Let's Talk: Books I Read Because Of Another Blogger's Totally Awesome Review

LET'S TALK is a weekly discussion meme created and hosted by the lovely Melissa from I Swim For Oceans! Every Friday, there is a new discussion topic for bloggers to discuss. If you want to know more about this feature, then go check out I Swim For Oceans for more information! 

What books, if any, have you read only because a blogger's review convinced you to? Did it live up?

Fabulous topic! Below are four books that blogger reviews convinced me to read (after I originally - and stupidly - convinced myself not to check them out):

Book: THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER

Blogger: Melissa at I Swim For Oceans

Melissa's review was only one I had in the back of my mind when I stumbled across a copy of MARA DYER, and the fact that she loved it Hodkin's novel so much is what gave me the push I needed to purchase it. I was incredibly excited for MARA DYER prior to the release date, but then the hype scared me off early on (and books with a lot of positive reviews can go either way with me). Thank goodness that I read Melissa's review and remembered it all of those months later, because MARA DYER was incredible!

Book: OUT OF THE EASY

Blogger: Christina from Confessions of a Book Addict

I was very, very skeptical when it came to this book. I loved Sepetys's debut, but I doubted her latest novel could live up to that story. But, after reading Christina's fantastic review, I knew I needed to start reading my ARC right away. And, Christina was right -- the characters were fantastic and the setting was wonderfully written. Such a great book!

Book: SHADES OF EARTH

Blogger: Aylee from Recovering Potter Addict

I've actually purchased a lot of books after reading Aylee's reviews (like CITY OF A THOUSAND DOLLS, THE MONSTRUMOLOGIST, THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO, ETIQUETTE AND ESPIONAGE - I just need to hurry up and read them). While she and I think differently regarding some novels, I've noticed that we do seem to enjoy similar stories for the most part, so I tend to take her positive reviews very seriously. And, no surprise, she was right about SHADES OF EARTH! 

Book: THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

Blogger: Can't remember - Multiple bloggers! 

All of the insanely positive blogger reviews for TFIOS convinced me to check it out of the library. It was, unsurprisingly, an amazing book that I had to purchase right away. I feel like an idiot for waiting so long to read this book, but I'm grateful to all the bloggers who reviewed TFIOS - I might have ignored TFIOS without those glowing reviews!

I could name a few more, but then we'd be here all day! ;)

Let's Talk image from I Swim For Oceans

Let's Talk: Two Challenges For My Book Blogger Self

What's one thing you'd like to challenge yourself as a book blogger to do this year?

Since I'm apparently a huge cheater when it comes to narrowing things down, I actually have two things I'd like to challenge myself to do as a book blogger this year. 

Challenge One: Blog however / whenever I want to blog.

Sometimes, it's easy to get caught up in memes and trying to stay on top of everything. I honestly do not know how some bloggers manage to post 5+ times a week, or even daily! Despite having been a book blogger for almost four years, I consider YA Book Queen to be a small blog. I do not receive bundles of review books each week (thankfully, because I'd probably lose my mind from stress), so I tend to run my blog a bit more slowly. I take a lot of breaks whenever life gets too crazy, and sometimes I feel guilty for doing so. So, it's a goal of mine to keep my blog as relaxed as possible. If I want to post 5 posts a week, awesome. But if I only manage a couple, then it's still fantastic so long as I'm happy with my content. In essence, my goal is to simply be happy with what I'm blogging about and not rush my content just so I can keep up with the "big" bloggers! 

Challenge Two: Interact more with my readers and other bloggers. 

Readers who comment regularly might have noticed that I started answering comments in the comment section during the last month or so, instead of emailing my responses. I've been trying to be a bit more active on Twitter, too. I'm not sure how I'm going to manage adding in more time to interact with readers and bloggers, but I know that I really want to make the time to do so, even if it's only 10-15 minutes a day. I tend to be more of an anonymous blogger, so I want to engage my readers more, since I do read and appreciate every comment I receive. I especially want to interact more with my fellow bloggers, because I rarely get to talk about bookish things in real life - the closest I get to bookish discussions are always about  Shakespeare or BEOWULF whenever I talk to classmates, but it's more fun to talk about YA lit. ;)

Visit I Swim For Oceans to participate and see more responses! 

Image from I Swim For Oceans

Recap: Summer Lovin' Tour Stop at Copperfield's Books

I managed to find the time to attend the May 19th stop on the Summer Lovin' tour, and I'm so glad that I did! The lovely Zoe from Zoe's Book Review's was moderating, and there's was a nicely sized group readers in attendance (including Nancy of Ravenous Readers, Katie of Twirly Reads, and likely other people I didn't get a chance to talk to since I was in a rush).

I managed to get a few clips of each author speaking. But, my camera is getting a bit old, so there's some extra noise and the image quality is only decent (I'm sorry it isn't better!):

Accidentally cut off Morgan Matson... 

All six authors!

The book signing begins...

Fun Facts I Didn't Catch On Camera

*   Sarah Ockler uses tarot cards quite a lot. Also, she's apparently a total master at using spreadsheets to plan her books.

*   Jessi Kirby was arrested in the middle of class during high school by a police officer (who happened to be her uncle). Her mom put him up to it, though. 

*   Author Stacey Jay stopped by, and she was rocking some killer boots (my battery died, so I couldn't snap a pic)


And honestly, I probably forgot all of the other fun stuff, Sunday was a crazy day for me. If you live near the last two tour stops, you should definitely visit these ladies! I wish I could have stuck around for a bit longer, it was a great event!