Category: Blogosphere Events & Happenings

#WyrdAndWonder Year 8 | Come sail with us as we celebrate NAUTICAL FANTASY!

Posted Wednesday, 30 April, 2025 by jorielov #WyrdAndWonder 0 Comments

Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!!

You would expect me to know this particular niche of Fantasy a bit more than I do. I l have held a long affinity of wonder and joy for the oceans and oceanic life. Yet, when it boils down to reading stories set at sea or tucked into stories about creatures of the sea – I’m a bit limited in my wanderings. Ideally, I had hoped to gather a heap of lovelies from my local library during the chase-up weeks into the event this May. Less ideal of course was waiting to the very last golden hour to find everything. Of course, you know which route I took – the latter one of course!

As I revealled during #TheSundayPost – I needed something to distract me from falling ill and losing a week of work from both my jobs! The only hidden blessing was having some sick days to offset the absences a bit but it wasn’t completely covering all the lost hours. Except, my initial searches at my local library via their card catalogue proved futile. As I found a few titles – by few, less than five? And, I couldn’t sort out why that could be – as in past years during Wyrd And Wonder I have had such a bevy of enlightening choices to choose amongst that I nearly run out of hours to endeavour to chase into each and every story I’ve discovered! I decided this year might be different for me and that was just going to have to be okay!

Each May feels like a holiday for me (ie. a vacation) as I get to settle into adventuring into fantastical worlds and explore who lives there. It is such an uplift for me each May – even, if the last few years have been lean on books read vs books sampled, I have been having a heap of fun along the way towards finding #newtomeauthors and future beloved reads. One of the key reasons I love co-hosting Wyrd And Wonder is a continued celebration of a genre which bewitches me and a community of readers and the socially bookish who all mutually share a love for the same genre and kinds of stories I enjoy seeking out myself. It is one *big!* happy party every May – especially if you visit our blogs and find our posts – from discussions to lists to reviews to a bit of everything and anything you can think of which allows the blogger to discuss Fantasy.

Be on the lookout on my #bookstagram feeds via @joriestory3 where I will be posting more content (especially the bookish variety!) throughout the month! I will also be sharing content and images for our main @WyrdAndWonder Insta feeds, too. I have found my rhythm on #bookstagram at long last and am enjoying my journey on the social platform. I might not be able to post as regularly as some, but I take it at my own pace and post as it suits me to post inasmuch as finding ways to share my bookish and readerly life which compliment my blog.

→ After having a bit of a panic attack over nearly losing my blog on Tuesday due to a technical error on my part and not realising I made it – wells, let’s just say, that took HOURS to reset my heart – as I hadn’t even known my blog was down let alone in jeopardy of existing! I needed a way to avert my emotions and distract my mind – which is why I embarked on a second trip through my library’s card catalogue and found some rather extraordinary stories – ALL of which befit our theme this year and I was so shocked as I had looked previously and only found a handful?

Now, I can participate in a few more prompts from our challenge than I thought I could whilst happily having more fun with the original ones I elected to host on our main #WyrdAndWonder feeds via #bookstagram! I couldn’t believe my good fortune – especially as nearly all the lovelies I found are wickedly diverse reads and happily encompass Nautical Fantasy from a heap of lovely new angles of insight and entrance!

For those who might be eager to know which topics I’m focusing on ahead of time, they are as follows:

Chart Your Course: ALL hosts are participating as it is our kick-off celebration & TBR
<Wyrd And Wonder’s Chart Your Course><Jorie’s Chart Your Course>
Under the Radar (Periscope up, underrated books the party should be looking for): 3 May
Fantastic Voyages: (non-maritime journeys): 9 May
Bite-Sized Islands (celebrating short form fiction or novels of shorter length): 10 May
Watery Women (Mermaids, Selkies & Sirens): 14 May
Current Read: 15 May
Pirates: 28 May
Deep Dive (set underwater, a story that pulls you in): 29 May
deep dive also refer to a Non-Nautical Fantasy novel that truly mesmorises you within the world-building and the story like a deep dive into the author’s vision in other words?
Safe Harbour: 31 May (favourite stories read this May)

Which of these prompts inspires you as well as reader!? Do you have any books or authors you’d like to recommend to me? I have been enjoying the discovery process as much as I’ve been enjoying re-finding the stories which befit the prompts, too.

And, here are the prompts I am going to see if I can work on outside of the official ones:

#MapMonday: 5 May
Sea Serpents: 7 May
Foreign Climes: 22 May
Standalone Isle: 23 May

I’m not sure if I can join these on the original days their scheduled but I’m going to give it a bit of a go and see how I can sneak in a few more of the prompts! I might have others I can participate with as well – I will have to see how May trudges along as I’m reading and what I’m finding in the stories! I have a full set of stories I picked to read this month alongside exploring our theme of choice, too.

May has always held a special joy for me as a book blogger and social reader. I am wicked thankful that our community of Wyrd And Wonder continues to grow and encompass so many different routes of exploring the genre of Fantasy and celebrating what gives us such a fantastical presence in our lives. From books to films to games to music and everything else in-between.

Are you ready to start the fantastical celebration?

What do you want to do this Wyrd And Wonder? And, will you join us?!

Fantasy truly is much more than a genre – it is an exploration of hidden worlds & themes which are universally appealling to a wide audience – crossing through all boundaries and uniting everyone together who finds a niche of Fantasy their jam. This is why we wanted to create a happy space to celebrate this wicked wonderful section of Speculative Fiction – to find the joy in what others are finding for themselves & uniting together to highlight every which way to Sunday Fantasy gives us a burst of #randomJOY and lifts our souls!

Posted Wednesday, 30 April, 2025 by jorielov in #WyrdAndWonder, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blogosphere Events & Happenings, JLAS Update Post, Jorie Loves A Story, Twitterland & Twitterverse Event

#TheSundayPost | XXIII | Some books, a bout of illness and Wyrd And Wonder is around the corner!

Posted Sunday, 27 April, 2025 by jorielov Abigail and Alexa Save the Wedding, DL Orton, Hive, Lian Dolan, Madders of Time series, Marc Peter Keane, Proxima's Gift, Shari Leid, Table for 51, The Half-Life Empire, The Marriage Sabbatical 1 Comment

[Official Blurb] The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ 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

Read this week’s #TheSundayPost!

I truly wish I could say I *like!* Spring,

but each year, I find reasons why I’d rather skip it!

Jorie’s life behind the blog:

No, one truly wants to *lose!* a week from work – and I definitely hate being sick overall because it takes so long to feel well again! *le sigh* Mum was starting to have issues with her asthma and felt she should go see her doctor about it. Except apparently as there wasn’t a record of it happening (although this is a lifelong condition – even if it goes dormant for years, it is still within you!) they wouldn’t do anything about it. Until, one night I heard her really having issues with it and that morning I called off work to take her to the ER. Clearly those doctors understand asthma and now Mum has what is called: cough variant asthma so it is even harder to shake once you are in the throes of it. And, of course, now her doctor is willing to discuss her asthma issues. Oy. Not sure why a visit to the ER fixed that communication issue but that’s where we are apparently in healthcare.

I went back to work and everything was fine until a few days later when they clearly weren’t fine anymore. I remember waking up on Wednesday and feeling like I had caught the worst cold – called off sick and thankfully had some sick days I could use to cover my time off work as that was the part I worried about the most. I was hopeful in three days I would see a corner turnt and I could get back to work as it didn’t seem like it would linger. Oy. Foolish thoughts. By Friday, I felt even worse than Wednesday but my eye looked infected too and my ear was out. Oy. Turns out I didn’t have a cold at all but an aggressive case of strep throat – with antibiotics and eye drops by the weekend, I was starting to see myself turn the corner I had hoped for earlier in the week. I’m not used to being out of work for four days (I only had enough sick days to cover three) and it only happened one other time in the last two years and once before that where I was out for longer as I caught a really bad virus.

Meanwhile, Wyrd And Wonder is about to get underway and I’m still sorting out my reading route with the stories as I have some wicked wonderful ones this year to read! Every year feels that way which makes the even wickeder somehow! Laughs. I’m hopeful I can knock out some of the #bookstagram posts today, start writing the Announcement post and seeing what I can do to turn my blog back round as I’ve lost so many lovely hours this month again.

I’d rather focus on talking about the books arriving by Post, my plans for Wyrd And Wonder and limiting how much I share about being sick as honestly, I just want to be ‘over it’ at this point!

In regard to my blog and readerly life:

I sadly missed the blog tour stop for The Half-Life Empire – of which I listened to the audiobook for my blog tour book review. You can read my fuller thoughts about what took me out of the story on my Review – however, what the story did for me was to get me out of my readerly funk and back into STORIES. I credit this to both the narrator and the author – as the narrator had such a beautiful approach to her narration of the story and the characters within it whilst the author gave me such an alarmingly realistic world set in a Post-Apocalyptic America. It just wasn’t well suited to me as a reader overall due to some of the things which became inclusive of the storyline. However, I was able to give feedback on the narrator’s performance and on behalf of some of the bits of the story I felt the author did very well to anchour the reader into understanding certain aspects of her world.

Aside from finishing the post a bit delayed due to being ill – I haven’t been able to pick up a book or listen to an audiobook for the duration of my illness. The coughing made it impossible, and the exhaustion took the focus right out from under me! Oy. I was planning to be a bit more active this April in respect to reading and posting on my blog – however, some months just go a different way than we first plan them too.

I will say, I have some exciting reads planned for May – as Wyrd And Wonder is my exploration of Fantasy where I set sail into different subniches of genre and new inventive worlds to seek out as I continue my adventures into Fantasy as a whole. And, that dear hearts has me itching with excitement! Plus, we have a lot planned behind the scenes as a team of hosts and I am even more eager to see what we as a collective community of Wyrd And Wonder will be doing this year, too.

Posted Sunday, 27 April, 2025 by jorielov in Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blogosphere Events & Happenings, Bookish Memes, JLAS Update Post, Jorie Loves A Story, The Sunday Post

#TheSundayPost | XXII | Wickedly delighted for this lovely #bookpost from Anna J. Stewart!

Posted Sunday, 13 April, 2025 by jorielov A Cowgirl on His Doorstep, A Hawaiian Christmas Romance, A Surprise Second Chance, Anna J. Stewart, Arctic Pursuit, Blackwell Belles series, Coltons of Owl Creek series, Half Life Empire, Hawaiian Reunions series, Hunting Colton's Witness, McKenna Code series, Shami Stovall, Susan Lanigan, White Feathers 0 Comments

[Official Blurb] The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ 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

Read this week’s #TheSundayPost!

Happy Spring, dear hearts!

I’m hopeful for a renewal of reading this season,

and lots of wicked good stories on the horizon for me to read!

Jorie’s life behind the blog:

The *best!* moment I was able to share over the past week was celebrating my 12th Blogoversary – which manifested itself through a variety of posts – both on Jorie Loves A Story and on my #bookstagram posts via @joriestory3. The first post on Insta was simply announcing the blogoversary itself and acknowledging the last *12!* years I’ve been book blogging and socially bookish online. Whilst the second post was a BIG reveal of what I purchased as part of the celebration of the milestone 12th Year whilst getting a firm start on my plans to focus on serial fiction throughout 2025! It was one of the goals I revealled on the third post on Insta which was a ‘fond farewell’ to (2024) as well as a nod to my Cuppa Book Love Awards for (2024).

I had intended to read more this past week – however, the last few weeks have been emotionally over the top for Mum and I. As we’re navigating the current medical issues of my father’s whilst sorting out what the next steps are in his care plan. I had a lot of days where I was just too exhausted (mentally, physically and emotionally) to do much past eat a bit of dinner and watch some tv just to ‘relax’ and ‘unwind’ after a long day of working two separate shifts. The stories I knew would wait for me to return to them as I just didn’t have the capacity to soak into their worlds at that point in time.

I am hopeful as I can rest today and on Tuesday, I will be a bit more rejuvenated overall. There are still a lot of uncertainties about my Dad, but we knew that one day our lives were going to grow more complicated because of his medical issues eventually. Blessedly, my Dad is in good spirits despite what is going on and he still retains his humour which is something that gave us a good laugh when we were with him. Humour is the best medicine in life. As we navigate this new path in our lives, we’re simply taking it one day at a time and one week at a time. It is hard to look too far ahead right now and we’re simply thankful for the times we have with him. If it turns out this is our final season with Dad we’ll be there for each other and walk through the grief of his loss together. So far, we haven’t heard the results of the doctor’s enquiries into his health and medical issues – as for whichever reason we’ve been told that could take longer than we’d expect it too. *le sigh*

For now, we have a reprieve and we’re taking it day to day. It is all we can do.

In regard to my blog and readerly life:

I also missed a lot of the announcements being revealled for #WyrdAndWonder’s 7th Year – which is something I will be rectifying this week. My lovely co-hosts have been featuring their announcements in my absence whilst we’ve been happily planning out our theme: Nautical Fantasy which will be celebrated in a variety of ways this May.

Ari has a lovely Intro to Year 7 which also talks our buddy reads and book club pick
Annemieke has a great round-up of all things Wyrd And Wonder
Lisa happily announced our Nautical Fantasy Wyrd And Wonder
Imyril helps you chart your course into our 7th Year

I’ve been preplanning what I want to do this year and although, Nautical Fantasy interests me greatly – I only picked a handful of selections to read per the theme this year, as other stories of Fantasy are calling to me a bit more which I’ll be focusing on throughout the month. I look forward to sharing what those choices are and which stories I started last year (either during May or October, for #SpooktasticReads) which have made the cut to be finished this May, too.

Aside from the JOYS of Wyrd And Wonder, I’ve been having some wicked good #bookpost of late and I am happy to share the latest stories I’ve received from Ms Anna J. Stewart. She writes the Harlequin Heartwarming series Hawaiian Reunions and the Harlequin Romantic Suspense series Honour Bound – both of which I am in the process of reading. Some of those stories have already been featured on Jorie Loves A Story, too! Whilst she has a new series which picks up after Honour Bound, too.

Posted Sunday, 13 April, 2025 by jorielov in Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blogosphere Events & Happenings, Bookish Memes, JLAS Update Post, Jorie Loves A Story, The Sunday Post

#BestBooksOf2024 Retrospective | The stories behind #JLASblog’s 11th Year whilst celebrating my 12th Blogoversary!

Posted Tuesday, 8 April, 2025 by jorielov (Narrator) Patricia Santomasso, A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, A.Y. Chan, Alexis Kossiakoff, Anna J. Stewart, D.J. Williams, Danielle Thorne, Heaven's Edge, Jennifer Silverwood, Jorie Loves A Story, Jorie Story, Prison Break Hostage, S.D. Henke, Scott Forbes Crawford, T. Kingfisher, The Auctioneer, The Beekeeper Next Door, The Heart of the Uni-verse, The Legendary Mo Seto, The Phoenix and the Firebird 4 Comments

The Questions for the 2020 End of the Year Survey are posted by Jaime @ the Perpetual Page Turner, who created this survey as a personal reflection of her year of bookish wanderings and readings, and never thought it would turn into a book blogosphere yearly event! I am thankful she encourages us all to participate even though over the past five years I haven’t had the best track record of joining in on the community in which she’s curated to share a summation of our readerly lives.

NOTE: I participated in this Survey in (2015) and (2020). I seemed to have skipped over the years betwixt and between then and now. I have plans to fill in those gaps but that is for another day. I also couldn’t find any updates from Jaime on her blog past (2021) which is why I kept the questions I had from (2020). She continued to blog but apparently did not continue with the survey itself.

*Please be Advised:*

This past year I read a heap less books than in years past where I would read upwards of over 150 to 200+ books. I read far less than most who focus on reading 50 books every year too. And, yet this year I was quite proud of the stories I did read and the joys they gave me as a reader. If you count all the stories I partially read – the year-end total would be *40*.

For a girl balancing two jobs – one of which is 40+ hours a week and trying to find the hours outside of work to focus on something less stressful – I consider (2024) a success! Especially as by Summer, 2024 I finally wrangled my own style of joining #bookstagram despite trying to join the community there in Autumn of (2023).

All things considered; it was a wonderfully wicked bookish year!

Be sure to brew yourself a cuppa joy as you sit, read and ponder which of my #BestOf2024Reads need to seriously become added to your own #TBR!

If you’ve filled something out like this survey (OR this actual one!) or a different kind of post altogether to summerise your readerly life in (2024) – be sure to share your link to your post(s) in the *threads below this post so I can take a gander at which stories | authors | series | genres joyfully intrigued, you throughout 2024! As I would like to expand my own TBR with the stories you’ve read yourself which could be a wicked good fit for me.

I have severely edited this survey to better reflect my last year as a book blogger and as a reader. Thereby, this survey is far shorter than in the years I originally filled it out and has a special section to celebrate my 12th Year as a Book Blogger as that truly was a milestone moment for me as a book blogger who’s struggled over the last few years to maintain her readerly life and bookish life online.

REMEMBER: if a story wasn’t my cuppa it could be one better suited for you and vice versa if you had a story which you felt fell short of your own expectations and might resonate with me better. Reading is subjective to our individual experiences within the stories themselves, and all our reactions are valid and important as they are markers of our readerly lives.

Let’s break this down a bit, shall we?

You can use this as a ‘preview guide’ of how to use my Story Vault. <— fully updated!

Posted Tuesday, 8 April, 2025 by jorielov in Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blogosphere Events & Happenings, End of the Year Survey, JLAS Update Post, Jorie Loves A Story

#WWWednesday No. XXII | Finding JOY in reading whilst betwixt and between Cosy Crime and Speculative Fiction!

Posted Wednesday, 12 March, 2025 by jorielov A Guardian Till Christmas, Andrew Dewey, Andrew J. Mair, Buddy the Knight and the Queen of Sorrow, Caleb Wygal, Chronos Chronicles series, Chronos Warlock, Counter Attack, Danielle Thorne, Death on the Golden Mile, Five Ordinary Teens and the Monarchs of the Ten Dimensions, I.M. Foster, In Every Life, Murder on Oak Street, Murder on West Lake, My Heart is Hurting, Myrtle Beach Mysteries, Patricia Bradley, Pearl River series, Peter David, Rea Frey, S.D. Henke, S.E. Reed, Shami Stovall, Tales of a Paperboy, Ten Dimensions series, The Heart of the Uni-verse, Time-Marked Warlock 0 Comments

I ♥ the premise of this meme {WWW Wednesdays} due to the dexterity it gives the reader! Smiles. Clearly subject to change on a weekly rotation, which may or may not lead to your ‘next’ read providing a bit of a paradoxical mystery to your readers!! Smiles. ♥ the brilliance of its concept!

This weekly meme was originally hosted by Should Be Reading who became A Daily Rhythm. Lovingly restored and continued by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words. Each week you participate, your keen to answer the following questions:

What are you currently reading!?
What did you recently finish reading!?
What do you think you’ll read next!?

After which, your meant to click over to THIS WEEK’s WWWWednesday to share your post’s link so that the rest of the bloggers who are participating can check out your lovely answers! Score! Perhaps even, find other bloggers who dig the same books as you do! I thought it would serve as a great self-check to know where I am and the progress I am hoping to have over the next week!

Join the Convo via: #WWWWednesday on all socials

Follow the host via Bookstagram!

Is it Spring? Or has Winter given us a few more days?

I am happy to have cooler weather lingering a bit before Spring grabs hold of us because Spring tends to be the jumpstart to Summer round here and Summer is a wrath of humidity & heat I daresay I could permanently take a vacation from seeing arrive!

At the end of MARCH, I will be ringing in my 12th blogoversary on the 31st! Can you imagine? I can barely fathom how a decade and two years have come and gone already! I still feel like I am still in the throes of my bookish and readerly goals – still seeking to explore more on my blog in regards to how and what I discuss in book world and wickedly delighted for the next stories I’ll be reading! I suppose that’s a healthy way to look at it too – knowing that you still have things to explore in literature whilst still happy to engage in the bookish community of book bloggers, too!

I know I’ve fallen a bit short on the engagement levels the last several years, but this year, I have a new organisational system I’m using to sort out where I’ve visited and to whom I want to visit with next and then, continue to make my rounds accordingly thereafter. It is helping me remember where I’ve been as with my work life – I find myself sometimes forgetting those details! I also want to be better engaged this year overall and this is my way of reaffirming those connections and happily getting back into communicating more with those who are blogging about the stories and topics I love to read about too.

I gave myself an *extra special* 12th Year Blogoversary gift, too, but mum’s the word until lateron in the month, okay!? It will be a lovely *big!* reveal – both on my blog and on my #bookstagram too!

For now, I’m *celebrating!* where I am with my readerly goals this month – I had a hard-won start to (2025) in respect to reading and finishing the stories I had started last year. I’ve been wanting to write so many WWWs and Sunday Posts since November it’s not even funny! I decided to return to WWW as a way to keep myself on target and also as a self-check of where I am currently with my readings. Again, I’m striving towards better work/life balance and when your work life is as chaotic as mine has become – you’d like to find what works for you and run with it! Laughs.

I was proud of myself of reading three books which took me far longer to read than I felt were possible between January and February. Whilst it was also a moment where I took a lark of a chance on a #newtomeauthor and came away with such a dramatically riveting read! She’s also become a wicked new favourite author for Cosy Crime! I’m still on the fence if I’d consider her series Cosy Historical Mysteries or Historical Cosy Crime – the difference being there are elements in her stories which breach traditionally ‘Cosy’ frameworks and are better suited to Cosy Crime which aren’t fully of those constraints. At least by my experiences as a reader. For me Cosy Crime is a slightly past traditional Cosy but not full-on Hard-Boiled either! It is like a step betwixt and between the two!

I’m also so EXCITED about the books on my shelf right now OVERALL. I have some seriously awesomesauce reads happening and more #bookpost news to share as the days move forward, too!

Yesterday, I was able to share my JOYFUL receival of the Chronos Chronicles series by Shami Stovall – as viewed here on my #bookstagram post about it! You’ll spy Time-Marked Warlock on this post!

And, without further ado, let’s dive into what I’m reading and which stories I’ve recently read!

What Jorie is currently reading:

My Heart is Hurting by S.E. Reed* (see also Review)

A Guardian Till Christmas by Danielle Thorne

Time-Marked Warlock by Shami Stovall

And, two wildcard selections not pictured:

Death on the Golden Mile by Caleb Wygal
(Myrtle Beach Mysteries, Book Three)

In Every Life by Rea Frey

*this review went live ahead of this post

Originally, I was planning to feature this WWW last week rather than this week – but last week everything went to heck and a handbasket work wise and my heart just wasn’t into writing this post to be honest! Frowns. Therefore, my review for My Heart is Hurting went live on Friday, the 7th – even though technically it was meant to be featured on Thursday, the 6th. I was juggling everything and was overwhelmed greatly by ALL that was happening to the brink having it arrive on Friday was better suited for me personally and I hoped didn’t affect the overall blog tour by having it featured a day late. I had a lot of mixed emotions and reactions to this story, too. So much so, I am hopeful what I tried to convey about my own personal journey with the story resonates with those who read the review, and they understand the heartache I had with it.
Read More

Posted Wednesday, 12 March, 2025 by jorielov in Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blogosphere Events & Happenings, Bookish Memes, JLAS Update Post, Jorie Loves A Story, WWW Wednesdays