Category: #bookclubVIP

Stories of Jorie | feat. #CrimeFictionBox | The story of how Jorie became an influencer for a second book subscription box!

Posted Friday, 13 March, 2020 by jorielov , , 2 Comments

Stories of Jorie Banner created by Jorie in Canva using Unsplash.com photography. (Creative Commons Zero)

Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!

If you’re following me on Twitter, you might have already noticed there is a bit of a changing of the guard so to speak happening with my Twitter Profile today! You might feel like you’ve read that declaration *already!* – and you would be correct! I previously made this same announcement when I announced I’m a new partner and influencer for the #OnceUponABookClubBox!

You might also remember during one of my recent #TheSundayPost – I made a small footnote notation about having some wicked #awesomesauce news to SHARE!? This would be it dear hearts! I had an unexpected opportunity arrive through a bit of serendipity recently *and!* today, on Friday, the 13th no less – I can share it!! Eek.

As previously stated I never had the chance to subscribe to a book subscription service – however, I do maintain a list of these lovelies on Twitter.  I came across Julie Valarie’s website whilst responding to past comments on Jorie Loves A Story wherein she referenced the Once Upon A Book Club, though at the time I hadn’t realised she was the featured author for the December 2019 box! This was how I stumbled across an invite to become an influencer & VIP Team member for the Once Upon A Book Club!

Now fast forward – March began on better footing than February ended because I was finally within the last week of a horrid cold I caught mid-month. It was the kind of cold where I couldn’t read nor listen to audiobooks (due to extremely sore ears!) and otherwise, was just hoping March would be a kind month without adding to my recent grievances with an early onset of Spring (pollen) allergies. *knock on wood* The pollen is being kept at bay and that works smashing for me! Read More

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Posted Friday, 13 March, 2020 by jorielov in #bookclubVIP, #CrimeFictionBox, Book Subscription Boxes

Influencer #partner with #OnceUponABookClub | Book Review for “Remembrance” by Rita Woods with *special!* reveals for those lovely mystery parcels in the February #ouabookclub box!

Posted Tuesday, 10 March, 2020 by jorielov , , , 3 Comments

Book Review banner created by Jorie in Canva.

Acquired Book By: I am a promotional #partner and/or Influencer with Once Upon A Book Club similar to how I receive books from publishers, authors & publicists or early review programs – I am not being monetarily compensated for sharing my experiences, impressions, reviews or the links to their website on my blog Jorie Loves A Story nor on my feeds on Twitter (@joriestory or @SatBookChat). Nor for the coupon code which is a discount for new subscribers to the Once Upon A Book Club subscription service.

Thereby, I received a complimentary copy of “Remembrance” direct from Once Upon A Book Club as part of the February Adult Box in exchange for an honest review about the gifts which connect to the story and of the story itself. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

IF you’d like to order your own Once Upon A Book Club box,

you can use my coupon code → JORIELOVES10

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Why I was intrigued and excited about reading REMEMBRANCE:

I loved how we get a quote from the book itself on a beautiful card which can be framed and hung on your wall. This particular quote felt quite telling if you ponder it for a spell – how if we do not harness the ability to be ‘still’ we will miss the truths which are attempting to alight on our souls. There is beauty in that quote and a heap of wisdom as well. I cannot wait to read “Remembrance” to better understand the connection of the quote to the story.

In regards to the story itself – “Remembrance” is a story within a uniquely told timeline – as we are transporting ourselves into *three!* (not two as usually found in time bent narratives) distinctively unique timelines of interest – shifting from the contemporary modern world of Mid-West Ohio into Haiti (1791) whilst it is nearly going through a Revolution and forwards a bit into New Orleans (1857). Three women, three timelines and a depth of a story betwixt and between their lives – I don’t know about you but what could be more rivetingly dramatic and engaging than a story which offers three individualistic perspectives of a connective narrative!?

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

#OnceUponABookClubBox February Adult Box Photo Photography Credit: © jorielovesastory.com.
#OnceUponABookClubBox February Adult Box Photo Photography Credit: © jorielovesastory.com.

[ The February Adult Once Upon A Book Club selection is :

Remembrance
by Rita Woods
Source: Direct from Once Upon A Book Club

Genres: Feminist Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction, Magical Realism, Time Slip and/or Time Shift



Places to find the book:

Borrow from a Public Library

Add to LibraryThing

ISBN: 978-1250298454

Published by Forge

on 21st January, 2020

Format: Hardcover Edition

Pages: 416

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.comPublished by: Forge (@torbooks)

Subjects explored:

African-American History, The Underground Railroad, Earthquakes in Haiti, the Haiti Revolution, 19th Century New Orleans & Fugitive Slaves

Converse via: #onceuponabookclub, #onceuponabookclubbox & #ouabookclub

as well as #Rememberance, #HistFic & #MagicalRealism

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com Read More

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

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Posted Tuesday, 10 March, 2020 by jorielov in #bookclubVIP, #Unboxing BookMail, 18th Century, 19th Century, 21st Century, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Book Review (non-blog tour), Book Subscription Boxes, Content Note, Debut Novel, Equality In Literature, Fly in the Ointment, Historical Fiction, Modern Day, Multi-cultural Characters and/or Honest Representations of Ethnicity, Once Upon A Book Club, Underground Railroad, Vulgarity in Literature

Influencer #partner with #OnceUponABookClub | Revealling the February Adult Box!

Posted Tuesday, 3 March, 2020 by jorielov , , 2 Comments

Stories of Jorie Banner created by Jorie in Canva using Unsplash.com photography. (Creative Commons Zero)

Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!

This marks my first subscription box reveal

as a #bookclubVIP member of Once Upon A Book Club!

Once Upon A Book Club confirmation banner for monthly shipment provided by Once Upon A Book Club and is used with permission.

This subscription box stood out to me for a few different reasons – one there are two choices of boxes each month (one YA, one Adult) whilst as you’re reading the book of the month (#botm) being featured, there are these page markers featured throughout the book itself which route you to the enclosed gifts which coordinate with the story itself. You might want to know the fuller details of what you can expect out of this box – what struck my curiosity is how *reading the story* now has these added components of relevancy. You are not simply ‘reading’ the book anymore – you are reading in order to sleuth out the goodies included in the box which have a purpose of inclusion based on what the story is already revealling to you! As soon as I read that in combination with their tagline “bringing books to life” – I was simply *hooked!*

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

(*) Due Note: I am a promotional #partner and/or Influencer with Once Upon A Book Club similar to how I receive books from publishers, authors & publicists or early review programs – I am not being monetarily compensated for sharing my experiences, impressions, reviews or the links to their website on my blog Jorie Loves A Story nor on my feeds on Twitter (@joriestory or @SatBookChat). Nor for the coupon code which is a discount for new subscribers to the Once Upon A Book Club subscription service.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

IF you’d like to order your own Once Upon A Book Club box,

you can use my coupon code → JORIELOVES10

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

I disclosed during this weekend’s #TheSundayPost I have received my first #bookbox from Once Upon A Book Club subscription box service – today is the day I reveal what the *inside!* of the box and its components look like as I first cast eyes on them as I happily unboxed everything on Saturday!

I’ve been sitting on pins awaiting revealling this to you & I am wicked thankful to be one of the receivers of the February Adult Box as I admit it – I’ve been properly smitten by the story ever since I first learnt what it entailed!

Eek. Time for the BIG REVEAL!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com Read More

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Posted Tuesday, 3 March, 2020 by jorielov in #bookclubVIP, Book Subscription Boxes, Once Upon A Book Club

#TheSundayPost VIII | From the misery of a cold to a revival of random bookish joy! [with a bit of an #unboxing reveal for #FindingEsme!]

Posted Sunday, 1 March, 2020 by jorielov , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 14 Comments

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

[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!

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!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

From the misery of a cold to a revival of random bookish joy,…

IF I had to speculate how my February would have concluded on a sour note of a severely intensive Winter cold which not only rendered me undone by a severely crippingly migraine (as it was unfortunately attached to said cold) but also incredibly *sore!* ears (wherein it affected ALL attempts at listening ot audiobooks previously highlighted via my last Sunday Post!), a throat which felt like strep and at the very end of it all – I nearly lost my voice just like Mum! She had it for just under a week and a half – whilst I’ve barely squeaked out of it under a fortnight but as its still ‘with me’ that’s not exactly conclusive yet!

I found myself getting down quite a bit about it – normally I can ride out a cold with reading but this one was unrelenting with side issues and a heap of unwelcomed fatigue; so in essence, unless it was a streaming television series (here’s looking @ Star Trek: Enterprise & Zoey’s Playlist!) odds are in great favour I passed the hours of the final weeks of February without many stories in my hands or arriving inside my headphones. The one audiobook I attempted to read didn’t work out very well and I regret I had to postpone listening to it. I’ve already requeued it to be heard this March.

Meanwhile, I also learnt a harder truth about expectations and failed inspirations in regards to Star Trek: Picard (see also my last #BookishNotBookish – updated that section!) and on a happier note, we had a ‘second chance’ Wintry weather spurt which left me wickedly happy despite how real the struggle was to embrace brisk winds (with sore ears, throat and a migraine!) and colder than ice temperatures – a part of me was trying to remember why I love grey skies, cold Wintry days and how good it felt to have a vacation from the Sun! Colds like this one muddle your senses and your ability to enjoy everything you normally *love!* – but despite that, there was one day where Mum took me out for cinnamon bagels and hot tea which reminded me to anchour into small joys and random serendipity rather than feeling curtailed by a situation I had zero control.

In the midst of feeling quite unwell, I did have a turning bit of tide in regards to how I recaptured some bookish JOY this week! I had to stack all my #bookpost into different piles – flat parcels together, bundled boxes together and it became a bit of a tricky situation as I wasn’t sure if any of the short piles would fall! lol I definitely have drawn a bit of curiosity from postal workers lately and I can’t wait to reveal a few thoughts of joy to the one who enquired about a few recent arrivals. She’s one of the few who enjoy chatting to me and hearing snippets of my life as a book blogger – which makes getting #bookmail ever more exciting when you can talk about it with others.

There was a keenly hidden SURPRISE though this week as I entered a bookaway whilst I was taken ill and to be quite honest, had FORGOTTEN all about it! I was visiting with a bookish friend of mine whose also an author of the stories I enjoy reading in her Speculative worlds of interest: Jennifer Silverwood (via her blog) when I noticed a curious review about a Middle Grade Fantasy novel called: Finding Esme! Wait til you discover the happiness this #bookmail brought into my life! I mean, talk about a total 360 experience from feeling taken under by the cold and being lifted in pure joy by what the author sent me!! I can’t remember getting quite a bookaway like this before except for one which I won from Jane Porter prior to being a book blogger.

Whilst I have some bookish updates regarding being an influencer and book ambassador with the Once Upon A Book Club subscription box service! Further updates are arriving this Tuesday and next Tuesday respectivefully! I also might have another bit of news to share next Sunday in regards to a new opportunity which came into my life this weekend – however, mum’s the word as I am still finalising the details.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Parajunkee Designs

*UPcoming!* blog & Twitter milestones:

(celebrating my 7th Year as a book blogger and joyful tweeter : dates to remember!)

I created my blog on the 31st of March, 2013 – my blogoversary!

I launched it LIVE to the world on 6th August, 2013 – my blog’s birthday!

I waited til the 13th of November, 2013 to join Twitter – my #twitterversary!

To help celebrate my #blogoversary @ the end of the month – I’ll be tweaking, blogging and finishing my edits for my *End of the Year Survey, 2019* – thereby allowing me to dig into the past years which were unable to be featured previously and will be time capsules of the recent past about the stories and authors I loved discovering, reading and spending time with as a reader! Due to stay tuned for this special post arriving on 31.March!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Some updates about where my bookish adventures took me this final week of February and what I am planning to do my first week of March as a bit of a renewal of resuming where I left off with the stories and books themselves. I feel like I lost so many *hours!* and yet, despite that well of inactivity I had quite a busy week overall! Even though technically speaking you’ll find that my #bookpost stacked up a bit to where I had the joy of revealling a heap of loveliness all at once!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Callisto Publishing Club : what Jorie requested in February

Will be reading this coming week:

  • The Story of Frida Kahlo: A Biography Book for New Readers by Susan B Katz
  • The Easy 5 Ingredient Vegan Cookbook: 100 Healthy Plant Based Recipes by Nancy Montuori
  • Super Green Smoothies: Veggie-Based Recipes to Boost Your Health and Well-Being by Danielle Omar
  • → [arriving this week] Essential Vegetable Fermentation: 70 Inventive Recipes to Make Your Own Pickles, Kraut, Kimchi, and More by Kelly McVicker

Sort of goes without too much saying that when your under the weather as severely as I was (and of which the main details are not shared!) reading or viewing food isn’t exactly going to be your top priority! I could barely eat most days be as it were! However, within the last day or so I’ve started to go through my #bookpost and I’ve had the joy of rediscovering these Callisto books which arrived! I am overjoyed truly because the cookbooks are beyond budget friendly and the biography is awe-inspiring on so many levels – plus I love the graphic design and bright colours they used to illuminate Frida’s life as a young girl.

The one which is still enroute is the Veg Fermentation – I have my eye on the kimchi section as I’ve heard such good things about that over the years. Plus, if I can finally slay the mystery of fermenting my own foods I’m one step closer to my self-sufficiency goals as I eventually want to harvest my own garden of fruit, veg, herb and cut flowers whilst canning for Winter, etc. I have appreciated the concept of eating macrobiotically since my early twenties and fermented foods are a part of that lifestyle. I’m definitely leant more towards a macro-vegetarian vegan and GF lifestyle any other way of eating as those are the foods which I have found help my health and wellness the most. Thereby you’ll be seeing me requeue my #TheBookishFoodie sections on Jorie Loves A Story as we move into Spring and I can start reviewing cookbooks again! Read More

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Posted Sunday, 1 March, 2020 by jorielov in #bookclubVIP, #Unboxing BookMail, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Birthdays & Blogoversaries, Blogosphere Events & Happenings, Book Subscription Boxes, Bookish Memes, JLAS Update Post, Jorie Loves A Story, Jorie's Box of Joy, Library Loot, Once Upon A Book Club, Photography of Jorie, Spontaneous Musings, Stories of Jorie, The Sunday Post

Stories of Jorie | feat. #OnceUponABookClub | The story of how Jorie became an influencer for a book subscription box!

Posted Tuesday, 11 February, 2020 by jorielov , , 0 Comments

Stories of Jorie Banner created by Jorie in Canva using Unsplash.com photography. (Creative Commons Zero)

Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!

If you’re following me on Twitter, you might have already noticed there is a bit of a changing of the guard so to speak happening with my Twitter Profile today! I’ve been tweaking it off/on throughout the afternoon & evening – as I have rather exciting news to share with everyone! As you might realise I have had my eye on book subscription boxes for quite a long while now – nearly as long as I’ve been a book blogger which has been the past six years (nearly seven!) since 31st of March, 2013.

I never had the chance to subscribe to one – however, I do maintain a list of these lovelies on Twitter. Whilst I was going through my Comments Archive on Jorie Loves A Story – responding to past comments & revisiting the commenters who have kindly left me notes over the years – as I’m making amends for not being able to respond directly when the comments first alighted on my blog [ie. queue my Dad’s stroke & recovery (ie. 2016-forward) and my chronic migraines or health afflictions (ie. 2018-19)] – I came across Julie Valarie’s website! She referenced the Once Upon A Book Club, though at the time I hadn’t realised she was the featured author for the December 2019 box! This was how I stumbled across an invite to become an influencer & VIP Team member for the Once Upon A Book Club!

This subscription box stood out to me for a few different reasons – one there are two choices of boxes each month (one YA, one Adult) whilst as you’re reading the book of the month (#botm) being featured, there are these page markers featured throughout the book itself which route you to the enclosed gifts which coordinate with the story itself. You might want to know the fuller details of what you can expect out of this box – what struck my curiosity is how *reading the story* now has these added components of relevancy. You are not simply ‘reading’ the book anymore – you are reading in order to sleuth out the goodies included in the box which have a purpose of inclusion based on what the story is already revealling to you! As soon as I read that in combination with their tagline “bringing books to life” – I was simply *hooked!*

Each year as a book blogger I’ve challenged myself to find new bookish communities and new ways of seeking out S T O R I E S. This New Year 2020 has been quite a remarkable one for me on that score as I have several new opportunities in pursuit of the written word happening right now – more of which I shall be disclosing during my next #TheSundayPost on Sunday, 16th February. Even though I haven’t been an influencer previously I liked the openness of Once Upon A Book Club to open their applications to influencers across platforms where each of us are sharing our bookish & readerly lives a bit differently from each other. Read More

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Posted Tuesday, 11 February, 2020 by jorielov in #bookclubVIP, Book Subscription Boxes, Once Upon A Book Club