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!
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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
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.
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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
Posted Tuesday, 22 April, 2025 by jorielov (Narrator) Diana Richardson, Half-Life Empire series, Podium Audio, Shami Stovall, The Half-Life Empire 0 Comments
Borrowed Book By: I found out about this novel via The Write Reads who was hosting a blog tour in April, 2025. I decided to check to see if an audiobook copy was available to purchase via Audible as I have a subscription to their Plus Catalogue. I was surprised to find it is included in the Plus Catalogue, thereby, I was able to ‘borrow’ or listen to a copy of the audiobook via my subscription without having to purchase the audiobook at this time.
Thereby, this is a self-listen of mine and I was not obligated to post a review. I am sharing my ruminative thoughts for my own edification and for continuing to share my readerly life on Jorie Loves A Story. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Why I wanted to step outside my zone of comfort for this audiobook:
I have been in such a readerly rut lately – too much on my heart/mind to properly focus on STORIES. Sad yet true. I knew I needed to pull myself out of this FUNK and guess what? The Half-Life Empire is just the kind of STORY I need right now. I discovered the writings of Ms Stovall with the novels Time-Marked Warlock and Chronos Warlock – of which are future reads and reviews of mine. If the last few weeks were different – the first novel of that series would have been happily consumed and reviewed already. However, if you read over the top anchour of my #BestBooksOf2024 post you’ll understand what has been going on IRL for Mum and I.
Try as I might, I’ve been finding myself pulled out of reading and the stories I want to be attached inside of late. I know what caused the detachment but how to restart reading again when you can’t find yourself able to focus? Wells. Sometimes you have to read something radically outside your normal wanderings and reboot your readerly life. For me, that was choosing a story that was within one of the main genres I regularly read but perhaps not a subniche of the genre I’ve previously read. Towards that end – I was grasping at straws as they say to find such a book and to find a writer I who could hold my attention.
Then, quite unexpectedly this lovely blog tour was announced, and I looked up the story and felt it might kick me out of my readerly funk! Especially considering I know NOTHING about Post-Apocalyptic worlds and rarely do I read stories about aliens overtaking worlds. Science Fiction is one of those delightful segues of interest in my regular wanderings and one that I want to delve deeper into exploring this year which is why I have a stack of Sci Fi Reads in queue. This particular story felt wholly new to me, and I felt would offer a new perspective on a genre I still feel like I’m in the early days of discovering.
Sometimes you just have to take a chance – find a story and buckle up for the ride it gives you! And, for me, the story held my interest for a long while until I reached a point where I wasn’t sure I could continue with the story. Although this ended up becoming a DNF for me – I have a lot of notes and thoughts to share about the story, the lead character (Kita) and the performance of the narrator – in case anyone else feels this is a better fit for them and know they can finish the journey I started with The Half-Life Empire.
The Half-Life Empire
by Shami Stovall
Source: Audible | Subscription
Narrator: Diana Richardson
From the Dragon Award–nominated author of Astra One young woman leads a ragtag band of survivors across a fractured, post-alien-invasion America.
Hacker Kita Yamasaki would do anything to escape the post-apocalyptic landscape that was the result of the Forever Winter. But for a normal person, the only options are the war-hungry nation-state of Ex Cathedra or the isolationist United California. Fortunately, Kita is anything but normal.
When she finds a faded brochure for the BC Oasis—an underground greenhouse capable of sheltering a quarter million people—she jumps at the opportunity, even going so far as to steal a fission battery the oasis requires to operate at full capacity. There’s just one problem . . . The battery belongs to the ruthless judges of Ex Cathedra.
Now Kita finds herself the target of a deadly chase. In her race to safety, she picks up three fellow Dallas; his mute daughter, Crouton; and Bishop, a junk hunter. But will they betray her and take the battery for themselves? Is one of them a member of the cultist Iron-Blooded who worship the few remaining alien invaders scattered across Earth’s wasteland?
Faced with certain death if they’re caught by the judges’ power-armored soldiers, Kita must put aside her suspicions and make a headlong dash for sanctuary—and the promise of a new life.
Genres: Science Fiction Places to find the book:
Add to LibraryThing
ASIN: B0CJ441FPM
Published by Podium Audio
on 17th October, 2023
Format: Audiobook | Digital
Length: 15 hours and 49 minutes (unabridged)
Published by: Podium Audio (@podiumentertainment) via Instagram
About Shami Stovall
Shami Stovall is a multi-award-winning author of fantasy and science fiction. Before that, she taught history and criminal law at the college level and loved every second. When she’s not reading fascinating articles and books about ancient China or the Byzantine Empire, Stovall can be found playing way too many video games, especially RPGs and tactics simulators.
Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon | Instagram | BlueSky | LibraryThing
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Posted Tuesday, 22 April, 2025 by jorielov in Action & Adventure Fiction, First Contact, Post-Apocalyptic, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction
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.
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.
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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
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
![End of the Year [2024] badge created by Jorie in Canva. Jorie Loves A Story badge created by Jorie in Canva as well.](https://i0.wp.com/jorielovesastory.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/73/2025/01/EndOfTheYear_2024.png?resize=426%2C596&ssl=1)
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!
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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
