Blogging Update: I'm back!!

Well I just wanted to make a short little post here to update y'all on a few things. It certainly has been a long hiatus for me from the blogging world but I'm very happy to say that, "I'm baaaaaaacccccckkk!" 

It's been a crazy time and life definitely got in the way causing me to take a semi permanent break from blogging. Between work and some family things going on I just couldn't find the time and had gotten pretty down on myself about it. Suffice it to say I was in quite a funk, I really wasn't even reading much at all *gasp* I know,  I know, very poor life choice on my part.

But don't worry I've come to my senses and gotten back to my old ways! Once I started planning and getting my blogging schedule figured out it was obvious that I missed it more than I initially realized, so I'm super pumped to be back in the groove! 

However I do feel rather out of the loop, so bear with me these next few weeks while I get caught back up on all the latest info as far as new books, authors, events, and all the other bookish news that's floating around goes. I'll be updating my Goodreads account which has been severely neglected, and tweeting it up to let y'all know what's new on the blog!

I'm hoping to have some fun stuff here for y'all to read, possibly some guest posts from some of my favorite bloggers as well as discussions and whatnot. So stay tuned for lots to come!

Love and bookish wishes,

Announcing Big Changes For The New Year

The last year, The Bookaholic has seen its fair share of changes including picking up a co-blogger, a new look, and a bit of neglect (sadly). The blog has also grown quite a bit when it comes to followers and views--and I appreciate that--and I've met some wonderful people through my last four years of blogging. I also absolutely had a blast going to BEA 2014 in NYC for my first time and meeting so many people in person (and traveling to NYC for my very first time, also flying in a plane for my first time ever--which was AMAZEBALLS). But okay, I'm starting to get off topic and I tend to do that when I get super excited and I'm writing out this post as I go along straight from the page instead of writing it out first and posting later when it's actually ready like I normally do. Ha!

Back to the topic: Over the last several months, I've been under a lot of stress. I'm a writer, too. Some of you don't know that because I don't really advertise much. I'm only a small-time gal. And I'm not some fantastic piece of work, trust me. I just love what I do, and I'm trying to get better. The only way to get better? Write, right? I can't do a lot of that, and then blog and read as much as I want without some help. I had a book releasing, another in the works for NaNo, another I'm trying to get finished and polished for later this spring. The stress was eating me alive. I got into a lot of reading slumps. And blogging slumps. That's why The Bookaholic became neglected. It got to a point where I almost thought I was going to have to quit entirely... My passion of blogging and sharing my love of books had died. It became more of a chore than a love. That's a terrible thing, and I was afraid to admit it to anyone.

I didn't want to quit though. The thought only nagged me. I mean, all the hard work I'd done through the years? It broke my heart mostly to think I could just let it go like that. So, when Lyn of Great Imaginations made an offer, I began to consider some things. Then, well, more encouragement came (and maybe some begging... Lol...) and now I can make this announcement:

As of now, I'm going to be guest blogging at Great Imaginations! You can read more about it at this post.

What does it mean for The Bookaholic?

For now, The Bookaholic is still in operation. I will still be posting here, though maybe not as regularly as I'd intended for the year. I haven't yet decided if I'm going to somehow share the same reviews that I do share there when I post (or if I just share a link where you all can go read the reviews I post when I'm putting a guest review up). I'm not considered a co-blogger (yet) at Great Imaginations, but if/when I make the permanent move over to blog there, I'll be sure to definitely let you all know.

What does it mean for Taylor (my co-blogger)?

Taylor is still my co-blogger. I've had a discussion with her over this decision already as we do text when we can. Taylor also has a very busy schedule with two jobs so I understand that life gets in her way and she's not capable of keeping a steady schedule. She's welcome to post when she can and I'm sad that things didn't work as planned for us to blog together the way we wanted. We did come to agree that even if I leave the blog at any point, I don't mind her taking it over as a single individual to use for a place to share her reviews if she wants... otherwise, she can just rebuild her old blog again. Solely her decision.
For now, like I said above, as long as I'm still around, Taylor is still around also when she's available. 

Will The Bookaholic still do any challenges/features?

I'll participate in what I can. I hadn't really planned on hosting anything. If I get any ideas to host something, I might... depending on the timeframe. It may be something I run by the others first though to see if they want to feature first. :)

Are you excited?

YESSSSS!!

I really am. I feel the passion for blogging and reading again. I'm just so happy!


Here's to an awesome year!!!

Welcome to 2015!

Before I get started with this post, let me first say that it’s been a rocky year here at The Bookaholic. I know that. It was one of the most horrid reading years I’d had in a long time also--only tapping out at 26 books for my total. My schedule couldn’t quite help it, but it still made me feel awful at times, and I ended up some pretty bad slumps whenever I did actually have time for reading.

The good news is that the new year is bringing me a lot of changes along with a lot more different reading opportunities. I see myself even making some huge goals for the coming year, and I’m super excited to be sharing some news sometime in the coming weeks. You may notice a different pattern to the blogging, too.

I don’t want to list all the books I’m planning to get to this year-- but for the next five to six weeks I’ve already scheduled enough to keep me going:

Heir of Fire
Gone Girl
A Court of Thorns and Roses
The Fiery Heart
Salt & Storm
Messenger of Fear
I’ll Give You The Sun
Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke

My total goal for 2015 is to read 175. This includes a month-long re-reading challenge I’ve constructed for myself (I love going back to visit old favorites!) that I haven’t quite set in stone on exact books, but would love to re-read the HP series, Winter girls (Laurie Halse Anderson), and The Historian (Elizabeth Kostova). My goal also includes another reading challenge called Flights of Fantasy (http://www.hello-chelly.com/2014/12/flights-of-fantasy-reading-challenge.html) because I want to read more fantasy books this year--and I love fantasy--and Brandon Sanderson--so I’m going for it. I’m setting myself to read at least 15 for that challenge. Hey… those books are super long most of the time, so I’m going to set that bar kind of low for now. Haha..

I hope your year has started off good already! I look forward to all of the excitement and good luck with the reading everyone!

 

Pixie's Bookish Resolutions for 2015

Hello! 

As you all know, 2015 is fast approaching. Was it just me or did this year go by a lot faster than it ever has before? Maybe it's because I had such an insanely busy year, I don't know, but I really hope that things are a bit slower for not just myself, but others as well, in the coming new year. I'm sure we could all use the time to slow down just a tad, right? :) 

This week, I wanted to change things up and post a Bookish Resolutions list for myself before the rest of the year slipped on by instead of doing a Top Ten Tuesday post. I was going to wait until next week to put this post up, but after checking on the topic for TTT, I wasn't too interested so I decided to go on and put this post up now. I also happened to notice that one of the TTT topics is also a Resolutions post, and I'd had no idea until hopping over there earlier-- but still, I feel the necessity in linking back to The Broke and the Bookish before I get into my own post anyway. 

So, what are Bookish Resolutions? Well, we all know what New Years' Resolutions are, right? They are exactly that, except in relation to books and blogging. Simple enough. I'm not really a big believer of resolutions in general. They get broken so often. I haven't made any proper ones in years. But I guess I will try to go for them this year and see how well it turns out. 

(They must be laughing at my attempt of making resolutions for the coming year. They're not that hard to keep. Geesh. I can do it! Haha!)

* My biggest bookish resolution for the 2015 year is to blog more. --

2014 was a hard year for me keeping track of everything--writing, reading, blogging. I fell into some rough slumps with all of them. I was late on a book release. My writing was off. A reading slump had me in a funk and caused me to have the worst reading year ever (I barely hit twenty-five books this year) and this depressed me deeply. I didn’t want to do much blogging because I was ashamed, and quite frankly, didn’t have much to put up because of the slump. 

With all that whiney mess out of the way, the good news is I feel myself already changing for the better. My slump has slowly gone away already with a few good reads--and the desire to read again--and all I want to do is get back into the swing of things. So yes, the most important resolution for 2015 is to build myself back up and blog more. Some of you may not remember, but there was a time when I once blogged several times a week before this bad year struck, and I’d like to see myself get to a point of that again I hope. I want to love my passions again properly.

* Read the older, unread books on my shelf. --

I have a fairly large TBR shelf. Who doesn’t, right? But I think it’s time to stop ignoring the many books that have been sitting on my shelf for quite some time, either gifted to me or bought because I’d really wanted them to begin with anyway, and read them as I’d intended. I’m going to reserve a month in 2015 to read them. A special “knock out those TBRs” month. I’m pretty sure I won’t get to them all in one month, but it would give me time to take care of a lot of them. 

* Participate in more challenges/read-a-thons --

I loved doing these anytime I could. I hope to be able to get around to doing more this year. 

* Read more genres/categories I don’t normally read --

Mostly I would like to pick up more MG and more Adult Fiction (sometimes this would include erotica, but when I say ‘adult’ it does NOT mean always sexy times.) 

* Only request ARCs I know I really want and will read/review --

I’ve made mistakes in the past before and would take on too many ARCs, which then caused too much pressure on me. I would still read/review them, but it became exhausting and chore-like after a period of time. I’d end up with a good portion of dislikes, too. I don’t want to take this process anymore. I don’t, either. But this is going to be a continued  resolution to remind myself I can’t let myself take on more than I can handle. 

* Get to know other bloggers/Get social --

I’m already pretty social on Twitter (I hope?), but I’m always up for chatting and getting to know other bloggers anytime. I’m horrible at commenting sometimes I know and I plan on working to make that a bit better for 2015. 

* Read some of the great classics I should have already read by now --

I turned thirty back in September. There’s that whole “books you should read by the time you’re thirty” thing, and I know I haven’t exactly, so I’m going to start getting to some of those. Maybe I’ll have them read by the time I’m thirty-one at least.

* Watch and compare more book adaptations --

If I Stay, The Maze Runner, Horns, The Giver, etc.. There are actually many books I haven’t read that have movie adaptations (and I haven’t seen the movie either) or instances where I’ve read the book and haven’t seen the movie or vice versa and would love to take the time out for both. I like to look at the movies with a different viewpoint, but it would be fun either way to sit and do a comparison review once a month or something. 

* Get to at least one or two book signings in 2015 --

Living out in the middle of nowhere makes it incredibly hard. If it hadn’t been for BEA earlier this year, I still wouldn’t have been to any yet. This was my first year ever meeting any of my favorite authors and going to signings. It was EXCITING! I’ve made it my life mission to constantly check on schedules for particular authors, even if it means a bit of a drive and stay in a hotel or something, so that I can get around to some more meet and greets over the coming years. This year I’m really really really hoping to get the chance to meet Stephen King-- which is a life-long dream in general. This isn’t just a resolution, but part of the bucket list. So keeping fingers crossed he’ll make a stop somewhere, sometime. 

* No more excuses for not reading everyday! --

I will always make it a point to set aside a time to read at the very least 25 pages from a book every single day so that I can say I’m reading something. Even if it’s that minimal page count, it’ll count for something, though of course if I’m enjoying the book I’m sure I’ll read much more than that. 

* I plan to read no less than 70 books in 2015 --

This is important to me. 2014 was so shitty to me as far as reading that I feel like I have a lot of making up to do in 2015. I only read 25 books this year. That is barely a quarter of what I normally read each year in the last decade. So I’m buckling down in 2015 and making myself a promise: No less than 70. My goal is at least a hundred. But I’ll be okay if I don’t get there, as long as I make it to my intended seventy mark to make up for this year’s horrid number. Lol. 


And these are my bookish resolutions for 2015! 
Do you have any? 

Don't forget this will run as a Top Ten Tuesday topic as well later this month, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. 

ARC Review & Discussion: The Darkest Part of the Forest (Read-A-Long)

Title: The Darkest Part of the Forest
Author: Holly Black
Category/Genre: YA, Contemporary, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy
Release Date: January 13, 2015

See it at Goodreads

Children can have a cruel, absolute sense of justice. Children can kill a monster and feel quite proud of themselves. A girl can look at her brother and believe they’re destined to be a knight and a bard who battle evil. She can believe she’s found the thing she’s been made for.

Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.

At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking.

Until one day, he does…

As the world turns upside down, Hazel tries to remember her years pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?



Lyn of Great Imaginations and I recently read The Darkest Part of the Forest and then had a fun discussion review on it! Today we are sharing our thoughts on the read, and as you can see had slightly different experiences. I always love having read-alongs like this and sharing our discussions since it gives an edge to the review process and changes the pace sometimes. :P

From my perspective, you can tell that I really loved The Darkest Part of the Forest. It was one of my favorite reads of the year, and I was so excited after finishing it. I will be highly recommending it to many!

Lyn: Alright! Pixie and I did a co-reading of Holly Black’s The Darkest Part of the Forest. Now we’re co-reviewing the book together!

Alright, Pixie! You seemed very whipped up over the book. What was your overall take of the novel?

Pixie: I was immersed into the story from the very first page! I seriously could not stop reading this book. Haha.

Lyn: I LOVED that the book started with a glass casket. That is one of my top attention-grabbers: anything that sounds like it could be ripped right out of a D&D game. Big plus there.

Pixie: Yes! There were some very easy visuals because the descriptions were amazing.

Lyn: This was my first Holly Black novel, so I was very nervous about picking up this novel, since I had no previous exposure to her writing. Is this your first HB book?

Pixie: No. I’ve been a big fan of hers for years. She was one of my first YA authors after I picked up Melissa Marr in my early twenties. :)

Lyn: How did it compare to her other books?


Pixie: DPotF had a more contemporary vibe to it. I liked that. Despite the fantasy elements, it felt as if she gave her characters (and world) a more modern approach.


Lyn: I do love some contemporary fantasy. I suppose you could label this urban fantasy.

I suppose I should come out and be honest - I wasn’t crazy over this book. I gave it three stars. :( Womp Womp. The descriptions were beautiful and I really loved the plot, but the characters were very dull and flat for me.

Pixie: LOL, don’t feel bad. I gave it four stars. I don’t think it was her best (Coldest Girl in Coldtown still wins, I’m almost sure), but I liked the story and world-building for the most part. My biggest complaint were the characters also. I felt they could have used more. Especially in the romance.

Lyn: The romance REALLY killed it for me. I am very critical when it comes to pairing, and I seemed to get side-tracked by the constant “Who does s/he like more/the best?” The whole “let’s play fantasy pairing!” issue really killed a lot of my enthusiasm. I know it sounds horrible, because I so loved the whole GLBT angle, but it just didn’t end up working for me. I wanted more fae and court life.

Pixie: Oh I agree! I almost want to say that if it were longer or more detailed in some areas to better explain some things, it’d be even better for that area. It can be difficult for stand-alones in my opinion to gain some perspective for romances. I think I could’ve done without a romance and would’ve loved the whole general story.

Lyn: I have to give props to the author for writing a stand alone. I love my series, but it seems that a multi-book series is all the rage right now. I think it would have helped if the book was longer. There was quite a bit going on for such a short page count.

Pixie: Major props to her. I’m the same way. I love stand alones. :) I always find myself going to Holly Black’s books because that’s what she writes a lot. Fantasy and stand alones. But I agree, would’ve been nice seeing more. Or maybe I’m just selfish and wanted more of that pretty writing. Lol.


Lyn: I am excited to read The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, so I have a basis of comparison. The descriptions were awesome, but the writing left something to be desired. It almost felt like this was a short story that the publishers pushed to become a novel, so the writing felt a bit forced. Maybe it was just boredom setting in, but I really didn’t feel the heart of the writer in this one, you know?

Pixie: I understand what you’re saying. I have seen her writing through the course of the years and it does come off a bit differently here. I’m excited to see what you think of Coldest Girl!

Lyn: Same here! Is there anything else we want to cover?

My take away from this is flat characters that i wanted to like in the worst way, but the plot was awesome and the description of the fae and the magic of the forest was very dazzling.

Pixie: That is almost my same take, except I think I was a bit more enchanted than you by the book. :P Other than that, I don’t think there’s really anything else I have to discuss without
putting in spoilers and I don’t want to go doing that. Lol.

Lyn: So agree!


 

Pixie's Rating: 4