Oh, January, you’re killing me. First of all, if you could stop with the white fluffy shit or rain falling from the skies, that’d be brilliant. A girl needs some sunshine. Desperately. (Like seriously, I don’t have enough light to take pictures for Instagram. This is just not on!)
If I thought last week was making me grumpy, this week things went to a completely different level altogether. I’m not the most diplomatic of people so I kept my mouth shut and bit my tongue so much I was worried I’d lose a piece of it. It all resulted in a bit of an existential blogger crisis and words of wisdom from someone who “talked me off the ledge”, so to speak. This blogging community, for all its talk of being loving and supportive, is often anything but. And when it shows its true colours, I feel like running a mile. It’s quite sad. As if there isn’t enough drama in the world, and yet some people feel the need to create extra when there is no call for it at all.
So, time to make some changes. I don’t like most people at the best of times. It’s why I spend so much time surrounded by books. That is where my focus will be. Ignore everything and pretty much everyone else. Sounds like a good plan.
Now if WordPress could get its act together and stop deleting stuff from my posts after I’ve saved the drafts, that would be great and maybe I can finally find some Zen again!
| BOOKS I READ THIS WEEK |
Sadly, I’ll Find You was a DNF at 46% so I don’t feel that counts. But I’ll gladly consider the other five a major accomplishment, especially since The Chestnut Man was over 500 pages long. I’m on the blog tour for that one on Tuesday but let me tell you right, it’s an absolute corker!! And Janel and I flew through Dirty Little Secrets yesterday because it’s awesome!
| BOOKS I BOUGHT THIS WEEK |
Nothing. Not due to lack of trying, mind you. It seems all the books that are calling my name aren’t published yet. What you see here is my haul from last week’s virtual shopping with Janel. Fun times!
| ARC’s RECEIVED VIA NETGALLEY |
One for a blog tour, two I was invited to read. My shelf is slowly getting out of control, although I’m still hanging on to the 90-91% approval rating. Still, when they send you books, what’s girl to do? 😂
| BOOK POST THAT LANDED ON MY DOORSTEP THIS WEEK |
The Glass Woman courtesy of Michael Joseph for the blog tour in February. Breakers and Call Me Star Girl were sent to me by Orenda. Totally excited!
| ON THE BLOG THIS PAST WEEK |
Monday : Reviewed Bridge to Burn by Rachel Amphlett
Tuesday : Reviewed Blackberry & Wild Rose by Sonia Velton
Wednesday : This Week in Books
Thursday : Reviewed Gone By Midnight by Candice Fox
Friday : Joined the blog tour for The Woman Inside by J.P. Carter
Saturday : Hosted a stop on the blog tour for A Promise to the Dead by Victoria Jenkins
Sunday : Shared an extract on my stop for the blog tour for In Safe Hands by J.P. Carter and posted my Weekly Wrap-Up
| NEXT WEEK ON NOVEL DEELIGHTS |
Monday : Blog tour | Extract | I’ll Find You by Liz Lawler
Tuesday : Blog tour | Review | The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup
Wednesday : Blog tour | Guest Post | Out of the Silence by Owen Mullens
Wednesday : This Week in Books
Thursday : Review | Don’t Turn Around by Amanda Brooke
Friday : Blog tour | Guest Post | The Boy at the Door by Alex Dahl
Saturday : Blog tour | Review | The Last by Hannah Jameson
Saturday : Blog tour | Extract | Beton Rouge by Simone Buchholz
Sunday : Weekly Wrap-Up
Let the insanity of February commence! 🙄
Question of the week : Book jackets. This is a serious and obviously very deep question. When you read a book, do you take off the jacket or not? I’ve seen people mention they don’t because they want to protect the book. Now, I do take it off because I want to protect the jacket, which is ultimately what you see when you peruse my bookshelves. Thoughts? If any? 😂
That’s it for another week! Time to get my head down and fly through an enormous stack of February books to read. I may not survive this month!
Wishing you all a wonderful week and lots of happy reading! xx
Novel Deelights 
Oh no! I’m sad that I’ll Find You was a DNF. I have that one coming up soon… Eek. I hope you’re feeling better blogging wise. I think you’re wonderful!
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Aw, I think you’re pretty wonderful yourself, lovely! 😘
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Oo no! I hope you’re not still feeling so awful about the blogging world. I try to ignore a lot of it and concentrate on cracking posts like yours! Hope February makes you feel better x
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Much better, thank you, Linda! I just need to stay away from all things social media as that’s where the proverbial tends to hit the fan. xx
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I agree. I tend only to have notifications open on Twitter and I avoid Facebook as much as I can as I don’t understand it!
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I like to keep the jacket on the book to protect it, particularly while it’s in my bag when I’m commuting to and from work (in its Buddle, of course!) but I do take the jacket off while I’m reading at home.
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That reminds me I should really get another Buddle. 🤔
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You can never have too many! I should know… 😀
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I totally get you books over people! I hope February brings a better mood for you though, all that tongue biting must hurt!
You kept up with the brilliant blog tours with some great sounding books for next week. I have heard amazing things about The Chestnut Man, but wow over 500 pages is a bit off putting.
I leave my book jackets on, as I like it to look pretty while I’m reading it.
Amanda xx
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I know some people are put off by the amount of pages but it’s so worth it!
I did indeed keep up fine. It’s February that might just kill me though 😂
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I hope you still have some tongue left – hopefully this week will be better. x
I normally leave the jackets on – I usually read only hardbacks in the house anyway as they are too big and heavy to carry around.
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It grows back, doesn’t it? 🤔😂
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Erm… 🤔🤣
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I haven’t been on social media much this past week so I obviously missed all the tongue biting. I’m guessing it was that’s where it happened and I’m sorry it did. Why do people have to be so flipping rude!!
I keep my book jackets on whilst reading because as far as I’m concerned they’re part of the book and need to kept on. Hope this week is much better for you but if you need a virtual hug or message away. Xx
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You’re right, that’s where it was. I should stay away from social media and I have been trying. Surprisingly works too 😉
Thank you! xx
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Very sorry to hear you’ve had a bad experience within the blogging community 😟 Definitely books over people works much of the time! I tend to keep the jackets on (but I’m very careful 😇 ) Love your personalise mug btw xx
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It’s Facebook mostly. Need to stay away from that cesspit. xx
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Ah, I don’t go on it much, perhaps I’ll keep it that way xx
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I spotted House of Silk amongst your purchases. I really enjoyed that so hope you do too.
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Oh, good! I didn’t really know much about it so I’m glad I picked a good one!
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Loved reading your weekly recap Eva. As to your ? – back when I read ‘real’ books, I always removed the dustjacket to preserve the cover. Now I read only Kindle copies so it is no longer an issue. I have literally hundreds of hardback copies on my shelves and they all have pristine covers. LOL. (Yes I still buy them, I like to purchase ones I’ve loved reading as I consider them ‘book friends’) Nuts? Possibly…
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I have been known to do that as well. Especially if the cover is stunning.
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Woww, many comnents! Adding nine with old song :- Janyary, sick and tired you’ve been hanging on me ……….. Nothing persinal! Just a menrym
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What is up with February, Eva? I have so many books and blog tours, I am literally afraid! Here’s to both of us surviving February like champs! 🥂 And dust jackets are definitely taken off to protect the jacket- agreed! ♥️
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You too? It’s crazy! And for some reason, I accepted another one yesterday! As if I’m not drowning already! I don’t know what I was thinking.
We can do this, Jennifer! If you need a cheerleader, I’ll be right there! xx
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Yes, we CAN do it, Eva! I’ll be cheering you on, too! (And I just got another February book myself! Eek!)
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Uh, oh. Books that land on your shelf often end up on mine. Nice additions…I think😏
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😂 Sorry, not sorry!
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I always take the dust jackets off hardbacks. I like to keep my books pristine and also they get in the way!
Hope this week is better than last week.
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Yes, exactly! The jackets are damaged so easily when you’re reading.
Hope you are having a wonderful week, Nicola! xx
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See, told you you’d like The Chestnut Man (well I think I did, I told everyone who would listen really). I have no idea what happened but perhaps that’s not a bad thing for once. I can’t believe someone had something negative to say! I have 4 books on my NG shelf right now (yay) and I’m trying hard not to go and request The Confessions of Frannie whatshername now. The big secret is just not to go to Netgalley really ;-). Lovely book haul and so cool that you received Call Me Stargirl! Happy reading Eva!
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You did, indeed!
I requested Frannie and was denied, which was probably not a bad thing considering the current state of my shelf. 🙄
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Oh Eva sorry to hear you’ve had a rough week and I even though I managed to avoid whatever dramas were occurring this week, I got totally fed up with the endless outrage and blogger on blogger attitude at the end of 2018 which in part was why I went awol for a month.
Sorry to hear one of your books was a DNF – I’ve had one too this week but hey worse things happen at sea 😉
Hope February brings a smile back to your face x
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I can totally understand the need to step away. Staying away from all things Facebook makes a huge difference 😉
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Tongue biting…when was that 🤣 but I completely agree it’s a been a tough week. But we made it ah!! don’t worry about February we are in the same boat and we have Rae trained and ready lol
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Poor woman is going to run out of gifs 😂
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She will find them lol
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I always take the dust jacket of when reading, and I always slot it back on the shelf so it looks like the book is still there (my cousin finds that extremely weird, but I’ve stood on and bent a dust jacket before so now it’s safer not to leave them on the floor).
I was thinking, I’m off on Wednesday, can we read a whole book then too 🤔
Don’t worry about February, with a new month comes a new virtual book shop 😃
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I put it aside somewhere safe but pretending the book is still on the shelf is a tad weird, yes 😉
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