Month: January 2021

Reunited on Dragonfly Lane // Release Week Interview with Annie Rains

Posted January 27, 2021 / Features / 2 Comments

Happy Wednesday and belated book birthday to Annie Rains and REUNITED ON DRAGONFLY LANE! My review will be going live next week but I’m here today with a fun interview with Annie about both the Sweetwater Springs series and her upcoming series later this year – Somerset Lake. This book is the final installment in the Sweetwater Springs series, which makes me incredibly sad, but there’s a wonderful setup to ease into Somerset Lake. 😉 There’s a pretty amazing story about one of my very favorite books in the series, CHRISTMAS ON MISTLETOE LANE, in the interview below! Did you pull any inspiration from real life, your hobbies, your own personality, etc. when developing the characters Chase and Sophie? There have been characters in the past where I added little pieces of myself to their lives and backstories. I didn’t do that for Sophie or Chase in this book though. I have never been a climber, hiker, or any of the outdoor things that Sophie and Chase once enjoyed doing together. I did enough research on these activities that I feel like I have been out there on a mountain though. When writing a companion series like this, did you have to map out certain main characters you were hoping to feature and plan out love interests? Chase was a new addition introduced in the last book, so I’m curious about how far out you’d plan couples and stories! I planned out the series for the first three books, expecting […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #324: New-to-Me Authors

Posted January 26, 2021 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 4 Comments

Favorite New-to-Me Authors in 2020 Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review. When I scrolled through the 100 books I read in 2020, I was a bit nervous I wouldn’t have 10 authors to include. I kept seeing some of my classic favorites instead of new authors. I think it’s because my reading was so abysmal and hard to keep up with last year that I relied on reading new books by favorite authors to keep me going and get me excited. Nonetheless, I found 10 gems to share as new-to-me authors I’m excited to read more from in 2021 and beyond! Exciting Companion Series-Starters Naturally these are all Forever Romance new releases from last year! I love a small town companion series, obviously, so the new books by Reese Ryan and Barb Curtis hit the spot for me – I can’t wait to continue them with their next releases and new characters! THE BOYFRIEND PROJECT was amazing and the set-up for the series (three girls get screwed over by the same guy and swear off love/become friends) is just as great. Totally counting down until I can get my hands on book two! Mystery/Thriller Finds I spent a ton of time […]

Five on Fridays [12]

Posted January 22, 2021 / Five on Fridays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Five on Friday displays the the top five things that have been on my mind this week! It could be book-related, but it may be music, movies, TV, personal life, food, etc. I’ll generally be posting these biweekly and linking up with Friday Favorites (hosted by A Little Bit of Everything, Grace and Love, and Momfessionals). Previous posts can be found here! Inauguration I’m peeved I missed Kamala’s swearing in because I was bringing the dog out but at least I got to see Biden’s (and watch hers later). Man, what a collective sigh of relief we all had on Wednesday. It was just so nice to go to sleep without wondering if the president was going to piss off someone overnight or incite another riot. Just Finished: Night Stalker I’m trying to find that perfect balance between reading and TV watching. I made a nice morning routine where I can do both before I start working for the day! Depending on what my work day looks like too, I’ll pop something on in the background. I watched Night Stalker this week. It was pretty interesting – I’ve been meaning to watch more true crime things because I’m super behind. I knew a lot about Richard Ramirez already but it was still cool to see more details about the case, especially with the awesome ending to his story (you’ll know what I mean if you’re familiar with the case – I can’t figure out how to phrase it otherwise haha) […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #323: Didn’t Get To

Posted January 19, 2021 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Books I Didn’t Get to in 2020 Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review. This topic makes me want to cry a little bit, not gonna lie. There are probably a ton of books I could feature here. My reading was garbage last year and we all know it haha. However, I decided to make this the top ten books that I am genuinely baffled I didn’t prioritize last year (I’m going to keep it to 2020 releases that I didn’t have review copies for – since I’ve kind of already talked about some of those I should have read!).

2021 Planners

Posted January 13, 2021 / Goals & Planning, Personal / Information / Etc. / 2 Comments

I always love sharing my planner setup for the year! I did still use my planners last year, for the most part – I know 2020 was a bizarre year to try to plan but I usually need SOMETHING to physically or digitally keep track of things, even if it’s just monitoring daily to-dos for work or blogging. I have a lot of planners this year because I personally found that I need to keep things separate in order to be successful. Personal Planning Artful Agenda I still use my Artful Agenda, as it syncs up all of my digital calendars and keeps them in one place. I will admit that I don’t currently use the to-do lists as much or the daily page planning, but I do sometimes! I just have a lot of planners and find that I don’t keep this tab open on my computer screen like I used to when working in the office? Not sure why. You can read my detailed review from when I first got this HERE. This is my current planner for events (lol – what are events?) or appointments. Productivity Planner I linked a lot of videos by Jordan Page (Fun Cheap or Free) and while I don’t think I love her from a personal perspective (feel free to do your own research), I think a lot of the tips and methods make sense. I purchased this Productivity Planner based on the block scheduling system she has, which I talk about […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #322: Resolutions

Posted January 12, 2021 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 2 Comments

Resolutions for 2021 Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review. This is sometimes a TTT and other years I’ve made it into my own post. I just remembered the other day that I hadn’t done one yet so I was happy to see it come up as a TTT for this week. As always, my resolutions are split into reading, blogging, and personal. Continue to not feel pressured to read and enjoy other hobbies As usual, this stays on my list for the next year! I’ve been trying for years now to not make reading a job or a chore. I try to enjoy other hobbies, like Lego, watching wrestling, seeing friends (ugh Covid), and watching things with Chris. Now that we have Miller and a ton of my time each week is spent playing with him and caring for him, my reading is even worse than usual. I want to keep up with this attitude though. Enjoying what I’m doing is my priority. Read 100 books, but be okay with settling for 75-80 I had this big crisis when trying to figure out my Goodreads goal. I’ve made it 120 books for a number of years now because 10 books a […]

Five on Fridays [11]

Posted January 8, 2021 / Five on Fridays, Weekly Memes / 4 Comments

Five on Friday displays the the top five things that have been on my mind this week! It could be book-related, but it may be music, movies, TV, personal life, food, etc. I’ll generally be posting these biweekly and linking up with Friday Favorites (hosted by A Little Bit of Everything, Grace and Love, and Momfessionals). Previous posts can be found here! Near Year, New Motivation, New Nutritionist I was thinking a lot about New Years and resolutions. I’ve always said that I think it’s stupid to get THIS excited about a new year, when time basically isn’t real and it’s meaningless. 2020 sucked and flipping the calendar to 2021 doesn’t change anything without actual progress or work. Anyways, I’ve simultaneously (like everyone else) used this time to plan new goals and set intentions for the next year. January is such a motivating month for me and I don’t feel bad if/when I fall off the wagon in February. I think because time REALLY doesn’t exist between Christmas and New Years, we all fall out of routines and are so desperate to get back into the swing of things – that’s why January is a great time to start over and freshen everything up! That’s what I think anyways 😉 No major resolutions here except to keep working on my health and nutrition. I want to eat better overall, get into intuitive eating instead of tracking, and become better at working out. I’m trying to focus on cookbooks and recipes […]

Whipping Netgalley into Shape – 80% Here I Come

Posted January 7, 2021 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 5 Comments

I wrote in my recent resolutions post that I really want to get my Negalley ratio up to 80%. I’m pretty proud of myself for currently being at 74% – that’s honestly quite a good number! I thought it would be fun and motivational for me to take a look at the egalleys I have on my Kindle, pick out 15 that I definitely still want to read, and develop a little TBR. A few are not released yet and I have real plans to read them ahead of their pub date. I’m going to attempt to not request any more books unless they’re ones I’d read literally ASAP when approved! This is obviously also not an exhaustive list of egalleys I have or books that are coming out soon, more just like ones to get excited about finally reading! Not Published Yet I’m actually reading REUNITED ON DRAGONFLY LANE this week! I’m so bummed to leave Sweetwater Springs behind but her next series sounds just as atmospheric. LIFE’S TOO SHORT is the final book following these characters and I loved the second book (compared to the first) so hopefully this one is just as good. A PHO LOVE STORY – man, I literally remember when this was announced and I was so so so excited. The fact that it’s been on my Kindle for months and I still haven’t read it super early??? Dang. And THE MEET-CUTE PROJECT comes out very soon. Gotta get going on it. Backlist I […]

January TBR

Posted January 6, 2021 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 0 Comments

My monthly TBR feature here shows my progress based on last month’s TBR, my plans for this month, and anything else I might be thinking about from a reading perspective. Sometimes I feature a little poll at the bottom so you guys can help me figure out a certain title I should read from a group of books. January TBR I completely forgot to make a TBR for January since I didn’t technically post/write one in December – I kept my EOY TBR for both months including all of the holiday books I wanted to read. I always feel very refreshed at the start of the year but am still carrying over some books I wanted to read in December. Owned Books to Read The first four books in this section are from December. I was hoping to read them but holiday books got in the way. I own physical copies of all of these (KISS MY CUPCAKE, SEX AND VANITY, MAJESTY, and INSTANT KARMA), plus I got a copy of THE WIFE UPSTAIRS from Book of the Month. Review Copies I fine-tuned this list a bit because I have some that I’m really excited for and hope to get to this month. SNAPPED already came out and A PHO LOVE STORY is upcoming. REUINTED ON DRAGONFLY LANE is a late Jauary release. SANDCASTLE BEACH (currently reading at the time of finally writing this post!) doesn’t come out for a few months. I just knew I needed to read some […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #321: Anticipated

Posted January 5, 2021 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 3 Comments

Most Anticipated for Jan-Jun 2021 Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review. I definitely haven’t kept up with browsing Goodreads as much as usual so I’m definitely behind on adding upcoming books to my TBR – I feel like I don’t have a lot of books on there for 2021! I usually try to avoid putting books I already have as egalleys on these lists because how can I anticipate a book I already have and can read ASAP!? I’ll be doing a post later this week to highlight the 2021 releases I have review copies of as well. So for now, these are books I don’t have for review! January February March May June