Jul 08
Bite-Sized Reviews of Deeplight, More to the Story, The Female of the Species, and Knockout

Bite-Sized Reviews of Deeplight, More to the Story, The Female of the Species, and Knockout

Reviews 5

  I’ve got four reviews for you today: a YA fantasy, a MG contemporary retelling, a YA contemporary and a MG contemporary in verse. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! A fascinating YA fantasy with incredible worldbuilding! Deeplight had me entranced from the very beginning. It reminded me of books by my favorite fantasy author, Robin Hobb, because of its unique worldbuilding and epic-but-not-overly-ponderous fantasy feel. Hardinge’s gorgeous writing accompanies incredible worldbuilding—the way religion and myth and healing magic are woven together is fantastic. Then there’s Hark himself. It’s easy to empathize with him, especially since he’s so obviously being manipulated by his best friend. Hark’s loyalty is both his greatest strength and his greatest weakness, and it’s interesting to see how that plays out throughout the book. Hark is one of those characters who always wants to do the right thing, but figuring… Read more »

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Jul 07
Tales of a Social-Media (and Tech) Failure: What’s the Deal with the WordPress Block Editor?

Tales of a Social-Media (and Tech) Failure: What’s the Deal with the WordPress Block Editor?

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Okay, this is just going to be a post where I reveal my complete and utter confusion over something technological in regards to the blog. Can you all please enlighten me—what the heck is the deal with the WordPress Gutenberg Block Editor? Will my editor eventually change? A couple of years ago, people started talking about the block editor (lots of people saying that they hated it, but some people do seem to love it), and everyone seemed to be under the impression that WordPress would be switching to the new editor completely soon. I was curious at first, but nothing seemed to change in my WordPress editor, so I just did what I do best … I ignored the problem, knowing that I would inevitably be confused at some point when my editor magically changed. Except, it hasn’t. My WordPress still looks the same as it always has. Honestly,… Read more »

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Jul 05
Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 7/5/20

Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 7/5/20

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The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): I hope all of you in the US had a nice 4th of July!! We had my parents and my in-laws over for smoked brisket (yum!)—in the back yard, with masks, of course. (Though I’ll confess that my mom has started hanging out with us more and we don’t wear masks when it’s just her. The COVID positivity rate in IL is just 4% right now, and we’re still not interacting with a whole lot of people, so hopefully we’re safe.) This year, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it does and doesn’t mean to be patriotic. I’ve… Read more »

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Jul 03
June 2020 Wrap-Up: Did June Happen?

June 2020 Wrap-Up: Did June Happen?

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My Goings On in June: Um, June happened, right? Like, honestly, it just pretty much passed me by in ALL ways except puppy and TV watching. I didn’t read. I didn’t write. I barely blogged. And, the worst thing is, it wasn’t because I just decided to give myself some time off, I just couldn’t do those things. Every time I picked up a book I’d fall asleep (puppy exhaustion). I couldn’t find any time or inspiration for blogging. I’d pick up my manuscript just to review it and I’d get like two or three poems in and something would pull me away. I was feeling very worn-down and burnt-out. But July is a new month, right? I really hope it’s better. Okay, but a few things did happen: We had our court date to officially change our oldest’s name. The court date was done via Zoom, which worked out nicely—also kind of interesting to… Read more »

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Jul 01
July 2020 Discussion Challenge Link-up and Giveaway!

July 2020 Discussion Challenge Link-up and Giveaway!

Book Blog Discussion Challenge, Current Giveaways 2

Welcome to the July monthly link-up for the 2020 Book Blog Discussion Challenge hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight! Summer is here in the Northern Hemisphere! Keep those bookish discussions coming! The winner of our May discussion challenge giveaway was Sam @ We Live and Breathe Books! She picked Taking Down Evelyn Tait by Poppy Nwosu. Hope you love it! If you don’t know what this challenge is all about or haven’t signed up yet (but want to), head on over to the challenge sign-up page to learn more! Even if you’d rather not join, we hope you’ll stop by occasionally to check out the MANY discussion posts that are being linked up here – there’s lots of great discussions going on! Looking for even more inspiration, or want to see some discussion posts as an example? Check out the discussion… Read more »

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Jun 28
Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 6/28/20

Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 6/28/20

Sunday Post 31

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): I’m putting this post up VERY late this week. I mean, it’s still technically Sunday, but barely? Here’s what else we’ve been up to this week: We watched: My daughter Danielle and I finished watching On My Block. The ending to season three was an interesting cliffhanger and now we can’t believe we have to wait for the next season! (Danielle mentioned that she’s much better at bingeing shows and she hopes she doesn’t just forget about it by the time next season rolls around.) My husband, daughter and I watched the rest of the existing episodes of Atypical…. Read more »

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Jun 27
June 2020 Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up Link-Up & Giveaway!

June 2020 Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up Link-Up & Giveaway!

Current Giveaways, Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up 10

The Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up is hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight. The May giveaway ends soon, so head over there for your last chance to enter! This is the link-up AND giveaway for our June wrap-up posts. If you don’t already know about the Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up, read the information below: Every month, at the end of the month, we’ll put up a monthly wrap-up link-up post where everyone can link up their month-end posts. There are no specific requirements for what needs to be in your post, as long as you have a book blog and your wrap-up summarizes your month in some way. The round-up will include a giveaway that encourages people to visit YOUR month end wrap-ups, giving entries for commenting and/or sharing. Anyone can participate in the giveaway—you won’t have to actually link up in order to… Read more »

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Jun 21
Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 6/21/20

Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 6/21/20

Sunday Post 31

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): Happy Father’s Day to all you dads and to all the dads in your lives! I’m so thankful to have a husband who is also an absolutely fantastic father! Here’s what else we’ve been up to this week: We watched: My daughter Danielle and I have been watching On My Block and we’re loving it. The season one finale cliffhanger was killer!!! My husband and I watched a bit more of Ozark. As far as my reading goes… Um, I read like a quarter of a book this week and listened to a bit more of White Fragility. Not… Read more »

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Jun 19
June Junk Art Creations

June Junk Art Creations

Junk Art 40

I’ve been in a major slump lately when it comes to my reading/blogging/writing life. It’s been pretty extreme, and honestly it feels like it’s getting worse, not better. If anyone has any advice to get me out of it, feel free to share! But, while I’m not doing much with my blog, I’ve been filling the creative void by creating junk art! I do the designing (or the finding of designs) and my husband does the welding. It’s been a fun hobby that we can do together, which is nice since we actually don’t have many of those. I thought I’d do a monthly post to share our newest creations. Introducing our cute little bookworm! I found the design for this guy online – several people are selling similar dudes on Etsy, and I thought he was super cute (and perfect for me). He’s made mostly from nuts, with nail… Read more »

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Jun 14
Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 6/14/20

Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 6/14/20

Sunday Post 34

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): How is it the middle of June already? I think there’s some sort of time conspiracy going on where the government is stealing days from us. Why has no one been tweeting about that? This morning was … eventful. At 5:30 AM a car crashed into TWO of our cars that were at the end of our driveway! (We recently had the driveway redone and it has a few issues that my husband wanted to talk to the company about, so he didn’t pull them up onto the main driveway). We live on a curve, and the car just basically… Read more »

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