I can’t even wrap my head around the fact that it’s June. No clue whatsoever where the past five months have gone.
We had fabulous weather here this past week. Back to back days of blue skies, sunshine and near 30°C. My kind of weather. And then, overnight temperatures plummeted to about 15°C and I’m back to being a tad grumpy, wearing layers and complaining about the miserable drizzle.
Prompted by the weather and deciding to do the 20 Books of Summer, I have been reading up a storm! I’m trying to get ahead on blog tour reading so I have plenty of time at some point to fit in those other 20 books I’ve committed myself to. Speaking of that list, there will be fiddling as I forgot I had a book on pre-order and I’m definitely going to squeeze that one in.
Anyway, blah blah, here’s what I read this week.
Books I’ve read this week
Not too shabby at all.
Books I’ve bought this week
I’m really trying very hard not to buy any so two is okay. 😂. Besides, I had to get The Cliff House as it is on my 20 Books of Summer list and then I realised I didn’t even have it.
ARC’s received via Netgalley
All for blog tours. Still have an approval rating of 92%. At least that’s one shelf that isn’t getting completely out of control. Yet.
Bookpost that landed on my doorstep this past week
My review copy of It Was Her was lost in the post so Little Brown were kind enough to send me a second one. Luckily for me, I had already bought the kindle version as that second copy arrived on Thursday when my stop on the tour was the next day. I read fast but not that fast!
On the blog this past week
Monday : Joined the blog tour for Oh My God, What A Complete Aisling
Tuesday : Hosted a guest post on the blog tour for Kid to Killer by Paul Elliott and decided to join the 20 Books of Summer Challenge
Wednesday : Joined the blog blitz for What Holly’s Husband Did by Debbie Viggiano and shared an extract from Songs of Innocence by Anne Coates
Thursday : Joined the blog blitz for If Fear Wins by Tony J. Forder
Friday : Hosted the final stop on the blog tour for It Was Her by Mark Hill
Saturday : Joined the blog blitz for Faceless by Rob Ashman
Sunday : Tried to put together some coherent thoughts about The Craftsman by Sharon Bolton and posted my weekly wrap-up.
Next week on Novel Deelights
A mere 6 blog tours. Accidentally spread out over 4 days. It’s okay! I have everything under control! *sobs in corner* 🤣
I’ll be joining the tours and blitzes for Carpenter Road by N.M. Brown, Big Sister by Gunnar Staalesen, Body Heat by Candy Denman, Rogue by J.B. Turner, Love Will Tear Us Apart by Holly Seddon and Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh.
In between, I’m hoping to share my reviews for The Retreat and Jane Seymour.
In other news, I forgot to mention last week that I got my Netgalley auto-approval badge. That was one of my goals this year so I’m really pleased with that one. Because I obviously need access to more books. 🙄
In other, other news : I don’t tend to get involved with things like this. I quite happily hide myself away, nose in a book and ignore the world. But I can’t just sit back and ignore these recent shenanigans.
You may have seen some negative blogger stuff going around this past week. For once, it’s actually justified. People who are just in it for the “free books”, who sell ARC’s for ridiculous prices when it clearly states these are not to be sold, who beg for books and never read them, who grab a spot on a much coveted blog tour and don’t take it seriously … they should NOT have a place in this wonderful community. This is not what we’re about.
Receiving an ARC or a book is a privilege, not a right. Being quoted in a book is a privilege, not a right. Publishers and authors don’t owe you anything!
A book review blog isn’t about you, it isn’t about making money to pay your rent. That’s what a job is for. It’s about the books, spreading the book love, promoting something an author has worked on long and hard. Publishers and authors alike need to somehow step up and take note, tackle these issues. These things are frustrating, unfair and make serious bloggers wonder why they work so hard at actually getting it right. These people give all of us a bad name. Don’t be that blogger!
Take a few minutes to read this post by Jill, who says it all far better and more eloquently than I ever could.
Right, that’s it. Off to find my happy place so back to reading, I go.
Wishing you all a wonderful week and lots of happy reading! xx
Novel Deelights 
Smashing post – and I agree about the weather!
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Thank you, Linda! Not as well said as some but I had to let it out. Hope you have some lovely sunshine today! xx
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You’ve just made me realise I have a pre-order that needs to be added to my list as well plus the 2 books I’m reading at the moment, duh! Jill’s post was eye-opening to say the least and I really don’t understand why anyone would think it’s acceptable behaviour!
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Boggles the mind, doesn’t it? I often wonder if it’s a generation thing, this insane sense of entitlement. It makes little sense to me. I’ve always been a reader and book lover. I was buying and reading books long before I started blogging and will continue to do so if I ever quit. If someone sends me one, that’s a bonus.
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I was wondering if if they were younger as well. I’m the same with reading and buying and always get really excited when I get sent any sort of book.
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Great post and I quite agree about the sense of entitlement, I’ve noticed that it does seem to be a generational thing and it’s not just about books!
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No, sadly it’s not just about books. OH has been interviewing potential employees for months and the first things they ask are how much they’ll earn, a car and a smartphone. And that’s even without knowing what the job entails 🙄
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I think I have an ecopy of The Magpies so I’m already thrilled to hear your thoughts on that one soon! You’ll be able to sit outside the whole week, lucky you!! Think of me holed up inside with a sweater because the airco’s too cold ;-). I can’t believe this blogger can join blog tours and receives books like this.. I noticed that she’s followed by many publishers, authors and bloggers too.. I guess most don’t even know what she’s doing but it is disheartening to see how we put so much of our love, thoughts and work into our blog tour reviews and she doesn’t follow the rules of how it’s done. Happy reading lovely!!
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I doubt I’ll get around to The Magpies any time soon 😄
I get that publishers are busy but it’s in their own interests to keep an eye on things. That particular blogger has now disappeared but I’m sure they’ll be back with a different name soon.
Happy reading to you too and I hope you get to enjoy the wonderful weather outside of the office too! xx
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LOL – love your comment about The Cliff House!
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Perfect excuse to buy it 😂
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Congrats on getting the autoapprove badge! I don’t think I’ll ever see that one on mine haha. And you read so many interesting titles! I’m afraid to keep staring at your post because I know I will end up on Netgalley and misbehave haha. You are on a role with the blog tours! I wish I would be able to join more and help spread the word, but I’m too afraid I will screw up instead. xD I hope you will have a wonderful week! ❤
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Thank you! I keep thinking one of them will take it back and the badge will be gone again 🤣
I really need to cut down on tours. I just still haven’t managed to find a way to turn down the fabulous books. 🙄
Have a great week! So good to have you back! I missed you! ❤️
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Naaah I’m sure they wouldn’t do that to you! Having so many easy-access books can be a bit dangerous though haha. 😉 And I imagine it being had to turn them down! I guess in away it’s for the best I don’t get offered blog tours in the first place haha. I’ve missed you too! ❤ It's good to be back. xxx
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Wonderful post! So many amazing books! Enjoy the week it is currently 95°F or 35°C here🌞
As far as a sense of entitlement, I think it is generational, my oldest kids are 20 and 21 and that age group seems to have a huge sense of entitlement, I’m hoping I have raise my kids better than this, I don’t think they have it, but I might be a little biased🙂
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Before I started blogging, I was finding books on BookBub and posting reviews to Goodreads (and Amazon). It’s only been recently that I discovered NetGalley. And book tours–have a number of those coming up–a fun community within a larger community. And it’s reward enough. Sorry about the bad apple out there when the rest of us work so hard to earn trust and integrity badges. I suspect she won’t last long.
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I read and bought a lot of books before I started blogging, I do so now and will continue to do so if I ever quit blogging. When I’m sent a book, that’s a bonus. But it’s not why I’m doing this and in an odd sort of way, it never quite occurred to me that there would be some in this community who weren’t in it for the love of books alone.
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Sincere apologies for not saying thanks for the link back. Last weekend my comments and notifications went mad. Unfortunately it coincided with my being away until Wed. Then back at work, so really now only finding time to catch up. I really didn’t expect the response that the post generated. I was just putting down my thoughts after reading Anne’s post in conjunction with other issues in previous weeks. So a belated thank you xx
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No apologies necessary at all, Jill! Your post was fantastic. I’m not at all surprised it got the attention it did. xx
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