THE SUNDAY POST #TWO

THE SUNDAY POST is a weekly feature hosted by Kimba at the Caffinated Book Reviewer. It is a chance to recap the previous week, share news, showcase books and/or bookish things we have received, and tell about what is coming up on our blog in the next week. You can view the rules, HERE.

MONDAY: My ARC review of Ensnared, the last book in the Splintered trilogy by A.G. Howard, went up. The author thanked me personally and complimented my gif usage, so that pretty much made my week, well, month actually. Lol. You can view it, HERE. It has a small giveaway.Then the bad news came that my Tell Me Tuesday feature co-host was moving on. I still have my one follower, Pili from In Love With Handmade, so that's a good thing. 

TUESDAY: There was a lot of fanfare for the release of Ensnared. Eventhough I had the ARC, I was equally excited to see it come out because I have been dying to discuss the book's (and trilogy's) ending with my fellow Madlings! I posted my first solo Tell Me Tuesday. You can view that, HERE. I also decided to to challenge myself to do a read of all of Gregory Maguire's fairytale retellings this year, and do an author spotlight / body of work review blog post at the end of the year.

THURSDAY: I was supposed to be putting up my Super Secret Top Read of 2014 post, but I didn't have the time to put all of the finishing touches on it because I needed to put up my challenge declaration post, and a tag post. I will be (pinky swear) putting it up sometime in the next week. I have felt overly pressured with special blog posts during the holidays and kind of burned-out. Serendipitously I ran across this page for Blogging Without Obligation; it made me realize that posting it whenever, is just fine. I also joined BWO, HERE.

RANDOMNESS: Everyone seemed to be declaring their challenge participation this week so I will tell you I am doing my usual Goodreads Challenge because it is no extra pressure. I set it at 52, one book a week. I did an ARC August challege last year, and even though I won the giveaway, I was burned out. That is what has put me off to other challenges. I was also in a series challenge last year, but the blogger hosting it seems to have lost track of it. So, my resolution was only the GR challenge, but then I found out about the Netgalley challege, and someone suggested my Maguire challenge fits this other fairytale retelling challenge...so much for simplicity this year.

UPDATE: I did decide to do the Fairytale Challenge. You can view that post, HERE, and it has a sign-up link. The challenge linky is open until January 31st, the dealine was extended. Another blogger is also doing an informal challenge of books translated into English; one a month. I am going to join that one, too! I will let you know the details when she posts them.

BOOKISH MAIL: Zero.

These were my ebook deal finds of the week: The Thirteeth Unicorn was free and I saw there was a sequel, Black Dragon, for 99¢. I wanted to make sure I liked the writing before I bought the second book, so I started reading TTU and didn't want to put it down! I had to though because I have too many highly anticipated books I never got to from last year, and three from 2013!!

NEXT WEEK: There will be my regular features of Tell Me Tuesday and The Sunday Post, and I might be doing a quick cover reveal post for The Infinite (sequel to Gates of Thread and Stone), on Monday. I will also be posting the review of my top 2014 book.

GIVEAWAYS: There is my From the Heart giveaway for a Valentines Day card from me, with swag and tea. Ten winners will be chosen with two international winners. You can see it HERE. There is also a Black Raven Tea giveaway on the Ensnared review, HERE.

NOTE: I also wanted to add that I did a very poor job of getting to other Sunday Post linkers last week, maybe only six or seven, but I promise to spend more time this week. Plus, revisiting to see other posts during the week. I am a Bloggers Commenting Back member, so if you leave a comment here, I will absolutely give your blog a visit!