Tell Me Something Tuesday: Which Books Are You Looking Forward to Reading This Summer? (June-August)

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters throw in for good measure). After Heidi stopped blogging (apparently for good), five of us took over as hosts while providing new questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, Jen at That's What I'm Talking About, Karen at For What It's Worth, Linda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

WHICH BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO READING THIS SUMMER? (JUNE-AUGUST)

I don't know if I'll ever get around to buying all these books or when, since 1) early reviews and excerpts might cause me to change my mind in the future, and 2) given my current situation (see: unemployment status), book money is scarce...(BUT! this is a lucky season for me, since I got access to 7 out of 10 of these books! I was approved for The Infinite Miles by Hannah Fergesen, The Wonder State by Sara Flannery Murphy, The Museum of Human History by Rebekah Bergman, The Dark Place by Britney S. Lewis, The Girls from Hush Cabin by Marie Hoy Kenny, and A Second Chance for Yesterday by R.A. Sinn, while The Never-Ending End of the World by Ann Christy was free to download both on NG and EW). Anyhow, I wanted to give a bit of exposure to all the summer books that caught my eye, so here's my list (complete with pub dates)...

Hannah Fergesen: "The Infinite Miles" (ARC Review)

Title: The Infinite Miles [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Hannah Fergesen [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Sci-Fi
Year: 2023
Age: 16+ (technically an adult book, but it can be read by mature and even younger teens)
Stars: 4.5/5
Pros: Inventive, heartfelt twist on the time-travel trope. Ode to the power of friendship and hope.
Cons: You have to buy into a specific branch of time travel in order to suspend your disbelief (click on the link at your own risk - it will spoil part of the fun...).
WARNING! Contains some violence and a dose of dark imagery (face scars, black blood, stabbing).
Will appeal to: Fans of Doctor Who (especially the Matt Smith era). People who know how to love ardently (and fight for what they love).

Blurb: Three years after her best friend Peggy went missing, Harper Starling is lost. All she has are regrets and reruns of her favorite science fiction show, Infinite Odyssey. Then Peggy returns and demands to be taken to the Argonaut, the fictional main character of Infinite Odyssey. But the Argonaut is just that...fictional. Until the TV hero himself appears and spirits Harper away from her former best friend. Traveling through time, he explains that Peggy used to travel with him but is now under the thrall of an alien enemy known as the Incarnate. Then he leaves Harper in 1971. Stranded in the past, Harper must find a way to end the Incarnate’s thrall...without the help of the Argonaut. And if Harper can’t find it in herself to believe - in the Argonaut, in Peggy, and most of all, in herself - she’ll be the Incarnate’s next casualty, along with the rest of the universe. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Edelweiss. Thanks to Blackstone Publishing for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE

Let's address the elephant in the room first: if the synopsis gives you strong Doctor Who vibes, it's intentional. Ferguson does pay homage to the iconic British show and its titular character in the form of the Argonaut, a time traveler who trades the Doctor's space vessel masquerading as a blue police box for his own spaceship disguised as a black muscle car (and occasionally a lime-green VW bus). However, despite taking its cue from the long-lived TV series, The Infinite Miles isn't anything like fan fiction made novel. The disillusioned and bitter Argonaut couldn't be more different from whatever incarnation of the Doctor (even troubled time-war-survivor Nine and grumpy post-regeneration Twelve) if he tried. And for all their parallels and (often clever and oblique) similarities, the novel puts a number of spins on its source material and creates its own independent mythology, while ultimately conveying the same message of hope and love (self-love, too) being the biggest weapons. Let's put it this way: if you're a Doctor Who aficionado, you'll gobble this book up. If you've never seen the show, but you like time-travel stories that span both the Earth and the stars, and sci-fi with a heart, you'll love The Infinite Miles nevertheless - and maybe pick up Doctor Who because of it. [...]

Joshua David Bellin: "Myriad" (ARC Review)

Title: Myriad [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Joshua David Bellin [Twitter | Goodreads]
Genres: Sci-Fi, Thriller
Year: 2023
Age: 18+ (but it can be read by mature teens)
Stars: 5/5
Pros: Mind-blowing variation on the time-travel trope, full of twists and turns - but also heart. Well-crafted, compelling main character.
Cons: At least one of the protagonist's actions is based on a leap of logic. At least one of the rules of time travel is unclear.
WARNING! Blood and other bodily fluids. Gun violence. Abuse (off page). Parent with Alzheimer syndrome. Suicide.
Will appeal to: Those who love the intricacies of a complex time-travel mystery. Those who crave a deeply human angle to it.

Blurb: Agent Miriam Randle works for LifeTime, a private law enforcement agency that undertakes short-term time travel to erase crimes before they occur. Haunted by the memory of her twin brother’s unsolved murder at the age of six, Miriam thinks of herself as Myriad - an incarnation of the many lives she’s lived in her journeys to rearrange the past. When a routine assignment goes wrong and Miriam commits a murder she was meant to avert, she is thrown into the midst of a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of LifeTime. Along with her partner Vax, Miriam flees into the past in an attempt to unravel the truth before LifeTime agents catch up with her. But then her brother’s killer reappears, twenty years to the day since he first struck. And he’s not through with the twin who survived, not by a long shot. (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Edelweiss. Thanks to Angry Robot for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

SUCH A GREAT TIME

As a fan of all things wibbly wobbly timey wimey, I expected to get a kick out of Myriad, with its promise of changed timelines and temporal displacements - not to mention the dead sibling angle, whether the protagonist was supposed to try and save her brother in the past, or to fail to do that and continue to deal with her loss in the present/future. But after deceptively portraying time travel in a way that felt familiar for a while, Myriad ramped up the madness and let the unexpected take the wheel, with a series of wild twists and turns, up to the last, jaw-drop-inducing reveal...and beyond. I'll be honest - I picked up one of the clues early on, so there was at least one thing that I more or less expected...but you could say that the surprises in this book are as many as the timestreams Miriam enters, and I was floored by every single one of them after that first one (despite my being a seasoned reader and watcher of everything time travel). [...]

Still Life with Scheduled Posts (A.K.A. Announcing a Longer Hiatus Than I Anticipated)

Hello sweeties,

remember how, in my latest post, I told you I was going to take June off? Well, things have come up (basically, pipe problems in my condo - more of that in my next Offbeat Offline installment, if you haven't seen my tweets about them) and my stress level has reached new highs...but regardless of the unfortunate news, I can't cope anymore. I need to start on my hiatus RIGHT NOW. I can't even seem to keep up with your posts, and I have a ton of books for review whose deadlines (or, well, pub dates) are approaching - books that I should have read weeks ago, except I couldn't find the time or clear-headedness to...but most of all, I have a ton of things I need to tend to, never enough time and zero energy. So, basically, I need a break.

As I wrote in my latest Offbeat Offline installment, I have the whole month of May covered, blog-wise, so you'll still see my posts - and I plan on doing the rounds on Twitter once a day, so I hope to keep up to date with (some of) you that way. Then I'll post a May recap at the beginning of June...and sit the month out (though I promised B.C. Johnson I would review the last installment in his Deadgirl series upon release, so if it comes out during my hiatus, I'll make an exception). Thank you for your understanding and your constant support...I hope to come back stronger and refreshed in July!

Offbeat Offline: April 2023

Welcome to Offbeat Offline, where I bring you up-to-date with what went on in my life during the month just gone, give you a sneak peek of my next shenanigans, and share my favourite posts of late!

What happened last month to yours truly? Nothing, if you don't count my yearly laryngitis. April was pretty much as uneventful as March, or even more so, especially in the bookish department. How come the days feel so slow (because nothing really happens, I guess), and yet the months seem to pass so quickly? I've been out of work for a year, for goodness' sake. Where did the time go?

Tell Me Something Tuesday: Have You Looked at Twitter Alternatives After It Changed Hands? Are You Using Any?

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters throw in for good measure). After Heidi stopped blogging (apparently for good), five of us took over as hosts while providing new questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, Jen at That's What I'm Talking About, Karen at For What It's Worth, Linda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

HAVE YOU LOOKED AT TWITTER ALTERNATIVES AFTER IT CHANGED HANDS? ARE YOU USING ANY?

First off, please bear with me while I use a few "mutated" characters in this post - I don't want to attract a ton of spam by mentioning certain things if I can...

OK, so, in the wake of El0n Mu$k's takeover, I would like to leave Twitter behind. Especially when I see him pulling stunts like switching the bird icon for the D0gec0in one for a few days and managing to make more money thanks to that move 👿. (It's ironic that, before his era, I lost my old account courtesy of a hacker who used it to promote bitc0ins using Mu$k's very face...). The fact is, while on paper there are a number of alternatives, from what I've heard they don't work as smoothly as one would like - or not enough Twitter users have migrated to them so far. Also, Twitter is traditionally the place to be in order to connect with authors and publishers, and a Twitter account is still required when you request a book on NetGalley, Edelweiss and the like. Last but not least, I don't have the time or patience for investigating yet another social media right now. So, basically, I'm open to change, but I'll admit that I'm lost and I don't feel like doing the legwork (so to speak), at least until my home situation doesn't improve. Are you in the same boat as me about wanting to leave but not knowing where to go?

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #42 Jen Wilde, Laura Ruby, T. Kingfisher

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Tell Me Something Tuesday: If You Could Go Back and Change One Thing About Your Life, What Would It Be?

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters throw in for good measure). After Heidi stopped blogging (apparently for good), five of us took over as hosts while providing new questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, Jen at That's What I'm Talking About, Karen at For What It's Worth, Linda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

IF YOU COULD GO BACK AND CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT YOUR LIFE, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

It's no secret that I've made a number of bad choices in my life...or more like, non-choices - letting myself be lulled by the waves and waiting to see if they would transport me to a better place, because I didn't know how (and where) to swim. One of the worst (rare) decisions I've ever made was knock on the local radio stations' doors (two of them - the first one shut up shop after a few months, the second left me unemployed after 20 years). Once I entered those doors, my life freeze-framed. When I realised that there wasn't enough money and recognition to be had, ever (I said recognition, not fame - like from my boss, for instance 😬), I was already too old, too tired and too unskilled in everything else to look for a different job. So I didn't leave the place...until the place left me.

But as bitter as I am about my radio stunt, my very first/biggest mistake predated it - even, for all purposes, was responsible for my trading a hobby for a (dead-end) job - and that's the one thing I really, really wish I could go back and undo (where are you Doctor? 😭): my choice of schools.

Tell Me Something Tuesday: What Were Your Expectations When You Started Blogging?

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters throw in for good measure). After Heidi stopped blogging (apparently for good), five of us took over as hosts while providing new questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, Jen at That's What I'm Talking About, Karen at For What It's Worth, Linda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

WHAT WERE YOUR EXPECTATIONS WHEN YOU STARTED BLOGGING?

I started blogging in October 2012, with the mission of giving exposure to all those books (mainly YA) that fell under the radar - the ones that got less recognition because they weren't backed by bigwig publishers and didn't get a strong marketing boost. While I DID hope I would be able to steer the right type of reader towards some of them (and get followers in the process), it's not like I had great expectations, blogging-wise. The very nature of the books I was recommending made it unlikely that I would become a very popular blogger...not to mention that I've never believed in posting like a madwoman - and I've never had the time and energy anyway. So, basically, I hoped to leave a small mark on the bloggiverse, but I had no illusions about getting successful...and this has spared me a lot of heartache and inferiority complexes 😂. On the other hand, blogging has fulfilled a lot of dreams I didn't know I had - working with authors as a beta-reader, getting to read a number of new books for free, and first and foremost, finding my happy place inside a lovely community of other readers. So, by not expecting anything, I gained everything 💚.

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #41 Seanan McGuire: "InCryptid" Series #5-8

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Tell Me Something Tuesday: What Are Some of Your Favourite Indie/Small Pub Authors/Books?

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters throw in for good measure). After Heidi stopped blogging (apparently for good), five of us took over as hosts while providing new questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, Jen at That's What I'm Talking About, Karen at For What It's Worth, Linda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVOURITE INDIE/SMALL PUB AUTHORS/BOOKS?

When I suggested this week's topic, I knew in advance that it would be scheduled for April (Indie Month), but what I didn't know was that I'd get the chance to use it to promote a series that I love just a few weeks prior to its last installment's release. What timing, uh? 😃

So...I think you all know by now that I have a thing for Dead Girl Books. And back when I started blogging (almost 10 years and a half ago now 👀), I stumbled upon a book titled, go figure, Deadgirl, by debut author B.C. (Bobby) Johnson. And it was fresh and different and engaging, and I loved it, and I messaged the author on Goodreads, and he replied...and we're still mutuals 10+ years and 3 books later. (Please note: we follow each other and we occasionally talk and I've proof/beta-read for Bobby in the past and I still get ARCs from him, but I'm not implying that we are friends in the strict sense of the word. I try to maintain a reader/author relationship with the writers I happen to work with or to talk to more often, even if it's obviously a lot friendlier than the one I have with most).

Now, Deadgirl (original cover below) was initially printed by a small publisher that shut up shop shortly after its release.

Offbeat Offline: March 2023

Welcome to Offbeat Offline, where I bring you up-to-date with what went on in my life during the month just gone, give you a sneak peek of my next shenanigans, and share my favourite posts of late!

What happened last month to yours truly? Same old, same old. March was pretty uneventful, which isn’t as good a thing as it sounds, because neither my husband’s leg nor my eye is making progress. I'm bored and tired. I got a few ARCs, but I'm struggling with reviews. I'm perpetually behind with comments. The house is a dumpster fire and I can't muster the energy to care. (Sorry for the negativity).

Tell Me Something Tuesday: What Is Your Ideal Book/Audiobook Length?

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters throw in for good measure). After Heidi stopped blogging (apparently for good), five of us took over as hosts while providing new questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, Jen at That's What I'm Talking About, Karen at For What It's Worth, Linda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

WHAT IS YOUR IDEAL BOOK/AUDIOBOOK LENGTH?

First off, I'm going to talk about books here, not audiobooks, since I only read on paper/screen, for a number of reasons (which of course don't include the old and tired "audiobooks aren't real books" argument 🙄).

So...I don't have a real preference. I'm not intimidated by big books, and if I have yet to read a really thick one (à la Stephen King), it's totally by accident. I would never rule out reading a book on a page-number basis. I'd say that, generally speaking, I prefer full-fledged novels to shorter ones/novellas, because I like to be able to live in a fictional world and know its character for a longer time; but on the other hand, there are so many novellas that rocked my socks off. Anyhow, as long as there isn't filler content, I'll happily welcome tomes 😉.

(Also, shall we talk about FONTS? Because sometimes apparently average-length books have REALLY TINY ones, in order to save paper, and how are we supposed to know how long they are for real?).

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #40 Chelsea Sedoti, Vincent Tirado, M.R. Carey

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!

Oh, just so you know...this is a DNF bunch. Or to be more precise, a bunch of ARCs I DNF 😱. Unprecedented for me, I know...

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Tell Me Something Tuesday: How Do You Measure Blogging Success? Followers, Page Views, Interactions, Etc.

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters throw in for good measure). After Heidi stopped blogging (apparently for good), five of us took over as hosts while providing new questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, Jen at That's What I'm Talking About, Karen at For What It's Worth, Linda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

HOW DO YOU MEASURE BLOGGING SUCCESS? FOLLOWERS, PAGE VIEWS, INTERACTIONS, ETC.

In a word (or, well, two)? Engagement level - as in, a mixture of many ACTIVE followers (we all know that sometimes people hop on follow-for-follow trains, or follow a blog because it offers giveaways on a regular basis, which doesn't mean its subscribers do read the posts) and authors/publishers willing to work with the blogger (that is, actually offering them review copies and involving them in the road to publication, not just giving them the random, if very appreciated, approval on NetGalley or Edelweiss). And to be precise...active followers who aren't necessarily your friends, though I'm personally beyond grateful for their support 💚. Ideally, as a successful blogger, you would have perfect strangers (AND friends) telling you that they picked up a book because you sold them on it, but let's face it, it rarely happens - also because we usually need a tad more than a single review to be sure we want to read a book 😉.

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #39 Naomi Salman, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Courtney Gould

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Offbeat Offline: February 2023

Welcome to Offbeat Offline, where I bring you up-to-date with what went on in my life during the month just gone, give you a sneak peek of my next shenanigans, and share my favourite posts of late!

What happened last month to yours truly? A little back-and-forth for my husband's health, fresh medical drama for me and a scare about my dad's, and a couple of new ARC approvals. Also, two of my international friends offered to buy a copy of That Ain't Witchcraft for me (see my January recap), and it arrived three days ago...Thank you! 💚 (I only buy cash-on-delivery because I'm afraid to lose what little money I have on my debit card, and my usual sites didn't have the book - a while ago I was planning to get a second card and put a small amount of money on it for book purchases from sites like The Book Depository, but then I got laid off, so I suppose it's not a good idea to have to pay for two cards now...😭).

Tell Me Something Tuesday: Which Books Are You Looking Forward to Reading This Spring? (March-May)

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters throw in for good measure). After Heidi stopped blogging (apparently for good), five of us took over as hosts while providing new questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, Jen at That's What I'm Talking About, Karen at For What It's Worth, Linda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

WHICH BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO READING THIS SPRING? (MARCH-MAY)

I don't know if I'll ever get around to buying all these books or when, since 1) early reviews and excerpts might cause me to change my mind in the future, and 2) given my current situation (see: unemployment status), book money is scarce...also, my NG/EW requests for some of these have already been declined 😢, except for And Put Away Childish Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky (and the PDF is mine to keep!), This Is the Way the World Ends by Jen Wilde (funny how I got rejected for it right away on EW, but immediately approved on NG when the book was moved from the "Wish for it!" category to the "Request" one...) and Myriad by Joshua David Bellin. Anyhow, I wanted to give a bit of exposure to all the spring books that caught my eye, so here's my list (complete with pub dates)...

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #38 Seanan McGuire: "InCryptid" Series #1-4

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Tell Me Something Tuesday: Would You Read a Book by Your Favourite Author if It Was in a Genre You Don’t Normally Enjoy? (+ Life Snippet)

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters throw in for good measure). After Heidi stopped blogging (apparently for good), five of us took over as hosts while providing new questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, Jen at That's What I'm Talking About, Karen at For What It's Worth, Linda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

WOULD YOU READ A BOOK BY YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHOR IF IT WAS IN A GENRE YOU DON’T NORMALLY ENJOY?

Before I answer this week's question, a brief life update, because hey! guess what? new chapter in my health issues and general misfortunes saga! 😭 My left eye problem ultimately evolved into a retinal hole, and I got a laser treatment on Friday. Now I have to be patient and wait for the outcome, vision-wise. My eye is full of floaters and everything looks blurred - only time will tell if I'll need a vitrectomy (but I'm afraid I will, because of course 😬). I'll tell you the whole story in my next Offbeat Offline installment at the beginning of March...Also, I have a ton of your posts bookmarked for commenting, and I swear I'll get to them. This new incident threw yet another wrench into my works, as if everything wasn't a mess already...😩 On top of that, due to the turn of events, my announced review for The Valley and the Flood has been postponed. The other posts for this month have already been written, so at least there's that. My next one is scheduled for Wed. 22nd.

Back to the topic at hand - would I read a book by one of my fave authors if they decided to write a story in a genre that I don't love?

I guess no. If you know me, the three genres that I really, really dislike (no shade to anyone reading them of course! 💚) are romance, historical fiction (I mean stuff from long before I was born) and fantasy (unless it's urban/contemporary). While I can make an exception for books that dance around last two genres if they're mysteries (historical fiction) or the premise is REALLY intriguing (low fantasy), I don't harbour any desire to read about worlds that are firmly rooted in those. So, for instance, though I love Seanan McGuire to bits, I'm fairly sure I'll never read her October Daye series...I mean, half-fae changelings? hardly my thing 😉.

Offbeat Offline: January 2023 (Back for Good?)

Welcome to Offbeat Offline, where I bring you up-to-date with what went on in my life during the month just gone, give you a sneak peek of my next shenanigans, and share my favourite posts of late!

What happened last month to yours truly? Some health drama leftovers for the hubs, then a change of pace (it seems like we're finally on the right track) - and a medical miscellanea for me. This wrap-up will also feature ARC approvals, book mail, hair issues (again) and utter tiredness...

Offbeat Offline: December 2022 (+ Announcing New...Short???...Hiatus)

Welcome to Offbeat Offline, where I bring you up-to-date with what went on in my life during the month just gone, give you a sneak peek of my next shenanigans, and share my favourite posts of late!

Hello sweeties! and Happy New Year! 🎉

What happened last month to yours truly? More health drama for the hubs (same stuff, only lasting longer than we would hope) and a string of other problems. Christmas isn't my favourite holiday in the slightest (this being an understatement), but now I'm officially DONE with it. Everyone around us was (apparently) in a buying/eating/vacationing frenzy, while we were (still are) just trying to get by while drowning in misery 😓. BUT! I got book mail, and a surprise visit from my favourite Doctor! Yep, I mean the Doctor who travels in a blue police box of course. And no, he didn't propose that I would become his companion and sightsee the universe with him, but it was a nice visit 😉. Wait, no, I'm not being delusional...more of that below...