Behind the Scenes - How I Write Discussion Posts

I've been thinking more and more lately about ways to expand what I write about on the blog, and trying a few different posts to see if you all would like reading about them. So, today I'm giving you a behind the scenes look at how I write my discussion posts.

Honestly, my discussion posts happen randomly. Sometimes I come up with an idea and my reaction is "This would be fun!" so I'll write down a title for it and occasionally a little blurb and save it as a draft. I'm going to be completely honest, normally those stay as drafts and don't end up turning into anything. When I come up with a discussion post, I typically sit down and write it all out there as it's on my mind. A lot of the times, when I'm reading, I slip into reviewer mode and start to think "This is something I'd like to talk about in my review and bring up how this and this were done in the novel" whereas in discussion posts it's sort of "Here are my thoughts just as I think" and then I'll reread it and edit it later. 

So, how do I write discussion posts? I sit down, come up with an idea, and then just write. That's the most effective way for me to write the posts. It's definitely not a perfect or very organized system, but in blogging my discussion posts tend to be pretty sporadic. I like reading discussion posts and hearing other people's thoughts, but for some reason writing discussion posts for me is something that comes and goes. So whenever I sit down to write one I sometimes come up with a few different ideas and so I'll write them all down and schedule them out some.

In the future, I really do want to start writing more discussion posts. So, I'd love to hear from you all- do you enjoy reading discussion posts? And if you write them, what sort of a system do you have for figuring out how to write them? I'm curious to know if others are spontaneous sort of discussion post writers like myself or if there's a way I could be more organized about this. 

I hope you all enjoyed this sort of behind the scenes post. I guess it was sort of a discussion post on discussion posts, but if you'd like to share your thoughts I'd love to talk about it more! If you enjoyed this, let me know and I'd love to do more posts about my blogging.

From the paper world,
V

A Midsummer's Nightmare by Kody Keplinger - Reading Review

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Whitley Johnson's dream summer with her divorcé dad has turned into a nightmare. She's just met his new fiancée and her kids. The fiancée's son? Whitley's one-night stand from graduation night. Just freakin' great.

Worse, she totally doesn't fit in with her dad's perfect new country-club family. So Whitley acts out. She parties. Hard. So hard she doesn't even notice the good things right under her nose: a sweet little future stepsister who is just about the only person she's ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn't "do" friends), and a smoking-hot guy who isn't her stepbrother...at least, not yet. It will take all three of them to help Whitley get through her anger and begin to put the pieces of her family together.

Filled with authenticity and raw emotion, Whitley is Kody Keplinger's most compelling character to date: a cynical Holden Caulfield-esque girl you will wholly care about. 

A Midsummer's Nightmare on Goodreads

Visit the Author's Website

Rating - 4 out of 5 stars

Today I'm here to share my thoughts on the novel A Midsummer's Nightmare by Kody Keplinger. I'd heard people talking about this book a lot a few months ago, and I thought that I might want to read it after reading and enjoying The DUFF. This was a novel that I figured would be pretty character driven, based off of the synopsis and some of the reviews I'd seen, and it definitely is. I really enjoyed that aspect of the novel, since my favorite aspect of a good story is character development, so I thought that this story really expressed how Whitley changed throughout the novel. I gave A Midsummer's Nightmare 4 out of 5 Stars.

Firstly, this novel was one that I really enjoyed because it had a lot of depth without losing humor and the lighter moments as well. I think that the learning and character development was balanced well between deeper moments and issues as well as fun character interactions and banter, which was something I remembered enjoying while reading The DUFF. From the beginning, Whitley is upset and dealing with a lot in her life, but progresses a lot as the novel goes on. She's not perfect, and her character was written in a really unique way to me in that she has a very real voice, with being upfront about her mistakes and also in trying to do better. I really enjoyed reading about Whitley's character as the novel went on.

The family dynamic in this book is a big theme of the novel. Whitley is coming to terms with a lot of change and meeting all these new characters that the reader gets to know as well. I thought the other characters were interesting and I really appreciated how they were all unique and not flat. The family characters had an important role in the story and how they all get to know each other. And the ending was well written in my opinion. I think it really helped complete the story without making it feel cliche or overdone.

Overall, this is a great read. It's perfect for the summer time, as Whitley has just started her summer vacation when the novel opens. This is a story with a lot of character development and some flawed but real characters that I really enjoyed reading about.

If you liked The DUFF by Kody Keplinger and The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes, you might like A Midsummer's Nightmare.

From the paper world,
V

In Conclusion - Bout of Books 13.0 Wrap Up

Bout of Books 13.0 was a lot of fun! It was very laid back and about reading whenever I wanted to and not trying to set strict goals, which I really think was a lot of fun because I took some time to not only focus on reading more, but on blogging.

 I finished Rook by Sharon Cameron and read about half of Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley, as well as wrote a few blog posts I'm really happy about. 

In terms of mini challenges, I only participated in one of them, but I had fun doing so. I'll link my update posts here in case you're curious about how Bout of Books went for me this week.

Signing Up for Bout of Books

Update 1

Bookish Survey Challenge

Update 2

I also (barely!) participated in the second Twitter chat but I did enjoy chatting a bit more on Twitter as well. I'm hoping to participate in the next Bout of Books as well, and I really enjoyed 13.0! Thank you for stopping by, and if you participated I hope you enjoyed Bout of Books 13.0 as well!

From the paper world,
V

Another Bout of Books Readathon Update

I'm back with another update for Bout of Books 13.0! I've been reading Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley, and so far I'm about 30 pages in from yesterday and today, but I plan to read more. I'm enjoying it so far. 

Magonia on Goodreads

I have a few other books I'm looking at picking up soon, but most likely I'm thinking I'll be reading Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi!

Under the Never Sky on Goodreads

Hope you're enjoying your current read, and if you're participating in Bout of Books hope you're enjoying the readathon!

From the paper world,
V

How Have I Been Doing? - Bout of Books Readathon Progress Update

So, it's been a few days and I wanted to share an update for Bout of Books. Unfortunately, Monday I didn't end up reading anything. It was a super busy day of organizing and hectic hustle and bustle, and by the end of the day I was just tired. 

However, yesterday, I settled in to finally continue on with Rook by Sharon Cameron, and I ended up finishing the novel! I really enjoyed it and gave the book 4 stars, and I think I will do a review of it sometime soon so let me know if you would like to see a review of that novel soon! I'll leave its Goodreads page linked below in case you're curious as to what the book's about.

Rook on Goodreads

 To summarize briefly, it's kind of a futuristic dystopian novel reminisicient of The Scarlet Pimpernel, although not a retelling as the author clarified on the book's Goodreads page. Personally, I haven't read The Scarlet Pimpernel, but I've been wanting to read more classics and enjoyed this novel, so if you have read that book let me know your thoughts! 

If you're participating in Bout of Books, I hope you're enjoying the readathon! I have only done one mini challenge so far, but I've been enjoying reading and happy that I ended up reading Rook. My next read is Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley. This is another book I've been excited to read, and so I'll be starting this novel soon! 

Magonia on Goodreads

What are some of your current reads?

From the paper world,
V

Bookish Survey - Bout of Books 13.0 Mini Challenge

Today's mini challenge is hosted by Writing My Own Fairy Tale! It's a Bookish Survey which will be a fun way to share some random facts as well as participate some more in Bout of Books since I (sadly) did not get to read any today. 

If you haven't signed up for Bout of Books 13.0, you can sign up at their website here and see my own sign up post here. Now, on to the survey!

The Questions: 

1. How do you organize your shelves?
2. What is one of your favorite book that’s not in one of your favorite genres?
3. What is the last 5 star book you read?
4. What book are you most excited to read during the read-a-thon?
5. What book do you recommend the most?

no. 1 - I organize my shelves pretty haphazardly, to be honest. I just try to make the books fit. I do have one particular arrangement that I love, however. I have the top shelf dedicated to my favorites. I changed my system of organizing these a few months ago, and I really enjoy how that reorganization has been working.

no. 2 - I have a few genres that I enjoy but generally don't read much of, so here are a few favorites from this year! I definitely love a lot of different genres, but I haven't read much historical fiction or fantasy in the past. 

Historical Fiction - The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

Fantasy - The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

If you're curious to know more about how my reading has changed in 2015, you can read about that here, and check out my favorites on Goodreads here.

3. Princess of the Silver Wood by Jessica Day George, which is the third book in the Princesses of Westfalin trilogy.

4. I'm really excited to finish Rook by Sharon Cameron. I've read quite a bit of the book already and I'm curious to know what happens next.

5. I've definitely recommended Splintered by A. G. Howard the most throughout my years of blogging. I can't even keep count of how many times I've talked about that book.

So, there are my responses to the Bookish Survey! If you've taken the survey, let me know and if not leave your thoughts in the comments! 

From the paper world,

V

Signing Up for Bout of Books 13!

I didn't think I was going to sign up for Bout of Books again this time because I've been so busy and haven't been reading as much. But as I'm finding more free time and I love participating in this, I wanted to participate again! This is my third Bout of Books (I participated in 9 and 10), and it's beena while so I'm really excited to get back into participating and talking with other book people!
Here's some info from the Bout of Books website about the event:
The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 11th and runs through Sunday, May 17th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 13 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

This event is a lot of fun, and so I'm really happy to be participating once more! I'm currently reading a few books I'd like to continue on with and maybe finish, and then several others to read. I don't want to set any goals because I haven't been reading as much lately, but I'd like to take some time to focus a bit more on blogging and reading and I'm excited to do so and participate in Bout of Books!

I'll be back soon with updates and mini challenges! If you're participating, what are your goals?

From the paper world,
V

April 2015 - Looking Back

In case you missed the several delayed Looking Back posts, I've been dreadfully behind on posting monthly wrap up posts. So, welcome to April 2015 Looking Back! (Aka Violet's trying to get back onto a schedule for posting...) Anyways! April was a very busy month, with a little bit of travel and hectic to-do lists making for the month to go by very quickly. I still ended up reading several books, so I thought I would share those, talk about some posts, and more!

My Reads:

The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

4.5 Stars

*a new favorite!*

You can read my review of The Winner's Curse here.

The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski, the sequel to The Winner's Curse

4 Stars

*a new favorite!*

You can read my review of The Winner's Crime here.

Underworld by Meg Cabot, the sequel to Abandon

3.5 Stars

My Posts:

Paper Stars Picks

This is a new feature I'm doing with Sunny of These Stardust Words, and we had a lot of fun sharing our thoughts.

My Most Anticipated New Releases of March and April 2015

When you read that one book...

A discussion post about a book I read and loved recently and how it's inspired me to start reading more fantasy novels!

A Week of Recommendations:

This is a series I did featuring a different genre or genres of book every day with my recommendations for each.

Historical Fiction

Fantasy and Science Fiction

Contemporary

Paranormal

Retelling

My Reviews:

The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

The Storyspinner by Becky Wallace

Posts I've Loved:

There are a ton of posts that I've been reading and loving more and more because I've been reading more posts on Bloglovin' lately, so I have a full and detailed list on my Bloglovin' that you can check out (here's a link to my Bloglovin' collections), and since there's over 20 posts saved on that list alone, I didn't think there'd be a very efficient way to share them in a wrap up post. If you guys would like me to pick a few randomly from my favorites posts I've read monthly collections that I think I'm going to start doing, let me know, or I'll link Paper Worlds and Swirls of Ink and my own Bloglovin' so you can check those out as well.

There's my April 2015 Looking Back post! I'm trying to think of features or ways to expand on this a little, so if you have any ideas please let me know. Also, reviews of both The Winner's Curse and The Winner's Crime are posted on the blog (linked above), and for Underworld I was thinking about reading the third book and then doing A Series in Summation review of the entire trilogy. I'll be back soon with another post, and thank you for stopping by!

From the paper world,

V

The Winner's Crime Review

*this is a review of a sequel, so there can be spoilers for the first book in the synopsis/review- if you want to know more about this series, check out my review of the first book, The Winner's Curse, here!*

Goodreads Synopsis:

Book two of the dazzling Winner's Trilogy is a fight to the death as Kestrel risks betrayal of country for love.

The engagement of Lady Kestrel to Valoria’s crown prince means one celebration after another. But to Kestrel it means living in a cage of her own making. As the wedding approaches, she aches to tell Arin the truth about her engagement... if she could only trust him. Yet can she even trust herself? For—unknown to Arin—Kestrel is becoming a skilled practitioner of deceit: an anonymous spy passing information to Herran, and close to uncovering a shocking secret.

As Arin enlists dangerous allies in the struggle to keep his country’s freedom, he can’t fight the suspicion that Kestrel knows more than she shows. In the end, it might not be a dagger in the dark that cuts him open, but the truth. And when that happens, Kestrel and Arin learn just how much their crimes will cost them. 

The Winner's Crime on Goodreads

Visit the Author's Website

Last week, I reviewed The Winner's Curse, and talked about what a fast paced, amazing book that was. Today, I'm back to talk about the epic sequel, The Winner's Crime. The Winner's Crime continues with the situation Kestrel and Arin finds themselves in. It's interesting, pretty fast paced, and a great continuation. I will say that I think this book was my favorite of the two for a few reasons I'll talk about later on in the review, but it was still a really good book and a great sequel. I gave The Winner's Crime 4 out of 5 stars.

Kestrel had a lot to deal with in this novel. She's definitely not perfect, but she's trying to navigate the treachery and intrigue of the court life. I wasn't the biggest fan of the emperor and the court aspect of this novel, but it added some really unique elements to the story. I think it also gave more insight into the Valorian life. I really enjoyed meeting the new characters and I'm curious to know more about a lot of them as well. The story was really interesting and well written, and throughout a lot of the novel I just wanted to read on and know more and find out what happened next.

I think some of the things that sort of bothered me about the novel were also things I enjoyed originally. The writing is really great at building suspense and anticipation, and there were times when I was reading as fast as I could because I had to know what happened next. But as the story progressed towards the very end, I kind of got tired of the plot pacing a little. By the end, I had definitely really enjoyed the novel, but just wanted more of a resolution to some elements of the book.

In general, The Winner's Crime is an awesome sequel. There were some things that bothered me about the novel, but there's a lot of amazing writing and story development. I'm so excited for The Winner's Kiss, even though we have quite a wait until it's published in 2016. This series is really unique- it's a fantasy with a lot of intrigue and plot twists that really make the story interesting. I think that The Winner's Crime is a great continuation to The Winner's Curse, and I am already looking forward to the third novel!

Because this is a sequel, I added my little "If you liked these books then you might like this book" to my review of the first book in the series, so you can check that out (the link's mentioned earlier) if you want to know my recommendations!

Have you read this sequel? What were your thoughts? I'm loving reading this series, so I would love to discuss it!

From the paper world,

V

March 2015 - Looking Back

I'm getting further and further behind on these wrap up posts, I'm so sorry! But today, let's talk March. I ended up reading several books in March, continuing on with several series I had read previously as well as finding a few new reads and authors I'd never read before. I was pretty busy, but I did have some family time which was much appreciated, and announced A Week of Recommendations that I did earlier this month. Anyways, without further ado, here's March:

My Reads:

The Shadow Cabinet, the third in the Shades of London trilogy by Maureen Johnson

3.5 Stars

Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

3.5 Stars

Winterspell by Claire Legrand

4 Stars

Dead of Winter, the third book in The Arcana Chronicles by Kresley Cole

4 Stars

The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

4.5 Stars

*a new favorite!*

Princess of the Silver Woods, the third in The Princesses of Westfalin Trilogy by Jessica Day George

5 Stars

*a new favorite!*

The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall

3.5 Stars

The Storyspinner by Becky Wallace

3.5 Stars

Reviewed on the blog

Overall, it was definitely a great reading month. I really enjoyed all the novels I read, and so I was very happy to have started a few new series, finished one, and continued on with several others.

My Posts:

A Top Ten Tuesday on Books Added to my TBR recently
A review on Of Metal and Wishes
I announced A Week of Recommendations
What (Posts) I've Been Reading
A Top Ten Tuesday on my Spring TBR
A review of All Fall Down
A Top Ten Tuesday of my All Time Favorite Books
and of course, continuing on with the tradition of being behind on posting wrap ups...
January 2015 - Looking Back
February 2015 - Looking Back

Posts I Loved:
I was considering doing this as a separate post entirely, but I've seen several bloggers mention posts from other's they've enjoyed in their wrap ups and it seems like the best way to share all of the amazing blog posts I've seen during the month. For some of the other posts some bloggers have shared that I read and loved this past month, check out What (Posts) I've Been Reading.

Alexa Loves Books did an amazing review of one of Juliet Marillier's series that I'm really excited to read about, after seeing how she compared them all and discussed how great the books are. You can read her amazing review The Faithful, The Fiery & The Fearful.

Snuggly Oranges talked about the importance of character development and I couldn't agree more. Check out her amazing post I Read for Characters.

The Library Canary had several posts this month I thought were really great. One was another recommendation of a certain genre, and this time she shared fantasy picks, which I've been wanting to read more high fantasy. You can see her recommendations in her post So You Like Fantasy? Get Ready to Hurt Your TBR... Another one of her posts I really enjoyed was her discussion about Going In Blind and not knowing much about the novel before you read it.

I didn't end up keeping track of my book buying for the month, because it's been pretty sporadic lately anyways. 

Let me know if you guys would like to see any reviews of the books I read in March (except The Storyspinner, which I reviewed recently on the blog and linked above). I'm planning on doing a review of Dead of Winter since I've reviewed the first few books in The Arcana Chronicles, and do a Series in Summation about The Princesses of Westfalin Trilogy, and also possibly a Goodreads review on Starcrossed. But anyways, let me know if there are any reviews in particular you'd like to see on the blog next, and I'll be back soon with another post!

From the paper world,
V