Claire Louisa posted: " Happy New Year 2023 has been a hell of a year and I am so glad it is over. I'm hoping for good things only in 2024. While I reached my reading goals by nearly 200% my mental health has plagued me this year; fatigue, depression and anxiety, I know " Claire's Reads and Reviews End-of-Year Wrap-Up and New Year Goals Claire Louisa Jan 1 Happy New Year 2023 has been a hell of a year and I am so glad it is over. I'm hoping for good things only in 2024. While I reached my reading goals by nearly 200% my mental health has plagued me this year; fatigue, depression and anxiety, I know I'm not alone in this, I have read many posts by bloggers and authors expressing their own mental health battles and I hope 2024 is a better year for us all. Because of this, I fell behind in my reviewing apologies to those authors whose books I didn't get around to reviewing, I will review them in the new year. As you can see I read a lot of books and I can't possibly pick a top 10 this year. Here is the link to my year in books if you want to check any of them out https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2023/7588708 I found a really good app to track my reading, Bookmory, I like it because it also gives me a monthly pictorial of what I've read. It's also easy to use. As always I like to support Indie authors and I would say this was 90% of my reading. I also like to support Australian authors, especially Australian Women Writers, I read roughly 70 books by AWW this year. I didn't quite reach my goal for my A-Z reads, but I nearly got there, maybe if I'd had the energy to go in and look through all the books I read I could have completed it but it wouldn't have with many of the books I had hoped to use, hopefully, 2024 will be the year. In 2024 I'm going to read fewer ARCs, I have my favourite authors who I will still request, but I'm hoping to clear up some of my backlog, for real this year as this has been a goal for the last two years. I'm also going to be studying full-time as well as working, so I can't imagine I'll read even half as many books this year and I imagine fatigue will be my constant friend again. But I'm hoping the study will lead to better things in 2025. If you'd like to follow my bookstagram, I tend to post there even if I don't do a blog post the link is https://www.instagram.com/clairesreadsandreviews/ I'm looking forward to sharing my 2024 reading journey with you. Comment Like You can also reply to this email to leave a comment. Manage your email settings or unsubscribe.

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Theodene Allen posted: " A week or so ago, I found myself reading an email I received a month ago. In the email was a link for a NetGalley widget for a book I was approved to read by Barbour Books Publisher. I recalled signing up to read and review the book the week prior. I" Books Lattes & Tiaras Mistletoe Countess by Pepper Basham Theodene Allen Dec 31 A week or so ago, I found myself reading an email I received a month ago. In the email was a link for a NetGalley widget for a book I was approved to read by Barbour Books Publisher. I recalled signing up to read and review the book the week prior. I don't usually read the email the widget link comes in though. But I noticed that this particular book was a book 3. Wait, there's two other books before this? Apparently I was already approved to read book 2, but haven't gotten to it yet. Which means I needed to find book 1. Searching the Amazon website, I was able to find Mistletoe Countess, book 1 of A Freddie and Grace Mystery series. Unfortunately for my super skinny budget, I had to purchase the book, but it would be the last kindle purchase I make in 2023 and I hadn't bought anything for quite a few months, so I decided to get it. Gosh, I've fallen in love with the characters! Freddie and Grace are unexpected marriage partners who support one another and are both entering aristocracy to please their families. Grace is always reading a book, preferably fiction, to help her adapt to her surroundings while Freddie is busy spending the dowry Grace came with to renovate Havensbrook, his family's home. Grace is definitely my kind of character. She loves her fiction and brings characters into conversations as if everyone has read the same books! She relates situations to books she's read. It's amazingly my idea of a lovely person! I wish we were friends! I especially love her way of making others feel at ease and sorting the hearts of those around her. Freddie, or Lord Astley, is the unexpected heir of Havensbrook after his father and brother died unexpectedly within two weeks of one another. It's Freddie and Grace who figure out that their deaths were not due to a heart condition, rather they'd been poisoned! This is definitely worth the money! I'm eagerly digging into book 2, Cairo's Curse, and hope to finish that before the New Year, but with so many other things to do, I'm not sure I'll accomplish that goal. Alas, I have more than 24 hours! I give Mistletoe Countess by Pepper Basham 5 out of 5 Christmassy tiaras! Thank you to NetGalley and Barbour Books Publishing for access to this amazing work! Comment Like You can also reply to this email to leave a comment. Manage your email settings or unsubscribe.

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