June’s Monthly Wrap Up

Hello and welcome. Today it’s time for June’s monthly wrap up post.

The weekends are the perfect time for me to sit back and catch up on life – both on and off the blog. Back in April 2019, I decided to write a monthly wrap up post at the weekend closest to the last day of the month. I can’t believe I’ve been writing these posts for over a year now! 😲🥳

I’ve been linking up to The Sunday Post which is a weekly meme hosted by the lovely Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer and will carry on that tradition today. (See rules here: Sunday Post Meme)

So what have I been up to this month?

Well June has been radically different from the previous few months!

The lowlights continue to include Coronavirus COVID-19 but at least now we can see the tight lockdown restrictions being eased. However, I’m concerned about the sharp spike in cases and deaths. We still don’t have a vaccine! 😢 And how can I not mention all the violence and bigotry plaguing humanity at the moment. We’ve gone from the news filled with the caring and kindness of society helping others through the difficulties of COVID-19. The unified fight of all humans against this new virus to separation, intolerance and hate following the shocking death of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.

Living in England, I wanted to learn more about how prevalent institutionalised racism was in my own country. As a species we can’t evolve until we unify.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kqV3Ei10znhMOCOCS7Lh2D-a4lq1xhKd5m8SMaqiSYM/edit?usp=sharing

But I don’t want to dwell on the all of the sad stuff. The highlights for me this month includes some beautiful sunny days and quality family time. It was Father’s Day here in the UK last weekend and although it rained, I managed to spend some time with my Dad. It was brilliant!

As I mentioned last month, I’m now self-hosted! Eek! Flora’s Musings is still with WordPress, but now I’m WordPress.org blog hosted by ChemiCloud.

It’s still a keen learning curve, and I’m far from being an expert. However I’m enjoying the experience and love how freeing it is. Click their logo above and check them out. They’ve still got a 65% sale on at the moment which means their plans start at just 2.76 per month! Thanks again to Kristen @ Metaphors and Moonlight for introducing ChemiCloud to me. 💜 I still promise to write a post about my experiences in a few months time. I just want to get my head around stuff better.

💜💚💜 Hello lovely followers! 💜💚💜

As you might remember, this year I’m tracking my follower count. Flora’s Musings has now surpassed the 450 followers mark and, as I type this, there are now 471 of you! That’s flippin’ amazing! I’m now more than confident that we can reach (and surpass) the 500 mark before the end of summer.

However, now that I’m not with WP.com, Flora’s Musings won’t appear in your Reader. Reader is a free promoting platform that WordPress offer their .com hosted blogs. If you’re a WP blog, you may have already noticed that my posts haven’t been showing up in your Reader feed. However, 📧subscribing 📧 to my blog will make sure that you never miss a post. 😊

Thank you to the lovely Kal for the use of her amazing Blogger Spreadsheets and graphics. And I also want to say a big THANK YOU to all of YOU. Knowing that you take the time to read my reviews, like and/or comment on my posts – it makes me all misty-eyed.

Posting The Usual Blogginess

What have I been posting on my blog?

Feel free to click on anything that you missed this month.

🥇 🏆 📚 🏆 🥇 BBNYA 🥇 🏆 📚 🏆 🥇

I love helping out independent authors who write in my favourite genres. So I’ve been sharing quite a few posts this year about a new competition – Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award. It’s an amazing collaboration with The Folio Society and The Write Reads.

Entries closed in May and the first stage of reviews and voting have been taking place throughout June. 😉

Read about my experiences so far as a BBYNA panellist by clicking the graphic above.

🎉 🥳 🎉 Book Birthdays in June! 🎉 🥳 🎉

I’ve been helping some wonderful authors spread the word about their New Releases.

• 16th June – Broken Dawn by Dianne Duvall
• 30th June – Flame by Donna Grant

And taking part in some Blog Tours.

And, of course, this being a book blog, I shared my thoughts about some books I read.

• How To Wake an Undead City by Hailey Edwards
• Beautiful Salvation by Jennifer Blackstream
• Sucks To Be Me by Kristen Painter
• Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
• The Pirate’s Witch by Jennifer Blackstream
• Tricked by Kevin Hearne
• How to Flirt With a Naked Werewolf by Molly Harper
• Kiss of the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon
• Flame by Donna Grant
• The Darkest Gateway by Jeri Westerson
• Betwixt by Darynda Jones

Moving forward, what can you expect from me in July?

• Celebrating more new Book Releases.
• Hopefully some author interviews, cover reveals, blog tours and spotlight posts.
• More weekly Friday Finds posts and Book Blogger Hop questions answered.
• and of course, lots of book reviews!

If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that I take part in the Goodreads Annual Reading Challenge but I also join in with other reading challenges. I thought that I’d use these regular wrap up posts to update you on my progress in all the challenges that I’m taking part in …

Amazingly, I haven’t taken part in any new monthly reading challenges this month. BUT. I have signed up to two new annual challenges this year – Bloody hell, what was I thinking!! 😂 🤦‍♀️ 😂

🎧 2020 Audiobook Challenge 🎧

I’ve been listening to more and more audiobooks each year, so decided to take advantage of my growing addiction interest. 😉 Check out my progress on My Audiobook Challenge 2020 page.

🏁 Finishing The Series Challenge 🏁

This year, I’ve been lamenting over how many unfinished series are on my TBR pile. Therefore, I’ve joined the Celebrity Readers’ challenge to help. Check out my progress on Finishing The Series Reading Challenge 2020 page.

Like so many of you, I use my blog to review ARCs (Advance or Early Reader Copy). Book, ebooks and audiobooks that I’ve received from authors or publishers both directly and through NetGalley. Check out my current ARCs calendar. I think my monthly commitments are looking good.

• July Releases ~ Calistos (28th)
• August Releases ~ Season of the Wolf (25th)
• September Releases ~ The Sea of the Dead (17th)
• October Releases ~ nothing yet!

I’ve managed to stick to my NetGalley Plan! Limiting myself to only requesting a couple per month and trying to ensure the release dates are spread out. My ARC TBR pile is now happily under control for another month! 😇

Thank you to the wonderful authors, publishers, tour organisers and NetGalley. The opportunity you give me to read books and feed my addiction is more than appreciated! 😉

The Black Lives Matter movement has been at the forefront this month so I though I’d share this clip from Twitter.

We all need to take this sentiment to heart. 💕 It's as true today as i was then. pic.twitter.com/AMdtMqFVFe

— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) June 15, 2020

Don’t forget to hop along to some of the other amazing blogs taking part in this week’s The Sunday Post.

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read my June’s monthly wrap up post.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend, stay safe and healthy.

Bye for now.
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