The power of fiction, the beauty of words, and the God who made us to wield them for His glory.

Best of 2020 – Emoji Files, Part IV: Take Me Away

Welcome back, reader friends! It’s time for Part IV of my annual Emoji Files celebrating my best reads of 2020. If you’ve missed my previous posts for 2020, make sure you check out The Swoony Awards, Got Me in the Feels, and The WOW Awards.

The Take Me Away Awards go to those books that were truly immersive reads, carrying me away to different times and places with authentic historical, sensory, and cultural details and introducing me to some fantastic and intriguing characters who inhabit those worlds. Through these stories I’ve travelled all over the world and beyond—an experience that has had extra significance in 2020!

Read More »
1 January 2021

Best of 2020 – Emoji Files Part III: The WOW Awards

Hello again, reader friends! Welcome to Part III of my annual Emoji Files celebrating my best reads of 2020. If you’ve missed either of the previous posts to date, make sure you check out The Swoony Awards and Got Me in the Feels.

Normally, the WOW Awards go to those books that kept me riveted with high-intensity action, pumping adrenaline, plot twists, or just some good old-fashioned suspense. And most of the books in this list did exactly that. This year, however, I’ve included two books that don’t necessary meet that criteria: Lu. by Beth Troy and Heartless by Tamara Leigh, both of which WOWed me in their own ways…

Read More »
31 December 2020

Best of 2020 – Emoji Files Part II: Got Me in the Feels

Yesterday I began posting my annual best-of series of posts, which I’ve dubbed The Emoji Files, since I group my favourite reads of the year according to the emotional impact they had on me. It all started yesterday with the Swoony Awards, so if you missed that, make sure you check it out here.

Today, I’m giving you the reads that ‘Got Me in the Feels’. These are the books that made me really emotionally invested in the story, sometimes to the point of tears (sobs, in at least one case!). Stories of consequences and difficult decisions, stories of loss, stories of transformation, and stories that just plain had my emotions in a tangle!

Read More »
30 December 2020

Best of 2020 – Emoji Files Part I: The Swoony Awards (and Top Ten Tuesday)

Happy Tuesday, reader friends, and welcome to the final Top Ten Tuesday for 2020 thanks to That Artsy Reader Girl. As always, this week’s topic looks back at our favourite books for the year. I’m also kicking off my annual Emoji Files awards where I break down my favourite reads for the year into the following categories:

The Swoony Awards – all the romance (le sigh!)
Got Me In The Feels – the books that reached in and plucked my heartstrings
The WOW Awards – suspense, thrills, high stakes, and surprises
Take Me Away . . . – fully immersive reads that took me to times and places far away
The LOL Awards – from light-hearted to bust-a-gut humour

Read More »
29 December 2020

Top Ten Tuesday – Under the Christmas Tree

Happy Tuesday, reading friends, and merry Christmas! It’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday post, thanks to That Artsy Reader Girl, and this week’s topic is Books I Hope Santa Brings. I’ve put a slight twist on the topic this week because it just so happens that my five children will each have two books under the Christmas tree from me this year—the perfect number for a Top Ten Tuesday post! So here’s a quick peek at ten books I KNOW will be under the Christmas tree this year.

Read More »
22 December 2020

Top Ten Tuesday – Summer TBR 2020/2021

Happy Tuesday, reading friends. It’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday post, thanks to That Artsy Reader Girl. This week we’re sharing our winter (or in my case, summer) TBRs, and I’ve loved looking through my book lists to see what’s coming up in the next few months. It looks like I’ll be enjoying quite a few historicals, but I’ve managed to get a few contemporaries in there as well, including the first book in an exciting new thriller series! Can’t wait to dive into these.

Read More »
15 December 2020

Top Ten Tuesday – Ten Christmas Romances

Happy Tuesday, reading friends. It’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday post, thanks to That Artsy Reader Girl. This week is a Christmas/Holiday freebie, so I’m listing ten Christmas romances I’ve got my eye on. All these romances (with the exception of Mimi Matthews’ A Holiday by Gaslight) are 2020 releases, and I’ve already read three of them (Christmas in Three Quarter Time, The Holiday Husband, and A Holiday by Gaslight), but I’m hoping to make my way through a few more before we reach Christmas!

Read More »
8 December 2020

Top Ten Tuesday – Ten Books I Want to Reread

Happy Tuesday, reading friends. It’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday post, thanks to That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is Books I Want to Read Again, which is right up my alley. I know there are plenty of readers who don’t understand rereading—what’s the point if you know what’s going to happen? But for me, rereading a favourite book is like listening to a favourite piece of music. Knowing how it goes in your head isn’t anywhere near as satisfying as actually hearing it—or reading it, in the case of a book.

Mind you, when there are so many great books releasing all the time, the pressure is on to work out how to allocate your time, and sadly, rereading often gets pushed aside in favour of new reads, but sometimes the anticipation makes the reread just that little bit sweeter.

Read More »
1 December 2020