Wow! This month, I read twelve books while also writing an entire manuscript of my own! I'm not sure if that's because I was feeling particularly motivated or whether it was because of Covid 19 lock down. I kept all my normal working hours, but I did write nearly every night. So either way, it was quite a successful month while I read many awesome stories. 

I've really enjoyed trying new romance writers this month, as well as some old favourites.

It's no secret I love border collies. They are beautiful dogs and have always been a part of my life. I've had three. First, there was my big sister Laura, who died when I was seven. Then there was Dillon, who was my lifelong dog. I had him from age 9 through to 24, when at the ripe old age of 15, Dillon moved over to the rainbow bridge. No longer crippled by arthritis, he could chase tennis balls to his heart's content. After losing him, I realised how I had always had border collies and that I needed another one. So, I got Jacob, my first dog of my own. He's a little rascal, but I love him dearly.

This month at Popular Fiction we discussed all things romance! What defines a romance novel, what are the different subgenres, and what type of conflict makes up the story on the road to happily ever after?

Thank you to everyone who attended the meeting. We had lots of fun. And if you missed out, come along next month for Genre Expectations! In the meantime, here is a summary of last night's meeting.

New title for 2020 - my reading! Because I don't really review the books I read here, I just explain why I read them and whether I liked them a not. With the new year though brings a whole bunch of new goals, and this year I hope to become more diverse in the type of books I read, as well as devour a whole lot of romance.

I'm very, very pleased with how much I read in January. And in addition, I also read my own manuscript three times in a week, so there you go...can I add that as three more books to the list?

It's Christmas time so while I was busy pumping out my manuscript 'Cardiology', I also consumed myself with a couple of really good Christmas reads to celebrate the holidays. December was a pretty busy one for me with work and writing. My story was rolling so I committed to write more every day. Then when it was done, I caught up on a whole bunch of reading. I'll admit, I'm impressed with the number of books I made it through this month!

Look at all the books I read in November! I know it was only five, but that was pretty good going for me. It has been a busy month for me as I attended GenreCon and spent a lot of time preparing to write my next book. But I've discovered that if I read while doing my daily stretches rather than playing games on my phone, I actually manage to read a lot more books!

​So here's November's book review. 

This month was a busy one for me as I settled into my new house, took my research trip to the Whitsundays, and worked on draft two of Reunited. Unfortunately, there just isn't enough hours in the day to do all of that, work, exercise, and read, so I didn't get through a lot of books. But it sure was another month full of romance as I enjoyed some of my favourite authors - Michelle Douglas, Barbara Hannay, and Clare Connolly.

Hopefully, I'll get through some more books in November, but we'll need to wait and see. At least Reunited ​is coming along well though.

I haven't read a lot of books this month because I spent most of my time writing the first draft of my category romance 'Reunited'. I did very well, completing the 50,000 word draft within about 5 weeks, so it's no surprise I didn't get much time to read! But the draft is done and the trip to the Whitsunday's for post-draft research is booked, so I've had a very successful month on the writing side of things. Therefore, this post is going to be a short one.

In August, I participated in the MS Readathon for the first time since I was a kid. Mostly because it's a great cause, of course, but they were giving out free t-shirts! And yes, I fit kids t-shirts. But kids must be big or something cos I got a kids size 10 and it's big on me. But never mind! Free t-shirt and a lot of incentive to read!

I'm still binge reading category romance, and I'm becoming a HUGE fan of Michelle Douglas! Just loving her books, so there were plenty of them on the list this month. But I did want to read some single titles too. I started off really well, but after attending the RWA Conference and getting stuck into a new project, I'll admit my reading did drop off a little. Oh well, I still think I read more this month than I have any other month this year!

I'm settled into my new house, everything is on the rise again, and that includes writing! Sadly, I'm not good at writing and reading at the same time. After all, there is only so much time in the day and with work plus exercise plus just other general stuff, if I want to write, reading suffers. And vise versa. 

This month I've poured myself into reworking an older but favourite manuscript into a category length romance as well as writing two short stories. However, around that, I've also managed to catch up on a lot of reading and have decided to indulge in a lot of category romance.

​So here is July's book review.