Hi all, I just wanted to let you know there won't be any posts for a little while due to having covid. So I'm waiting to write reviews and the next post in my Guide to Book Blogging series until I'm better. Thanks for understanding.
Continue reading No Posts Due to Covid
Friday, 25 March 2022
Wednesday, 23 March 2022
Guide to Book Blogging: Writing a Review Policy
Guide to Book Blogging: Writing a Review Policy
Following on from my last posts for Guide to Book Blogging series - Getting Started Part 1 Setting Up Your Blog and Part 2 Creating Content and Engagement - this is the next installment in the series; Writing a Review Policy.
So you've been blogging for a while now, have a variety of reviews and various discussion posts and other content, are receiving steady traffic and have decent stats across your blog and social media, you're almost ready to try testing the waters to see if publishers will consider sending you ARCs. But before you do that, you need a review policy.
So you've been blogging for a while now, have a variety of reviews and various discussion posts and other content, are receiving steady traffic and have decent stats across your blog and social media, you're almost ready to try testing the waters to see if publishers will consider sending you ARCs. But before you do that, you need a review policy.
Saturday, 19 March 2022
Review: A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
Links with an asterisk (*) are Ad: Affiliate Links, which means if you make a purchase through them, I'll make a small commission at no extra cost to you.
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
Published: 2nd September 2020 | Publisher: Picador | Source: Bought
Natalie Haynes’ Website
This is the women’s war, just as much as it is the men’s. They have waited long enough for their turn...
This was never the story of one woman, or two. It was the story of them all...
In the middle of the night, a woman wakes to find her beloved city engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over. Troy has fallen.
From the Trojan women whose fates now lie in the hands of the Greeks, to the Amazon princess who fought Achilles on their behalf, to Penelope awaiting the return of Odysseus, to the three goddesses whose feud started it all, these are the stories of the women whose lives, loves, and rivalries were forever altered by this long and tragic war.
A woman’s epic, powerfully imbued with new life, A Thousand Ships puts the women, girls and goddesses at the centre of the Western world’s great tale ever told. From The StoryGraph.
Purchase from Bookshop.org*
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Guide to Book Blogging: Getting Started Part 2 - Creating Content & Engagement
Ad: Titles with an asterisk (*) were provided to me for free by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Guide to Book Blogging: Getting Started
Part 2: Creating Content & Engagement
I'm continuing with my Guide to Blogging with the second part of Getting Started, which is focusing on starting to create content. If you haven't yet, be sure to read the first part, Setting Up Your Blog, because until you've set up, you can't move forward.
Ok, so you've set up your email address, decided on a blog title, chosen a platform, have your theme and template, and your first few pages. Now it's time to work on your content and engagement.
Ok, so you've set up your email address, decided on a blog title, chosen a platform, have your theme and template, and your first few pages. Now it's time to work on your content and engagement.
Guide to Book Blogging: Getting Started Part 1 - Setting Up Your Blog
Guide to Book Blogging: Getting Started
Part 1: Setting Up Your Blog
On Saturday, it will be my book blogging anniversary! I will have been blogging for 13 years. It's mad, it doesn't seem like quite so long. Blogging still brings me a huge amount of joy, and I can't see me giving up any time soon. I've learnt a few things over the years, and as I've had some questions about blogging recently, I thought I'd put together a few guides to book blogging for anyone thinking of starting.
This first post on getting started with blogging ended up being far too long, so I've split it into two parts. This one is on setting up your blog. Once you've read this, you can check out the second part, which is on Creating Content & Engagement.
This first post on getting started with blogging ended up being far too long, so I've split it into two parts. This one is on setting up your blog. Once you've read this, you can check out the second part, which is on Creating Content & Engagement.
Monday, 14 March 2022
Review: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Links with an asterisk (*) are Ad: Affiliate Links, which means if you make a purchase through them, I'll make a small commission at no extra cost to you.
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Published: 21st September 2017 | Publisher: Bloomsbury | Source: Bought
Madeline Miller’s Website
Greece in the age of Heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia. Here he is nobody, just another unwanted boy living in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles.
Achilles, “best of all the Greeks,” is everything Patroclus is not—strong, beautiful, the child of a goddess—and by all rights their paths should never cross. Yet one day, Achilles takes the shamed prince under his wing and soon their tentative connection gives way to a steadfast friendship. As they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something far deeper—despite the displeasure of Achilles’ mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess with a hatred of mortals.
Fate is never far from the heels of Achilles. When word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, the men of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows Achilles into war, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they have learned, everything they hold dear. And that, before he is ready, he will be forced to surrender his friend to the hands of Fate.
Profoundly moving and breathtakingly original, this rendering of the epic Trojan War is a dazzling feat of the imagination, a devastating love story, and an almighty battle between gods and kings, peace and glory, immortal fame and the human heart. From The StoryGraph.
Purchase from Bookshop.org*
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Wednesday, 9 March 2022
Guest Post: Aneesa Marufu on the South Asian and Islamic Folklore that Inspired The Balloon Thief
Ad: Titles with an asterisk (*) were provided to me for free by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Links with a circumflex (^) are Ad: Affiliate Links, which means if you make a purchase through them, I'll make a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Aneesa Marufu on the South Asian and Islamic Folklore that Inspired The Balloon Thief
I'm super excited to have a guest post to share with you today. YA author Aneesa Marufu is stopping by the blog to talk about how South Asian and Islamic folklore and myths inspired elements of her debut YA high fantasy novel, The Balloon Thief*.
Monday, 7 March 2022
Review: Pine by Francine Toon
Links with an asterisk (*) are Ad: Affiliate Links, which means if you make a purchase through them, I'll make a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Pine by Francine Toon
Published: 1st October 2020 | Publisher: Black Swan Ireland | Source: Bought
Francine Toon’s Website
They are driving home from the search party when they see her. The trees are coarse and tall in the winter light, standing like men.
Lauren and her father Niall live alone in the Highlands, in a small village surrounded by pine forest. When a woman stumbles out onto the road one Halloween night, Niall drives her back to their house in his pickup. In the morning, she's gone.
In a community where daughters rebel, men quietly rage, and drinking is a means of forgetting, mysteries like these are not out of the ordinary. The trapper found hanging with the dead animals for two weeks. Locked doors and stone circles. The disappearance of Lauren's mother a decade ago.
Lauren looks for answers in her tarot cards, hoping she might one day be able to read her father's turbulent mind. Neighbours know more than they let on, but when a local teenager goes missing, it's no longer clear who she can trust.
In spare, haunting prose, Francine Toon creates an unshakeable atmosphere of desolation and dread. In a place that feels like the end of the world, she unites the gloom of the modern gothic with the pulse of a thriller. It is the perfect novel for our haunted times. From The StoryGraph.
Purchase from Bookshop.org*
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Wednesday, 2 March 2022
Fantasy by Jewish Authors
Ad: Titles with an asterisk (*) were provided to me for free by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Links with a circumflex (^) are Ad: Affiliate Links, which means if you make a purchase through them, I'll make a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Fantasy by Jewish Authors
At the beginning of the year, I started thinking about the #RamamdanReadathon; whether it will be happening this year and what I would want to read if it does. And it occurred to me that, because of the readathon, books by Muslim authors were the only books by authors of a specific faith that I sought out. That, comparatively, I read very few by authors of faith. I decided that this year I would try to change that, by seeking out books by Jewish authors. As I'm currently in the mood for fantasy, I've focused on fantasy books by Jewish authors^.
Below is the list I put together; adult and YA, some new titles, some older titles, and some yet to be released. They range from general fantasy, to fantasy specifically about Jewish people.
Below is the list I put together; adult and YA, some new titles, some older titles, and some yet to be released. They range from general fantasy, to fantasy specifically about Jewish people.
