaitingOnWednesday No.6 | Book Review | “The Bloody Black Flag” (Book One: of the Spider John Mysteries) by Steve GobleThe Bloody Black Flag
Subtitle: A Spider John Mystery
by Steve Goble
Source: Borrowed from local library (ILL)

Agatha Christie meets Patrick O’Brian in the first book in a new series of swashbuckling historical mysteries featuring Spider John Rush, a most reluctant pirate.

1722—aboard a pirate ship off the American Colonial Coast.

Spider John Rush never wanted to be a pirate, but it had happened and he’d learned to survive in the world of cut and thrust, fight or die. He and his friend Ezra knew that death could come at any moment, from grapeshot or storm winds or the end of a noose. But when Ezra is murdered in cold blood by a shipmate, Spider vows revenge.

On a ship where every man is a killer many times over, how can Spider find the man who killed his friend? There is no law here, so if justice is to be done, he must do it. He will have to solve the crime and exact revenge himself.

One wrong step will lead to certain death, but Spider is determined to look into the dying eyes of the man who killed his friend, even if it means his own death.

Genres: Action & Adventure Fiction, Amateur Detective, Crime Fiction, Historical Thriller Suspense, Pirate Fiction



Places to find the book:

Borrow from a Public Library

Add to LibraryThing

ISBN: 9781633883598

Published by Seventh Street Books

on 12th September, 2017

Format: Trade Paperback

Pages: 237

Published By: Seventh Street Books (@SeventhStBooks)

Available Formats: Trade Paperback and Ebook

About Steve Goble

Steve Goble is the author of The Bloody Black Flag and The Devil’s Wind in the Spider John mystery series. A former journalist, Goble now works in communications for a cybersecurity firm. Previously, he wrote a weekly craft-beer column called Brewologist, which appeared on USA Today Network–Ohio websites.

The Spider John Mysteries:

Series Overview: Historical mystery series featuring a reluctant pirate who doubles as an amateur sleuth whilst setting sail on the high seas.

The Bloody Jack Flag by Steve GobleThe Devil's Wind by Steve Goble

The Bloody Black Flag | Book One

The Devil’s Wind | Book Two | Synopsis ← forthcoming release 11th September, 2018!

Converse via: #SpiderJohnMysteries OR #SpiderJohn + #HistoricalMystery and #piratefiction

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com Read More

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

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Posted Wednesday, 29 August, 2018 by jorielov in #JorieLovesIndies, 18th Century, Action & Adventure Fiction, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Tour Host, Book Review (non-blog tour), Bookish Memes, Boston, Colonial America, Content Note, Crime Fiction, Debut Novel, Equality In Literature, Fly in the Ointment, Historical Fiction, Indie Author, Pirates and Swashbucklers, Prometheus Books, Vulgarity in Literature, Waiting on Wednesday

#WaitingOnWednesday No.5 | Series Spotlight & Announcement | ‘Return of the Blackwell Brothers’ by #Harlequin Heartwarming feat. multiple authors in this five-book [2018] series!

Posted Wednesday, 8 August, 2018 by jorielov , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

a word about ‘waiting on Wednesday’:

#WaitingOnWednesday badge created in Canva by Jorie using Unsplash.com photography (Creative Commons Zero).

I have decided to start participating in this book blogsphere meme with a few small changes of how it’s regularly blogged about by my fellow book bloggers. I will either be introducing my current reads of upcoming releases as I am in the process of reading them and/or I might be releasing a book review about a forthcoming title by which I had been blessed to read ahead of publication. The main purpose behind the meme is to encourage readers and your fellow book bloggers to become aware of new books being released which caught your eye and which held your interest to read. Sometimes if your still in the process of reading the books, its the titles which encouraged your bookish heart. I look forward to spending the next seasons of the year, talking about the books I have on hand to read, the books I’ve been reading and the books I might not even have a copy to read but which are of wicked sweet interest to become a #nextread of mine.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!

I have a special *treat!* to share with you – I am participating in my *first!* serial review tour via Prism Book Tours! I happily spied a lot of lovely review requests for *Harlequin Heartwarming* which is one of the imprints I’ve become more familiarised with since I started hosting with this blog touring company – finding each of the premises to be rather keen, I quickly added my name to the pool of interested readers and was happily given the good news I made the review team!

This is a limited serial of *five!* new novels by Harlequin which tracks with their other imprints who also have limited serials – such as #LoveINSPIRED Suspense which is the imprint I read during my INSPY Reads of July for #CFSRS18.

As you know, being a traditional reader (ie. print & audio) – I sometimes have to opt for guest features and/or spotlights for books either released Digital First or where the blog events only offer ebooks for review. I’ve been rather blessed most of the Harlequin tours I want to participate in have happily allowed readers who read in print to participate! This particular serial tour was inclusive to print readers which is how I was able to join in on the fun!

The Heartwarming authors are becoming a ‘close second’ favourite next to the #LoveINSPIRED Suspense authors – as I personally love the stories they are creating and the ways in which they tell the stories which are being published under this imprint! They have the tendency to focus on the type of Realistic Contemporary Rom stories I’d hope to find and give me characters who have depth, purpose and a hearty story to chew on! This time round – what enticed me is the fact each of the stories involves a ‘ranch’ and that in of itself is a particular lifestyle I enjoy reading in fiction! Not to mention the fact I love visiting ranches IRL! There is something rather brilliant about the open range and having ‘land’ round you rather than a tucked in feeling when your on a city block with row neighbours! Having room to flex and stretch is definitely a preferred option than always feeling as if your living ontop of everyone else! Plus! the natural world is within touching distance where you can feel serenity washing over you rather immediately!

In a word, Westerns of all flavours are a hearty joy of mine to be reading – thus, I am going to be a giddy girl over the moon each time I pluck out one of the book parcels containing one of the #BlackwellBrothers stories in my postbox!!

If your a regular reader of Harlequin Romances or their other imprints, I look forward to your comments – seeing what you love to read by Harlequin and of course, if you know of any mini-series or authors I might enjoy seeking out – kindly let me know! My local library has a hearty collection of their stories and I love finding new Harlequin authors to read!

As I will be reading this series in order of sequence, you can happily re-visit me throughout the Autumn months as each of my reviews goes LIVE. With the exception of ‘The Rancher’s Fake Fianceé’ as I am unsure if I will have a copy in time to read ahead of the fifth release. I’m going to be requesting this title via my local library and *fingers crossed* it will arrive in time! Of course, I might also receive these through my own #bookfairy – so we shall ‘wait & see’!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Return of the Blackwell Brothers Collage Badge provided by Prism Book Tours

Converse via: #Contemporary #Romance & #Harlequin

& #ReturnOfTheBlackwellBrothers

Published by: Harlequin Heartwarming (@HarlequinBooks) | imprint of Harlequin

Return of the #BlackwellBrothers:

The Rancher’s Twins by Carol Ross → August 1st
The Rancher’s Rescue by Cari Lynn Webb → September 1st
The Rancher’s Redemption by Melinda Curtis → October 1st
The Rancher’s Fake Fiancée by Amy Vastine → November 1st
The Rancher’s Homecoming by Anna J. Stewart → December 1st

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

this might be the sequel to the original #BlackwellBrothers series I uncovered which is as follows:

The Marriage Promise by Sharon de Vita (book one)

The Marriage Basket by Sharon de Vita (book two)

Marriage Badge by Sharon de Vita (book three)

→ this was a Harlequin Silhouette Romance series in the early 2000s! OR it is coincidental there were two independent series of the same name!

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Posted Wednesday, 8 August, 2018 by jorielov in All of my Heart (movie series), Blog Tour Host, Book Spotlight, Bookish Memes, Contemporary Romance, Farm and Ranching on the Frontier, Indie Author, Prism Book Tours, Romance Fiction, Waiting on Wednesday, Western Fiction, Western Romance

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.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

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 Read More

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

  • #CFSRS18
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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