Month: February 2018

Feb 28
February Wrap-Up & Best of the Bunch

February Wrap-Up & Best of the Bunch

Best of the Bunch, Monthly Recap 46

My Goings On in February: I finished my (second) edit of my MG book! It feels good to have it done. I’m still waiting to hear about the workshop I applied for, but if that one doesn’t pan out, I might just go for it and try sending queries out to some agents without workshopping it (at least a few—to see what kind of response I get). I celebrated my 5th blogoversary (technically on January 31st, but I don’t think I mentioned it in my last wrap-up) and my 44th birthday. Yikes! (I literally had my age wrong at first and had to sit and recalculate it in my head. I truly am getting old.) I went to Anderson’s Children’s Literature Breakfast (watch for a recap, coming next week). I finished Season 2 of Stranger Things and started watching The Goldbergs (which is super hilarious and reminds me of my childhood)…. Read more »

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Feb 26
February 2018 Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up Link-Up

February 2018 Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up Link-Up

Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up 6

It’s time for the February Wrap-Up Round-Up! The January giveaway ends soon, so this is your last chance to enter! For December, the winner was Megan S., who chose Truthwitch. Since she’s from outside of the US I already sent her the book, but I haven’t done my part and read mine yet. Yikes! I need to get on that! This is the link-up for our February 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, I’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.   Then, one week later, I’ll create a giveaway that encourages people to… Read more »

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Feb 25
Sunday Post & Giveaways Galore – 2/25/18

Sunday Post & Giveaways Galore – 2/25/18

Sunday Post 36

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 took a little bit of a breather this week, at least from posting. I had a lot of comments and discussion posts, etc. to catch up with after I got my editing done, and I decided to spend my free time doing that this week instead of writing more posts. (I’m still not even 100% caught up.) I still haven’t heard about that writing workshop. They apparently received a lot of applications, and they’re still going through them. 🙁  We shall see! Yesterday, my mom and I attended Anderson’s Children’s Literature Breakfast. It was a great event—watch for a… Read more »

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Feb 22
Great Reasons to Get to Know Your Bookish Friends Better

Great Reasons to Get to Know Your Bookish Friends Better

Let's Discuss 53

I was tempted to take this week off from the blog completely just to catch up on commenting and visiting my friends in the blogosphere, but I decided I couldn’t bear to disappear completely for the week. Instead, I decided to write a quick  post to tide you all over.  🙂 Great Reasons to Get To Know Your Bookish (AKA Book Blogger and Other Booklover) Friends Better: Books aren’t everything. I know, it’s practically sacrilegious to say this, but we are more than the books we read. (I mean, we’re at least 1% something else, right?) Getting to know your bookish friends’ other interests lets you know them more as a person. You can give them better book recommendations. Recently, AJ @ Read All the Things commented on one of my reviews and mentioned that she might be interested in giving the book a try. I know she’s not a fan of books that heavily… Read more »

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Feb 18
Sunday Post & Giveaways Galore – 2/18/18

Sunday Post & Giveaways Galore – 2/18/18

Sunday Post 50

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): Well, I finished my edit of my MG novel this week (for now—I’m sure there will be more rounds of editing to come!) So now I’m trying to catch up on all things blogging. I’ve finally caught up on comments and I’m trying to get to all the discussion challenge and wrap-up posts read. I’m doing my best but sorry if I haven’t been around in a little while! Other than that, there’s not much else to report this week. Oh, except, I won two more giveaways. Like, it’s starting to get scary, guys (awesome scary, though). 🙂 Here’s… Read more »

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Feb 17
Bite-Sized Reviews of The Belles, The Hazel Wood, The Ambrose Deception, The Altered History of Willow Sparks

Bite-Sized Reviews of The Belles, The Hazel Wood, The Ambrose Deception, The Altered History of Willow Sparks

Reviews 36 ★★★★

I’ve got four bite-sized reviews for you today: two YA new releases (one of them is an audiobook), a MG contemp and a YA graphic novel. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! The central messages in this book are fabulous! The book highlights our images of beauty and how far we will go to attain them. This is a society that sees itself as “ugly,” so people will endure great pain (and spend tons of money) in order to “fix” themselves. This is such an interesting commentary on our world, and not that far off from the truth. How many people will go to great extents to achieve a certain standard of beauty? We’re sort of obsessed. Camellia’s personal desire to be the Favorite (an official title of the Belle that works for the royal family) leads to a break in her relationship… Read more »

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Feb 14
A Valentine’s Post Featuring the Macmillan Collector’s Library (& a Giveaway!)

A Valentine’s Post Featuring the Macmillan Collector’s Library (& a Giveaway!)

Giveaways (Ended) 44

Well, it’s Valentine’s Day and love is in the air! Or at least it should be. If you need a little more love in your life (and don’t we all?), then you’ve come to the right place. I may not be able to fix you up with Mr. Right, but I can get you together with a few classic love stories that will brighten your day considerably. When Macmillan contacted me to see if I’d like to check out their Collector’s Library, I thought, “Sure, why not? I’d love to add a few more classics to my collection.” But I had no idea how much I would LOVE these books! Seriously, when I opened the box, I squealed with joy and my family was laughing at my excitement. The books are exquisite, with gold leafed edges and ribbon bookmarks, but they’re also adorable because they’re so small. I took a picture with… Read more »

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Feb 11
Sunday Post & Giveaways Galore – 2/11/18

Sunday Post & Giveaways Galore – 2/11/18

Sunday Post 48

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): Today is my birthday!! Since my husband’s going out of time today (and we have a busy day), we already celebrated yesterday. My family made me a super yummy (and super complicated) dinner, and my husband got me tickets to Hamilton!!! We’re going in a couple of weeks, and I’m so excited! I also participated in WriteOnCon this weekend, which has been great help, especially with my query (which I had no idea how to write). Since this was also Danielle’s final swim meet of the season, I’m going to have to go through a lot of the materials later,… Read more »

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Feb 10
January 2018 Wrap-Up Round-Up Giveaway

January 2018 Wrap-Up Round-Up Giveaway

Giveaways (Ended), Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up 2

I created this giveaway to encourage people to visit people’s wrap-ups. There are entries for commenting on the wrap-up posts in the link-up. Last month’s winner was Megan K. She chose for us to read Truthwitch. Again, I’m running late this month, but I’m going to be picking up the book soon! The Link-Up Check out the January wrap-up posts in the linky below. These are the posts that can be used for the giveaway. Didn’t have a chance to link up your wrap-up post? That’s okay—you can still link up until the giveaway is over! An InLinkz Link-up The giveaway is open to everyone! You don’t have to link up to the wrap-up round-up to be eligible. The Make Me Read It Giveaway This giveaway has gotten a really positive response and it’s helping me get through my TBR, so I’m sticking with it. Instead of giving away books that I’ve already read,… Read more »

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Feb 08
By a Charm and a Curse by Jaime Questell: Review, Giveaway & Questell’s Top Ten Addictions

By a Charm and a Curse by Jaime Questell: Review, Giveaway & Questell’s Top Ten Addictions

Author Top Ten Lists, Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 20 ★★★★

Buy Links: Who doesn’t love a book about a magical circus? A circus with both a charm and a curse? Sign me up! What Fed My Addiction: The circus atmosphere. I don’t know what it is about a traveling circus or carnival, but I just love this setting. There’s already such a sense of awe and wonder there that it works really well for a fantastical story. Plus, they’re a little creepy (I think I always think back to Something Wicked This Way Comes), which works well for this story. Emmaline’s curse. The curse itself is, again, creepy in all the best ways. Emmaline is turned into something along the lines of a living puppet. She’s solid, her senses are dulled, and she’s suddenly living a sort of shadow life. There was a lot to play with here, and Questell does it well. You couldn’t help but feel sorry for Emmaline as… Read more »

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