Top Ten Tuesday – Reading/Blogging Goals I Still Want to Accomplish Before the End of the Year
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is Reading Goals I Still Want to Accomplish Before the End of the Year. I’m adding in blogging goals since I focused on both in my initial post about goals for 2023. I have to admit that most of my goals have been a huge fail this year. When Jetpack started trying to charge money to be able to auto-share across platforms – something that had been a free feature ever since I started my blog, I got discouraged. Then I got even more discouraged when good old Elon made it so you can’t use Jetpack to share to twitter, X, or whatever he’s calling it these days. On top of that, I’ve been having so many database corruption issues. I’m hoping those are resolved now that I stopped trying to fix it myself and paid my ISP to figure it out. In the meantime, I’ve been focusing more and more on my Bookstagram account. I still love my blog and the blogging community though so here’s where I stand on my 2023 goals and which ones I think are still doable.
Revisiting My Reading and Blogging Goals for 2023
1) My number one goal this year is a repeat goal from the past three years and that is to read more of the books I own. My goal for this was 70 and I’ve read 52 so not too bad.
2) This is also a repeat goal from 2022 and 2021. I really want to continue to only participate in blog tours where I have already requested a review book. I’ve only done a handful of blog tours this year and those were almost all for Berkley Romance, specifically some of my most anticipated reads of the year so I’m happy with my progress here.
3) This is also an ongoing goal since my struggle to finish series continues. I’ve not done very well on this one at all.
Series I Want to Finish or Get Caught Up On:
- Lifelike by Jay Kristoff (2 books left) – I did finish this series.
- The Aurora Cycle (2 books left) – Still have 1 book left as of this post.
- The Inheritance Games (2 books left) – I did finish this series.
- City of Brass (2 books left) – Haven’t touched this one.
- Crescent City (Re-read book 1, then read book 2) – I’m all caught up on this one.
- Bridgerton (5 books left) – I’ve only read one Bridgerton book this year but do hope to read more before the end of the year.
Series I Want to Start:
- The Consortium Rebellion – Fail
- Six Crimson Cranes – Read both books.
- The Celestial Kingdom – Fail
- The Great Library – Fail – I’m no longer interested in reading this one.
- The Invisible Library – Fail – I’m no longer interested in reading this one.
- The Bloodsworn Saga – Fail
4) This is also a repeat goal from the past two years. I really want to continue to grow my Bookstagram account. This is probably the goal I’ve done the best with all year, having reached 10K followers last week. If you have a bookstagram account and are not already following me, you can give me a follow at https://instagram.com/thebookishlibra
5) Re-reading more. This is also a repeat goal and one I failed at in 2022. And I’m failing again in 2023, lol. I re-read the first three on this list and haven’t touched the others.
- House of Earth and Blood
- Aurora Rising
- Ninth House
- The Handmaid’s Tale
- The Invisible Life of Addie Larue
- The Chronicles of Narnia (5 books) – I did manage to re-read the second book in the series in 2022.
- Pride and Prejudice
- Jane Eyre
6) I am aiming to keep my Netgalley percentage at 85% or above in 2023. I’m doing well with this goal too and am actually at 93%, although with 53 arcs waiting to be read and reviewed, I’m clearly failing the whole requesting less ARCs goal. I obviously just love new releases too much to ever succeed at that one, haha.
7) I say this every year, but in 2023, I want to read more Nonfiction. Another huge fail for me. I’ve not read any of these, although I do hope to at least read Michelle Obama’s new one before the end of the year.
- What Unites Us by Dan Rather
- The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama
- We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win WWII by Liza Mundy
- D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win WWII by Sarah Rose
- Spare by Prince Harry
- Untamed by Glennon Doyle
- Where the Light Enters, Building a Family, Discovering Myself by Jill Biden
8) This is a forever goal, haha. In 2023, I really want to work on being better organized, particularly when it comes to blogging ahead. Nope, still a fail.
9) Revisit Shakespeare. Fail unless revisiting him through retellings counts, lol.
10) I am doing the Goodreads Challenge and have set my goal at 175 books. I’ve read 156 so far so I think I’ll exceed this goal pretty easily considering I still have 3 months to go.
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How are you doing with your reading/blogging goals this year?
Blog Tour – FAKING CHRISTMAS by Kerry Winfrey
Faking Christmas by Kerry Winfrey 
Published by BERKLEY on September 26, 2023
Genres: Fiction, Holiday, Romance
Pages: 288
Source: Netgalley
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Thank you so much to Berkley Romance for the free copy of Faking Christmas and to Tina Joell for the invitation to take part in the blog tour for this book!
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I’m a huge fan of holiday reads and that I also love Kerry Winfrey’s books so I was over the moon to learn her newest novel was a holiday romance. Faking Christmas is an enemies to lovers romance that also features fake relationships and the coziest of Christmas vibes. I devoured this book in a day and adored every page of it!
The story follows Laurel Grant, who works as the social media manager for Buckeye State of Mind, an Ohio tourism publication. When she landed this job, Laurel unintentionally led her boss, Gilbert, to believe she owns Meadow Rise Farm, which is actually owned by her twin sister, Holly. She thinks nothing of this little white lie until Gilbert’s wife dumps him right before Christmas and he invites himself to the farm to partake in all of the holiday festivities that Laurel has chronicled in detail on the farm’s social media page as if she were the one hosting them even though she can’t even make Easy Mac without creating a kitchen hazard. Now all she has to do is switch places with her sister and pretend she is basically the Martha Stewart of the Midwest. Oh and that she is married to Max Beckett, a man she has loathed ever since she met him at her sister’s wedding. What could possibly go wrong?
Everything about this read was pure perfection to me! Laurel is such an endearing character that I couldn’t help but root for her to somehow pull off this crazy plan. I also loved how Laurel’s sister, Holly, was immediately onboard like “Sure, let’s do this. I’ll find you a fake husband!” Her cooperation provided the setup for the perfect blend of hilarious romcom antics, that snarky banter that goes hand in hand with enemies to lovers romances, and all of the festive and cozy holiday vibes. The chemistry between Laurel and Max was also off the charts, so if you like a little sizzle in your holiday romances, Winfrey has you covered there as well. Lastly, there’s even a lovely found family feeling as Laurel’s family practically adopts Gilbert to infuse his broken heart with a little holiday cheer.
If you’re looking for a delightful, feel good romance to add to your holiday TBR, you’ll definitely want to check out Faking Christmas!
About Kerry Winfrey
Kerry Winfrey is the author of the adult romantic comedies WAITING FOR TOM HANKS, NOT LIKE THE MOVIES, VERY SINCERELY YOURS, and JUST ANOTHER LOVE SONG, as well as the teen romantic comedies LOVE AND OTHER ALIEN EXPERIENCES and THINGS JOLIE NEEDS TO DO BEFORE SHE BITES IT. She lives in Columbus, Ohio with her family.
Top Ten Tuesday – Books I Own That are on My Fall 2023 TBR
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is actually supposed to be about secondary characters who deserve their own book, but I completely blanked out on that and decided to go rogue. Instead, I’m continuing last week’s topic and sharing more of the books I’m hoping to read this fall. Last week I shared all new and upcoming releases so this week I’m going to share ten of the books I’ve owned for a while and need to read.
Books I Own That are on My Fall 2023 TBR
1. YOU SHOULD SMILE MORE by Anastasia Ryan – “When Vanessa Blair is fired because of her “resting bitch face,” her friends help her launch a revenge plan that’ll bring down the whole company.”
2. BLOODMARKED by Tracy Deonn – I had DNF’ed Legendborn, the first book in this King Arthur retelling, during the pandemic but recently revisited it and loved it, so I’m looking forward to reading the next book as soon as possible.
3. HIS & HERS by Alice Feeney – “There are two sides to every story: yours and mine, ours and theirs, His & Hers. Which means someone is always lying.”
4. DIVINE RIVALS by Rebecca Ross – “When two young rival journalists find love through a magical connection, they must face the depths of hell, in a war among gods, to seal their fate forever.“
5. BY A THREAD by Lucy Score – “A steamy, swoony workplace romantic comedy with a grumpy boss hero determined to save the day and a plucky heroine who is starting to wonder if there might actually be a beating heart just beneath her boss’s sexy vests.”
6. POWERLESS by Elsie Silver – “Two childhood friends. Two broken hearts. One impromptu road trip to get away from everything. That’s all this was supposed to be. Afterall, I’ve been living in the friend zone for years now. But hockey heartthrob Jasper Gervais isn’t looking at me like a friend anymore. And he isn’t touching me like one either.”
7. THE HOUSEMAID’S SECRET by Freida McFadden – I recently read and loved The Housemaid so I can’t wait to read more from this author.
8. GREENWICH PARK by Katherine Faulkner – “When Rachel threatens to expose a past crime that could destroy all of their lives, it becomes clear that there are more than a few secrets laying beneath the broad-leaved trees and warm lamplight of Greenwich Park.”
9. SOMEONE ELSE’S SHOES by Jojo Moyes – “A story of mix-ups, mess-ups and making the most of second chances, this is the new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You and The Giver of Stars.”
10. THE LIGHT WE CARRY by Michelle Obama – “In an inspiring follow-up to her critically acclaimed, #1 bestselling memoir Becoming, former First Lady Michelle Obama shares practical wisdom and powerful strategies for staying hopeful and balanced in today’s highly uncertain world.” My goal to read one nonfiction book a month has been an absolute fail in 2023, but this is one I definitely want to read before the end of the year.
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