Another year has flown by and what a year it has been. I have had a lot more off blog milestones reached so this year blog wise has been business as usual.

But 5 whole years! Half a decade of talking about books! I mean that is insane! 1826 days or 260 weeks or 60 months!

So, let’s talk about the last year.

House Move

So, December last year, my partner and I moved into our very first house together. It was such a stressful process but super rewarding at the end and now we are just under a month until our one year anniversary in our house! I always say Nov-Jan is my favourite time blogging but now I get to add another element of celebration to these months and that is my house purchase anniversary. While not book-related it was a major milestone in my life!

Events Co-ordinator and Fiction Bookseller

Last year I spoke about how I had been given the chance to run our children and teen section at my bookstore for the Christmas period. This extended well into the new year and it was so much fun and I was able to really showcases my skills and knowledge. That being said after co-running the section for a year and then running it myself I thought it was time to change. So very recently I became an adult fiction bookseller within my store. Focusing on crime, sci-fi, fantasy and manga. I have only recently started and it’s been a bit daunting to learn so much more information but I am enjoying.

Alongside this change, I always as of earlier this year fully started running my stores events program which has been super exciting and fulfilling. I now run our stores first ever YA book group and have chaired multiple author signings in store. We have a couple things lined up next year which seem incredibly exciting.

Social Media

So, my social media has been ticking away. I do think my instagram has felt a bit neglected recently and I hope to change that in the new year and get a better strategy in place but my TikTok has been skyrocketing recently. When I decided to restart my TikTok I was nervous I missed the boat and no-one would care about what I have to say about books but loads of people have been tuning in and interacting with me on there which has led to some cool opportunities working and promoting books with publishers like Joffe Books and Penguin Michael Joseph. I never thought I would ever get sent a PR package in my life but that has happened TWICE this year! TWICE!

The Hidden Bookcase

One of my ultimate bookish highlights was being a guest on my close friend Morgan’s podcast The Hidden Bookcase. It was amazing to be able to meet the co-host Sorren virtually as I had heard him only through the podcast and through Morgan’s stories about him. It was such an amazing experience and I was so grateful that they allowed me to feature on the podcast. We discussed all things Godkiller earlier this year with hopes for me to maybe come back next year if all things align!!!

Mini Round Up

• Number of published posts for this year: 98
• Number of books reviewed for this year: 23
• Most popular blog post of the past year: Mistborn Era 2 Series Review

My Top 3 Posts From This Year

35 fantasy sub-genres and recommendations – I have always wanted to do a big blog post with loads of recommendations where at least one book would appeal to someone and I was able to do that with this blog post. It took a lot of organisation and at one point I felt I was going to have to get some big whiteboard and red string out. I had so much fun creating this post.

The Promised Neverland Series Review – I don’t know what it is about series reviews but I love them so much. Earlier this year I finished a manga series that has made it to my faves of all time list and I needed to talk about it as a whole rather than just individual volumes.

Let’s talk about re-tellings, specifically Greek Mythology re-tellings.- A more controversial post I wrote back in April of this year but it felt good to be able to write down my thoughts regarding re-tellings which are rampant in publishing at the moment. Some extra notes from that post though.

• I have realised that I still enjoy Greek Mythology but I want to read more classic mythology work rather than re-tellings. I want to read more of the non-fiction and the original plays and poems.
• The Hercules re-telling I read was very good. It did something that I had mentioned in my post where it wasn’t just telling the same old story. It had a unique twist to it which I did enjoy.
• My Rick Riordan re-read failed. I DNFd The Lost Hero about 50% in.
• The Scarlet Pimpernel re-telling was not good. Where were the vampires?
• I do have one more GM re-telling which I will be reading next year – sent to me by the publisher.
• And as I stated on the post. I am taking some time away from GM re-tellings only. But watch me eat my words 😉