Hi dear friends,
It’s Sunday time to have our weekly chat about real life and about what happened on the blog! As usual I am linking to The Sunday Post at Kimberly’s @caffeinatedreviewer !
In real life
Well last weekend as you may know I was in Paris with my mom to attend RARE Paris!
You can read all about it below.
Just know that my mom was delighted to walk in the City of Light again and it was the perfect time as she was feeling down after my dad’s passed away in December. It was a girls weekend!
I absolutely adored volunteering as an author assistant for Scarlett Cole and I’d do it again in a heartbeat! Maybe at another future book event if I am attending alone.
It’s Easter Holiday in Belgium but I am working and it does not feel like holiday at work! We are drowning in work and can barely keep up!
Yesterday I drove to the airport to fetch my daughter and two of her friends as they came back from Corsica. It was their high school travel and they had a blast kayaking, canyoning, rock climbing, mountain biking etc.
They came back exhausted and she fell asleep around 3 PM π
Last info about my personal life: I am considering making my own book scented soy candles!
I love DIY and my favorite candle shop does not offer the option to order personalized candles anymore!
Making the candle is the easy part. What’s taking me a loooong time is ordering the right glass jar (you have no ideas how picky I am about the dimensions!). And I guess designing the sticker and graphics will be tricky too. I probably will have to have them printed in a shop.
The good news though is that I will have as many glitter as I like LOL
More in a few days/weeks and let’s hope I won’t mess this up too much!
On the blog (click on the graphic to read the post)
Well I have read four books but only reviewed two so far!
Eleanor & Grey by Brittainy C Cherry was absolutely moving and adorable at the same time. Brittainy has just a delicious, profound yet poetic writing! It was a 4,5 stars.
My second review was an ARC of Kingsbane by Claire Legrand. I was really embarrassed when I had to write my review as I shouldn’t have gotten this eARC! I had requested but it was not open for my country yet Sourcebooks Fire drew me and granted my wish! As I adored Furyborn I was in heaven but soon it turned out that I was not invested in the story. It has many strong assets but some aspects really bothered me and dampened my pleasure to read it. Hence my predicament as I swore to always be honest yet I had been lucky to be chosen! Anyway I gave it my best shot yet remained true to myself. 3 stars. What’s even more sad is that I really am the odd one here! Everyone seems to love it. I’d say that’s very good for Claire Legrand of course and it’s once again a case of “it’s not you it’s me”.
The two books that I have read but not yet reviewed (you’ll get the reviews next week) are Defy Me by Tahereh Mafi (4 stars) and Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah (5 stars) (audiobook buddy read).
Since the last Sunday Post I have published two discussion posts:
Should we give 5 stars reviews? And why/how?
Do social media make it imppossible for an author to do right?
I told you that I went to RARE Paris (Romance Author Readers Event) well I wrote two posts about it: one about my tips for attending book events as a reader and attending as a volunteer.
The second with anecdotes about my stay in Paris and my meet with authors!
Last but not least, thanks to Shanah’s choice of topic two weeks ago I went with the big guns and wrote a Top XXL romantic reads recommendation!
On the blogosphere and in the quizz/publishing world!
This one is a really “feel good ” post as Marie tells us how to dtop compairing us with other bloggers!
https://drizzleandhurricanebooks.com/2019/04/10/how-to-stop-comparing-yourself-to-other-book-bloggers/
And for quizz lovers, Epic Reads asks us which character from Shatter Me series we would be
As I also know many of you (me included) are big fans of Game of Throne, here are some books paired with the different houses!
That’s it!
Now do tell me how your week was! And if you have some discussion topics in mind just leave them below I’ll do my best to post about them!
Thanks for reading!
Sophie
I have missed so much.
Mary
Your daughters experience sounds amazing! I would have loved to have a high school trip that involved all of that, what a wonderful experience. And candle making sounds like a great idea, I can’t wait to see what you do. π
Good luck with the candles
Thank you Jay!
How fun that your’re making candles. I’ll buy one for sure – I hope you ship to the U.S.!
Hahaha Daisy I will make them for me but who knows if people love them why not π
Wow so great to see your experience at RARE. Some day I will go to one. And now Notre Dame burning just 1.5 weeks later. I hope some of you got to see it while there.
Here is my Sunday Post Β Β
I know Anne! It was so sad to see it burning!
I’m glad to hear you had a great time in Paris and that the author assistant thing went well! Good luck getting the candle business up and running π
Thank you Kristen! Honestly the candles will be for my own amusement π
Ah, well I hope they turn out nice! And who knows, maybe they’ll be so good that you will decide to start selling them π
Sounds like a fabulous time in Paris… for both you *and* your mom. Iβm sure she loved the getaway and the change of scenery and just a break from the usual. My husband and I are going away for a week soon and weβve asked my mom to join us for at least part of it. Sheβs considering it but weβll see. Iβm laughing About the (possible) bookish candle endeavor. Because youβre not busy enough, right? π
Bwahahaha no I am not busy enough Tanya! But I designed my first sticker today! It still needs to be refined but I am proud as a peacock! LOL
Good luck with your new business, Easter is next weekend for us, I still havenβt bought Easter eggs yet though!
Have a great reading week
Thank you Shelley Rae! But I won’t sell the candles they’ll be just for my own pleasure π
I love soy candles! I have a bunch a burn them while reading. What an awesome book event and even better that is was in Paris! Even your daughter’s trip sounds lovely! π
Yes both trips were amazing Rachel!
Oh, how fun! Your own candles?? Is that to sell or for yourself? Good luck Sophie! π
For myself Trisy! Just for fun π
What a wonderful trip to Paris! I’m glad you and your mom had such a great adventure.
Enjoy your books, and thanks for sharing. Thanks for visiting my blog.
Thank you Laurel!!
Glad you had such a great time at RARE! Thats awesome!
Thank you Samantha!
Glad that you had such a great time at RARE and you were able to spend time with your mom!
Oh yes Nicole!
RARE seems such a nice event (I’ll have to read your post about it later). I hope you and your mother had a lovely time together.
Good luck with your candle making business. I recently started working/selling book designs and even though it’s challenging, it’s also so fun.
Happy readings! π
TΓ’nia @MyLovelySecret
Thank you Tania! I am far from selling book designs LOL
RARE sounds awesome, and glad that your mother got to enjoy Paris. And good luck going the candle route, if you take the plunge! I’d look forward to seeing what scents you come up with. Certainly a Red Sonja version is in order (kidding!!!).
Yay more quizzes. π
Hahaha red Sonja now that’s an idea Greg!
Glad you had fun at RARE! Sounds like a great time.
Love that you are thinking of making candles. If you need someone to design the stickers, we can totally work something out. I work a lot with tour companies and I can help out. Email me if you are interested. I’ve worked with print companies and might be able to help out with some of that also. Help you find places or ways to cut the cost.
Hope you have a great week, Sophie! Happy Reading!
That’s really great Michelle! I designed my first sticker today (still need to improve but not so bad) but if you have online printing companies that work for Europe and are not too expensive I’d be interested!
RARE looks awesome!
I’m glad you had a great time at Rare! I love DIY! Candle making is a great hobby! I’ve never done it but I really want to. I haven’t read Furyborn yet but I’m sorry to hear that the sequel was a disappointment for you!
Hope you have a wonderful weekend and Happy reading! π
Thank you Raven!!! And the trickiest part in making candles is making the sticker LOL
RARE looked so much fun! Glad you had a great time.
Oh I did Nicci!
Wow that’s awesome you went to Paris!! Sounds like a wonderful girl’s weekend π
Oh yes totally!!
I’m glad you’ve had a good week, Sophie π As you know, we had a great time in Paris for RARE, too – but it went by so fast. And I’m still upset I didn’t get to chat with you.
Have a wonderful week ahead and happy reading.
Thank you Lexxie!
Thank you so much for sharing my post, Sophie, so happy you enjoyed it! <3
YAY for Easter holidays, I personally am very looking forward to some time off work as it's been extra busy and tiring, too. I hope you'll manage to take a breath and have a little less work sometime soon, or at least relax a little more! <3 Sending you all the love for this new week! π
Thank you Marie!!!
I’m glad to hear that you had a great time at RARE and that you and your mom had a girls’ weekend while there. That’s wonderful.
Good luck with your candle making. It sounds challenging but fun!
Oh Suzanne you have no idea about the candle! Making the candle is easy. What’s trick is making the sticker LOL
I enjoyed your post about RARE. How lucky to be able to attend and assist, Sophie!
My Sunday Post
Thank you Laura! You are so right I was very lucky!!