The Art of Blogging: Commenting Back

Reader numbers don’t just fall into your lap -- you need to spread the word or else that daily view count is going to stay at zero (or one, if you have your mom look at it when she’s not busy). That involves visiting other blogs, reading a post, posting a meaningful comment with actual substance, then linking your blog as your signature.

Book Blogging Myths DEBUNKED

Believe it or not, blogging isn’t exactly easy. It can be exhausting, it can be stressful. It’s you trying to deliver quality work with enough creativity to make it stand out from all the thousands of book blogs out there. It’s hard, honestly, because it’s like everything is already said. Everything’s already done, and you need to wrack your brain extra-hard to find something new. It’s easier for some than others, but that doesn’t mean it’s a nice walk in the park. Blogging is a labour of love -- and it's got a couple of myths that needs dispelling.

[Review] The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Choiski

RATING: 2.5/5
The Star-Touched Queen
Author: Roshani Choiski
Date of Publication: April 26, 2016
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Pages: 342
From Goodreads

Fate and fortune. Power and passion. What does it take to be the queen of a kingdom when you’re only seventeen?

 Maya is cursed. With a horoscope that promises a marriage of death and destruction, she has earned only the scorn and fear of her father’s kingdom. Content to follow more scholarly pursuits, her whole world is torn apart when her father, the Raja, arranges a wedding of political convenience to quell outside rebellions. Soon Maya becomes the queen of Akaran and wife of Amar. Neither roles are what she expected: As Akaran’s queen, she finds her voice and power. As Amar’s wife, she finds something else entirely: Compassion. Protection. Desire…

But Akaran has its own secrets—thousands of locked doors, gardens of glass, and a tree that bears memories instead of fruit. Soon, Maya suspects her life is in danger. Yet who, besides her husband, can she trust? With the fate of the human and Otherworldly realms hanging in the balance, Maya must unravel an ancient mystery that spans reincarnated lives to save those she loves the most…including herself.

three questions to ask before you start blogging

Blogging is a huge commitment - to yourself, and to your readership. You set time aside in your life to think up content then wrestle it down into words, something that’s cohesive and sensible and it’s just something, something to give your readers to read and enjoy, because that’s what you gotta do as a blogger. Think, write, publish.

It’s a great life. All the friends you meet and the connections you make, and the new things you learn. It's incredible. But there's some things you need to think about before you jump right in.

[Review] And I Darken by Kirsten White

RATING: 4.5/5
And I Darken
Author: Kiersten White
Date of Publication: June 28, 2016
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages: 475
From Goodreads

No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwlya likes it that way. Ever since she and her gentle younger brother, Radu, were wrenched from their homeland of Wallachia and abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman courts, Lada has known that being ruthless is the key to survival. She and Radu are doomed to act as pawns in a vicious game, an unseen sword hovering over their every move. For the lineage that makes them special also makes them targets.
Lada despises the Ottomans and bides her time, planning her vengeance for the day when she can return to Wallachia and claim her birthright. Radu longs only for a place where he feels safe. And when they meet Mehmed, the defiant and lonely son of the sultan, Radu feels that he’s made a true friend—and Lada wonders if she’s finally found someone worthy of her passion.
But Mehmed is heir to the very empire that Lada has sworn to fight against—and that Radu now considers home. Together, Lada, Radu, and Mehmed form a toxic triangle that strains the bonds of love and loyalty to the breaking point.