So I'm guessing you're wondering where I've been. I promised to blog more--I promised that to myself as blogging is important to me. I may not have much of a following, but I love sharing my love of books, and I really wanted to get back into the groove of reading and reviewing.

I still do. I swear. But I realized something as February and March and much of April marched past me. My time management skills...need improvement. I do work full time, but in the past, I had more time to read and blog and what not. Now, life is different now than it was then, but still...where do the hours in the day go? At first, I thought, well February and March just sucked. I had no energy, I was stressed...life was up and down you know? But I started to realize that as much as that was true that something else was happening. I was wasting time. So I started to think seriously about how I was using my time outside of work.

Now, some of my free time was being spent caring for and bonding with my budgies, which are new pets. I adore these birds. And it's taken some time to get them to come out of their cage and doing their birdie thing. And I'm still working on building trust between me and these birds. But caring for these small creatures was not taking up every minute of my free time. Neither were real life annoyances like cleaning, or being sick (which thankfully I have not been this winter) so I knew that my time was being wasted somewhere.

My time was being wasted somewhere in my life....

And I figured out that I had been sucked into a time waster that many people are sucked into...social media. 

Seriously, I was sitting there one day, scrolling through a repetitive and uninteresting Facebook feed and was struck by the fact that I was sitting in front of the TV, not watching really it, scrolling aimlessly through Facebook and Twitter and Instagram. I use these platforms to connect with readers, to share my crochet or to learn more about budgies and even just to see what is going on in the lives of my friends that I don't see that often, but somehow social media had become an unproductive use of my time. I wasn't on these platforms to share anything, or for any real reason, I was just mindlessly scrolling through pictures and doing a whole lot of nothing for a heck of a long time.

So I am putting an end to that. I want to blog, so I am. I'm restructuring how I use my time. I'm putting my phone down. I still check out my feeds, but a lot less. Frankly, it took being bored by social media to realize that I was using it too much. And accomplishing nothing when I really wanted to doing things I love like reading, blogging, crocheting and spending time with my birds. I have time to do these things, but I really need to put down my phone.

I am back and I hope to bring you some book related posts soon.

Happy Reading,

Jewels

This novel was one I listened to a while back on audio, and I really enjoyed it. I'm not sure how to describe it exactly, there is an element of magic and mystery to it, but largely this is a coming of age story as well as a romance. And naturally, all of this combined made me a very happy reader.

My Rating: 4 ❀'s
Genre: Fiction
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The characters in this story are all vibrant and interesting, and definitely my favourite character was Paxton as she was struggling to begin living her own life while still maintaining the traditions and expectations of her family. That's a really hard road to navigate and it was obvious that Paxton needed to set some boundaries for her family. What I also liked was that she was in love with a wonderful man, who it seemed was in love with her, but who was...gay. From the beginning, I had to doubt this fact, but the way this part of the story unravelled was especially good romance in my books. I can't give more away so just read this book.

Now, the story of Willa and Paxton's unexpected friendship was also very interesting as these two women are from entirely different walks of life. But I loved that there was a shared history between their grandmothers and that this unexpectedly brought these women together in a way they could never have imagined. As did the history of their town and a man called Tucker Delvin.

Here is where the magic comes in, though I'm not really sure it was magic. Perhaps more like those from beyond lending a hand to the living? I'm not sure, but I enjoyed hearing this story from the past and having the mystery explained.

By the end of the story, Paxton has really started her life. She finally moves out of her parents' home, has a true friend in Willa, and has the man of her dreams. I was very happy for her, and equally happy for Willa, who has a romance of her own.

Well written, evenly paced and with just enough splashes of romance and magic to make this story one that is truly hard to put down. Or, in my case, since I listened to it on audio, shut off. I absolutely do recommend this novel to anyone looking for a change from romance but still wanting a bit of romance in their next read. This novel won't disappoint you.

Happy Reading,

Jewels

Hey everyone! Are you excited to see what's new on my shelf? Even though I wasn't reading much in 2018, I was buying a lot of books. Some I shared, and some I read and reviewed, and there are more I'm sharing with you today. Some I bought in 2018, others are brand new! I am definitely back in the reading groove and it's so exciting!

Bookworms like me will totally understand *insert emoji heart, hehe*

I think I ought have mentioned I decided that since 2019 was new, my feature ought get updated too. This feature was one I started last year, which I titled Latest Acquisitions and I decided to give the feature a new look, and renamed it New On My Shelf. So here we go, books new to my shelf!

Let's start with romance. I recently bought Paradise by the wonderful Judith McNaught. It's a contemporary romance and I've only ever read her historicals, so picking this up was a bit of a risk for me as I tend to shy away from contemporaries written by my favourite historical romance authors. I'm always afraid they'll let me know because I just don't love contemporaries as much. BUT so far this book is very good. It started out with the heroine as a young teen and it really reminded me of that awkward phase of my own life. I cannot wait to read more.

I also recently picked up a V.C Andrews novel. I always wanted to read these as a teen, but I thought my mother would flip if I brought home one of her books so I shied away. This novel, House of Secrets is new, so it's not by the author herself but by those carrying on her work. I did read Flowers in the Attic a couple of years ago (maybe more?? Time goes by way too fast) which was by the author and enjoyed it, but the second book in the second made me both uncomfortable and got on my nerves so I decided not to carry on with it. But I thought why not try again? Let's see what this novel brings. Oh, and I did read a few pages and I was getting sucked in so it looks very promising.

On to fiction! My best friend gave me Once Upon a River for Christmas by Diane Setterfield. I loved her novel The Thirteenth Tale and this one sounds soooo good. I cannot wait to read it. It's a big hardcover and I'm sure I will adore the story. Mystery is a new genre to me and this one has mysterious elements so it's win win for sure. 

Obviously I saw the movie and then went straight out and bought the book The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Because the book is always better. I have not started it yet, but I am dying to read this. It's always the same problem: so much to read, so little time! It's a novel I'm sure to get lost in. I just need to get started. 

That's it for today! I hope you enjoyed this edition of New On My Shelf. I can't bring you a book review soon, but I will be sharing something else in the near future so stay tuned. 

Happy Reading, 

Jewels

I started this book back in 2018 and just finished it up recently and as promised, I'm getting right into a review with you all! I adore historical fiction and love the detail and epic ness these novels promise. I've been longing to read a good book featuring this family for a long time, and I was not disappointed in this novel.

My Rating: 4 ❀'s
Genre: Historical Fiction
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I liked this novel began early in Lucrezia's life, as every time I've read a novel featuring her she's either a minor character or the book is set later in her life. So seeing Lucrezia as both the main character and one just starting out in life was so what I've been hoping to find in a novel about her and the  Borgia family.

The novel opens just as Rodgrio Borgia is becoming pope, and it is not too long before Lucrezia is married. She is still very young, thirteen or fourteen and adores her family utterly. They, in turn, seem utterly devoted to her which perhaps makes the family seem more loving than one might anticipate. It's not long though, before strife between the Borgia brothers, Juan and Cesare becomes apparent, as does the fact that Juan is clearly more beloved than Cesare by their father.

Was this so in life? I've seen this portrayed time and again, and it does lead me to wonder if the terrible Cesare Borgia was shaped by a lack of a loving, empathetic father. For it's a certainty that this family was a highly ambitious one and that power meant much to them. Sadly, Lucrezia becomes a pawn in their political thirst for power. Her first marriage she accepts as a matter of course, even though Cesare is clearly ready to fight tooth and nail for her not to enter into it should she not wish it. But it's apparent from the beginning of the marriage that Lucrezia has married a weak man, a man who is  both stupid and not entirely moral. She soon develops contempt for him. She also learns to become wary of her brother Juan, who is also violent and immoral. What happens between the brother and sister gave me pause and made me wonder, what could be behind all the rumours of Borgia incest?

The story was engrossing. So much was happening to Lucrezia, some things awful, others wonderful, and she grew up throughout the novel and yet, she remained the same strong, intelligent woman as well. Just one who finally was no longer blinded  by familial love and went forward in life wiser and I think, in a sense, freer.

This novel was well paced, well written and provides insight into the life of a woman who history has likely painted more darkly than she deserves. I was intrigued by the story, and impressed by the powerful writing.

Happy Reading, 

Jewels 

Happy New Year!  I know 2018 was not the best book blogging year I've ever had, and I'm sad that I didn't get to read more. There was a lot going on in my life, and somehow my reading time and therefore my blog took a huge hit.

But it is a new year, even if I am posting this three weeks into that year, and I do have goals to make this a better reading year.

Goal One: Read Everyday

Sadly, this was not something I was doing last year. It wasn't really by choice, but with me doing some different things, I sometimes went to bed without having read a single word of my book. Awful right? I totally agree and so the first goal must to be to read every single day. I'm so looking forward to it because I have tons of books I'm really dying to read and have been for a while, so I'm going to make this happen.


Goal Two: Read a Variety of Genres

I think for a long time I was so exclusively reading romance that I lost touch with other genres I enjoy reading like historical fiction. Which caused me to go on a binge of reading historical fiction novels last year. So I'm hoping to really mix things up and read a greater variety of genres--mystery, fiction, romance and whatever else might take my fancy. I have tons of unread books of all genres lining my shelves so this goal is totally attainable.


Goal Three: Set a Blogging Schedule 

I have never been one to blog by a schedule because I hate schedules. I just feel so pressured and then  blogging stops being fun. It starts being work. And I already have a very demanding full time job so I don't need my blog to feel like work. But I do think I want to set a schedule of posting on Thursdays at least twice a month. So that way I can get out reviews and hopefully even some other content. So far back to work in 2019 has been a bit rocky but from here on in, you can count on more posts. Please stay tuned.


Three goals I think is enough for someone who has really not been reading or book blogging in a while. I hope you all haven't entirely given up on me. I have always loved books and reading and blogging about books has been brought me a lot of fulfillment and I hope has helped you find truly devastating reads. I am trying to also jazz things up a bit on the blog in terms of my look; hopefully this make the experience a bit nicer for all of you readers. I am really excited to get back to reading and book blogging.

Happy Reading,

Jewels