Mid-Year Check-in

Ah yes, it's the end of June and I'm forced to look at my goals and reality. Sigh, why do I do this to myself every year. For starters, my reading vibe this year has really leaned into mood reading. I am firmly not making TBRs or monthly hopefuls. If I start a book, I might finish it, or finish the series. It just depends.  So here's how the first half of the year is looking. 

A theme in this blog post will be-What was I thinking!!!! While I'm on track to meet all of the goals, in hindsight these goals were VERY ambitious 🤕

2022 Goals

📑TBR check-in 🤯 I started the year with 429 books (in all formats), as of posting this blog, I'm at 331. I have really curtailed my impulse buying and actually reading the books I own or borrowed. Go me! I think I'm going to treat myself 🙃

📑Haha before you say anything, while this wasn't a goal, I've only spent 💰 $122 💰so far (not including Patreon and subscriptions). I know this amount is still technically hefty, but considering it's 6 months into the year, this amount is restraint for me. Who am I now? Reading books on my TBR and not adding more. Someone check on me, the aliens have taken over. Clap for me!!! 

🔖Bi-weekly recommendations- I started of great, but these reels are time intensive especially since I'm trying to avoid duplicating recommendations. I also try to make sure the books have been published within the last 2-3 years. So, I think I'm going to maybe adjust to once a month.

🔖Increase nonfiction we'll see about this goal, but it's not looking good 🤷🏾‍♀️

📑Blog tours- I'm on track to meet this goal. For next year I have to really consider if I should make this a goal or just something I participate in. While I've tried to build relationships with publicists, I don't have a YouTube channel or TikTok account which I think that's the direction many of the tours are going. In order for me to be consistent with content I cannot add another account to manage. Regardless, I'm thankful to participate in blog tours. Check out the ones I've done so far-

• Black Love Matters
• The Friendship Contract 

I have at least one more scheduled for the year! So keep an eye out for that post. 

📑Author interviews- If I include HEHH I will meet this goal by July. 🤩I definitely want to keep doing author interviews. They tend to be the best viewed content and honestly I love chatting with authors. Here are the interviews I've done so far (and YES I have at least 2 more tentatively scheduled)- 

• Romance Around the World - Mina V. Esguerra 
• Happy Endings Happy Hour - Tasha L. Harrison 
• The Family Series Chat - Katrina Jackson 

📑Cover reveals - Here's the thing I dropped the ball with a cover reveal. Thankfully the author was gracious enough to reschedule for another release. I've only done one cover reveal so far...I really love doing these but I realize I need time and space to be creative especially if a video is involved. More to come!!! 

• Your Heart Only 

Stats

Dun, dun, dunnnnnnnnnnn

Totals
Books Read		117
Hours Listened		186.5
Pages Read		17694
Indie vs Trad		50 | 67
*Most Read Genre		Romance (54%)
Average Rating		3.3

Well I met my regular yearly goal super early in the year, so I've working on my stretch goal of reading 208 books. Based on my reading so far, I "only" need to read 91 books by December. I think I can do that! I'm averaging about 4 days to finish a book, with an average book length of 236 pages. Yeah, I definitely think I can squeeze in 91 more books by the end of the year and of course there's always audiobooks to help me get to the finish line. 

 

As a side note, I'm really surprised that my Indie reading is so low. I try to have a 50/50 spread so I need to fix that for the latter half of the year. 

Current Favorites 

I want you to know, these books are going to end up on my favorites of the year, just be prepared. I'm sure none of these are surprises but here are 5 standouts!!! These aren't in particular order...

❤Tanked by Mia Hopkins

Reining champion of 2022 favorite read of the year. I will not shut up about this perfect end to this trilogy. The Rosas brothers are what I call a trifecta of goodness. 

❤The Don by Katrina Jackson

I waited what felt like yearrrrrrrrsss for this book and it did not disappoint. Oh my Salvo just causing a mess and of course I love because we get spend more time trying to understand the consequences of his actions. Yes zaddy!

❤That Time I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werefolf by Kimberly Lemming 

The world is expanding and the stakes are getting higher now that demons and humans are integrating. Oh yeah and the sexy time this time around might have had tentacle bondage 🤭🤷🏾‍♀️

❤The Wedding Crasher by Mia Sosa 

Fun and funny, it made me laugh when I needed it. 

❤To Her Rescue by Dria Andersen 

A marriage of convenience with a dash of fated mates. Friends lettuce all have a partner who will let the world know don't mess with my wife. 

Now on to the unfortunate part of my reading from January-June, the misses. The one thing about reading mostly authors of color, is that the misses look like below 😕 

Out of all the books I've read so far, these four books were the most egregious of the misses. And that's me being kind. For me these were missing because either not great storytelling, offensive storylines, or just plain out right caricatures of communities I'm surprised these books didn't cause a permanent reading slump. I know, I know some of these are on folks favorites or rating highly but, for me, there were a big YIKES. 

Links to my GoodReads reviews because I don't want to get upset again 🥺 Getting His Game Back by Gia De Cadenet |  Homicide and Halo Halo by Mia P. Manansala | Dating Dr. Dil by Nisha Sharma | By the Book Jasmine Guillory 

Finally, because I don't want to get caught slipping with Swoon Award nominations, I made a spread in my digital book journal. If you haven't read my blog post about prepping for the next awards cycle, check it out here. If you've already read it or just want to see my current nomination considerations, here's my current shortlist Swoon Awards...

Okay, I think that's it for now. If you made it this far, gold star for you ⭐. I love doing check-ins, but phew it's a lot of information. 

I hope your 2022 reading is going as well as it can be. If it isn't, I hope you are giving yourself grace because there's a lot going on.

Happy Reading/Checking-in!