How is it November already?! I got a bit side tracked again this month so my reading was rather low compared to September, but that’s OK.
My Fav
Although The Finders surprised me, I also got to enjoy it in ways I wasn’t expecting!
I went in expecting the book to be focused on the dogs, and found it focuses much more on the murder and the mystery. Yes, the dogs play an important part of the story. But they aren’t the central narrative.
The cool thing is that it’s a series, so I’m hoping I can keep reading them as they come out.
My Least Fav
Legends Rise isn’t a bad book. I actually rated it 4 stars and can’t wait for the next one to come out. It just wasn’t QUITE as good as the others I read in October.
It just had the unfortunate luck to fall in the same month as a few others books that I really enjoyed.
If you haven’t read my reviews of the Venators series, you seriously should!
With the way things are going for me at the moment I’m wanting to hold off on scheduling any more reviews than I’ve already agreed to do this year as I have a few things I want to focus on and more reviews will make this difficult to do.
It’s been two months since I shared a Wrap Up with you and that’s entirely my fault coz I just got way too busy. How’d I get so busy in Stage 4 lockdown? No idea!
August Reviews
September Reviews
I think I made up for July’s lack of romance in these two months… I think they all have at least an element of romance in them. How’d that happen?
My Fav
I’ll be reviewing the Sea Dragons of Amber Bay trilogy in October, and I can assure you. Of the two I’ve read so far, they’re amazing!
I was blown away by this book and was IMMEDIATELY messaging Zoe asking when I’d get the second book, Ensnared, to read.
Please make sure you come back for this trilogy!
My Least Fav
I was actually broken hearted that this one was my least fav. I love Christmas and I really enjoy reading Lucy’s books so it really upset me that I didn’t enjoy this one as much.
I mentioned it in my review, but I do think I didn’t enjoy this as much as I could have because I was in a bit of a funk personally. We’ve all experienced the fatigue that lockdown has on us, and I read this during a period where we weren’t allowed outside for more than 1 hour and it really just got to me.
I honestly think if I tried this again when I’m in a better frame of mind I would enjoy it more. So this is totally on me, not Lucy!
My Goals
Yea can I skip this bit?
Other than having a stellar September (after following a dismal August) reading month, I haven’t really made any progress on any of my goals. This lockdown crap really sucks.
For anyone that might be interested, since July 3rd my city has been in lockdown. For the first 4 weeks it was Stage 3, then our COVID cases spiked so much we went into Stage 4. What is Stage 4 I hear you asking?
Well, that means we can:
Only leave our house for work or study if we’re a permitted worker or it’s unsafe for us to stay at home (nice of them to acknowledge the increase in family violence there)
Can’t move more than 5km (3 miles) from our homes UNLESS for permitted work or study (noted above)
Only 1 member of a household can go to the shops ONCE per day
No more than 2 people from a household can exercise together
You must remain on your property (curfew) between 8pm to 5am
You can only exercise for ONE hour a day (and apparently you were meant to stay near home… not drive to somewhere within your 5km radius and exercise there… not that they told us that bit…)
You can’t see any friends or family UNLESS you’re an official carer
Restaurants are open for takeaway ONLY and must close early enough to get everyone home by the start of the curfew
Are you beginning to sense why I went a little stir crazy in August and struggled?
Not to mention I swear everyone near me got dogs, don’t care about training them and they all walk their dogs at different times so it’s impossible for me to walk my poor baby at a time where he won’t have to come face to face with his biggest fears on a daily basis. I honestly can’t wait for this to be over.
I hope you’re all travelling safe and not feeling too down about all this. Remember, if we all look after ourselves, get tested, wear our masks etc we can get rid of this damned virus.
I should’ve had one more review this month, but I didn’t coz I just ran out of time to set it up!
Of the 6 reviews, 3 of them are me finishing off another series review for The Boys of Jackson Harbour. Go me!
My Fav
I really enjoyed this one! I didn’t have to wait long since the previous book which was great. But it also reminded me why I need to go back and read the first 3 book!
I promise, reviews for the full series of First Comes Love is coming!
My Least Fav
You won’t have to wait long for my review of this, it’s coming out tomorrow!
As much as I love Zoe’s books, there was just something about this one that wasn’t as great as the others. It’s not that it was bad, it just felt like it was missing something.
Something that I’ve chosen to do across the month of August is to participate in Pawgust.
Pawgust is a challenge to walk for 30 minutes a day for 30 days in the month of August. The goal is to raise enough money to raise and train 22 puppies to become Guide Dogs in Australia.
I know many of you aren’t from Australia, but if you can spare a few dollars you can donate on my Pawgust Page. You can even follow my progress at Bones’ Instagram page to make sure we actually do walk 30 minutes a day for 30 days!
Pretty please help me raise funds to help those with low or no vision so they can get around independently. Ever dollar really does help go towards the $55,000 needed to raise a single puppy.
This month has only been reviews but I’m so glad I was able to keep up with my schedule. I’m slowly getting back on track so hopefully I’ll get back to being about 3-4 weeks ahead so I don’t have to stress soon!
Out of 9 reviews I’m actually surprised only 3 are romance given my penchant for reading romance since blogging. You’ll hopefully continue to see a good mix of genres in the future, but you never know!
My Fav
This was so incredibly close to Crossing in Time but If It’s Only Love only just won out. Probably because it’s the end of the series. It wow’d me in so many good ways and I just loved every minute of it!
My review for this is coming in June so you’ll need to come back then to see all my thoughts. Sorry!
But please also check out Crossing in Time coz I’ll be reading the rest of the series (what’s available) in the next few months so I’ll be sharing those reviews closer to the release date of the next book to be released.
My Least Fav
I’m actually hating that I have to put The Summoned Ones as my least fav book for this month. Like, I gave it 4 stars! That’s not a bad book!
It just happened that I liked the others a smidgen more than this one.
Darryl is a debut author and I’ve given him some feedback above what I’ve written in my review because I really want to see him succeed and continue to publish books. They were all minor things that many authors publishing through publishing houses could improve on too.
Please go and read my review, check out his site and show some support coz I really wanna read the next book and I know a few of you would enjoy this as well.
Bookish Goals Progress
I’m kicking butt at reading more sci-fi. Found a new series so be prepared for the rest of the series coming to you in the coming months!
My GoodReads goal is going well. I’ve read 42 books this year out of the 80 I said I wanted to read. So at halfway through the year I’m just over halfway through my goal! YAY!
My Aussie challenges aren’t going as fast as I thought they would. I really need to make time to read those books! I’ve read 30% of the Aussie Author Bingo (no change since last month) and 72% of the A-Z of Characters challenge (up from 64% last month).
Although I’m almost at the point of asking if I can use a character with U in the name somewhere rather than as the first letter of their first or last name. I just can’t seem to find a book I want to read, or plan to read that fulfils this one!
Personal Goals Progress
Yea these are pretty much on hold. LOL!
Running has stopped for a few reasons. 1, it’s too bloody cold and my treadmill isn’t good for my running program and 2, I don’t trust the morons out with their dogs to keep away from Bones.
Because of said morons I’ve had to pull his walking back all the way to our street and I’m only just starting to venture out to our block. We’ve had a lot of set backs thanks to COVID-19 with his anxiety and stuff. But we’re making progress again so I’m hoping I can keep that forward momentum.
It’s been two months since I’ve done one of these so I’ll be doing a wrap up for both April and May today. In that time I’ve done 14 reviews and 2 posts
I had planned on having a few more come out, but I got caught up in 50+ hour working weeks and… you know… things happened!
My Fav
Song of the Soul was the last book in the series. I enjoyed every book in this series and it was a REALLY close call between this one and Venators: Promises Forged (review coming in June).
I know not every series ends well. But Lisa didn’t let that happen this time!
You can see reviews for all seven books in the series on the Muse Chronicles page.
My Least Fav
Overall, I enjoyed Holding out for a Hero. I just found parts could be improved upon to make it amazing. It just wasn’t quite there enough for me to fully engage with it and love it like I’ve loved other books.
Check out my review to see why I thought it could be improved.
Bookish Goals Progress
Well I FINALLY finished reviewing all the books in one of Tamora Pierce’s books. I think I’ll wait until I’ve actually written all the reviews for the next world before scheduling those reviews. That way you won’t have to wait so long and with random gaps between reviews to see what I thought.
I nailed all the series reviews I had planned (Time for Alexander and the Muse Chronicles) YAY! I even have a few more planned. Some I’ve read most of, some I’ve read a couple and want to finish. But you’ll see those coming over the next few months.
I’ve read 30% of the books for the Aussie Author Bingo and 64% of the A-Z of Characters. I’ve got a few of those planned to be reviewed in the next month or so, so that number will keep going up! I’m slowly getting there!
Other than the fact I’m stuck on a book with a character whose name starts with U. I mean seriously. How have I not come across a single book where a character’s name starts with a U this year?!
Otherwise, I’m not doing so great at my reading goals. Does anyone want to help me with my book database? It’s just data entry! lol…
Personal Goals Progress
Well with this damned coronavirus going around my gym has shut down. And since I have asthma that’s triggered by the cold and we’re coming into winter where I live, I won’t be going back for a bit once it’s allowed to reopen. Coz you know. Compromised respiratory system and respiratory virus isn’t really a good mix.
I have been able to keep up my running though! I’m now up to Week 6 Day 1 (5 mins jogging, 3 mins walk, 8 mins jogging, 3 mins walk, 5 mins jogging) and going strong. I stay on the same day until I feel like I can do it comfortably before moving on.
Otherwise I’ve just been working like crazy for 2 clients. One we’re still working on the prototype (once we’ve got the template nailed they’ll be super quick to make in the future) and one is a contract where I’m employed as an individual. But it’s still doing the same work I do as my business so I’m super happy!
Anyway, assuming I can remember (and feel like looking at a screen) to schedule all my reviews as I’ve got planned, you’ll be getting one or two reviews each week until end of August.
Holy crap this month seems to have been a crazy month where the whole world went a little crazy with coronavirus. Like how does a beer’s stock price fall just coz some virus shares some of it’s name?! How silly can people be?!
In that time I’ve been able to kick start a new series and still posted 11 reviews.
I’ve been working a little more this month so haven’t spent as much time reading and I’ve also been spending time watching Altered Carbon and reading that for the series comparisons. Which means I’ve only read like 5 books this month.
I’m hoping by the time this goes live that it’s 6 books. But I’m not making any promises!
My Fav
This is a last minute change for me. I honestly can’t wait to be able to read the next book in the series and hope it won’t be too long until I can.
Because of this, I had to change from my previous choice, Summer in Provence. You’ll be able to see my full review in April.
My Least Fav
This honestly wasn’t a bad book and I have a review coming for this next week. Yet it had more flaws than the other books I read this month so somehow ended up here.
I also hate doing this coz it’s by an Aussie author and I don’t read many of those and I want to promote them rather than shoot them down.
So please come back next week to see all my thoughts about it!
Bookish Goals Progress
I was able to start my first book to film comparison with Altered Carbon and I’m feeling good about the progress. Especially given the positive feedback I’ve been getting for it. Although I’d still do it even if I didn’t have it since I don’t focus on stats and stuff too much.
I’ve managed to hold strong with Rachel’s tours so I can also get around to the NetGalley and other ARCs I have. Although I have been able to keep up with at least one book read a week which is good.
Once I finish reading Altered Carbon I’ll be 50% of the way through the A-Z Character challenge, while I’ve also been able to read one book for the Aussie Author Bingo challenge.
Personal Goals Progress
So fitness wise I took a slight backwards step from a couple of injuries but I’m getting back into it. I just need to be careful now that it’s starting to get colder so my asthma doesn’t flare up and really take me out of action.
Although with coronavirus going around, and talk of us all needing to self-isolate I’m not sure how all of that’s going to go. Although the gym I go to is giving us workouts we can do at home which is awesome.
Bones is also making some progress with his reactions to other dogs. We’re getting closer and closer to getting him to make his first doggy friend. I’m hoping with a few more buckets of water and some time we’ll get there. Slowly… O so slowly…
Another month done and dusted, and I made it through all the review’s I’d agreed to do! Yay!
Who knew I’d be able to pump out 15 reviews in the space of 28 days? I’ve updated the layout of these so you can click on the banner of each to go to their review. There’s 9 romances (with a mixture of sub-genres), 5 sci-fi/fantasys and one suspense/murder mystery.
Next week I’ll be going to a new schedule with my standard reviews on Mondays, series reviews on Fridays and on Wednesday I’ll be launching a new discussion kind of series, so make sure you come and find out what that will be! I have 14 reviews/posts scheduled with only one additional review that falls outside of my regular posting days.
Continuing on from last month, the below two books are books I’ve READ in February, not necessarily reviewed in February.
My Fav
My review for this is coming up on Monday so you don’t have long to wait until you can find out exactly what I thought of this.
Suffice it to say, when I finished reading this book I immediately noted down that I thought it’d be my fav for the month. I really hope you’ll come back on Monday for this review.
My Least Fav
I just reviewed this on Wednesday and if you saw that review you’ll know I just couldn’t connect with the characters. I’m thinking I’m not a fan of Zoe’s writing style even though the stories sound like they’ll be great.
Because of this I’ll probably skip any tour offers for her books in the future. I don’t want to give negative reviews knowing I probably won’t like the book. Since I’ve read two of her books now I feel comfortable saying I’m not really a fan based on my reading tastes.
Bookish Goals Progress
I’m continuing to work on my series reviews (also FINALLY updated the landing page for the series I’ve read), those goals will get ticked off as time goes on and my reviews are released. One of the goals will be ticked off on Wednesday hehehe, that’ll be good and I’m looking forward to launching that!
In terms of not overwhelming myself with Rachel’s tours. She was very understanding when I told her I had to go on a ban for her tours so I wouldn’t overwhelm myself. So far so good and I’m keeping myself under strict control!
Sci-fi books are slowly getting into my reading list. Slowly slowly. Although not having a chance to work on my database probably isn’t helping lol! And same thing with my new look. I’m thinking that might need to be a behind the scene’s slow progress to do a big re-brand launch later in the year. I’ll have to see how I go with that one.
I’ve yet to start the Aussie Bingo challenge, although I’m about halfway through the A-Z Characters challenge. Chances are in March I’ll make a lot of progress in both of those as I get to my NetGalley requests to tick off a bunch in both challenges.
With 4 days to go of the month, I’ve read 8 books, started another (that one will take a while coz I’m doing just a little bit each week) and I may possibly finish a 9th book. If I don’t finish the 9th book, I’ll get pretty close to finishing it.
Personal Goals Progress
I totally forgot to mention it last month but I did start video editing. Although that’s taken a backseat this month coz of how much I’ve needed to read. But I’m hoping I can get back into it in March coz I still have my trip to Perth and The Big Bounce Australia day to edit and publish videos for.
I’m a complete noob at video editing but if you’re interested in checking out what I managed to cobble together you can check out the video’s on YouTube.
In other news. I’m working on the running and Bones is having a great time running with me, he’s even looking at me like “can we walk yet?” as I’m able to run for longer and longer each week. I’m sure he’ll be happy when we’re just running for ages but I gotta get there. Fingers crossed by the time I get to 5km he’ll actually get tired by the end of it!
I also managed to get my first client for my business! YAY!!! I should hopefully have started working on it by the time this goes live, just need to finalise the contract and details first 🙂
I can’t believe it’s already the end of January! We’re already one twelfth of the way through the year.
I don’t feel like I’ve made much progress with my reading this month which means I’m starting to stress about all the reviews I’ve committed to in February. Finger’s crossed I get there. Worst case scenario I’m going to have to talk to the tour organisers to see about changing up how I do the reviews.
Come back on Friday for this review
8 reviews in one month feels like a lot. Yet when I look at my schedule for February and see 14 reviews I’ve committed to I feel like this was nothing. Fingers crossed I don’t go mental trying to get all of next months reading done!
I’m going to change up this next section (My Fav and My Least Fav) compared to how I did it last yr. Since I’m now tracking all my reading stats I’d like to focus this next section on the books I’ve read in January rather than the ones I’ve reviewed.
My Fav
Whenever I wasn’t reading Of Night and Dark Obscurity, I was thinking about it.
What were all the clues pointing towards?
Were my theories right? Was I even on the right track?
I honestly kept thinking through this, all the clues, how authors think etc trying to figure out what was happening.
My Least Fav
It’s not like I DIDN’T like Lilian and the Irresistible Duke. It just didn’t engage me and stay with me like some of the others did.
I enjoyed reading it.
I just wasn’t totally absorbed into the world wanting to know more.
Bookish Goals Progress
Not much progress has been made here. And I don’t think much will be made for another month or so.
I haven’t started the Aussie Author Bingo challenge yet since none of the review’s I’ve committed to in Jan-March contribute to this. However, for the A-Z Characters challenge I’m 22% (5 books) done! YAY!
I’m also having a lot of fun with my reading stats spreadsheet. I had to make several changes early in the month when I realised things like the graph layouts/labels and the dates (I’m Aussie, we do DD/MM/YYYY not MM/DD/YYYY) weren’t how I like them. But otherwise they’re good!
Personal Goals Progress
Ok, so THIS is where I’ve made some progress!!! And I’m super excited to share these updates with you!
I’m getting close to that size 6. Cutting down to two meals a day (although they are bigger than what I was eating before) has contributed to this. But I also think something else helped. Keep reading to find out what!
I’ve booked in a trip to the Maldives for 5 nights in November for my 30th. My birthday is in September but that’s still in monsoon season so wanted to hold off until later in the yr so I’d get a better chance of getting nice weather.
I’m super, super, SUPER excited about this coz we got an ALL INCLUSIVE (and I mean, any booze you want all day long) package at the Pullman Maamutaa Resort with an overwater bungalow with a pool . Which also includes stuff like a massage or jet ski tour and a sunset fishing trip.
This holiday will be a once in a lifetime kind of a trip and I’m so glad I found us such a great deal. It’s all paid for and I made sure to get travel insurance straight away so we don’t lose that in case something happens.
ARE YOU READY FOR IT?!
All my life I’ve wanted a dog. And you may remember that I had rescuing a dog as one of the things I want to do this yr.
Well, while I was in Perth I was keeping an eye on some rescues that were available and found a little guy who caught my eye. I put through an application the day before we were due to fly back home and got a call from his foster mum while we were at the airport relaxing before our flight.
Now that I’ve had this little guy for 2 weeks and we’re definitely keeping him I thought I should officially introduce you to BONES!
Keep scrolling to learn a few facts about him!
Hes 7 months old and dog aggressive (I’m working on this with obedience training and socialisation)
He stares at us when we eat hoping to get some (partly why he’s not allowed off leash inside yet)
He loves cuddles
And I really do mean he loves cuddles. If I’m on a couch he’s allowed on he likes being in my lap. Even if I need to use him to hold my Kindle.
And he LOVES dragging his face along the ground like this! The amount of weird looks I get from people when he does this is quite funny. If I try to stop him he gets annoyed and keeps trying to do it until I let him.
And, yes. I have realised I’ve become one of those mums who is always taking photos of her baby. I can’t help it! He’s so cute!!!
If you want me to include Bones as a regular feature in my Wrap Ups let me know. I know I’ll have heaps of photos to use if you want updates on his progress!
December involved a lot of wrapping things up, getting ready for 2019 and generally trying not to lose focus. I finished my contract and packed up my desk etc and ended my 15 months with them with a Christmas party!
I can honestly say I haven’t done much reading this month with everything that’s going on. But let’s see what I released this month!
I don’t think 7 reviews, 2 discussions and weekly wrap up posts for the Reindeer Readathon is too bad!
My Fav
I can’t believe I’m saying this but I need to make this one my fav. It captured me in a way I wasn’t expecting, was funny, serious, really showed me how dangerous this was. And just generally opened my eyes to cave diving.
Seriously, if you haven’t grabbed a copy of this you really need to! If you’re not sure why you should read a biographical style book, go and read my review and you’ll see why you just have to read this.
My Least Fav
I don’t think it’s Elaine’s fault, or the books fault, that this one is here. If the blurb had had sold this to me as a friendship book with lots of characters to follow I would’ve been prepared for the style it’s written in.
Single all the Way felt like it had too many characters points of view, it wasn’t a rom com like the blurb suggested and I think coming into this series part way through didn’t help matters for me.
I’d suggest starting at the start of the series if you’re interested in giving this one a go.
I’m going to leave this wrap up here since I’m going to be doing a full yr in review on Wednesday, and then the plan for 2020 and what you can expect on Friday.
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