***The Starry-Eyed Revue***: sabrina

So, it's been awhile since I've actually posted something besides a monthly reading wrap-up. And I've kind of missed it. Not the pressure to read and review and post and all that other stuff...but the community and the general fangirling over books. I mean, I do that with my bestie Sabrina -- whom I met right here on this very blog -- regularly, but we got to talking, as we do most every weekend, and she missed it, too. We both wanted to end our indefinite hiatuses. But neither of us has the time or energy to carry on this blogging thing solo -- plus, it's a lot more fun to do with a friend! -- so we decided to collaborate. We'll still do reviews, especially if we just absolutely adore a book, but we really just want to keep it fun and less like the unpaid job it had turned into before we took our extended breaks. For some of you more observant readers, you may have noticed that Sabrina's contacts were added to the sidebar, like, months ago, lol, but for everyone else:

There's a new co-blogger at The Starry-Eyed Revue!

Hello, Starry-Eyed readers! Jen and I have been talking about blogging together for some time now. And the only thing stopping us is that I have been procrastinating writing THIS. Which is a dominant personality trait of mine… best you know right out the gate.

So, it’s lovely to meet you. My name is Sabrina. I live in Michigan and I’m in my 30s. I’m excellent at napping and hoarding books. I adore stories. Especially fantasy, thrillers, historical fiction and anything that makes my heart pound. Some of my favorite authors are Robin LaFevers, Naomi Novak, Alwyn Hamilton, Cat Winters… and so many, many more. Some of you may already know me from my blog, The Forest of Words and Pages, which I have mostly abandoned for the last year (or two *cries*) and truthfully I haven’t missed reviewing much… up until recently.

I, like many, was burned out from blog tours and review copies that I couldn’t keep up with. I had a color-coded google calendar as my reading schedule and at some point, I realized that I wasn’t even reading the books that I really wanted to read. I felt so much pressure to meet review deadlines and review as many books as possible, that I felt like I didn’t have anything new to say anymore.

There was also an overwhelming feeling that ‘blogger’ was this dirty, shameful word; like we were cockroaches in the library. It hurt my heart every time I saw divisive social media ‘discussions’ where people who shared a love of books were measuring the value of one another and defending their own value. Twitter became a major point of anxiety for me. I saw excellent points on both sides of the spectrum on a variety of issues, but I didn’t sense that many of us were listening to one another.

So I looked at my overflowing bookshelves… all these books I’d bought over the last 5-ish years, with actual dust collecting on them and decided that I was going to read all those damn books instead of stressing myself out. While I have not actually read ‘all’ of those damn books, I have read a lot more of them. Now I read what sounds good to me in the moment and I stop reading when I get bored. I DNF books ALL THE TIME. Something I never used to allow myself to do. Reading has returned to an enjoyable escape for me once again instead of self-inflicted work I always felt behind on.

Best of all, awhile back, Jen and I decided to do what we deemed a “Not-So-Secret-Sister-Swap” (thank you to the #OTSPSecretSister Project for inspiring us) and we accidentally became best friends. We’ve traveled across the country several times to hang out, have drank (too) many bottles of wine and discussed our nerd love for hundreds of books for hundreds of hours, despite our mutual disdain for telephone calls. Whenever reviewing/blogging comes up in our conversations, we talk about how much fun reviewing would be if we wrote about books together in the same way that we talk about books together. So… no color-coded google calendars, fewer and more carefully chosen review copies, more finishing of series and less pressure to be whatever it was we were trying to be and hopefully, so much more fun.

So thanks for having me. I’m looking forward to geeking out over our favorite stories, characters and talented authors. I hope to recommend a few books that you’ll love and discover many more through you! I confess, I’ve missed this community and I’m so very glad to be back.

XOXO,