#BloggerSpotlight

Welcome the fabulous Jonita Fex from The Book Chick all the way over in Canada!

Who are you and why are you blogging?
Hi! My name is Jonita! I’m a wife and a mother to three boys living in Ontario Canada. I have a job that I love working in green energy and I have been there for two years now! I started blogging almost nine years ago as a way to connect with fellow book lovers. There were a few readers in my life but none who shared my taste in books. There were no suitable book clubs in my area at that time and blogging allowed me an outlet with which to share my love of books with those with similar tastes! I have made some fantastic virtual blogging friends since that time and I am so grateful for how it all worked out.

Where’s your favourite reading nook and why?
I can read anywhere, anytime, but I do have my favourite spots! In the winter it is downstairs in our Jacuzzi tub. It takes a while to fill it up but once it is full I can read in there for hours! In the summer I most definitely love reading on the beach! My kids love the water, so we frequently head down to the beach and I read while they play. I recently bought myself a new eReader that is waterproof and sand proof for this reason!

Who or what would need to accompany you on a desert island?
If I was stranded on a desert island my needs would be minimal (aside from food and shelter, of course!). I would need my husband, three boys and our dog Kevin to be with me plus an eReader with an unlimited charge and thousands of books to read! I could probably happily live out my life that way!

Top ten favourite books of all times (any genre)?
I have a list of books that I think that everyone should read! These books all had an impact on me and on me as a reader. They are (in no particular order):

“Nadia Knows Best” by Jill Mansell (this book made me the chick lit fan that I am today!)
“Something Blue” by Emily Giffin
“Love Walked In” by Marisa de los Santos
Harry Potter Books 1-7 by J.K.Rowling
“Husband and Wife” by Leah Stewart
“Build a Man” by Talli Roland
“After I Do” by Taylor Jenkins Reid
“A Man Called Ove” by Fredrik Backman
“The Hour I First Believed” by Wally Lamb
“Good in Bed” by Jennifer Weiner

Of course this list is subject to change in the future, but for now these are my top picks!

What’s the thing you regret most not having done in your life so far?
I wish that I had traveled more when I was young, but I still plan to travel in my future! I yearn to visit England, Ireland and Scotland. I was in Denmark last year and I loved it so much! The culture there was familiar yet alien and I can’t wait to experience more of Europe and the world some day!

If you could marry a celebrity, who would it be?
Channing Tatum, no contest. I’m not one who generally drools over celebrities, but he is the exception to my rule. I consider him to be exceptionally drool-worthy!

You’re invited to a buffet dinner, but you can pick only ONE savoury item and ONE sweet. What would you cram on your plate?
I love eating, so picking just one thing to eat would be near impossible! I think that for the savory item I would choose a panzerotti with pineapple, green pepper and pepperoni inside of it from my favourite local pizza place and for the sweet I would likely choose a peanut butter cup, my chocolate- related weakness!

I am **sooooo** coming over! We can curl up on the beach together with our eReaders and eat pizza and drool over our respective celebrities! Thanks so much for visiting. I’m ever so delighted to host you today! Rock on and read on…

#BloggerSpotlight

Welcome to the one and only
Rosie Amber!

Blog | Twitter | Facebook

Who are you and what brought you to the blogosphere?

My name is Rosie Amber, I’m a book reviewer and blogger. I live in the county of Hampshire in the UK. Blogging opened up a whole new world to me and I have met some lovely people. I use my love of reading and my blog to help promote other people books.

I love reading. In the Goodreads 2013 challenge I read 154 books, in 2014 I read more than 181 books. Nearly every book I read gets a review on Goodreads, Amazon and my blog, with links to my Facebook author page, Google+ and Twitter. I also do Guest Author Interviews and take part in book related tours.

Tell us more! I believe your blog reviews also got you into reviewing for actual paper-and-ink magazines?

In 2013 I was lucky enough to be invited to write a monthly book review page for a local magazine called “Fleet Life”. 5000 copies go out locally and the magazine has an online version too, I usually review 5 books of my choice per month for the magazine. In 2014 I also picked up its sister magazine Elvetham Heath Directory which has 2000 copies and an online version, I do a different set of reviews in each magazine.

Do you have a specific blogging strategy?

I love keeping my blog fresh; in April 2013 I took part in my first April A to Z Challenge and I blogged my way through the alphabet matching book titles to the letters of the alphabet. This year will be my third year taking part in the challenge and again my theme is books, it is a great way to meet lots of new bloggers from all over the world.

The second year of Romancing September Across The World book tour took place with fellow author Stephanie Hurt last September. For 30 days we promoted romance authors and their books. In November I ran the Mystery November tour promoting mystery writers and their books, after my April A to Z challenge I‘m planning a Beach Reads book tour during June 2015.

You’re clearly a girl who loves a challenge! What’s this I hear about Good Deeds?

Never one to stand still for long I began a year-long challenge that I set myself on the day I began reading a book called “A Year of Doing Good” by Judith O’Reilly.

Judith challenged herself to do Good Deeds for a whole year and wrote a truly inspirational book about what happened. Judith undertook giant acts of good, my own challenge was to do just 1 Good Deed a day for a year. Every Sunday I update my readers with my latest deeds. On April 16^th 2015 I celebrated completing my two year challenge, I was so inspired that once I’d completed one year I carried on. Do come and check it out. My Year of Good Deeds.

Amazing. You totally rock! But I believe you’re up for yet more challenges…?

In June 2014 I launched a book review challenge to encourage more readers to be confident about writing and posting book reviews on places like Goodreads and Amazon. We had guest authors, guest reviewers and a publisher confirming how valuable reviews are to authors. For those taking up the challenge we had free copies of books for them to have a go at writing reviews. The challenge was so popular that I set up a free book review team to increase the number of books which we can review on the blog. Now we read a wider range of genres and enable authors to have more than one review of their book all from one source. Find out more here; Your book reviewed.

Thanks so much, Rosie, for taking part in my blogger spotlight. It’s a pleasure to host you for a change!! Good luck with all your challenges~I look forward to following them across the year… 🙂