5 for Friday: My book blog firsts

My book blog firsts! This Sunday marks my ONE YEAR BLOGIVERSARY (it’s also my birthday and yes, I totally did that on purpose!)!!! I can’t believe that I’ve been book blogging for one year!

When I first started blogging, I didn’t know what to expect. I had already been food blogging for years but blogging about books is a completely different ball game. When I started, I set some goals but I set the bar pretty low because I figured it would take me a few years of blogging before things started happening. Boy, was I wrong! The book community is so welcoming and it wasn’t long before I was getting emails from authors and publishers.

My first year of book blogging has been pretty low-key – I’ve just been using the time to get used to blogging regularly (which I’m not that great at) and reading more. That being said, there were still a lot of things that happened to me specifically because I had become a book blogger. So I’m taking this opportunity to look back at a few of the book blog related “firsts” that happened in the past year.

Stay tuned for more blogiversary posts, including a giveaway!

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First author Q&A: Ellie Alexander

One of the goals I set for myself when I started this blog was to start a series of author interviews (mission accomplished) and I had a very short list of favourite authors who I wanted to interview. Imagine my disbelief when one of the authors on that list, Ellie Alexander, was the first author interview I landed! Alexander writes two of my favourite cozy mystery series – The Bake Shop Mysteries and the Sloan Krause Mysteries – so I was beyond excited to have her kick off the series.

You can read my Author Q&A with Ellie Alexander here and you can visit her author website here.

 

First NetGalley approval: The Catherine Howard Conspiracy by Alexandra Walsh

A month or so after I started book blogging I learned about NetGalley – a great site where people can request advanced e-copies of books from publishers in return for reviews. Since my blog was super new and I barely had any social media friends, I doubted I would be approved but I made some requests anyway. Imagine my surprise when several requests were approved right away! I learned my lesson quickly to be more selective with my requests or else I’d be buried in books.

My first request to be approved was from Sapere Books – The Catherine Howard Conspiracy, the first book in The Marquess House Trilogy by Alexandra Walsh. How lucky am I that this book became one of my favourite books of 2019?! You can read my review of it here and my review of the second book in the trilogy, The Elizabeth Tudor Conspiracy here. I’ve been a huge fan of Alexandra Walsh (and NetGalley) since that day.

 

First bookmail: The Balance of Heaven and Earth by Laurence Westwood

I started book blogging because, obviously, I love books. But free books has never been an incentive for me to blog – I happily purchase any books I’m interested in. But since I’m not fantastically wealthy, I am thankful to the authors, publishers and publicists that have taken the time to send me books to review. I have discovered so many great authors this way.

The first author to send me a book was Laurence Westwood, who mailed me a copy of his wonderful historical fiction, The Balance of Heaven and Earth (you can read my review here). Receiving my first ever “bookmail” really made me feel like a real book blogger! I’m grateful to Laurence for taking a chance on a newbie blogger and for his ongoing support of my blog (and for always making me laugh on Twitter!)

 

First book box: We Hunt the Flame from Indigo

I love living in Canada (except for the harsh winters) but one thing I find difficult is the shipping fees when buying items from other countries. They are always almost prohibitively expensive. One example are book boxes. Since I started book blogging I’ve been so envious of these people who subscribe to those gorgeous book boxes. However, most of them have such high shipping rates that it almost doubles the cost of the box. So I’ve never been able to justify subscribing to any of them.

However, Indigo has started selling individual book boxes and last year they offered a gorgeous one featuring We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal. I jumped at the chance to get my first book box and pre-ordered it. I wasn’t disappointed and I hope Indigo does more of these!

First bookish enamel pin: Iron & Ink

Enamel pins are another item I have fallen in love with since starting my book blog but are also super expensive when it comes to shipping. For example, one of the pins I wanted was only $15 but after shipping to Canada, it ended up being $50, which is WAY too much for a pin. 🙁

But once in awhile I stumble upon a pin seller with beautiful pins that also has fair shipping fees. One such seller who always puts out STUNNING designs is Iron & Ink Designs. Their Night Circus inspired pin was my first pin purchase ever and got my collection started.

My enamel pin collection is still very small (I currently only have 7 pins; 3 are from Iron & Ink) but hopefully I can grow it more in 2020! If you know of any great enamel pin shops, leave me a comment with a link!

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So that’s it for this Friday! If you’re a book blogger, do you have any book blog firsts? Please share them with me in the comments because I always think it’s worth celebrating the small milestones!

Until next time!

Every Friday, I share five things that have caught my interest – from my favourite book blog posts to my favourite bookstagram accounts, from random book lists I’ve put together to my current shopping list of bookish gifts. Have an idea for a future “5 for Friday” post? Leave a comment and let me know!