Sunday Post #392

Posted June 21, 2020 by Lola in Sunday Post / 13 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 week didn’t run smoothly, with some things not going as well, but luckily a few good bits as well. In short on the not so good side of things: I lost my main way of listening to audiobooks, my boyfriend’s work schedule will stay erratic and with different shifts for the foreseeable future, I had ereader troubles and still some worries about my work. On the good side there was a visit with my mom, I got on the reviewer list for Tantor Audio and some possible new clients for Lola’s Blog Tours. That’s the very short summary of my week, for more details read on.

Last Sunday my mom and her husband stopped by to help with something and after that we went out for some ice cream for a socially distanced visit. The ice cream store did it’s best with the social distancing, but it was a bit of a mixed bag. An employee told us to social distance, but then didn’t keep the right distance herself and someone was sweeping while there were customers. It was fun to see my mom and her husband in real life again for a change. And the good news is that here in the Netherlands the amount of people with corona is keeping stead instead of rising, so let’s hope that continues or even goes down. The numbers had gone down already quite a bit here before we opened again, so that probably helped.

My boyfriend’s work schedule continues to be erratic and he has to work multiple different time slots in the same week and this week he heard that this will probably continue this way for the foreseeable future. This has been difficult to deal with and knowing there’s no end in sight only makes me more sad and frustrated with it all. There’s just no way to get in a routine or get used to anything as each week is so different.

Then on the same day as that news I found that Storytel, the company I’ve been using to listen to audiobooks through a subscription, has discontinued their pc app. I can only listen to audiobooks through my pc, so this change means I am unable to use it anymore, so I cancelled my subscription. Back when I first started listening to audiobooks I did some research and this was like the only company I’ve found that I could pay at, accepted people from Europa and had a pc app for listening. Guess I’ll have to do some research again to see if there’s another service that works, so far I haven’t had much luck. Maybe Chirp will open up for people from Europe at some point. For now I still have a few audiobooks on Audible from giveaways I’ve won, so at least I still have something to listen to for now. I really enjoy audiobooks and always have one going on and I hope I can figure out some way to keep listening.

While that was bad news it did give me to motivation to finally look into getting more audio review copies. I’ve been wanting to get into that since I started listening, but didn’t really put much effort into it. I’ve recently got some audio review copies directly from authors which is awesome and I hope to expand on that. I’ve joined some additional Facebook groups for audio reviewers and with the help of one of my blogger friends I managed to get on the list for Tantor Audio, I am so excited about this! I’ve listened and enjoyed some of the books they published so far.

Then later in the week my Kobo ereader had some issues again. It kept crashing when I was trying to start a new book and eventually wouldn’t even restart anymore. It got back to normal after a while, so no clue what was up. I keep thinking I might need to consider buying a new reader, but at the same time I don’t want a new ereader and just keep using this one. Hopefully it was just a one off thing and it continues to function correctly again, as long as I am reading the same book it seems to be doing well. Opening a new book, going through my library and adding new books seem to be the things it struggles with.

Another good thing that happened this week is that I got some new possible clients for Lola’s Blog Tours. I’ve been worried as it’s been a bit quiet recently, so this is good news and I hope this continues. Now I am just waiting on the materials from the authors, so I can start working on the sign-up posts for those tours. I haven’t gotten rid of my worried feelings completely, but I hope it will get better once I actually can start working on those tours. My bookstagram blitz discount is still going on as well, so I hope some authors will make use of that.

Audiobook Challenge 202 mid year check in


I’ve listened to 8 audiobooks so far this year. My goal is Socially Awkward (Don’t talk to me) 15-20, so I am making good progress. Hopefully I can make my goal, as with my recent change in losing my main way of audiobooks that is unsure at the moment. I am happy with how many audiobooks I’ve listened to so far and I hope I can continue listening to audiobooks.

What did I read this week?

Writing Killer Cover CopyEnd GameStill Knife Painting

Writing Killer Cover Copy was a good and informative read about writing blurbs. I would definitely recommend it, the way she broke up and explained the process of writing blurbs make it easy for me to understand. End Game was a great ending to this series and I am looking forward to the spin-off series. Still Knife Painting was a good start to this new series, but it had a bit of that first book introductory vibe at times. I wasn’t as invested in the mystery and managed to guess the murderer. I liked getting to know the main character and her painting and moonshine cultural tours were a fun concept.

This week I blogged about:

Review: Demons in the Bedroom by Lidiya Foxglove
Review: Bonds of Brass by Emily Skrutski
Review: Stolen Flyght by S.J. Pajonas

Review: Demons in the Bedroom by Lidiya FoxgloveReview: Bonds of Brass by Emily SkrutskiReview: Stolen Flyght by S.J. Pajonas

What to expect next week on the blog:

– Review: My Hometown Hero by Melody Sweet
– Review: The Last Drop by Layla Reyne
– Lola’s Kitchen: Udon Noodles with Garlic Recipe

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

Review Opportunity: Never Date a Siren by Byrd Nash
Review Opportunity: Indigo by Paula Berinstein
Review Opportunity: In The Heart of Babylon by SGD Singh
Review Opportunity: The Jade Rebellion by Alanna MacKenzie
Review Opportunity: The Time Capsule by Connie Lacy
Book Blitz: Wedding at White Sands by Catherine Mann – 22 till 28 June
Book Blitz: The Name of Red by Beena Khan – 1 till 7 July

Book Haul:

Wolves at the DoorVaironian Tides

I got both of these for review from the authors. Wolves at the Door is the second book in the paranormal house flipper series. Vaironian Tides is a new to me author, I love scifi romance as a genre and this one sounds good.

How was your week? Any good or bad things that happened?

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13 responses to “Sunday Post #392

  1. Urg! Sorry you had to cancel your audio subscription. I take it that Audible isn’t available? Because I know they have an app for computers and I pay a one-off payment a year, which is £108 (or was last time I checked) and that entitles me to 24 credits. As the huge majority of books are 1 credit each, that comes in at just over £5 per book, which I think is very reasonable.

    Glad work is picking up – I feel so sorry for folks here who work in the travel and hospitality trades as they are still in lockdown and a lot of businesses are saying they probably won’t be opening again:(. Have a good week, Lola.

    • Audible work if I receive codes, but I can’t pay there as they only accept a credit card for payment and I don’t have one and have no intention of getting one at this point. The price definitely would be acceptable and is a lot cheaper than buying audiobooks one by one.

      It sure is a tough time for a lot of businesses with the whole lockdown thing. I didn’t know you were still in lockdown.

    • I have a cable-less headset that I use when I want to do chores, but often i listen when I am doing simple work on my computer as well, so I want a pc app so I can do both of those. Sadly my Kobo did not behave and I had to buy a new one this week.

  2. I don’t listen to audiobooks but I’m sad to hear you are no longer to use your pc in order to listen to them. Hopefully your e-reader keeps working for a while. Things are about the same here. Just waiting on more testing to be done for Ken.

    • Audiobooks are not for everyone indeed. I really enjoy listening to them and not sure how I can continue to listen now that this subscription service is no longer doing the pc app. I hope my ereader keeps working for a while longer too as I don’t want to buy a new one yet.

      I hope the tests for Ken go well.

  3. I would be put out to have an audio service change like that, too. I was excited that you got on the Tantor list (I had no doubt that you would). 🙂 Yay for seeing your family face to face. I would like to travel and see my family in the fall months, but we’ll see. Sorry that your boyfriend’s schedule is so erratic. We go through that now and then with my husband’s work changing up what shifts need the most people though it does go steady for a bit before changing up like that.
    My old Kindle Fire has its touchy moments and I think it’s going to give up the ghost, but it keeps recovering and I am used to it so I don’t replace it.
    I could have used that book on blurb writing. I took longer to come up with a blurb than outlining my story a few times. LOL
    Yay for the new customers coming to you and your business picking up.

    Have a good week, Lola.

    • I don’t get why they stopped their windows app, I just hope they add it back at some point. I am really happy you helped me get on the Tantor list.

      Hopefully by fall you can travel to see your family.

      The erratic schedule is so hard to deal with, I am sorry you go through that as well sometimes with your husband works.

      The same happened with my Kobo, but this week it completely stopped working and nothing i did help, so I had to replace it after all. I hope your kindle stays working for a while longer.

      The blurb writing book was really great. I thought it was very informative and made the whole process seem easier. Writing a blurb sounds difficult to get right.

  4. I didn’t even know there was a reviewer list for Tantor Audio, that’s awesome you got on it! Sorry you lost your subscription service though :-/ I know Audiobook Boom offers review copies, if you haven’t checked them out and want to, I’ve never requested any so I’m not sure of the rules or anything. I hope you have a better week this week <3
    Kristen @ Metaphors and Moonlight recently posted…Game Reviews: 3 Games I Didn’t Like But You MightMy Profile

    • I’ve seen some bookbloggers review books and mention they got it from Tantor, so I knew there was a list, I am so happy I managed to get on it. I think I am subscribed to Audiobook Boom already as well as one other audio site that I forgot the name of. I always scroll through and see if something catches my eye, but I haven’t gotten any audiobooks through them so far and some have strict rules on how fast to review and I am not that fast with audiobooks, so that’s definitely something I plan to double check before signing up for a book.

      I am really sad and frustrated about losing the subscription service as most places I’ve found don’t work for me (either because of where I live, payment method or they don’t have a pc app) and I am not sure how I can continue listening to audiobooks now. For now I still have a few audiobooks I’ve won on Audible that I can listen to at least.

  5. Aw, man! I’m sorry to hear about Storytel. What a bummer. And yes, I hope Chirp will open up to Europe customers. I’m sure they would find a lot of new customers that way! As for your Kobo e-reader, do you think maybe its storage might be too full? When I had my old Kindle, I had to delete books off of it otherwise it was slow and navigating books was super difficult. Hope this week was better! (I’m behind on blog reading but I’m going to get caught up this week.)
    S. J. Pajonas recently posted…Featuring RORAN by Clarissa Lake #summerofSFRMy Profile

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