Sunday Post #157

Posted December 20, 2015 by Lola in Sunday Post / 34 Comments

sunday post

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer.
It’s a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

What happened this week?

This was a busy week with some good and some bad things that happened. The good news is that I have a new author for marketing assistant work starting next year, I am really excited about this and looking forward to working with her as marketing assistant. Beside that it was a busy week, the good kind of busy, on the blog and on Lola’s Blog Tours with three tours running and a two exciting new review opportunities that went live. And I ran into an issue with bloglovin, which took up a lot of my time trying to fix it and so far failing, which got me down.

An author who I organized a tour for wrote this awesome post on her Goodreads blog to detail what it’s like to tour with me and she describes the process of a blog tour pretty well.

And like I mentioned I ran into an issue with blogovin. I never had trouble with them before, but they weren’t showing my posts this week. Thanks to a nice blogger to let me know about it. I contacted bloglovin, but they can’t do anything and basically told me it’s my problem and I have to fix it myself. My feed loads so slowly their servers just don’t stop by anymore at all. I also researched on internet and asked in a wordpress group for help and it’s probably an issue with my host/ server and there’s anothing I can do about it, except contact them and hope they can fix it.
And ofcourse my other site that’s hosted on the same server and has all the same plugins and such doesn’t have any issues, which is weird. So I thought it might have to dow ith my plugins and theme on my blog. I switched my theme, deactivated all my plugins and the problem was still there. So I am still no further than when I started and spent hours trying to figure it out.
Things with my blog like this stress me out and it’s so frustrating trying to figure out what’s wrong and solve it. And a lot of my followers are on bloglovin and now they can’t see my posts that’s pretty sad :(. So if you’re follow me with bloglovin and want to be garanteed you’re receiving my post, please subscribe by e-mail for now, the sign-up widget is in the sidebar. I think feedly and other blog following sites are still working, it only seems to be a problem with bloglovin. I am caling my host provider next week to hope they can help fix the problem and if that doesn’t work I am out of ideas.

Random Picture(s) of the Week

Penguin ice cream
We saw these adorable penguin themed christmas ice creams at our supermarket and couldn’t resist buying them. They are almost too cool to eat, but I am happy we did as they tastes very good.

Renee Recipes and card
And this is the other card I received from the recipe exchange. This one is from Renee. She sent me a card and a piece of paper filled with recipes. The recipes are for: apricot brandy slush, sugar cookies, peanut butter balls, caramel corn, zucchini casserole and baked spaghetti. I especially like the sound of the peanut butter balls and am trying those out soon.

What did I cook for dinner this week?

This week I blogged about:

Review: Amanda Lester and the Pink Sugar Conspiracy by Paula Berinstein
Reading Challenges 2016: goal post
Lola’s Ramblings: Transition into a new Genre Cozy Mystery
Lola’s Kitchen: Tomato Pasta Sauce Recipe
Review: Saven Deception by Siobhan Davis

What to expect next week on the blog:

– Review: Murder at Redwood Cove by Janet Finsilver
– Lola’s Ramblings: Books I DNF’d in 2015
– Lola’s Ramblings: Ten random things about how I celebrate(d) christmas
– Book Blitz: Saven Deception by Siobhan Davis
– Review: Chasing River by KA Tucker

Tours open for sign-up on Lola’s Blog Tours:

Review Opportunities:
Link by Summer Wier
A Bramble House Christmas by CJ Carmichael
Maisy and the Mystery Manor by Elizabeth Woodrum
Indestructible by Emma L Adamsnew!
Saven: Deception by Siobhan Davisnew!
Check the full list of open review opportunities here.

Cover Reveals:
None open for sign-up at the moment

Tours:
None open for sign-up at the moment

Book Haul:

Thief of LiesThief of Lies (Library Jumpers #1)
by Brenda Drake

Format: e-copy
Source: for review
You can find Thief of Lies on Goodreads

Blurb:
Gia Kearns would rather fight with boys than kiss them. That is, until Arik, a leather clad hottie in the Boston Athenaeum, suddenly disappears. While examining the book of world libraries he abandoned, Gia unwittingly speaks the key that sucks her and her friends into a photograph and transports them into a Paris library, where Arik and his Sentinels—magical knights charged with protecting humans from the creatures traveling across the gateway books—rescue them from a demonic hound.

Jumping into some of the world’s most beautiful libraries would be a dream come true for Gia, if she weren’t busy resisting her heart or dodging an exiled wizard seeking revenge on both the Mystik and human worlds. Add a French flirt obsessed with Arik and a fling with a young wizard, and Gia must choose between her heart and her head, between Arik’s world and her own, before both are destroyed.

IndestructibleIndestructible (Indestructible #1)
by Emma L. Adams

Format: e-copy
Source: for review
You can find Indestructible on Goodreads

Blurb:
Two years ago, the fiends invaded, with a devastating explosion that split the world in two. Even now, energy blasts strike without warning, destroying everything in their paths. The fiends hunt anyone unlucky enough to escape.

My name is Leah. An energy blast killed my group. It should have killed me, too. Instead, I woke up alone in the wilderness, stalked by the fiends.

My only hope is the red-cloaked strangers who call themselves the Pyros. They can do the impossible and make flames shoot from their hands. Right now, my one chance for safety — and revenge — is with them.

But they’re keeping secrets from me. Like those skeletons hidden under their base. And the reasons I developed a psychic link with someone who can’t stand the sight of me — after he saved my life.

If I don’t uncover the truth about why the world ended the first time, my new safe haven might go up in smoke…

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34 responses to “Sunday Post #157

  1. ugh! So sorry you’ve had that trouble with Bloglovin, Lola. I went on there right now and searched for you, and there are posts from this week but the last one is from three days ago, while on feedly, today’s post is up as well.
    Your new books look really good, Lola, and I hope you’ll enjoy them 🙂
    Have a great week ahead and happy holidays.
    Lexxie @ (un)Conventional Bookviews recently posted…The Sunday Post #63 – Happy HolidaysMy Profile

    • I am glad to hear feedly does have todays post I just wish I knew what feedly did different and what they do get my posts. Although bloglovin porbably isn’t willing to adapt feedly their method, whatever it is, as they just keep sayign I need to solve this. Those last few posts only show up as one of the bloglovin people parsed it manually. I guess I’ll ask them to parse it again tomorrow or so, but I need a permanent solution :(. It’s so frustrating.
      Lola recently posted…Sunday Post #157My Profile

  2. Sorry about the problems :-/ It’s so frustrating when things like that go wrong, especially when no one seems to be able to help. Could it have to do with the recent WP update? Because that caused some issues with my site. I fixed it by deactivating a plugin, but things do seem to be running slower still. Maybe your theme just needs an update? I think Bloglovin takes like 24 hours to update posts though, so you might have to wait to see the change when you try something.

    I’m glad you’ve had some good things though like book reviews and tours! And those sound like good recipes! Well, I hate peanut butter lol, so I actually wouldn’t be excited about that particular one, but the others sound great.

    Also, I want to read Thief of Lies! I mean, libraries and books and fantasy all in one? I’m a little jealous 😛
    Kristen Burns recently posted…Updates & Info: The Weekly Update (14)My Profile

    • I was wondering about that too as the problem didnt start since after the WP update. So I was wondering if it had to do with that, My theme doesn’t have an update yet and switching to another theme didn’t solve the problem, so I am assuming that isn’t it? Maybe I should ask someone else with the same theme if they have issues.

      I found a site where you test the loading time of a page, so I put my feed url in there and see how long it takes to load. Bloglovin gave me the error message they got and I figured my feed has to load in less than 10 seconds and it usually takes around 20 now, it kinda fluctuates, sometimes it does load fast and then slow again. My blog is a bit slower, but still loads within 4 or 5 seconds.

      If you don’t like peanut butter than that recipes wouldn’t make you exicted. I love peanut butter, especially combined with chocolate! The new review opportunities and tour work did made up for the bad things.

      I just started Thief of Lies this morning and so far it’s good. The library and fantasy part got my attention and the cover looks great too. It is still on netgalley I think ;).
      Lola recently posted…Sunday Post #157My Profile

  3. That is so annoying about Bloglovin. If you delete yourself from the feed and then re-put yourself in, that might make it work? I am sure you tired that already but I always find unplugging and plugging back in sometimes works the best.

    I need to go and read the review of Lola’s Blog Tours as soon as I finish writing this but I have no doubt that it says you are amazing and wonderful because you are. 🙂

    The Penguin is so cute. For Thanksgiving my mom gets Ice Cream like that shaped like a Turkey and for Christmas she gets little snowman. My son would like a penguin, wish they had those here.

    I got my first recipe card this week, the recipe looks amazing, was going to share once I got them all but the mail is so slow during the holidays. So I might not get them all until after Christmas.

    I love Thief of Lies cover and the synopsis, going to have to add that to my TBR.

    Have a great week, Lola! Sorry I haven’t been visiting much, we have been so busy but things should slow down after Christmas! Happy Reading! oxox
    Michelle@Because Reading recently posted…Hermit Crabs and Christmas Madness~ WIR & TSPMy Profile

    • What do you by delete yourself from the feed? You mean remove myself from bloglovin? Then I would lose all my followers. Unplugging and plugging back in does seems to help with a lot of things, but I am not sure how to put my feed on and off.

      It’s not as much a review, but more her experience with the tour and how the whole process I went, I thought it gave a valuable perspective from an author her point of view about the process.

      Mail sure is slow during the holidays. I am still waiting on a few packages and I still haven’t heard from my recipe exchnage recipients, even though i sent their cards as early as possible.

      I got Thief of Lies from netgalley, it might still be there. I read the first few chapters this morning and it sounds promising so far. My first book for Coyer, yay!

      And I know what you mean, I hardly have had time to visit blogs as things are so busy lately. I am hoping to do more visiting again in the new year.
      Lola recently posted…Sunday Post #157My Profile

  4. Oh bummer about the bloglovin thing, I hope you can figure it out. I hate spending needless hours trying to fix something like that and for them to tell you they can’t help is just annoying.

    Enjoy your new reads and Merry Christmas!

    Stormi
    Stormi Johnson recently posted…The Week In Review #67My Profile

    • I wish the bloglovin people could tell me more, they work at bloglovin, but have no idea how feeds work and how to fix it. Just told me to contact my blog host, yeah I am self hosted so that’s me. It sucks to spend so much time trying to fix it and nothing works. And all those followers there don’t see my posts now :(.

  5. Sorry to hear about bloglovin, that’s not good. Nice that they were so helpful…:( That can be incredibly frustrating, I hope your host can help.

    Nice testimonial on your blog tour, good for you! Hope you have a great week and a nice holiday.
    Greg recently posted…Sunday Post #122My Profile

    • Yeah I had hoped bloglovin could steer me in the right direction, but nope. They were friendly about it though, but still that’s not much help. It’s not good that those 200 followers can’t see my posts now.

      I was really happy witht hat post, it’s great to see an author her point of view on the whole tour process. Happy holidays to you to!
      Lola recently posted…Sunday Post #157My Profile

    • I am beginning to hink you have the right idea to avoid bloglovin if you can’t trust them to actually show the posts of blogs you follow then what’s the point? I really liked them, but I am thinking of switching to another method now after experiencing this.

      The penguin ice cream was really cute and it tasted good too!

    • I love penguins, so I couldn’t resist the ice cream! They were so cute and yummy too!

      She also wrote a shorter testimonial that I added to my testimonial page, but I really liked her post so I wanted to share that as well. It gives a good feel for what a blog tour is like.
      Lola recently posted…Sunday Post #157My Profile

    • I like bloglovin, although after this experience my opinion of them has gone down a bit. I mean if this happens to often people too that means I am not seeing people their posts even while following them. Let’s hope it get’s fixed soon.

    • Technical difficulties are so stressful, especially when it’s about things I know so little about. The new author was great enws and cheered me up a bit. I hope you’ll have a great week too!

  6. Both of the books you got for review this week sound amazing. I love the premise of the library jumpers! Those penguin ice creams are so cute. There is no way you could have not bought those!

    That sucks all that happened with bloglovin. That would really stress me out, too. I hope you get it all sorted out.
    Lefty @ The Left-Handed Book Lover recently posted…Sunday Post #4My Profile

    • I am really excited about both books I got this week. I already started Thief of Lies this morning and I am reading Indestructible soon. If you’re interested in reading them, Thief of Lies is on netgalley and I am organizing a review opportunity for Indestructible on Lola’s Blog Tours.

      The penguins were adorable and yummy too! I always love the christmas themed products our supermarkt sells. I just couldn’t resist buying these.

      I hope I can get things with bloglovin sorted, all other RSS feed readers seem to work fine, so I am getting a bit annoying as it only seems to be a problem with bloglovin. I already spent hours trying to fix it, so let’s hope I can get it sorted soon.
      Lola recently posted…Sunday Post #157My Profile

    • Thanks for letting me know you receive my RSS. It’s a bit slower and bloglovin their system only tries once and if they don’t receive your RSS they just drop your blog and don’t check again.
      To be honest I always liked bloglovin, but after this I am going to try out different solutions to follow blogs as everyone who uses a different following method does get my posts, but not on bloglovin. I am not happy with them at the moment.

      The penguins tasted really good, it was good qaulity vanilla ice with some chocolate and sugar decorations and chocolate sauce inside. They were really good!

      And I am really excited about working with this new author :).
      Lola recently posted…Sunday Post #157My Profile

  7. I’m sorry you had so many problems with your blog this week. I get a daily Bloglovin’ email, but I honestly never check it! I should probably just stop getting it and subscribe to emails for blogs I love.

    That’s great news you have an author to work with next year!!!
    Tracy Krimmer recently posted…My Favorite Holiday SongMy Profile

    • I always liked bloglovin, but all this troube with them not listing my blog posts unless they do it manually is very frustrating as I have quite some followers there.

  8. It would be frustrating that the site owners don’t know enough to help fix problems! I hope you find something that works better. Looking forward to your thoughts on Chasing River.
    Nise’ recently posted…Reading Wrap UpMy Profile

    • It’s a shame it takes so much time to fix thigns like that and it seems it still isn’t fixed :(. I am happy with the new marketing assistant job.

      The penguin ice creams were great! I don’t like zucchini and chick peas, so I added three red bell peppers instead. It tasted great and we had enough for three days.
      Lola recently posted…Lola’s Ramblings: Books I DNF’d in 2015My Profile

    • I already do marketing assistant work for one author, so it’s fun to have another author now.
      So far we still haven’t figured it out why bloglovin isn’t working. I thought things got solved, but the bloglovin person manually updated my page again, but it stil doesn’t pick up my feed automatically 🙁
      Lola recently posted…Lola’s Ramblings: Books I DNF’d in 2015My Profile

    • I am thinking of switching to another way to follow blogs myself as after this my opinion of them decreased. I never had trouble with them until now and I think that’s true that they grew too fast for their infrastructure and are having some issues due to that now.
      But a lot of my followers are on bloglovin, so I am hoping it will at least start working well again. So far, no such luck.

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