Month: July 2020

Jul 29
Bite-Sized Reviews of Cinderella Is Dead, The Elephant’s Girl & New Kid

Bite-Sized Reviews of Cinderella Is Dead, The Elephant’s Girl & New Kid

Reviews 10

  I’ve got three reviews for you today: a YA fantasy retelling, a MG contemporary fantasy, and a MG contemporary graphic novel. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! What if the stories that we think of as fairy tales were historical accounts? And what if those accounts had been twisted to serve the purposes of the people in power? This is the case in Cinderella Is Dead. Cinderella’s story has been told for generations as an example—and now every girl is expected to go to the ball to be “chosen” by her husband. She has no say in the matter, or in basically any other matter in her life. Girls are considered property and are meant to serve (and look pretty for) their husbands, nothing more. On the surface, it’s easy to feel like this society is over-the-top. So many of the women… Read more »

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Jul 27
July 2020 Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up Link-Up & Giveaway!

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

Current Giveaways, Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up 8

The Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up is hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight. The June giveaway ends soon, so head over there for your last chance to enter! This is the link-up AND giveaway for our July 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 participate…. Read more »

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Jul 26
Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 7/26/20

Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 7/26/20

Sunday Post 12

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): We watched: My daughter Danielle and I just started season five of The 100. I’m still really enjoying watching the series again. It gives such a different perspective to know what’s coming. I also watched several episodes of Indian Matchmaking. I like Married at First Sight, and arranged marriages sort of seem like a more “real” version of that. It’s very interesting to see how arranged marriages work (or at least one way that they work). My daughter Danielle and I made a birthday present for my husband. You can see it in my latest junk art post (even… Read more »

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Jul 23
July Junk Art Creations

July Junk Art Creations

Junk Art 14

My husband and I worked on a lot more refinishing/building projects than junk art in July (you can see the old cabinet we refinished and gate we made by clicking the link—plus, we’re currently working on a dining room table), but we did finish one junk art project that I’m incredibly proud of—it’s definitely my favorite yet—so I wanted to share it with you. And then I thought I’d also share the gift that my daughter Danielle and I made for my husband for his upcoming birthday as well. (Once it was made, we couldn’t wait to give it to him, so he’s already seen it. 🙂  ) Without further ado, meet the newest pup in our household… I’m really proud of this guy because he came purely from my imagination. His muzzle was a candleholder that I bought years ago (and never really loved). When I turned it upside… Read more »

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Jul 19
Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 7/19/20

Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 7/19/20

Sunday Post 13

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): We watched: My daughter Danielle and I finished season three of The 100 last night. We’re catching up! We bought a new (used) dining table and chairs. We got a beautiful cherry dining room set, but the top has some scratches that we’ll need to fix, so we’ve been experimenting with one of the leaves to figure out the best way to do it. My daughter painted a couple more masks. She did a logo for a friend of mine (her first paid mask!) and a butterfly for my mom, and she finished the anime one for Jade (apparently these characters are… Read more »

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Jul 16
Mid-Year Book Freak-Out Tag

Mid-Year Book Freak-Out Tag

Let's Discuss, Tags 30

Well, I’m a little later than everyone else with this tag this year, but I figure we’re not THAT far past the mid-year point, so I’m still going for it. Besides, it will make me feel better about my current state of non-reading to remember the good things I read earlier in the year. 1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2020 It just so happens I’m going with my two March Best of the Bunch picks for my favorites of the year. Apparently, March was a great reading month. My MG pick is In the Red by Christopher Swiedler. Maybe it’s my current state of mind, but that book just captured my attention and held it the whole way through—something that’s been tough this year! Instead of a YA choice, I’m going with an adult read: A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen. This book gives hope… Read more »

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Jul 12
Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 7/12/20

Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 7/12/20

Sunday Post 22

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): Once again, I’m getting this post up very late. We’ve been working on projects all weekend long, and I just didn’t have time to get it up earlier. Well, it’s still Sunday… Here’s what else we’ve been up to this week: We watched: My daughter Danielle and I are finishing season two of The 100 as I write this. Now for season three! We finished refinishing that antique cabinet I told you about last week. It’s really nice to have more storage in our kitchen! Here are a couple of pics of how it turned out: We also built… Read more »

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Jul 10
Alone by Megan E. Freeman: Cover Reveal Pre-order Giveaway

Alone by Megan E. Freeman: Cover Reveal Pre-order Giveaway

Current Giveaways, Junk Art 8

I am incredibly excited to be able to feature my good friend Megan’s debut verse novel, Alone, today! The book is coming out on March 16th of next year, but it is now officially available for pre-order! I just had to help her spread the word and show you all the absolutely stunning cover art, which she just revealed via her social media last week! This gorgeous cover was illustrated by the incredibly talented Pascal Campion. I can’t wait for everyone to have a chance to read this contemporary MG retelling of Island of the Blue Dolphins in verse, so I’m giving away a pre-order of the book as well—just scroll down to get to it. But first, check out the details… Pre-order Here: About the Author Megan E. Freeman attended an elementary school where poets visited her classroom every week, and she has been a writer ever since. She writes… Read more »

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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 15

  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?

Let's Discuss 29

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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