Posted Sunday, 16 February, 2020 by jorielov (Narrator) Benjamin Fife, (Narrator) Brittany Pressley, (Narrator) Eric Jason Martin, (Narrator) Jayme Mattler, (Narrator) Laura Linney, Always the One, An Unconventional Countess, Andrew Krivak, Anita Abriel, Anne Marie Lewis, Annette Hubbell, Bright Dreams: The Brilliant Ideas of Nikola Tesla, Carrie Callaghan, Chantal Gadoury, Christmas Once Again, Collins Hemingway, Daughter of Sun Bride of Ice, Dayla and the Magic Ink Bottle, Edale Lane, Elizabeth Strout, Ellie Midwood, Emma S. Jackson, Essential Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet Cookbook, Eternity Through the Rearview Mirror, Ghost of the Bamboo Road, Good Boy, H.L. Burke, J.M. Evenson, Janice Broyles, Jenni Fletcher, Jennifer Finney Boylan, Jina Bacarr, Julia Kelly, Longbourn Dragon Entail, Margarita Montimore, Maria Grace, Mary Pauline Lowry, Merchants of Milan, Metropolis, Molly Divine RD, My Name Is Lucy Barton, Nancy Montuori, Nicole Derseweh, Oona Out of Order, Pemberley: Mr Darcy's Dragon, Rachel Hauck, Recipe for Persuasion, Regina Scott, Rona Munro, Salt the Snow, Sapphira Olsen, Sense without Sensibility, Signe Pike, Sonali Dev, Soraya M. Lane, Stanley Park, Stef Wade, Susan B Katz, Suzy Spitfire series, Tara Randel, The Bear, The Devil's Bride, The Easy 5 Ingredient Vegan Cookbook: 100 Healthy Plant Based Recipes, The Fifth Avenue Story Society, The Girls of Pearl Harbour, The Highlander's English Bride, The Light After the War, The Light Over London, The Lost Queen, The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen, The Matchmaker's Rogue, The Quill Collective, The Roxy Letters, The Runaway Heir, The Secret Heir, The Story of Frida Kahlo: A Biography Book for New Readers, The Vegan Ketogenic Diet Cookbook, The Very Last Leaf, Tracy Dockray, Vanessa Kelly, Whitney Lauritsen, Winterdream, Yuletide 12 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!
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.

And, then,…
Jorie finally returns to journalling her weekly bookish adventures,…
Finding the motivation to write #TheSundayPost has been a bit tricky the past few years, which is why you’ve noticed a staunch reduction in posts alighting in my feeds! I had a lot of good intentions to resume this lovely meme I was enjoying participating in but structuring it the way I wanted to have my weekly journalled notes to appear on my blog was part of the issue and the other half of it really is that I have a lot to shuffle behind-the-blog so to speak (we all do,..) to where I was thankful I had the hours I needed to maintain Jorie Loves A Story but when it came to writing up supplemental posts and keeping in step with the memes I love to blog about – long ago, I realised something had to ‘give’ and these were the posts I had to put on hiatus.
Some months I thought I might be able to return to them sooner, so there are a few notes here or there saying “#TheSundayPost” is returning this week or that week, but no, they haven’t returnt until now! I have a lot of news I never had the chance to share from past reading challenges or past milestones of the blog – I might tuck those into some retrospective posts as the months move forward. For now, I simply wanted to try to recapture a bit of what has been going on since January and then, I’ll tackle what I want to share from [2019-back].


*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!

I almost cannot believe *seven years!* have elapsed since I first created this idea I had for a book blog and undertook the journey of what has emerged through seeking out the bookish and readerly adventures I’ve curated ever since I first started to blog my bookish and geeky life wayy back in [2013] !! I hadn’t known then how my life would be tenfold #blessed by the authors, their stories and the bookish culture I would endeavour to become a part of until I was into my first few years as a book blogger. There was no guide and blueprint towards sorting out this book blogosphere world nor the twitterverse where I undertook getting socially chatty on a platform I never expected I’d take like a duck to water to explore, engage and carve out my own joyfully tweeting presence seven years in the making!
I’ve worked with publishers in the United States, Canada, the UK and aboard whilst I have had the chance to get to host blog tours with genre focused blog touring companies inasmuch as innovative and insightful touring companies who either focus on select works of Fiction, Non-Fiction and Poetry. Each step of the way, I was not just hosting blog tours or seeking stories for review consideration but I was endeavouring with each opportunity which crossed my path to read deeper and to seek out the stories which :pushed: me into new horizons of literary exploration. For me, that was always the key goal: to find the stories being writ by the authors who are giving me a wicked good read!
I never knew if I could balance my online readerly life the same way I balance my IRL readerly life – but I have found being a hybrid reader has had its best benefits because I can move between mainstream and INSPY offerings by publishers, publicists, authors, agents and touring companies quite easily. Each year, I have decided to seek out new adventures and to re-shift what I wanted to focus on – I started to reduce how many blog tours I would host each month back in [2016] something I happily maintained until this February [2020] where I slide back into a bit of a chaotic blog schedule! (laughs)

Through the years, I’ve disclosed snippets of my walk in faith, my struggles of being a migraineur (someone who has chronic migraines) and have found that I love hosting guest features where I get to interview different guests – authors, editors, narrators (of audiobooks), actors (for Indie Film projects) and other creatives who have crossed my path. I still love blogging the heart out of the stories I am reading – not just to examine the story as a discerning reader myself but to truly give a strong impression about what I found inside the story in order to help someone else choose whether or not the story I’ve read and blogged about is a good ‘fit’ for their own readerly curiosities. As we all gravitate towards different stories at different times – we all dance through genres and literary styles – a book which appeals to us today might not resonate with us when we go to read it, etc. I find I love visiting with the book bloggers who give me something to ‘chew on’ as I’m reading their blogs – from their reviews, to their guest features to their discussion posts. I want to know more than the surface layer of their reactions to stories and that is what I try to bring to my own readers here on Jorie Loves A Story. (and yes, the “a” is purposefully shown in caps!) Read More

Posted Sunday, 16 February, 2020 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
Posted Tuesday, 28 January, 2020 by jorielov #100Summits, A Life of Secrets, A Stroke of Malice, An Unconventional Countess, Anna Lee Huber, Blackbriar Cove, Clare Chase, Climb, Cry of the Raven, Emma S. Jackson, Eve Mallow Mysteries, J.S. Monroe, Jane Austen's Dragons, Janet Gover, Jenni Fletcher, Jennifer Silverwood, Jina Bacarr, Lady Darby Mysteries, Margaret Kaine, Maria Grace, Morgan L. Busse, Mystery on Hidden Lane, Return of the Blackwell Brothers, Susan Spann, The Devil's Bride, The Lawson Sisters, The Other You, The Runaway Girl 16 Comments

[Official Blurb] Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature / weekly meme created by The Broke & the Bookish. The meme was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke & the Bookish. We’d love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your Top 10 Lists! In January, 2018 this meme is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.
[Topic of 28th January, 2020:
The Top Ten Most Anticipated New Releases for 2020! (thus far!);
in lieu of Book Cover Freebie as I was delayed writing this
when the topic was originally featured on the 7th of January!]


Today’s entry was inspiring to me for the following reasons:
I’ve been wanting to showcase the STORIES I’ve had my eye on reading for quite a few years now; as each New Year when #TopTenTuesday is hosting one of these lovelies, I’ve wanted to dive into the topic and settle my thoughts on a selection of stories I would most desire to read or would be planning to read in the timeline of the topic’s originating post.
This year is quite special as I came to find out about several #newbooks by already beloved authors which are coming out in early 2020. Some are #newtomeauthors carried forward from [2019] and others are #newtomeauthors arriving in my bookish life in [2020!]; uniquely enough! (big smiles) Several are past, present & forthcoming featured guests on @SatBookChat (the Romance & Women’s Fiction chat I host on Saturdays semi-weekly – at least twice monthly) – whilst one release in particular is a celebration of one author’s adventurous journey in Japan whilst healing and recovering from Cancer.
Each of these stories attracted my eyes for different reasons – which I’ll be happily discussing and revealling throughout the post. Kindly let me know in the comments if I’ve struck your own keen eye of interest and if perhaps we share any mutual #mustreads for 2020 in common OR have any authors we share in our readerly lives we’ve previously discovered!?
I’ll be re-routing through the original post for #TopTenTuesday when this topic originated whilst including it on this week’s linky for everyone to seek out to find.
Let’s all have a rockin’ blast this first half of 2020!
Stay bookishly curious
& may your readerly adventures be as blissful as my own!

DUE NOTE: all the authors and books on this list are a combination of the stories I have the pleasure of meeting as a book blogger (ie. blog tours, publicists, publishers or direct from authors themselves) with the exception of Kate Elliott, of whom I discovered as a seventeen year old who joined the Science Fiction Book Club (it was mail-order book catalogue club) and found “King’s Dragon” (Book One of the Crown of Stars Saga). Two of these authors are #newtomeauthors – both of whom are upcoming guests during @SatBookChat – Jenni Fletcher and Emma S. Jackson.
Each of the books represented here are stories I hand-picked to be of interest to my own readerly wanderings this first half of 2020 – the press materials featured were given to me to use on this post to celebrate the stories themselve with full permission of the authors who wrote the stories.
In regards to my personal connections to these authors, I have maintained contact with Kate Elliott off/on via Twitter whilst keeping my eyes on her current series and releases; inasmuch as the fact that I had the pleasure of getting to know certain ChocLit authors as we communicated and shared our bookish and writerly lives through my chat (@SatBookChat) – Christina Courtenay, Clare Chase and Janet Gover. With Ms Kaine, I have tried to keep in the loop with her releases but I haven’t had the chance to interact with her as much as the other writers I’ve mentioned.
Susan Spann and Jennifer Silverwood I’ve considered friends over the years where their path and mine have continued to cross. I originally met Ms Spann in @LitChat before reading the very first Shinobi Mystery which was “Claws of the Cat”. Silverwood and I have the same literary wanderings and interests as fellow readers and writers which is why we forged a friendship due to so many mutual interests we have shared. Ms Bacarr and I remained in contact between my first meeting with her during #HistFicChat and after I had read her novel “Christmas Once Again” – happily having her as a featured guest on @SatBookChat this past November, 2019.
I am disclosing this, to assure you that I can formulate an honest opinion, even though I have interacted with these authors through our respective love & passion of reading inside the twitterverse whilst I host #SatBookChat and having previously read their stories. I treat each book as a ‘new experience’, whether I personally know the author OR whether I am reading a book by them for the first time or continuing to read their releases as they are available. This also applies to when I am discussing their stories outside of featuring a review.


The Lawson Sisters by Janet Gover
20th January, 2020 (Digital First Release)
A heartfelt and compelling story of family, secrets and second chances, set in the heart of the beautiful Hunter Valley of NSW, from an award-winning voice in Australian fiction.
Family, fortune and holding on to what counts…
For many years Elizabeth Lawson has battled single-handedly to run the family’s historic horse stud in memory of her beloved father. But a devastating loss puts her dreams at risk. With no options left, Liz is forced to turn to her estranged sister Kayla for help.
Kayla has built a new life in the city as a wedding planner, far removed from the stable yard sweat and dust of her rural upbringing. She never thought she’d go back. But when Liz calls out of the blue, Kayla forms a plan that could save their childhood home.
Kayla’s return forces Liz to confront her past … and her future, in the shape of Mitch, her first and only love, who still watches over her from the other side of the creek.
But Liz still hides a terrible secret. When Kayla learns the truth, will the Lawson sisters find common ground or will their conflict splinter the family once again?
I am eagerly awaiting the print release!
Read More

Posted Tuesday, 28 January, 2020 by jorielov in Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blogosphere Events & Happenings, Bookish Memes, JLAS Update Post, Jorie Loves A Story, Jorie Loves A Story Features, Top Ten Tuesday