Weekly Reading Update 1/18-1/25

What has everyone been reading this past week?

I managed to finish a few books and make a decent amount of progress in another. All in all it was a really good week of reading. I’ve posted reviews of both Nature Poems to See By and Everyday I Read here on the blog.

I Hate Fairyland is a series that I’ve been reading when it first started coming out. It’s definitely taken some fun and unexpected twists and turns, but I’m still really enjoying it so will continue to pick up future issues.

Look for my review of Love (Literally) Bites this coming week! I’m loving it so far and will be sure to share more info with you once I’ve finished it.

Happy reading, everyone!

January | ARCs on Deck

Hey everyone! I thought I would do something new today and talk about the ARCs I’m currently working on. This might not be all the ARCs I have in line, but the most direct ones I’m working on.

Nothing sucks more than being sent on a work trip with a (probably) murderous vampire when you’re a chaotic shifter whose life is falling apart.

Once called a freak for her inability to shift, Raya Merritt is now transforming at the worst moments. Rabbit ears mid-presentation? Check. Mouse whiskers in the pool? Yep. Cheetah spots while making out? Sure, why not? After a year of increasing turmoil–and with another full moon approaching–Raya is scrambling to make the most of a shifty situation.

Asher Sullivan is perfectly content. He has a quiet home, a blood bank down the street, and a steady income. He goes to work and comes home–no mayhem, no surprises–just the way he designed it.
Until a relentlessly cheerful shifter shows up in his office and upends it all.

When Raya and Asher are accidentally double-booked into the same hotel room, Raya is determined not to let her inner animal run wild and ruin her career. Against his wishes, Asher’s fangs ache to taste her, while Raya’s shifter side purrs for him and no one else.

Little do they know, more than their jobs are on the line, and they’ll need each other to make it through.

Goodreads

The second book in a cozy romantasy small town monster romance series with mythology, fairy tales, and folk lore. Books are intersecting standalones and can be read out of order.

Sylvie, the faerie baker.

When I found Arcane Cove after my own people cast me out, I felt home for the first time. Monsters, witches, and all forms of magical beings welcomed me. And who knew my hidden calling would be magical baked goods? The Cove’s residents came to my bakery Muffin Compares to You for sugar and enchanted support, which I was quick to indulge.

Until the day a mysterious, bearded stranger with pointed ears came into my shop, sending my quaint world into a spiraling blizzard. He was off-putting, arrogant, and knew he was handsome. So, why couldn’t I stop thinking about him? And when he said he was looking for a woman, why did I deflate, knowing it wasn’t me?

Jack, the Winter King.

Every solstice offered the chance to find my mate. A portal opened in the lakes surrounding my kingdom, taking me to a randomly chosen realm. Given this solstice would be the thousandth time I’ve searched, I had little hope left.

When I arrived in Arcane Cove, I never expected such a small town to harbor her. I also never thought she’d work in a stuffy, toasty cloud of sugarplums and vanilla. Surely, it was the universe’s idea of nipping me in the butt. Could she truly be my fated mate? And if she was, would she accept me, powers and all, before time ran out? Or would the ice creature within me frighten her away?

Goodreads

The only thing more dangerous than falling for a lie
is falling for the liar.

Don’t look at the desert. Don’t think about the desert. Never step onto the sand. Taera has followed these rules her entire life—until he arrives.

Impossibly gorgeous, with a face masked in magic, Nikolai kidnaps Taera and drags her deep into the dunes. He says she’s powerful and needs to be trained…if she ever wants to see her family again.

Thrust into a deadly school of illusions and lies, Taera can’t trust anyone. Especially not her breathtaking, ruthless captor. Top student and notorious liar, his secrets run deeper than the sand. He’s her worst nightmare—and everything she craves.

The cutthroat Halls of Glass have a mind of their own. Trapped within their looping corridors, Taera is surrounded by hostile students and forced to rely on Nikolai.

Taera knows she shouldn’t fall for his illusions. But magic requires a partnership, and he’s the only mage who can handle her wild, untamed power.

And the only way he’ll help her is if she pretends to be his.

Goodreads

Some battles are fought in the light.
Hers will be in the shadows.

In the fractured world of Emberleria, strength is survival and magic is power. Those born without it are cast out as rogues, left to die in the wilds or be claimed by the King’s slave drivers.

Lilian Ashcroft, commander of her pack’s warriors, has spent her life training to become a Guardian – to protect those she loves most. But when the King announces the annual Rogue Games with a deadly twist, her life shatters. Rage and despair drives her into the borderlands… and straight into the King’s chains.

Thrown into the heart of the Volskar, Lilian is forced to fight for her survival. Victory demands she forge uneasy alliances, outwit her enemies and face the lies haunting the Kingdom’s elite.

Yet an ancient evil prowls the castle’s shadowed halls, killing innocents for sport. And deep beneath the fortress, a forgotten library guards a bewitched gate – the secrets beyond could unravel the very fabric of the realm.

But some gates, once opened, can never be closed.

Goodreads

Look forward to reviews coming soon. Happy reading!

Looking Back/Looking Ahead

As I’m staring down the clock and willing this year to end, I thought I would pop on with only a couple hours to go and do a little reflection and reset.

2025…was the worst year I’ve had in a while. I spent much of the year very ill (kicked off with a hospital stay at the end of January and unfortunately didn’t really start to improve until the last couple months). I’ve dealt with chronic illness for 15+ years but this year really went beyond what I’ve ever experienced. Lots of things got set aside such as my reading, this blog, gaming, etc. For much of the year all I had the energy for was my job. It was rough and tested me to the extreme.

Needless to say I’m ready to put it behind me. So, let’s look forward to what I want to do in 2026.

For one, I’d like to get back to being consistent with posting here, which also means getting my reading back on track. I’ve certainly done better the last few months so I feel like it’s something I can do. I do have some specific things I’m trying to accomplish, such as getting my Netgalley current, my percentage is good but I definitely have catching up to do. I’m also sorely behind on my re-reading of Nancy Drew and would like to also re-read a number of books from my younger years (such as re-reading L.J. Smith’s books or picking up old school Point Horror).

I’d like to be more consistent with my posting on Instagram too (@de.the.wordsmith) with more book content. Not necessarily less Calypso content, just more book content.

Beyond that? I certainly have other things I want to accomplish, but I don’t want to overwhelm myself by putting too much of it into writing. At the end of the day I just want to read and write more and maintain my health. 2026 has got to be better, right?

Happy new year, everyone!

2024 – Goals, Plans and Wishful Thinking?

Since it’s a new year and I’m trying to get back on track, why not start the year off with some goals or plans? I’m not going to be super strict on myself, but as mentioned in a previous post I do want to get back to posting daily if I can. That’s the major goal for the blog.

In regards to reading, I would definitely like to finish more series (I finally finished Kamisama Kiss in 2023, I don’t know why I dragged my feet on it so much, but it’s done!). The major ones I have on the agenda right now are finishing Fruits Basket and Fables, since they have been in progress for so long. I also want to get caught up on the TBR Card Challenge books I have held over from previous months. I made myself a spreadsheet so I can keep track, so fingers crossed.

Another big goal is that I’m still working on my Nancy Drew reread, I’m about halfway through the original 56, so I’d like to finish those at least, but we shall see how far I make it. 

Beyond that the only goal I’ve really set is my Goodreads goal of 200, which really is just because I hope to be back where I was. With my mental and physical health in a better place I hope that it can happen. Again, not going to be super upset if it doesn’t, but it’s something I’d like to reach for.

All in all I’m hoping for a lot of reading and staying on track with the blog. Not much to ask for, right?

Happy reading!

End of the Year Update | Reflecting on 2023+2024 Plans

Hey all – as it is the end of the year I figured it would be a good time to talk about 2023 as well as talk about some of my plans for 2024. 

As some of you may have noticed, 2023 was not as consistent as the last couple years when it came to me posting on the blog. It wasn’t planned to be that way and I certainly didn’t like that I wasn’t posting as frequently, but things happen. I received a new medical diagnosis at the end of 2022 that is very life impacting and I thought I was doing ok coming to grips with it but in the last month or so I realized it really messed with my mental health more than I realized. I’m not going to go into details because for the most part I try to keep talk of my conditions off of my blog but be assured that I am ok, I’ve got some great doctors and after some trial and error with medications am in a far better place than I was when it was diagnosed.

The blog wasn’t the only thing impacted unfortunately, my reading also took a hit. For the most part I made sure my obligations were covered, but beyond that it was a struggle. Safe to say I had some of my lowest reading months in history, but as I said…I was having a really hard time adjusting/coming to terms with the new diagnosis.

So where are we for 2024? I’m happy to say that once I figured out what was really impacting me, I did a much better job of processing it/coming to terms with it. No guarantees it won’t rear its head again, but in the last month I definitely feel more like myself. December has been my best reading month this year and I actually already have my 2024 journal pages and January pages done (there were some months this year I didn’t get done until 1.5 months after they were done, it was sad). I’m feeling like my enjoyment/passion is back and feel like getting back on my schedule of posting every day. Who am I right now? Haha.

Though I don’t talk a lot about challenges or readathons I do, I have a plan to do more of them in 2024. Rich helped me revamp my TBR game, and we also added some more challenges that he helped with. I may talk about them in a future post, but right now I’m fine with them just living in my journal and being something purely for fun.

What else is on deck for 2024 that is not blog related? Our wedding! We are currently in the middle of planning, but thankfully the big things are locked in, so we took a little break from planning for the holiday season. I both can’t wait for it and am terrified it’s going to come entirely too soon, I imagine that’s pretty normal.

I can’t guarantee I will always post every single day, but I’m hoping to get back to a place where I’m doing that. What would you all like to see in 2024?

Happy reading!

2023 | Challenges for the Year

Hey everyone! Since we’re still in January I thought it might be a good time to talk a little bit about the challenges I’m planning on doing this year.

As I said previously I am pretty being soft in the goals department for 2023 but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to set some challenges or participate in some things.

First things first, even though I haven’t done a post on it in a while, I am still doing my TBR card game, it’s just something that Rich and I do every month, and I’m trying to catch up by taking care of previous picks.

I’m of course participating in BooksandLaLa’s Buzzwordathon, I’ve already finished my pick for January so we are off to a good start.

Also because I enjoy making him participate, Rich picked out 25 books off my TBR shelves to go into a jar. I’ll pick one a month at least and try to get it off the TBR. He also picked me 23 to read in 23 just for fun. Again, it’s not a hard goal or anything, but it will be fun to look at the list at the end of the year to see how many I completed.

Other than that I may participate loosely in some readathons, but nothing is going to be set in stone until I see how I’m feeling at that time. I want to enjoy my reading this year and be kind to myself when I maybe don’t feel as well.

Though I’m not technically doing 12 picked by 12 friends, feel free to leave me a comment with a recommendation!

Happy reading!

2023 Goals | Life Update

Hey everyone, I’m just going to get into it right away – 2022 was not my year and things kind of went off the rails for me. This was especially true for the last few months of the year. For the first time in years I didn’t hit my reading goal and it was purely because everything that happened destroyed my mental health and sent me into a slump. I’m not going to get deep into it, but a new diagnosis of another auto immune condition was added to my list – at this point I have multiple autoimmune bingos and would prefer no more. I also spent 2 months fighting with insurance to try and get the medication I needed and Calypso had another December health scare (she’s fine! thankfully we just needed to run some more intensive tests to make sure she was good). Those are just the most intensive of the issues I dealt with in the last few months.

So what about 2023? Well I’m really hoping to get back on track and definitely doing some catch up here in January. I’m probably not going to set any super hard goals for myself and simply work on finding my healthy place mental health wise. There’s going to be a little more mood reading happening until I’m completely back in my groove and mostly I’m going to try to just enjoy what I’m doing. 🙂

As for writing, of course I’m going to do Camp NaNoWrimo and NaNoWrimo, but I’m also not going to set hard goals there and just enjoy the process.

I’m really hoping that 2023 is a year of healing and adjusting for me, there are definitely some lifestyle adjustments with my new diagnosis. I set my reading goal at 200 like I have the last couple years and I feel positive about it but won’t be upset with myself if life happens and I don’t reach it.

Happy 2023!

Life Update | 7/5

Hey everyone! I figured it might be time for a little life update. It’s a pretty big one.

Last week was me and my SO’s anniversary. Eleven years of being together as a couple, a lot of that was long distance, but we’ve lived together for the last four years.

So on our anniversary…he proposed! There were a lot of emotions and a hard adrenaline crash later, to be honest I’m still emotionally processing in some ways.

So that’s the update – I promise I’ll be back to regular content tomorrow, but had to share.

Happy reading!

Update | 2/24

Hey everyone! I figured it might be good to do a general update since I haven’t done one in a while.

First and foremost, for anyone who saw my post last week about taking Calypso to the ER vet, she is fine! The vet suspected she had a bought of gastritis as xrays and bloodwork were all clear. She took a few days to get back to normal and she’s still a bit skittish (she has as much anxiety as I do, I swear) but she’s feeling a lot better.

Here’s some floof tax to show how much better she feels:

As to what else is going on with me, I’m trying to find my equilibrium in some ways. For months, the last couple years even, I’ve bottled some stuff up without realizing I was doing it. I’ve ignored grieving after losing two members of my family because I just had to move on. I won’t lie, within the last couple months things have definitely come to a head and I’ve had to let myself accept the grief, stress and anxiety. So now I’m working on getting back to where I need to be.

I am looking forward to Camp Nanowrimo in April, I’m hoping that will be a nice refresher for me. Other than that I plan on getting back on my usual reading pace and really work on mental health and self care.

How’s everyone else doing?

Happy New Year!

Hey everyone! I just wanted to take the time today to wish everyone a happy new year!

I had a quiet new year’s eve, spent most of it consoling my anxiety filled cat since all of our neighbors were setting off fireworks while also taking it easy and playing a game. We’re not much into reveling for new years in our house, but we celebrate in our own way.

I have no way to know how 2022 is going to go and after bad 2021 was I don’t want to jinx anything by hoping or assuming. Let’s just say we’re going into this with caution.

So what can you expect from the blog this coming year? I’ll be back to posting every day after my few holiday absences the last couple weeks and I’m hoping to be able to bring you even more reviews. I’d love to look into posting some more fun posts, so feel free to comment if you have any post types you’d like to see here!

Happy new year!