2021 My Reading Journey. 

I am a total Bookcase, honest! The Blog is on the verge of celebrating 2 years!! We now have 3 reviewers on the blog along with the Buzzing about Romance Podcast. We will also launch the Corset and Crown Podcast in 2022! But before we get to all of that I wanted to reflect on my year of reading in 2021.

2021 still feels like a bit of groundhog’s day of 2020.  I had some very dynamic reads of 2021, but I also hit some major reading slumps.  I have also had some big realizations about what I like. Having found that sometimes just because a book is hyped it doesn’t mean it will be hyped for me.  This year also helped me learn to let go of things and it is ok to make changes.  My time this year was spent talking romance with some amazing authors and podcast contributors.  I have found some new favorite authors.  I tried to step out my box and expand my world of reading with in the romance genre. 

Here are my insights and round up for 2021.  Some of my biggest reading highlights have been finding some amazing new authors this year. One top favorite this year has been the books by J Saman. A chance video on my FYP on Tiktok had me checking out a book in her rock star series, Love to Hate Her.  I spent my fourth of July Holiday binge reading all the books in this series and moving on to her Edge of Chaos Series.  My obsession with her stories and books has not slowed down. I am eagerly anticipating her first book of the new year.  It is book 2 in her new Boston Billionaire Series. 

A chance email in Jan from Carina Press had me checking out a book from Roan Parish. It was part of their Adore Press releases coming in February. The synopsis had me intrigued. Best Laid Plans was everything for me. I loved every minute of that story.  Sharing this story with my Girl Child, and it was so great to be able to share a romance with her of in voice that she could relate too.

I could go on and on about all my great reads in 2021. You should listen to our 12/26 episode of Buzzing about Romance to get all my highlights and book recs from the year!

I have 5 reading slumps in 2021.  Something we don’t often talk about as readers are out book slumps. But I think it helps all to know that everyone experiences them.  But a slump can be brought on by a lot of different factors. It could be mood driven, environmental or worldly factors. 

The other piece of this is not connecting to a book. I experienced this a lot in 2021 Especially in a book that was hyped, or I was convinced I would love, maybe it had a trope in it that is a favorite or by an author that I really like.

At times I felt like it was just me not liking it or connecting to the story. It caused some feelings of isolation.  It made me rethink about DNFing a book or when to give a low starred review.  I did have the epiphany that life is to short to read bad books. If you are struggling with the story or if it just turns out to be not your cup of tea, put the book down!  Move on and let the book go.

My TBR is over 400 books I do not have time to struggle with something that is supposed to be my escape, my joy.   Next if you finish a book and did not like it or connect with it is ok! It is also ok to leave a critical review sharing your personal journey and thoughts. I bring this up because as a reader when I was struggling, I went looking at the lower rated reviews and found I was not alone in my feelings. That other people had similar experiences.  This helped me move on from the story and be able to get into my next read with out thinking it was something wrong about me. 

As this year draws to a close, I am looking forward to grand adventures in 2022.  I am planning to make it to at least 3 book conferences this year.  I also hope to have some meet ups with some of our Community Members. I know that 2022 will bring some amazing new books for us to read.  I am getting ready to set my Book Goals for 2022 and I know that I plan to continue to challenge my self to read outside my norm, finding new authors, tropes and sub-genres. 

I also want to say Thank You!  Thank you for reading my reviews, joining in our adventures with the Buzzing about Romance Podcast.  Thank you for making 2021 a great year of Reading Romance!